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QJornfll  HmuBtstty  Ctbraty 


attjara.  Nm  f  nrH 


BQUGHT   WITH    THE    INCOME    OF    THE 

'sage  endowment  fund 


THE    GIFT    OF 


HENRY  W.  SAGE 

1891 


Cornell  University  Library 

DT  32.5.L95 


Dual  mandate  In  British  tropical  Africa, 


3   1924  028  741    175 


The  original  of  this  book  is  in 
the  Cornell  University  Library. 

There  are  no  known  copyright  restrictions  in 
the  United  States  on  the  use  of  the  text. 


http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028741175 


The    Dual    Mandate 


in 


British  Tropical  Africa 


The  Dual  Mandate 


m 


British  Tropical  Africa 


The  Right  Hon.  Sir  F.  D.  LUGARD 
g.c.m.g.,  c.b.,  d.s.o. 

HON.   D.C.L.   OXFORD  AND  DURHAM  ;    LL.D.   HONG-KONG,  ETC. 


"  It  will  be  the  high  task  of  all  My  Governments  to 
superintend  and  assist  the  development  of  these  countries 
...  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  general 
welfare  of  mankind." — His  Majesty  The  King. 

"The  wellbeing  and  development  of  peoples  not  yet 
able  to  stand  by  themselves,  form  a  sacred  Trust  of 
Civilisation." — Covenant  of  League,  Art.  22. 

"We  develop  new  territory  as  Trustees  for  Civilisation, 
for  the  Commerce  of  the  World."— Joseph  Chamberlain. 


William   Blackwood  and   Sons 

Edinburgh  and  London 

1922 


TO 

<!MY    WIFE, 


Whose  unfailing  sympathy  and  understanding 
have  ever  helped  me  in  my  work. 


PREFACE. 


The  object  which  I  have  had  in  view  in  setting  down  these 
notes  on  administration  in  British  tropical  Africa  is  twofold. 
In  the  first  place,  I  have  hoped  to  put  before  those  who  are 
interested  in  the  development  of  that  part  of  the  British 
Empire  beyond  the  seas  for  which  Great  Britain  is  directly 
responsible,  an  outhne  of  the  system  under  which  those  re- 
sponsibOities  have  originated  and  are  being  discharged,  and 
some  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  problems  confronting  the  local 
administrator.  In  the  second  place,  in  discussing  these 
problems  I  have  ventured  to  make  some  few  suggestions,  as 
the  result  of  experience,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  be  found 
worthy  of  consideration  by  the  "  men  on  the  spot  " — in  so 
far  as  the  varying  circumstances  of  our  Crown  colonies  and 
protectorates  may  render  them  in  any  degree  applicable. 

To  Sir  E.  Speed,  late  Chief  Justice  of  Mgeria,  I  am  indebted 
for  having  kindly  overlooked  the  chapters  on  "  The  Law 
and  Courts  of  Justice,"  and  those  on  the  status  of  protector- 
ates, «&c.  ;  to  Colonel  Amery,  M.P.  (late  Under-Secretary  for 
the  Colonies),  who  has  read  the  chapters  on  "  Home  Adminis- 
tration "  and  chapter  xiii.  ("  Taxation ")  ;  to  Mr  J.  H. 
Batty  for  having  scrutinised  the  chapters  on  "  Trade  "  and  on 
''  Economic  Development  "  ;  and  to  Sir  John  Eaglesome, 
who  has  read  the  chapter  on  "  EaUways  and  Transport." 

In  the  endeavour  to  present  in  a  seK-contained  form  each 

h 


VIU  PREFACE. 

of  the  subjects  with  which  the  various  chapters  deal,  it  has 
been  impossible  to  avoid  frequent  repetition,  due  to  the 
different  poiat  of  view  presented,  and  for  this  I  must  ask 
my  reader's  indulgence. 

I  have  made  a  point  of  citiag  authorities  freely  in  the  foot- 
notes, with  the  object  of  indicating  where  fuller  information 
may  be  found,  should  the  reader  desire  to  explore  the  subject 
further. 

F.  D.  L. 

Abinger  Common,  Surrey, 
December  1921. 


CONTENTS. 


INTEODUCTION. 


PAGE 

/ 


Contrast  between  Africa  and  the  rest  of  the  world — Its  isolation — 
Causes  which  led  to  the  penetration  of  Africa — Moral  progress 
— The  respective  tasks  of  the  eighteenth,  nineteenth,  and 
twentieth  centuries — Object  of  this  book  .         .         .         .         1 


PART  I. 

EiTEOPE  AND  Tropical  Africa. 

CHAPTEE   I. 

THE   ACQUISITION   OF   THE   BRITISH   AFRICAN    TROPICS. 

Keason  for  acquisition — Restraint  of  Britain — British  policy  of  Free 
Trade — The  Berlin  Conference  and  effective  occupation — The 
Hinterland  theory — Spheres  of  influence — The  Government's 
dilemma — Creation  of  Chartered  Companies — Treaties  as  valid 
titles — Method  of  obtaining  treaties — The  real  sanction  for 
intervention  in  Africa — Status  of  Chartered  Companies — The 
Royal  Niger  Company's  Charter — The  Imperial  British  East 
African  Company — The  British  South  African  Company — 
Advantages  of  the  Agency  of  Chartered  Companies — Liabilities 
of  Government  on  revocation — Lessons  from  Chartered  Com- 
pany rule — Separation  of  administration  and  commerce — Dis- 
posal of  lands  and  minerals — Contrast  with  the  older  Charters 
— Other  methods  of  acquisition — British  Consuls  in  Africa — 
India  Office  control — Foreign  Office  control         .... 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OF  THE  BEITISH  TEOPICS. 

Meaning  of  terms — The  sphere  of  influence — Protectorates — In 
India— In  Africa— Status  of  the  people— Crown  colonies— Sug- 
gested modification  of  status — Eegistration  of  British  subjects 
— Tropics  misnamed  "colonies"  —  Self-governing  colonies — 
Colonies  on  tropical  plateaux — Asiatic  colonisation — Contrast 
of  temperate  and  tropical  development — Value  of  tropical  pro- 
ducts— Area  and  population  of  British  tropical  Africa — The 
example  of  India 3^ 

CHAPTEE   III. 

PEINCrPLES   GOVERNING   CONTKOL   IN   THE   TROPICS. 

The  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts — Unavoidable  limitations  of  these 
Acts — Effect  of  the  war  and  treaty  of  peace — The  convention 
of  September  1919 — Delays  and  misunderstandings  regarding 
Mandates — The  power  to  enforce  observance — Omissions  and 
suggestions — (a)  Territorial  boundaines  and  adjustments — (&) 
Free  Trade — (c)  Eevenue  not  to  be  alienated — Amenability  of 
officials  to  the  courts — International  control — Summary  of 
conclusions  re  Mandates — Responsibility  to  subject  races — Re- 
sponsibility of  suzerain  to  itself — French  economic  policy — 
British  economic  policy — Alleged  infringements  of  the  "  open 
door  "  policy — Contrast  of  French  and  British  policy — Reciprocal 
obligations  on  the  part  of  the  natives— Appendix,  Article  22  of 
Covenant 48 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH   TROPICAL   AFRICA. 

Units  of  Administration — Climate  and  physical  characteristics  of  ': 
the  country — History — Paucity  of  population — Hamites  and  , 
negroes — Physical  characteristics  of  the  people — Character  of 
the  typical  African — Illustration  of  lack  of  apprehension — Of 
fidelity  and  friendship — Diversity  in  evolution — Administrative 
classification — Primitive  races — Settled  tribes — Pastorals — The 
refugees— Social  organisation — Advanced  communities — Pagan 
tribes — Alien  conquerors — Influence    of    Islam — Influence   of 


CONTENTS,  xi 

Christianity— Summary— The  Europeanised  African— Charac- 
teristics— Comparison  with  Indian  Progressives — The  negro  ia 
the  United  States  —  Claims  for  self-government  —  Scope  in 
municipal  work — The  true  path  to  self-government — Opportuni- 
ties now  enjoyed — Fitness  for  responsible  positions — A  native 
cadet  service — Critics  of  the  educated  native — Future  of  the  ; 
educated  African — The  debt  of  Africa  to  him — The  Syrian — Is 
civilisation  a  benefit  1 — Some  drawbacks  and  some  benefits        .       64 


CHAPTER   V. 

SOME   GENERAL  PRINCIPLES   OP   ADMINISTRATION. 

Nature  and  functions  of  the  administration — Constitution  of  a 
Crown  Colony — Two  principles  of  administration  :  (a)  Decen- 
tralisation— Decentralisation  and  amalgamation — Reasons  for 
amalgamation — The  case  of  Nigeria — Decentralisation  in  depart- 
ments— Method  of  amalgamation  in  Nigeria — The  principles 
involved — (6)  Continuity  :  of  personnel — Of  records — Of  Gover- 
nor's instructions  and  policy — Continuity  in  office  of  Governor — 
Scheme  of  continuous  responsibility — Anticipated  advantages — 
The  former  system — Objections  by  permanent  officials— Object 
and  limitations — The  "Man  on  the  Spot" — The  scheme  aban- 
doned—Suggestions for  promoting  continuity  and  co-operation 
— Tenure  of  office  of  Governor 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   MACHINERY   OF   ADMINISTRATION. 

The  Legislative  Council — Unofficial  representation :  (a)  Euro- 
pean unofficial  members  ;  (6)  native  unofficials  ;  (c)  represen- 
tation of  the  masses — Method  of  enacting  laws — The  official 
vote — The  Executive  Council — Its  duties,  procedure,  and  com- 
position— Value  of  Executive  Council — Committees — The  Ni- 
gerian Council — The  Governor — The  Governor's  Deputy— The 
Lieut.-Governor — The  Resident — The  Malayan  and  Nigerian' 
systems — Conditions  in  Malaya — Contrast  between  the  two — 
The  District  Officer — His  training — Necessity  for  acquiring 
the  language — Advantages  of  a  lingua  franca — Duties  of  the 
District  Officer — Continuity  at  his  post 114 


XU  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   BRITISH   STAFF  AND   CONDITIONS   OF  LIFE   IN 
THE   TKOPICS. 

The  classification  of  the  staff^Selection  by  nomination— Selection 
by  modified  competition — Courses  of  study — Adequacy  of  staff 
—Cost  of  the  staff  in  West  Africa— Medical  examination  of 
candidates — Wives  in  the  tropics — Housing  in  Northern  Ni- 
geria, 1898-1901— Causes  of  mortality— Improved  conditions 
— Need  of  sanataria  and  recreation — Native  huts  as  dwelling- 
houses — House-building  in  the  tropics — Water-supply— Segre- 
gation— Food  in  the  tropics — Medical  and  nursing  staff — 
Private  practice — Hints  for  health — Medical  work  among 
natives 137 


CHAPTEE   VIII. 

THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

The  demand  for  reform — The  constitution  of  the  Colonial  Office — 
The  Secretary  of  State — The  Parliamentary  Under-Secretary — 
The  Permanent  Under-Secretary  and  staff — The  work  of  the 
Colonial  Office — Results  of  congestion — Lord  Elgin's  reorgani- 
sation— Relations  of  the  Colonial  Office  with  the  Colonies- 
Grounds  of  dissatisfaction — Intervention  by  the  Office — The 
Office  view — Treasury  control — The  function  of  the  Colonial 
Office — Results  of  the  system — Ability  of  Colonial  Office  officials 
—  Government  by  departments  —  Suggested  palliatives- -A 
second  Under-Secretary — Sir  C.  Bruce's  scheme — Alternative 
schemes — Direct  responsibility  of  Under-Secretary — A  Director 
of  Protectorates — Committees  and  Councils — Standing  Com- 
mittees— Councils — The  Indian  Council — Contrast  with  the 
Colonial  Secretary 155 

CHAPTEE    IX. 

THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES 

{continued). 

An  African  Council :  Its  functions  ;  its  constitution  ;  its  procedure 
— Wider  latitude  to  Governors — Grouping  of  colonies — Posi- 
tion of   Governor-General^Governor-General's   Council — Ad- 


CONTENTS.  Xiii 

vantages  of  federation — The  Trench  system — Summary  of 
suggestions— Personal  touch  with  the  Secretary  of  State— "With 
the  Under-Secretary — Interchange  of  ofiScers — Juniors — Seniors 
—Commercial  intelligence— Cost  of  the  Colonial  Office— Crown 
Colonies  without  means  of  expression 174 


PART  11. 

Special  Problems. 

CHAPTEE   X. 

METHODS   OF   RULING   NATIVE   KACES. 

The  principle  of  co-operation — Divergent  methods  of  self-govern- 
ment :  (a)  Representative  government :  The  new  system  in 
India ;  (6)  Complete  independence  the  goal ;  (c)  Dependent 
native  rule — The  Fulani  of  Nigeria — Recognition  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  rule  through  chiefs — Advanced  communities  in  Nigeria 
— Relations  with  British  StaflF — Revenues  of  native  administra- 
tions— Courts  and  jurisdiction — The  village  unit — Essential 
features  of  the  system — Application  to  non-Moslem  States — 
Limitations  to  independence  :  (a)  Armed  forces  ;  (b)  Taxation  ; 
(c)  Legislation ;  (d)  Land  ;  (e)  Control  of  aliens — Disposal  of 
revenue — Alien  races  as  native  rulers — Education  of  native 
rulers — Misuse  of  the  system — System  must  vary  with  local 
traditions  —  Administrative  procedure  —  Succession  —  Extra- 
territorial allegiance  , 193 

CHAPTEE   XI. 

METHODS  OP  RULING  NATIVE  RACES  (continued). 

Arguments  against  the  system  in  case  of  primitive  tribes — Reasons 
for  its  adoption — Changed  conditions  in  Africa — Decay  of  tribal 
authority — The  task  of  the  Suzerain  power — Effect  of  direct 
taxation — Native  opinion  of  the  system — Selection  of  chiefs — 
Study  of  primitive  institutions — Summary  of  objects — Results 
in  Nigeria — Loyalty  of  the  chiefs — Criticisms  of  the  system  of 
ruling  through  chiefs — Government  responsibility  for  misrule 
— Inadequate  supervision — Not  applicable  to  Europeanised 
class — Interferes  with  departmental  officers — Lessons  from 
Indian  policy — The  policy  in  Egypt — French  policy  in  Africa  .     214 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE   XII. 


TAXATION. 

Direct  tax — The  basis  of  native  administration — Tax  on  pagans 
accords  with,  native  custom — Tax  in  Moslem  districts — Tax 
denotes  progress — Delay  in  imposition  inadvisable — On  primi- 
tive people  should  be  light — Taxation  as  an  incentive  to  work 
— Is  indirect  taxation  sufficient — The  tax  on  advanced  com- 
munities— Nature  of  the  tax — Income  and  "profits" — Tax  on 
average  standard  of  production — Profits  on  trades  other  than 
agriculture — Eate  of  tax — -Abuses  of  the  old  system  :  (a)  Ab- 
sentee landlords  ;  (b)  Tax-gatherers  ;  (c)  Disconnected  areas  of 
jurisdiction — Summary  of  reforms — Disposal  of  tax — Definition 
of  village  and  town — Principles  of  assessment — Tax  is  not  a  land 
rent — Method  of  assessment :  (a)  Native  officials  ;  (5)  The  Dis- 
trict Officer's  task — Taxation  of  primitive  communities — Pay- 
ment in  cash,  kind,  or  labour — By  whom  payable — Drastic 
changes  to  be  avoided — Personation — The  hut  tax — Contrast 
with  the  tax  proposed — Summary  of  results  of  direct  taxation — 
Minor  direct  taxes — Licences  and  market  dues  ....     230 

APPENDIX. 

The  hut  tax  in  Africa — In  Sierra  Leone — Uganda — Nyasaland 
— East  Africa — Northern  Rhodesia — South  Africa — Foreign 
nations  ...........     256 


CHAPTEE   XIII. 

TAXATION  (continued). 

Taxation  of  corporate  bodies — Trading — Mining — Banking — Taxa- 
tion of  individual  non -natives — Taxation  and  representation — 
Import  and  export  duties — The  case  for  export  duties — Duty  on 
salt — Adjustment  of  duties  to  area  of  consumption  or  origin  of 
articles  —  Rebates  to  compensate  for  transport  —  Difi'erential 
export  duties — The  economic  efi'ects  of  the  war — The  Paris 
economic  resolutions — Committee  on  oil-producing  seeds  and 

nuts — Committee  on   commercial  and  industrial  policy The 

action  taken  and  its  justification — The  case  of  cotton Pro- 
posals of  the  E.R.D.C. — Alternative  proposals — Contribution  for 
defence — Imperial  preference — Retaliation  by  foreign  Powers  .     258 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTEE   XIV. 

LAND   TENURE   AND   TEANSFEB. 

The  natural  evolution  of  conceptions  of  land  tenure — The  problem 
in  West  Africa — Committees  on  West  African  lands — West 
African  land  tenure  :  (a)  Tribal  and  family ;  (6)  Individual 
ownership  ;  (c)  Absence  of  tenure — Summary  re  land  tenure — 
Eights  of  conquest — Recognition  of  private  rights — Necessity 
for  declaration  of  policy — View  of  the  Committee — Nationalisa- 
tion— The  economic  doctrine — Criticism  and  fears — Actual  prac- 
tice in  Northern  Nigeria — Summary  of  criticism  of  Northern 
Nigeria  land  law — Encouragement  of  small  holdings — Large 
estates — Transfers  between  natives — Acquisition  of  land  by 
Government  and  aliens  in  conquered  countries  —  Shifting 
cultivation — Curtailment  or  increase  of  tribal  or  village  lands 
— Summary  of  Government  and  native  rights  in  controlled 
lands — Freehold  and  communal  tenure 280 


CHAPTEE   XV. 

LAND   TENXJE.E   AND   TRANSFER    {continued). 

Countries  in  which  rights  of  conquest  have  not  been  claimed — 
Ignorance  of  native  law — Conditions  in  the  Gold  Coast — De- 
finition of  areas  under  English  law — The  law  applicable  to 
remaining  lands — Transfers  of  land  to  non-natives — The 
executive,  not  the  judiciary,  should  deal  with  land  cases — 
Duties  of  Government  as  trustee — Disposal  of  rents  of  tribal 
lands — Government  as  landlord  of  aliens  in  unconquered  coun- 
tries— Need  for  fixity  of  tenure — Land  held  by  "  strangers  " — 
Modification  of  native  law — Grants  relating  to  the  produce  of 
the  land — Forest  licences  and  leases — Communal  plantations — 
Leases  of  Crown  lands  to  natives — Difi'erences  in  meaning  of 
terms — The  problem  in  Eastern  Africa — Acquisition  of  land  by, 
and  status  of  British  Indians — The  Indian  case — Obligations  to 
native  races — The  case  of  the  British  settler — Suggestions — 
Native  reserves — Divergent  views  as  to  policy — The  interpene- 
tration  policy — Management  of  reserves — The  Glen  Grey  Act 
— Mr  Rhodes'  views — Land  tenure  in  East  Africa — Conditions 
for  settlers  in  Kenya — Uganda — Nyasaland — Summary  of  con- 
ditions in  East  Africa — Population  in  relation  to  land  areas — 
Conclusions 303 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB   XVI. 

LAND   TENtnRB   AND   TRANSFEE    {continued}. 

General  conditions  of  land  grants— Building  leases — Agricultural 
leases — Mining  leases — Grazing  leases — Eevision  of  rentals  of 
all  leases — Premium — Eents — Auction — Improvements — Sur- 
render— Interdependence  of  lease  conditions — Compensation — 
Object  of  lease  conditions — Views  of  Liverpool  merchants — 
Acquisition  of  land — Mission  lands — Eegistration — Southern 
Rhodesia — Other  British  tropics — India — Burmah — West  Indies 
— Malaya — Fiji— Hong-Kong — Non-British  tropics — French — 
Portuguese — The  Congo — Java — Philippines — China         .         ■     333 

MINERALS. 

Ownership  of  minerals — Justification  of  Government  ownership — 
Alienation  of  mineral  rights  by  Suzerain — -Conditions  of  native 
ownership — Varying  conditions  of  mining  laws — The  function 
of  Government — Prospecting  licences — Mining  leases — Govern- 
ment monopoly  in  coal — Oil-fields 347 

CHAPTEE   XVII. 

SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

The  origin  of  slavery — Efi'ects  of  slavery — Growth  of  opinion  ad- 
verse to  slavery — The  position  in  East  Africa — The  nature  of 
Central  African  slave-trade — Realisation  by  Europe  of  the  real 
facts — Effect  of  the  scramble  for  Africa — The  Brussels  Act 
— Suppression  by  force — Slavery  as  an  administrative  problem 
— Tribal  slavery,  or  alien  masters — Predial  and  domestic  slaves 
— Moslem  slave-law — Evils  of  slavery  and  extenuations — Inter- 
nal slavery  in  Africa — Slavery  in  protected  Moslem  States — 
Compensation  and  alternatives — Meaning  of  the  abolition  of 
the  "legal  status" — Results  of  abolition  of  legal  status — Its 
application  at  Zanzibar 354 

CHAPTEE   XVIII. 

SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA    (continued). 

The  legal  status  and  native  courts — The  change  must  be  gradual 

— "  House-rule  " — Method  of  checking  undue  haste— Justifica- 
tion of  methods— Results  in  Nigeria — Women  and  slavery— 7 


CONTENTS.  XVii 

Purchase  of  wife  or  concubine — Employment  of  ex-slaves  by 
Europeans — By  natives  in  Government  service — Enlistment  of 
slaves — Self-redemption  and  ransom — Slave-dealing — Pawning 
— Disposal  of  freed  slaves :  (a)  adults  ;  (6)  children — Inheritance 
in  slaves — Special  cases — Women-husbands — "  Igba  "  in  Benin 
— Slave-chiefs — The  task  of  the  past  and  of  the  future       .        .     371 

CHAPTEE   XIX. 

LABOUR  IN  TEOPICAL  APEICA. 

Eree  labour  and  slavery — Policy  of  H.M.'s  Government — Decisions 
re  East  Africa — Criticisms  and  charges — Local  opinion — Diffi- 
culty of  applying  the  Government  policy — Inadequacy  of  the 
solution  proposed — Contrast  East  and  West  Africa — Inevitable 
conclusions  re  East  Africa— West  African  products  and  condi- 
tions— The  cocoa  industry — The  African  as  a  worker — The 
African  as  a  wage-earner — Quality  of  the  work — The  wage- 
rate — Method  of  payment  of  wages — Conditions  of  free  labour 
— Labour  regulations — Unpaid  labour 390 

CHAPTEE   XX. 

LABOUR  IN   TEOPICAL  APBICA    (continued). 

Compulsion  by  Government  when  justified — How  enforced  :  (a)  pres- 
sure on  chiefs  ;  (6)  by  legislative  authority — Taxation  for  labour 
— Eecruitment  from  contiguous  territory — Alien  immigration 
and  labour — Contracts  for  repatriation — Compulsion  for  self- 
advancement — Wage-earning  and  peasant  ownership — Neces- 
sity of  European  ownership  in  certain  cases — Co-partnership 
and  profit-sharing — Exceptional  justification  of  pressure  on 
chiefs  —  Native  contractors  —  Substitutes  for  labour  —  Con- 
clusions         410 


CHAPTEE   XXI. 

EDUCATION. 

Objects  and  ideals  of  education — Effect  of  European  influence  and 
education — The  example  of  India — The  system  in  British 
colonies — In  West  Africa — Mission  responsibility — The  need 
of  co-operation — Principles  adopted  in  Nigeria — Formation  of 
character — Eesidential  schools — The  British  staff — School  moni- 


xiiii  CONTENTS. 

tors — Field  sports — Grant  dependent  on  tone  of  school — Moral 
instruction — Religious  instruction — Contrast  of  Africa  with 
India  and  China — The  machinery  of  education — Unassisted 
schools — Assisted  schools — Grant  code  must  be  attractive — 
Suggestions  for  a  grant  code •         •     425 

CHAPTEE   XXII. 

EDUCATION  (continued). 

The  three  types  of  education  required — Literary  training — The 
demand — Provincial  Government  schools — Village  schools — 
Central  industrial  schools — Clerical  apprentices — Technical 
training — The  African  as  a  worker — Technical  institutes — 
Technical  courses — Details  of  educational  methods — Subjects 
of  tuition — Adequacy  of  teaching  staff — Moslem  education  in  / 

Arabic — The  language  difficulty — Higher  education — Continua- 
tion and  special  classes — The  education  of  girls — The  cost  of 
education— Compulsory  education — The  essential  conclusions   .     442 

CHAPTEE   XXIII. 

TEANSPOET. 

Cheap  transport  a  necessity — Necessity  for  railways — Selection  of 
routes — Pioneer  lines — Methods  of  construction:  (a)  contrac- 
tors ;  (6)  "  the  departmental  system  "  ;  (c)  by  the  Local  Gov- 
ernment ;  (d)  by  private  enterprise — Application  of  railway 
revenues — Location  of  central  workshops — Standardisation — 
Narrow  -  guage  development  lines  —  Tramways  —  Mechanical 
transport — Animal  transport — Roads  and  carts  .         .         .     461 

CHAPTEE    XXrV. 

TEADB. 

Nature  of  trade  in  Africa — The  fixing  of  price — Monopoly  and  com- 
bination— The  middleman — The  native  trader — The  native 
merchant — British  v.  native  merchants — The  Indian  trader— 
Government  and  trade — Government  and  private  enterprise — 
Concessions — Concessions  for  oil-mills — The  principles  involved 
— Produce  inspection — Cash  trade  v.  barter — Currency — A  trade 
department — An  Economic  Board — French  Chambers  of  Com- 
merce— Trade  commissioners  and  home  agencies — The  Crown 
agents — Criticisms  of  the  system 477 


CONTENTS.  Xix 

CHAPTEE   XXV. 

ECONOMIC   BEVELOPMENT. 

Necessity  for  economic  development — State-aided  enterprise — Rail- 
ways— Research  and  propaganda — Functions  of  the  technical 
departments  :  (a)  Laboratory  research ;  (5)  Experimental 
research;  (c)  Propaganda  and  instruction — The  native  staff — 
Practical  application  of  research  results — The  Imperial  Insti- 
tute— Advantage  of  free  native  cultivation — Specialisation  in 
dealing  in  products — The  evolution  of  industrialism — The 
indictment  against  Indian  policy — Krst  steps  in  Africa  :  (as) 
Preparation  and  semi-manufacture  of  exports  ;  (6)  Local  substi- 
tutes for  imports ;  (c)  New  local  manufactures — Employment  of 
native  capital — Industries  not  inimical  to  British  trade     .         .     498 

CHAPTEE   XXVI. 

ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  (continued). 

The  economy  of  labour — Domestic  animals — Mechanical  appliances 
— Irrigation — Reclamation  of  desert — Natural  power — Saving 
of  waste — Staple  products — Oil-nuts — Cotton — Cocoa — Hides — 
Timber — The  task  of  the  forest  officer — Destruction  of  forests 
— Measures  for  protection — Reserves — Reasons  for  conservation 
— The  object  in  view  :  co-operation — Other  methods — Other 
products  and  possible  products — Ranching  and  stock-raising — 
Tsetse-fly — Preservation  of  game 516 

CHAPTEE   XXVII. 

THE  LAW  AND   THE   COTIRTS   OP  JUSTICE. 

The  law  in  African  dependencies — Ordinances — Regulations — The 
courts — The  Supreme  Court — Merger  of  judicial  and  executive 
functions — Disadvantages  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  the  sole 
tribunal — The  provincial  courts — Contrast  between  the  two 
systems — Some  advantages  of  provincial  courts — Legal  practi- 
tioners in  courts — Special  procedure  re  plea  and  oath — Col- 
lective punishment — Reconciliation — Native  debts — Value  of 
native   courts — The   objects   in  view — Native   customary  law 

Constitution  and  powers  of  native   courts— Supervision   of 

native  courts 536 


XX  CONTENTS. 

OHAPTEE   XXVIII. 

COURTS  OF  JTJSTICB  (eontinued). 

The  evolution  of  native  courts  in  primitive  communities—  Clerks  of 
native  courts — Higher  grade  courts — Application  of  ordinances, 
&c.,  in  native  courts — Native  courts  and  slavery — Punishments 
by  native  courts — Imprisonment — Corporal  punishment — Other 
punishments — Capital  sentences — Punishment  of  women — Dif- 
ferences in  native  punishments — Witchcraft — Eespective  func- 
tions of  British  and  native  courts — Eesults  in  Nigeria — Offences 
against  natives  —  The  Judge's  vacation  —  Magistrates — The 
Indian  parallel — Appendix  :    The  French  system   .         .  .     553 

OHAPTEE   XXIX. 

SOME   OTKEE  PROBLEMS. 

A.  Municipal  Self-Government. — Disinclination  to  pay  rates — Au- 

tonomy depends  on  financial  solvency — Nomination  or  election 
of  councillors — Varying  types  of  municipalities — Constitution 
and  powers  in  Nigeria — Distinctive  features  of  townships. 

B.  Armed  Forces  and  their  Employment. — African  races  as  soldiers 

— Points  to  be  noted — Danger  of  discontent  among  troops — The 
application  of  force — Home  critics — Methods  of  maintaining 
law  and  order — The  attitude  of  primitive  tribes — Mistaken 
methods — The  avoidance  of  occasions  of  trouble — "Hill -top" 
pagans — Method  of  using  force — Military  operations — Enforc- 
ing the  civil  law — Measures  to  avoid  conflict — Nature  of  penalty 
— Precautions 570 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

SOME  OTHEE  PROBLEMS  (continued). 

G.  Missions. — The  debt  to  Missions — Missions  in  East  Africa — 
Missionaries  and  politics — Missions  in  "West  Africa — Evils  of 
sectarian  rivalry — Polygamy — Missions  and  European  prestige 
— Social  effects  of  Mission  work — Missions  in  pagan  districts — 
Missions  to  Moslems — Lord  Salisbury's  opinion — Restriction  in 
Nigeria  and  the  Sudan — Justification  of  restriction — The  Mos- 
lem point  of  view — Concurrence  of  Government  needed  for 
establishment  of  Missions — Mission  spheres — Religious  minis- 
trations. 


CONTENTS.  xxi 

D.  The  Use  of  Intoxicants. — Import  of  spirits — Origin  of  movement 
for  suppression — The  position  in  West  Africa — Measures  of 
restriction— Prohibition  by  convention — The  moral  aspect  of 
the  traffic — The  material  aspect — The  present  position  and 
policy — Native  liquor — Control  of  native  liquor — Distilleries    .     586 


CHAPTEE   XXXI. 

CONCLTJSION.      THE   VALUE    OF   BHITISH   RULE   IN   THE   TROPICS 
TO   THE   BRITISH  DEMOCRACY   AND   TO   THE   NATIVE   RACES. 

The  nature  of  the  task — The  views  of  the  "  Labour  Research  De- 
partment " — The  cost  to  the  British  taxpayer — The  benefits  to 
the  democracy — Food  and  defence — TradeFand  employment — 
Openings  for  personal  enterprise — Formation  of  national  char- 
acter—Motives for  acquisition — Some  moral  incentives — Pres- 
sure of  population — The  right  of  mankind  to  tropical  products 
— The  verdict  of  democracy — Accusations  in  regard  to  treat- 
ment of  native  races — Benefit  to  Africa — England's  mission       .     606 


Index 621 


THE    DUAL    MANDATE 

IN 

BEITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA, 


INTRODUCTION. 

Contrast  between  Africa  and  the  rest  of  the  world — Its  isolation — Causes 
which  led  to  the  penetration  of  Africa — Moral  progress — The  respec- 
tive tasks  of  the  eighteenth,  nineteenth,  and  twentieth  centuries — 
Object  of  this  book. 

Afeioa  has  been  justly  termed  "  the  Dark  Continent,"  for 
the  secrets  of  its  peoples,  its  lakes,  and  mountains  and  rivers, 
have  remained  undisclosed  not  merely  to  modern  civilisation, 
but  through  aU  the  ages  of  which  history  has  any  record. 
There  are  many  regions  in  Asia — in  Persia,  Assyria,  Arabia, 
and  Western  China — in  which  modern  explorers  have  claimed 
to  have  made  discoveries.  But  all  these  countries  were  the 
seats  of  ancient  civilisations,  some  of  them  highly  developed, 
and  exploration  was  concerned  rather  with  piecing  together 
chapters  of  past  history  than  in  discovery.  The  penetration 
into  the  interior  of  Africa,  on  the  other  hand,  may  as  truly 
be  described  as  discovery  as  that  of  America  by  Columbus. 

The  Muscat  Arabs  from  Zanzibar  were  pioneers  in  the 
exploration  of  the  region  of  the  great  lakes  and  the  Congo 
basin,  while  in  Western  Africa  the  zeal  of  the  Moslem  Arabs 
and  Berbers  led  them  across  the  Sahara.  Here  indeed  a 
great  empire,  famed  for  its  culture,  boasted  a  fragmentary 
history  dating  back  to  the  eighth  or  ninth  centuries  ;  but 
in  this  or  any  other  part  of  tropical  Africa,  from  the  frontiers 
of  Egypt  to  the  Zambesi,  there  are  no  traces  of  antecedent 

A 


2  INTKODUCTION. 

civilisations — no  monuments  or  buried  cities — like  those  of 
the  prehistoric  civilisations  of  Asia  and  South  America. 

That  portion  of  the  north  of  Africa  vs^hich  is  included  in 
the  temperate  zone,  and  contiguous  to  Europe,  had  been  the 
home  of  the  most  ancient  civilisations,  first  of  Egypt,  dating 
back  some  4000  B.C.,  and  later  of  the  Phoenicians.  But 
Egypt  had  penetrated  no  further  south  than  Ethiopia,  while 
the  Carthagenians  (though  they  had  trade  routes  with  the 
interior)  i  for  the  most  part  confined  their  efforts  to  the 
establishment  of  colonies  on  the  coast.  We  read  of  one  or 
two  expeditions  to  the  interior  both  by  Pharaoh  Necho  and 
by  Carthage,  but  they  were  barren  of  results.  So  were  the 
expeditions  of  the  Greeks,  who  founded  their  first  colony 
at  Cyrene  1000  years  before  Christ,  and  of  the  Eomans,  who 
later  incorporated  all  North  Africa  as  a  Eoman  province. 

Accurate  knowledge  even  of  the  coast-line,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  European  settlements  upon  it,  dates  only  from 
the  fifteenth  century — synchronising  with  the  discovery  of 
America.  The  outlet  for  commerce  and  the  new  fields  which 
this  great  discovery — together  with  the  development  of  India 
— afforded  to  adventurous  pioneers,  diverted  for  some  three 
centuries  or  more  the  tide  of  exploration  which  might  other- 
wise have  set  towards  Africa.  The  voyages  of  Da  Gama 
and  others  in  the  fifteenth  century  had,  however,  already 
produced  one  very  notable  restdt.  Hitherto  the  gateway 
which  led  to  the  great  unknown  interior  had  been  situated 
in  the  north.  Access  to  Timbuktu  was  by  caravan  across  the 
desert  from  Tripoli  or  Algeria.  The  sea  route  discovered 
by  Da  Gama  disclosed  a  back  door,  which  was  henceforth  to 
become  the  principal  entrance.  As  modern  railways  have 
rendered  the  desert  route  obsolete,  they  may  in  the  not 
distant  future  restore  it. 

Thus  the  interior  of  Africa  remained  unknown.  It  appeared 
on  the  map  as  a  great  blank  space,  with  a  fringe  of  names 
all  round  its  coasts,  till  Livingstone,  Earth,  and  others  began 
its  systematic  exploration  about  seventy  years  ago.  For 
thirty  or  forty  years  tropical  Africa  remained  a  field  for  adven- 
turous and  sensational  exploration,  and  it  was  not  till  1885 — 
when  the  Berlin  Act  was  passed — ^that  the  modern  develop- 
ment of  Africa  began  to  assume  definite  and  recognised  form. 

What,  then,  were  the  causes  which  led  to  the  opening  up 

'  Heeren's  Historical  Researches — vol.  African  Nations,  p.  17  et  seq. 


nSTTRODUCTION.  3 

of  Africa,  a  continent  whicli  all  the  preceding  ages  of  the 
world's  history  had  left  untouched,  though  it  lay  close  to  the 
homes  of  the  early  civilisations  in  Europe  and  Asia — a  con- 
tinent containing  a  fifth  of  the  earth's  land  surface  and  a 
ninth  of  its  population  ? 

The  root  cause  of  Africa's  isolation  was,  no  doubt,  that  the 
world  had  not  hitherto  had  urgent  need  of  its  products,  and 
that  its  warlike  tribes  were  able  to  repel  unwelcome  visitors 
armed  but  Uttle  better  than  themselves.  Even  when  the 
economic  pressure  caused  by  the  rapidly  increasing  popula- 
tion of  Europe  began  to  exert  its  inevitable  influence,  in  driv- 
ing men  to  seek  for  new  markets  and  fresh  supplies  of  food 
and  raw  material,  the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  new 
fields  for  commerce  in  India,  more  than  met  the  demand  for 
several  centuries.  It  was  not  until  the  great  industrial  re- 
vival which  followed  the  Civil  War  in  America  that  America 
began  herself  to  compete  in  the  world's  markets,  and  to 
utilise  her  own  resources  primarily  for  the  needs  of  her  own 
industry.^ 

One  of  the  more  immediate  causes  which  led  to  the  opening 
up  of  Africa  was  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870.  Crippled 
by  her  defeat.  Prance  proclaimed  by  the  mouth  of  her  prin- 
cipal statesmen  and  writers  ^ — just  as  she  is  doing  to-day — 
that  it  was  to  Greater  Prance  beyond  the  seas,  and  especially 
in  West  and  INorth-West  Africa,  that  she  must  look  for  re- 
habilitation. At  that  time,  moreover,  colonisation  in  tropical 
Africa  was  believed  to  be  both  possible  and  desirable.  Ger- 
many, on  the  other  hand,  found  herself  with  a  great  and 

'  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was  the  conquest  of  the  ocean  which  directly 
led  to  the  expansion  of  the  peoples  of  Europe,  and  relieved  them  from  the  age- 
long pressure  of  Asia  on  their  frontiers.  In  1492  Columbus  discovered  America, 
and  in  1494  Vasco  da  Gama  rounded  the  Cape  and  opened  up  the  way  to  India. 
At  that  time  (a.d.  1500)  the  population  of  Europe  was  about  70  millions.  At 
the  end  of  the  next  three  centuries  (a.d.  1800)  it  is  said  to  have  been  150 
millions,  an  additional  10  millions  having  migrated  overseas.  But  at  the  close  of 
the  succeeding  century — which  witnessed  the  industrial  revolution,  and  the 
advent  of  steam  navigation — it  is  estimated  (a.d.  1900)  at  nearly  450  millions, 
with  100  million  additional  emigrants.  Thus  while  the  population  of  Europe 
only  doubled  iteeU  in  the  three  centuries  prior  to  1800,  it  more  than  trebled 
itself  in  the  following  century.  The  figures  for  Great  Britain  are  :  population 
in  1600  (England  only),  4,800,000  ;  in  1800  about  16,000,000 ;  and  in  1900  about 
42,000,000.— (Stoddard,  'The  Rising  Tide  of  Colour,'  p.  155,  Whittaker,  &c.) 

An  additional  reason  for  the  demand  for  increased  supplies  of  food  and  raw 
materials  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  to  be  found  in  the  immensely 
improved  standard  of  living  of  the  people.     See  pp.  614,  615. 

^  See  M.  Leroy  Beaulieu,  '  Histoire  de  la  Colonisation  chez  les  peuples 
modernes. ' 


4  IMEODTTCTION. 

increasing  industrial  population  ia  urgent  need  of  raw  materials 
and  additional  food  supplies.  Not  content  with  the  whoUy 
unrestricted  market  offered  by  British  colonies,  where  Germans 
were  welcomed,  and  exercised  every  privilege  equally  with 
their  British  rivals,  she  not  unnaturally  desired  to  have 
colonies  of  her  own.  We  have  since  learnt  that  she  had  other 
motives — the  creation  of  naval  bases  and  world-wide  wireless 
stations,  and  the  raisiug  of  negro  armies  for  world  conquest. 

Humanitarian  motives — the  desire  to  suppress  the  slave- 
trade,  &c. — also  played  their  part,  but  it  was  the  rivalry  of 
these  two  great  Contiaental  Powers  which  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  modern  "partition  of  Africa."  By  the  BerUn 
Act  of  1886,  and  the  Brussels  Act  of  1892,  Europe  and 
America  endeavoured  in  some  feeble  way  to  safeguard  the 
interests  of  the  natives — but  these  Acts  were  practically  in- 
effective for  their  purpose.  The  one  thing  they  did  succeed 
iu  effecting  was  the  restriction  of  the  import  of  arms  of 
precision  to  the  natives,  theoretically  as  a  check  to  the  slave- 
trade,  but  with  the  practical  result  of  rendering  the  African 
more  powerless  than  ever  to  resist  conquest  by  Europeans. 

England  was  unwillingly  forced  into  the  competition.  On 
the  one  hand  her  colonies  on  the  West  Coast  demanded  some 
effort,  to  save  them  from  being  cut  off  from  all  access  to  the 
interior  by  hostile  foreign  tariffs,  and  becoming  mere  coast 
enclaves.  Her  vital  interests  in  India,  on  the  other  hand, 
compelled  her  to  protect  her  route  thither — Egypt,  the  Suez 
Canal,  and  the  eastern  shores  of  Africa.  The  essential  interests 
of  Egypt,  for  which  she  had  become  responsible,  demanded 
the  protection  of  the  l^ile  sources. 

For  a  decade  and  more  the  "  scramble  "  went  on  till  it 
was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  conventions  with  Prance  of 
1898  and  1899,  and  the  Pashoda  incident  of  the  latter  year. 
Germany  had  secured  large  colonies  in  East,  West,  and  South 
Africa,  at  the  expense  of  prior  British  claims,  but  we  recog- 
nised her  right  to  a  place  in  the  tropical  sun.  Prance  added 
largely  to  her  territory  in  West  and  Central  Airica,  and 
annexed  the  great  island  of  Madagascar. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  this  period  of  rivalry  that  Mr 
Joseph  Chamberlain  became  Colonial  Secretary,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  our  history  a  policy  of  progress  and  development 
found  favour  at  Whitehall.  The  colonies  were  encouraged 
to  raise  loans,  supported  if  necessary  by  Imperial  credit,  for 
the  development  of  their  resources,  and  had  it  not  been  for 


rNTEODUCTION.  5 

the  South  African  War  this  policy  would,  I  know,  have  been 
carried  much  further.  During  the  twelve  years  which  elapsed 
between  the  South  African  and  the  recent  world  war,  great 
progress  was  made  in  the  construction  of  roads  and  railways, 
and  the  opening  up  of  waterways, — for  the  material  develop- 
ment of  Africa  may  be  summed  up  in  the  one  word  "  trans- 
port." 

Though  we  may  perhaps  at  times  entertain  a  lingering 
regret  for  the  passing  of  the  picturesque  methods  of  the 
past,  we  must  admit  that  the  locomotive  is  a  substantial 
improvement  on  head-borne  transport,  and  the  motor-van  is 
more  efficient  than  the  camel.  The  advent  of  Europeans 
has  brought  the  mind  and  methods  of  Europe  to  bear  on  the 
native  of  Africa  for  good  or  for  iU,  and  the  seclusion  of  ages 
must  perforce  give  place  to  modem  ideas.  Material  develop- 
ment is  accompanied  by  education  and  progress. 

The  condition  of  Africa  when  Europe  entered  the  continent, 
which  Isaiah  so  graphically  describes  as  "  the  land  overshadow- 
ing with  wings,  which  is  beyond  the  rivers  of  Ethiopia  ...  a 
people  scattered  and  peeled,"  was  deplorable.  On  the  East 
Coast,  Arabs  and  half-castes  were  engaged  ia  a  lucrative  trade 
in  slaves  for  export  to  Arabia  and  to  Turkish  possessions. 
In  the  west,  powerful  armies  of  Moslem  States  depopulated 
large  districts  ia  their  raids  for  slaves.  Europe  had  failed  to 
realise  that  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Africa 
inter-tribal  war  "was  an  ever-present  condition  of  native  life, 
and  that  extermination  and  slavery  were  practised  by  African 
tribes  upon  each  other. 

It  was  the  task  of  civilisation  to  put  an  end  to  slavery,  to 
establish  Courts  of  Law,  to  inculcate  in  the  natives  a  sense  of 
individual  responsibility,  of  liberty,  and  of  justice,  and  to 
teach  their  rulers  how  to  apply  these  principles  ;  above  all,  to 
see  to  it  that  the  system  of  education  should  be  such  as  to 
produce  happiness  and  progress.  I  am  confident  that  the 
verdict  of  history  will  award  high  praise  to  the  efforts  and 
the  achievements  of  Great  Britaia  in  the  discharge  of  these 
great  responsibilities.  For,  in  my  belief,  imder  no  other  rule 
— ^be  it  of  his  own  uncontrolled  potentates,  or  of  aliens — does 
the  African  enjoy  such  a  measure  of  freedom  and  of  im- 
partial justice,  or  a  more  sympathetic  treatment,  and  for  that 
reason  I  am  a  profound  believer  in  the  British  Empire  and  its 
mission  in  Africa. 

In  brief,  we  may  say  that  the  eighteenth  century  was  chiefly 


6  INTEODUCTION. 

remarkable  for  the  acquisition  of  large  and  almost  uninhabited 
portions  of  the  earth,  situated  in  the  temperate  zone.  The 
nineteenth  century  saw  the  development  of  these  great 
colonies  into  nations  enjoying  self-government.  Its  closing 
decade  witnessed  the  dawning  recognition  of  the  vital  im- 
portance of  the  tropics  to  civilisation,  and  the  "  discovery  " 
and  acquisition  of  large  non-colonisable  areas  ia  tropical 
Africa — ^no  longer  regarded  as  picturesque  appanages  of 
Empire,  but  as  essential  to  the  very  existence  of  the  races  of 
the  temperate  climes. 

To  the  twentieth  century  belongs  the  heritage  of  the  tropics 
and  the  task  of  their  development.  Two  decades  have  already 
passed  and  wonderful  progress  has  been  made,  not  only  in 
the  improvement  of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  material 
output,  by  scientific  research,  by  organised  method,  and  by 
the  expenditure  of  capital,  but  also  ia  methods  of  adminis- 
tration for  the  welfare  of  the  subject  races,  education,  free 
labour,  taxation,  and  other  similar  problems. 

A  comparative  study  of  the  methods  by  which  these  vari- 
ous problems — administrative  and  economic — have  been  ap- 
proached in  the  several  tropical  dependencies  of  the  Empire 
and  by  other  nations  would  form  a  fascinating  study  and 
a  useful  guide,^  but  the  racial  differences  between  Asiatics 
and  Africans  are  so  great  (as  my  own  experience  in  India 
and  China  have  taught  me)  that  methods  applicable  to  the 
one  may  be  quite  misplaced  with  the  other.  The  tropical 
dependencies  in  Africa,  on  the  other  hand,  offer  almost  iden- 
tical problems. 

"Ifo  serious  attempt,"  says  Mr  Kidd,  "has  so  far  been 
made  to  set  forth  the  principles  which  should  underlie  our 
future  relations  with  the  tropical  regions  of  the  world.  .  .  . 
Nowhere  is  there  to  be  found  any  whole-hearted  or  con- 
sistent attempt  either  to  justffy  the  political  relations  which 
already  exist,  or  to  define  the  principles  of  any  relations  which 
ought  to  exist  in  the  future."  ^   The  following  pages  have  been 

1  The  great  value  of  a  bureau  to  collate  and  pubUsh  the  results  of  administra- 
tive experience  in  various  tropical  countries  was  urged  by  Sir  T  Morison  in  a 
letter  to  the  '  Times  '  of  21st  July  1920. 

2  '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  pp.  15,  16.     Compare  the  'Times  '  (1st  Oct.  1901) 
No  attempt  has  been  made  to  ascertain  what  are  the  special  conditions  of  the 

administrative  problem  in  Equatorial  Africa,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  formu- 
late the  general  lines  of  a  well-considered  policy  in  dealing  with  that  problem 
and  no  machinery  has  been  devised  for  maintaining  continuity  of  administration  '' 


INTEODTJCTION.  7 

written  in  the  hope  that  an  experience,  with  short  intervals, 
of  forty  years  in  the  tropics,  and  of  over  thirty  in  responsible 
positions  in  Africa,  may  enable  me  to  make  some  useful  con- 
tribution to  the  study  of  these  subjects.  During  the  first 
half  of  these  thirty  years  it  was  my  privilege  to  assist  in 
some  degree  in  bringing  imder  British  control  portions  of 
K"yasaland,  East  Africa,  Uganda,  and  Mgeria,  where  the 
difficulties  of  the  pioneer  had  to  be  encountered.  During 
the  second  fifteen  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  development  of  Mgeria,  and  with  the  aid  of  capable 
colleagues  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  system  of  administra- 
tion upon  which  others  may  build.  I  shall  endeavour  to 
describe  the  difficulties  encountered,  the  methods  used,  and 
the  results  obtained  in  administration — ^which  forms  the  most 
important  part  of  our  task  in  Africa.  It  is,  moreover,  also  of  i 
great  moment  that  the  British  democracy,  faced  with  problems 
which  portend  great  changes  in  our  social  organisation, 
should  tmderstand  the  relation  which  our  overseas  depen- 
dencies bear  to  the  economic  wellbeing  of  this  country — how 
vital  to  our  industrial  life  are  the  products  of  the  tropics,  and 
its  markets  for  our  manufactures.  It  is  indeed  essential  that 
democracy  should  take  an  intelligent  and  well-informed  in- 
terest in  questions  which  affect  the  Empire  of  which  it  is  the 
inheritor  and  trustee. 


PAET  I. 

EUROPE  AND  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 


CHAPTER   I. 

a?HE  ACQUISITION   OP  THE  BRITISH  AITtlCAN   TROPICS. 

Reason  for  acquisition — Restraint  of  Britain — British  policy  of  Free 
Trade — The  Berlin  Conference  and  effective  occupation — The  Hinter- 
land theory — Spheres  of  influence — The  Government's  dilemma — 
Creation  of  Chartered  Companies — Treaties  as  valid  titles — ^Method 
of  obtaining  treaties— The  real  sanction  for  intervention  in  Africa — 
Status  of  Chartered  Companies  —  The  Royal  Niger  Company's 
Charter — The  Imperial  British  East  African  Company — The  British 
South  African  Company — -Advantages  of  the  Agency  of  Chartered 
Companies — Liabilities  of  Government  on  revocation — Lessons  from 
Chartered  Company  rule — Separation  of  administration  and  com- 
merce— Disposal  of  lands  and  minerals— Contrast  with  the  older 
Charters — Other  methods  of  acquisition — British  Consuls  in  Africa — 
India  Office  control — Foreign  Office  control. 

The  desire  of  France  and  Germany  to  acquire  tropical  posses- 
sions was  due  primarily  to  the  idea  that  they  were  colonisable 
— an  idea,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  not  yet  exploded  in 
Germany,  and  at  one  time  shared  by  Great  Britain,  who, 
however,  having  already  acquired  great  tracts  in  the  tem- 
perate zone,  had  no  need  to  seek  a  tropical  outlet  for  her 
emigrants. 

The  African  possessions  of  Great  Britain  were  not  there- 
fore acquired,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Continental  Powers,  in 
pursuance  of  a  definite  policy,  for  which  they  were  willing 
to  risk  war.  The  older  "  settlements  "  on  the  West  Coast 
were  originally  maintained  to  assist  in  putting  an  end  to 
the  overseas  slave  trade,  and  so  httle  were  they  valued  that 
a  Royal  Commission  in  1865  recommended  their  abandon- 


10      THE  ACQTJISITION  OF  THE  BRITISH  APKICAN  TEOPICS. 

ment  as  soon  as  convenient.  Missionaries — as  in  Uganda  and 
Kyasaland — were  often  the  pioneers,  and  it  was  in  defence 
of  their  interests  that  the  Government  was  forced  to  inter- 
vene. The  desire  to  extend  protection  and  to  introduce 
justice  and  peace  have  from  time  to  time  led  to  the  enlarge- 
ment of  frontiers,  for  law  and  order  caimot  exist  side  by 
side  with  barbarism.  In  the  west  traders  such  as  the  Mger 
Company  took  the  lead  as  pioneers,  but  it  was  not  till  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  value  of  the  produce 
of  the  tropics  began  to  be  realised  in  England. 

When,  however,  the  "  scramble  for  Africa  "  followed  the 
Berlin  Act  of  1885,  the  popular  demand  that  Britain,  as 
the  foremost  colonising  Power,  should  not  be  backward  in 
claiming  her  share  was  irresistible,  and  it  was  due  to  this 
popular  demand  to  "  peg  out  claims  for  futurity  " — ^however 
Mttle  their  value  was  understood  at  the  time — that  we  owe 
our  African  Empire  of  to-day.  It  was,  moreover,  felt  that 
whatever  value  our  existing  tropical  possessions  might  have, 
would  be  lost  if  other  nations  with  exclusive  tartSs  appro- 
priated their  hinterlands.  Their  value  as  coaUng  stations  in 
the  scheme  of  Empire  was  indeed  recognised,  but  the  great 
importance  of  these  bases  for  attack  and  defence  by  sub- 
marines, and  for  wireless  installations,  was  a  lesson  for  the 
future  to  teach.  The  instinct  of  the  nation  recognised  with 
Dr  Pearson  that  "  the  permanency  of  Empire  consists  in  its 
extension."  The  vital  importance  of  the  control  of  the  tropics 
for  their  economic  value  had,  however,  already  begun  to  be 
reahsed  by  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  Prance,  Germany, 
and  Italy,  laying  aside  their  ambitions  in  Europe,  emerged 
as  claimants  for  large  "  colonies  "  in  Africa. 

When  Great  Britain  took  part  in  the  scramble,  she  willingly 
recognised  the  claims  of  Germany — a  Power  newly  consoli- 
dated, and  with  an  increasing  and  industrial  population. 
She  stood  aside  in  the  Cameruns,  where  the  chiefs  had 
more  than  once  formally  asked  for  British  protection.  She 
renounced  the  territorial  claims  which  she  might  have  asserted 
in  the  Congo  region  in  virtue  of  Cameron's  treaties,  and  in 
East  Africa  she  was  contented  with  a  fraction  of  the  territory 
which  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  offered.  In  South- West  Africa, 
bordering  the  tropics,  her  delay  and  indifference  made  it 
easy  for  Germany  to  forestall  her. 

To  the  no  less  energetic  action  of  Prance  no  opposition 


THE  BEKLEN  ACT,  AND  EFFECTIVE  OCCtnPATION.  11 

was  offered,  until  her  encroachments  affected  the  interests 
of  our  existing  possessions  so  closely  that  national  prestige 
and  honour  were  iavolved. 

In  one  very  notable  particular  the  policy  of  Great  Britaia 
differed  from  that  of  her  rivals.  The  great  territories  which 
she  controlled  were  entirely  free  to  the  trade  and  commerce 
of  all  nations.  Not  merely  were  there  no  discrimiaating 
tariffs,  but  the  French  and  German  merchants  who  estab- 
lished themselves  ia  British  territory  were  treated  with  pre- 
cisely the  same  cordiality,  and  were  afforded  the  same  facili- 
ties for  travel  ia  the  iaterior,  and  for  acquiring  land,  as  our 
own  nationals.  "  Our  rise,"  says  the  German  writer,  Bnul 
Zimmermarm,  "  depended  essentially  on  the  English  policy 
of  the  open  door."  ^ 

The  Berlin  Conference  of  1885  limited  the  necessity  for 
"  effective  occupation  " — ^by  which  the  validity  of  a  claim 
to  territorial  acquisition  should  be  tested — ^to  coast  lands, 
and  defined  it  as  "  the  necessity  of  securing  the  existence  of 
a  sufBcient  authority,  ia  the  territories  occupied,  to  ensure 
respect  for  acquired  rights,  and  if  necessary  for  freedom  of 
commerce  and  transit  ia  the  conditions  ia  which  it  may  have 
been  stipulated."  ^  The  British  delegate  (Sir  E.  MaUet)  had 
proposed  that  this  rule  should  be  made  applicable  to  ia- 
terior lands,'  but  the  proposal  was  negatived,  largely  at 
the  instance  of  the  French  delegate  (Baron  de  Courcel).  The 
Conference  therefore  laid  down  no  definite  rule  as  to  the 
basis  upon  which  the  vahdity  of  claims  to  sovereignty  ia  the 
interior  should  be  recognised. 

The  principle  of  the  "  voluntary  consent  of  the  natives  whose 
country  is  taken  possession  of  ia  all  cases  where  they  have 
not  provoked  the  aggression  "  was  put  forward  by  the  Ameri- 
can delegate  (Mr  Kasson),*  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  it 
was  tacitly  accepted.  For  on  23rd  February  1885  the  presi- 
dent of  the  International  Association  of  the  Congo  submitted 
to  the  Conference  the  various  declarations  and  conventions 
concluded  with  each  of  the  Powers  represented  there,  under 
which  they  recognised  "  the  formation  of  this  new  State," 
and  the  declarations  with  Great  Britain,  the  United  States, 
and  Belgium  set  out  that  it  was  by  virtue  of  treaties  with 

'  '  The  German  Empire  of  Central  Africa,'  pp.  2  and  5. 

2  C.  4361/1885,  Protocol  8,  p.  219. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  214.  ''  Ibid.,  p.  209. 


12      THE  ACQTJISITION  OF  THE  BEITISH  AFB.ICAN  TROPICS. 

the  legitimate  sovereigns  in  the  Congo  basin  that  vast  terri- 
tories had  been  ceded  to  the  State  with  all  the  rights  of 
sovereignty.^ 

Since  the  Conference  had  refused  to  deal  explicitly  with 
the  acquisition  of  territory  other  than  coast  lands,  "  the 
hinterland  theory  " — made  in  Germany — ^which  had  not  the 
sanction  of  the  Berlin  Act  or  any  precise  definition,  gradually 
received  acceptance,  in  so  far  as  the  "  rights  "  of  the  Euro- 
pean Powers  and  their  relations  towards  each  other  in  the 
partition  were  concerned.  By  this  dictum  a  Power  in  occupa- 
tion of  coast  lands  was  entitled  to  claim  the  exclusive  right 
to  exercise  political  influence  for  an  indefinite  distance  inland. 
Obviously  in  a  very  irregularly-shaped  continent  no  method 
could  be  more  calculated  to  create  diflftculties,  and  the  climax 
seemed  to  have  been  reached  when  Prance  claimed  to  restrict 
the  frontiers  of  Nigeria,  on  the  ground  that  they  formed  the 
hinterland  of  Algeria  on  the  Mediterranean. 

The  Powers,  in  their  haste  to  declare  the  "  spheres  of 
influence  "  which  they  claimed,  had  not  in  some  cases  .time 
to  go  through  the  formality  of  making  treaties  with  the 
natives,  and  considered  it  sufficient  to  notify  that  they  claimed 
them  as  hinterlands,  or  because  they  had  some  special  interest 
in  them.  They  were  vaguely  demarcated  by  lines  of  longi- 
tude and  latitude  regardless  of  tribal  limits,  or  by  reference 
to  physical  features  which  later  exploration  sometimes  proved 
to  be  scores  of  miles  from  their  supposed  position,  or  even 
non-existent. 

The  conception  of  a  "  sphere  of  influence "  was  a  new 
departure  in  the  vocabulary  of  diplomacy — already  fore- 
shadowed by  Article  6  of  the  Act,  ia  which  the  exercise  of 
"  sovereign  rights  or  influence "  is  aUuded  to.  It  was,  I 
think,  invented  by  our  Foreign  Office,  for  Great  Britaiu  alone 
appeared  to  have  scruples  as  to  the  legality  or  justice  of 
assuming  dominion  based  neither  on  conquest  nor  on  the 
assent  of  the  iuhabitants.  She  would  have  preferred  that 
effective  occupation  should  be  a  matter  of  gradual  and  peace- 
ful penetration.  The  term  "  sphere  of  influence  "  was  thus 
used  to  designate  those  regions  over  which  the  right  to  exer- 
cise exclusive  political  iufluence  was  claimed,  but  in  which 
no  rights  over  the  natives  could  be  logically  exercised,  and 
no  properly  accredited  representative  of  the  suzerain  Power 

^  Berlin  Act,  Protocol  9,  pp.  253-278. 


THE  government's  DILEMMA.  13 

could  be  appointed,  until  some  legal  claim  had  been  estab- 
lislied. 

The  success  of  the  expedient  was  short-Uved.  Setting  aside 
her  former  opposition  to  Sir  E.  Malet's  proposal,  Prance  now 
insisted  that  effective  occupation  could  alone  confer  title, 
and  in  1887  this  was  fully  admitted  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment. Lord  Salisbury,  in  a  despatch  of  1887  to  the  Minister 
at  Lisbon,  writes :  "It  has  now  been  admitted  on  principle 
by  aU  parties  to  the  Act  of  Berlin,  that  a  claim  of  sovereignty 
in  Africa  can  only  be  maintained  by  real  occupation  of  the 
territory  claimed.  You  wiU  make  a  formal  protest  against 
any  claims  not  founded  on  occupation,  and  you  wiU  say  that 
H.M.'s  Government  cannot  recognise  Portuguese  sovereignty 
in  territories  not  occupied  by  her  in  sufficient  strength  to 
maintain  order,  protect  foreigners,  and  control  the  natives." 
This  passage  is  interesting,  not  only  as  stating  the  formal 
acquiescence  of  the  British  Government  in  the  theory  of 
effective  occupation,  but  as  containing  a  definition  of  what 
constituted  it,  and  a  frank  admission  that  territorial  acquisi- 
tion, whether  under  the  name  of  Protectorate  or  otherwise, 
meant  nothing  less  than  sovereignty  and  the  control  of  the 
natives. 

The  rulers  of  Great  Britain  were  strongly  opposed  to  ex- 
tension of  our  territory  in  Africa,  but  the  popular  demand 
left  the  Foreign  Office  no  alternative.^  The  Government 
viewed  with  alarm  the  great  cost  of  effective  occupation, 
as  that  phrase  was  translated  in  England.  But  the  British 
public  never  considers  the  cost  of  its  demands,  though  it 
holds  the  Government  to  strict  account  for  any  disaster 
due  to  an  inadequate  staff  and  insufficient  force  to  protect 
its  officers.  We  had  not  yet  learned  to  think  in  hundreds  of 
milUons.    The  staff,  the  troops,  and  the  money  were  lacking, 

'  How  clearly  this  was  recognised  abroad  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
passage  in  Baillaud's  authoritative  work  :  "  II  faut,  en  eflfet,  remarquer  que,  d'une 
mauifere  coutume,  jusque  dans  ces  toutea  derniferes  ann^ea,  le  Colonial  Office,  que 
repr&entait  le  gouvemment  anglais  dans  ces  affaires,  ne  cessa  de  manifester,  sauf 
pendant  le  seul  secretariat  de  M.  J.  Chamberlain,  une  opposition  constante  a 
toute  politique  d'expansion  et  h  tout  acoroissement  des  attributions  des  pouvoirs 
locaux ;  et  Mary  Kingaley  ('West  African  Studies,'  p.  305)  est  bien  autorisee  a 
dire,  '  Juaqu'a  nos  jours  le  Colonial  Office  a  6t6,  excepts  dans  le  detail  des  affaires 
interieures  coloniales,  une  chaine  d'entraves  pour  le  ddveloppement  de  I'Augle- 
terre  en  Afrique  Occidentale.  II  a  ^t^  nou  pas  indifferent,  mais  nettement 
oppose. ' "  —  'La  Politique  indigene  de  I'Angleterre  en  Afrique  Occidentale,' 
Introduction,  p.  xxvi.  We  need  hardly  recall  Majuba,  Gordon  at  Khartum,  or 
Mr  Gladstone's  decision  to  evacuate  Uganda. 


14     THE  ACQTnSmON  OP  THE  BRITISH  AFKICAN  TEOPICS. 

and  neither  the  Colonial  nor  the  Foreign  OfSce  had  any 
knowledge  or  experience  of  administration  ia  the  interior  of 
tropical  Africa,  or  of  raising  and  commanding  troops.  Above 
aU,  the  statesmen  of  Britain  had  not  grasped  the  incalculable 
value  of  the  claims  which  the  instinct  of  the  nation  urged 
them  to  peg  out.  But  something  had  to  be  done  to  prevent 
European  rivalries  developing  into  a  war.  The  comfortable 
— albeit  statesmanlike — expedient  of  a  sphere  of  influence  in 
which  rival  diplomacy  would  cease  from  troubling,  and 
development  might  await  the  millenium,  was  repudiated  by 
the  Continental  Powers,  and  found  no  favour  at  home.  Our 
rivals  were  constantly  encroaching  on  our  shadowy  boun- 
daries. 

The  modem  "  Merchant  Adventm;er  "  was  ready  to  employ 
his  capital  in  the  development  of  these  regions,  and  to  accept 
the  responsibiUty  which  the  Government  shunned,  provided 
that  he  was  allowed  to  monopoUse  the  trade,  to  exercise  rights 
of  taxation  direct  and  indirect,  and  to  acquire  rights  in  lands 
and  minerals,  which  would  not  only  afford  a  revenue  for 
administration  and  defence,  but  also  a  prospect  of  profit. 
The  Government  of  the  day,  ignoring  the  dictiun  of  Adam 
Smith  that  "  the  government  of  an  exclusive  company  of 
merchants  is  perhaps  the  worst  of  all  forms  of  government,"  ^ 
found  an  escape  from  its  dilemma.  Boyal  Charters  on  the 
Elizabethan  model  were  granted  to  three  companies — ^the 
Eoyal  Niger  Company  in  the  west,  the  Imperial  British  East 
African  Company  in  the  east,  and  the  British  South  African 
in  the  south,  with  Mr  (now  Sir  G.)  Goldie,  Sir  W.  Mackinnon, 
and  Mr  Cecil  Ehodes  as  their  founders.  They  were  over- 
whelmed with  volimteers  eager  for  adventure.  To  protect 
them  from  foreign  encroachments,  the  British  Government 
soon  found  itself  compelled  to  declare  the  greater  part  of  its 
spheres  of  influence  to  be  Protectorates,  and  the  other  nations 
did  the  same.  In  many  of  these  Protectorates,  no  treaties 
had  been  made  with  outlying  tribes,  and  regions  as  yet  un- 
explored were  included. 

The  Foreign  Office  had  at  first  hesitated  to  declare  Protec- 
torates, because  it  had  acquired  no  legal  right  to  do  so.  How 
then  could  it  grant  charters  which  conferred  powers  of  taxa- 
tion and  rights  to  lands  and  minerals  1  The  diEficulty  was 
solved  by  a  subterfuge  unworthy  of  the  high  line  hitherto 

^  '  Wealth  of  Nations,"  vol.  ii.  p.  302. 


TREATIES  AS  VALID  TITLES.  15 

taken  by  Great  Britain.  The  precedent  set  by  King  Leopold 
of  Belgium  was,  as  we  have  seen,  acclaimed  by  all  the  Powers, 
and  more  specifically  by  Britain,  the  United  States,  and 
Belgium,  that  "  treaties  "  with  the  natives,  by  which  they 
were  supposed  at  short  notice  to  have  voluntarily  ceded  all 
their  sovereign  rights,  were  to  be  accepted  as  vaUd  titles  to 
the  acquisition  of  the  African  tropics  by  the  European  nations. 
Alternatively  by  conquest,  provided  the  natives  were  the 
aggressors — and  this  would  not  be  difficult  to  demonstrate. 
It  was  easy  to  stipulate  that  the  charter  powers  were  based 
on  the  production  of  such  treaties.  The  sensitive  official 
conscience  was  salved  by  this  expedient,  the  real  significance 
of  which  it  no  doubt  failed  to  appreciate.^ 

The  civilised  nations  entered  for  the  competition  with 
avidity.  Treaties  were  produced  by  the  cartload  in  aU  the 
approved  forms  of  legal  verbiage — ^impossible  of  translation 
by  iU-educated  interpreters.^  It  mattered  not  that  tribal 
chiefs  had  no  power  to  dispose  of  communal  rights,  or  that 
those  few  powerful  potentates  who  might  perhaps  claim  such 
authority  looked  on  the  white  man's  ambassador  with  con- 
tempt, and  could  hardly  be  expected  to  hand  over  their 
sovereignty  and  lands  or  other  assets  had  they  understood 
what  was  asked  of  them.  The  Sultan  of  Sokoto,  for  instance, 
regarded  the  subsidy  promised  to  him  by  the  chartered  com- 
pany as  tribute  from  a  vassal. 

'■  Though  the  Congo  treaties  were,  I  think,  the  first  to  gain  International 
recognition,  treaty-making  had  begun  at  least  as  early  as  1884,  when  Consul 
Hewitt  made  thirty -seven  treaties  in  West  Africa,  and  the  National  African  Com- 
pany had  made  others  dating  from  1379.  Hewitt's  treaties,  however,  differ  very 
essentially  from  those  upon  which  King  Leopold  and  the  Chartered  Companies 
in  east  and  west  founded  their  claims  to  territorial  sovereignty.  They  stipu- 
lated that  the  Queen  should  extend  to  the  chiefs  and  their  territories  "Her 
gracious  favour  and  protection,"  while  the  chiefs  undertook  "to  refrain  from 
entering  into  any  correspondence,  agreement,  or  treaty  with  any  foreign  nation 
or  Power,  except  with  the  knowledge  and  sanction  of  Her  Majesty."  Juris- 
diction over  British  subjects  was  ceded,  and  the  chiefs  engaged  to  act  on  the 
advice  of  the  British  Consuls.  Under  the  East  African  Chartered  Company's 
treaties,  on  the  other  hand,  the  chief  declared  that  he  placed  himself  and  his 
people  under  the  rule  of  the  Company,  and  ceded  to  it  all  his  sovereign  rights 
and  rights  of  government.  The  Nyasa  treaties  "give  all  sovereign  rights  and 
all  and  every  other  claim  absolutely  "  over  all  their  country  to  the  Queen  for  all 
time. — See  Herslet,  'Map  of  Africa  by  Treaty,'  vol.  i.  p.  166,  quoted  by  Ilbert, 
'  Government  of  India,'  p.  430.  Also  Hall,  '  Foreign  Jurisdiction  of  British 
Crown,'  p.  217. 

^  In  later  and  more  advanced  times,  the  best  that  an  intelligent  Mallam  could 
make  of  the  phrase  "  The  Protectorate  of  N.  Nigeria,"  was  to  render  it  as  "  The 
instruction  of  compassion  of  the  Sudan," — thereby  making  absolute  nonsense  of 
the  context. 


16      THE  ACQUISITION   OF  THE  BRITISH  AFEICAN  TROPICS. 

The  treaties  were  duly  attested  by  a  cross,  purporting  to 
convey  the  assent  of  the  African  chief,  and  this  was  suf&cient. 
In  some  cases,  it  is  said,  the  assent  had  been  obtained  by  the 
gift  of  a  pair  of  boots,  or  a  few  bottles  of  gin — the  Kaiser  had 
sent  a  parcel  of  opera-hats  working  with  a  spring.  Else- 
where, by  a  show  of  force,  or  by  vague  promises,  which  were 
unrecorded  and  later  ignored.  Each  nation  pursued  the 
course  it  preferred,  or  which  its  representative  found  most 
convenient. 

No  sooner  was  "  occupation  "  effected  by  virtue  of  these 
treaties,  than  the  controUing  Power  usually  found  itself  ia- 
volved  iu  hostOities  with  the  people  with  whom  these  treaties 
of  amity  and  friendship  had  been  made.  If,  however,  the 
treaty-maker  were  too  honest,  or  the  native  chief  too  shrewd 
or  too  rapacious,  it  sufficed  that  the  treaty  should  vest  in 
the  European  aU  jurisdiction  over  aUens.  Here  is  the  descrip- 
tion by  Commandant  Tout^e,  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
French  treaty-makers  : — 

"  Quand  un  6tat  ou  une  tribu  nfegre,  pen  importe,  a  commis 
I'imprudence  grande  de  donner  I'hospitaUt^  ^  un  voyageur 
blanc,  ce  dernier  n'a  rien  de  plus  press6  que  de  sorttr  de  sa 
poche  un  traits  d'alliance  tout  imprim6,  et  de  ses  cantines 
un  petit  drapeau  national.  Le  voyageur  signe  ce  traits  pour 
son  propre  compte  et  prie  le  roitelet,  plus  ou  moins  color^, 
d'ajouter  sa  signature  k  la  sienne. 

"Si  le  potentat  nhgre  ne  salt  pas  signer,  comme  ce  dernier 
cas  se  pr^sente  neuf  fois  sur  dix,  la  haute  partie  contractante 
et  civUis^e  signe  pour  la  deuxifeme  suppos^e  sauvage  et  le 
tour  est  jou4. 

"  II  est  arriv^  meme  quelquefois  que  le  voyageur  blanc, 
s'il  est  anglais  surtout,  a  oublL6  de  demander  son  nom  au 
n^gre  signataire,  mais  ce  vice  de  forme  n'a  jamais  6t6  con- 
sider^  comme  une  cause  s^rieuse  de  nullity  du  contrat." 

The  '  Temps  '  (March  1903)  thus  summarises  the  process  : 
"  One  can  see  what  it  means  :  it  is  moral  annexation.  The 
evolution  of  colonial  empires  of  this  kiud  follows  a  weU- 
known  processus  of  which  the  stages  are  iu  a  measure  ia- 
evitable  :  first,  travellers,  missionaries,  and  traders  ;  then 
treaties  of  commerce  and  friendship  ;  then  a  kiud  of  pro- 
tectorate half  concealed  under  the  form  of  an  unequal  aUi- 
ance  ;  afterwards  the  delimitation  of  spheres  of  iufluence  and 
the  declaration  of  a  kind  of  right  of  priority ;   then  a  protec- 


THE  EEAX  SANCTION  FOE  INTBEVENTION.  17 

torate  properly  so  called,  the  establishment  of  tutelage,  the 
appointment  of  Eesidents  and  aU.  that  foUows  in  their  train  ; 
and  finally,  annexation  pure  and  simple." 

It  was  thus  that  the  conscience  of  Europe  found  relief. 
Ignorance  of  African  conditions,  and  perhaps  a  latent  feeling 
that  the  end  justified  the  means,  induced  the  rulers  of  the 
nations  of  Europe  to  accept  these  treaties  without  too  close 
a  scrutiny,  and  to  persuade  themselves  that  the  omelette 
had  been  made  without  breaking  any  eggs.^ 

The  frank  assertion  of  the  inexorable  law  of  progress,  based 
on  the  power  to  enforce  it  if  need  be,  was  termed  "  fili- 
bustering." It  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  a  civilisation  con- 
tent to  accept  the  naked  deception  of  "treaty-making,"  or  to 
shut  its  eyes  and  ears  and  thank  God  for  the  results. 

In  some  cases  the  native  ruler  was  himself  an  alien  con- 
queror, holding  in  subjection  tribes  with  which  he  had  no 
aflfinity  ;  in  others  he  was  a  despot  (as  in  Benin,  Uganda, 
Dahomey,  or  Zululand)  exercising  a  bloody  tyranny ;  in 
others  again,  pagan  tribes  carried  on  an  internecine  warfare, 
and  were  powerless  to  defend  themselves  against  organised 
slave-raiders. 

In  such  circumstances  it  was  surely  more  justifiable  for 
the  European  Powers  frankly  to  found  their  title  to  inter- 
vention upon  force,  and  to  admit  that  the  chiefs,  whom  they 
recognised  or  appointed,  derived  their  administrative  and 
judicial  powers  from  them,  and  exercised  it  with  such  limita- 
tions as  they  chose  to  impose,  instead  of  assuming  that  they 
themselves  derived  the  right  of  intervention  through  cessions 
of  sovereignty,  xmder  the  guise  of  "  treaties,"  which  were 
either  not  understood,  or  which  the  ruler  had  no  power  to 
make,  and  which  rarely  provided  an  adequate  legal  sanction 
for  the  powers  assumed. 

The  institution  of  courts  of  justice,  the  supervision  of  native 
courts,  the  protection  of  the  peasantry  from  oppression  by 
their  rulers,  and  the  deposition  of  the  latter  when  incorrigible, 
the  reorganisation  or  imposition  of  taxation  for  revenue,  the 
prohibition  of  slave-raiding  or  slave-dealing,  the  restraint  on 
firearms,  liquor,  and  the  destruction  of  game,  the  disposal 
in  some  cases  of  unused  lands  or  minerals — in.  a  word,  the 

^  For  an  alternative  method  of  making  treaties  with  natives,  see  "Treaty- 
making  in  Africa,"  '  Proceedings  Royal  Geographical  Society,'  January  1893,  p.  54, 
and  '  The  Rise  of  Our  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  ii.  p.  579,  by  Captain  Lugard. 

B 


18     THE  ACQXJISITION  OP  THE  BKIXISH  AFRICAN  TROPICS. 

arbitrary  enforcement  of  justice  and  good  government  and 
the  safeguarding  of  natural  resources, — all  these  are  acts  of 
sovereignty  which  no  African  chief  would  wiUingly  concede 
by  treaty  to  an  unknown  stranger,  but  which  fifty  and  more 
nations  of  the  world  have  now  formally  recognised  as  the 
essential  duty  of  the  Mandatory  Powers,  who  under  the  cove- 
nant of  the  League  are  to  be  nominated  as  the  protectors 
and  trustees  of  backward  races.  For  the  civilised  nations 
have  at  last  recognised  that  white  on  the  one  hand  the  abound- 
iQg  wealth  of  the  tropical  regions  of  the  earth  must  be  developed 
and  used  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  on  the  other  hand  an 
obligation  rests  on  the  controUing  Power  not  only  to  safe- 
guard the  material  rights  of  the  natives,  but  to  promote  their 
moral  and  educational  progress. 

The  recognition  of  these  great  principles  does  away  with 
the  "  make  believe  "  of  the  former  illogical  system,  by  which 
the  controlling  Power,  basing  its  rights  on  treaty,  arbitrarily  ex- 
ercised sovereign  powers  often  incompatible  with  those  treaties, 
whUe  admitting  (in  particiilar  cases)  the  right  of  a  petty  kinglet 
to  deflect  the  course  of  a  railway,  to  restrict  trade  by  arbitrary 
taxes  and  toUs,  and  to  oppress  the  peasantry  at  will. 

The  problem  of  the  methods  of  acquisition  was  followed  by 
the  problem  of  the  methods  of  exercising  control.  The  first 
British  experiment  was,  as  I  have  said,  that  of  chartered 
companies,  whose  powers,  so  far  as  they  related  to  the  exercise 
of  sovereignty  and  jurisdiction  over  the  natives,  were  based 
on  treaties  with  the  chiefs,  and  were  circimiscribed  by  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  the  assent  of  the  home  Government 
to  their  local  regulations,  and  the  vis6  of  their  accounts. 
Their  status  vis-d-vis  foreign  Powers  was  that  of  delegates 
of  the  British  Crown.  Their  obhgations  were  to  establish 
that  effective  occupation  and  control  which  was  called  for 
by  the  Continental  Powers,  and  by  the  Press  and  Public  of 
England.  It  was  immaterial  whether  the  area  of  their  opera- 
tions was  a  sphere  of  influence  or  a  Protectorate. 

Before  discussing  the  meaning  of  this  latter  term,  it  will 
be  worth  while  to  review  very  briefly  the  results  of  the  char- 
tered company  experiment.  The  modern  adaptation  of  the 
instrument  by  which  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  had  added 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  the  East  India  Company  had 
secured  India  to  the  Empire,  and  to  which  some  of  our  Ameri- 
can colonies  had  owed  their  origin,  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest, 


THE  ROYAL  NIGEE  COMPANY'S  CHAETEE.  19 

the  more  so  that,  with  the  exception  of  Borneo,  the  new 
experiment  was  confined  to  tropical  Africa. 

The  three  chariiered  companies  differed  greatly  in  their 
methods.  The  Eoyal  Mger  Company,  which  was  the  first 
to  obtain  its  charter  (July  1886),  held  it  for  thirteen  years. 
It  was  conducted  on  business  lines  as  an  amalgamation  of 
various  existing  commercial  interests,  with  a  lucrative  trade. 
Prom  the  outset  it  incurred  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  Liver- 
pool merchants,  who  complained  that  though  the  charter 
conferred  no  monopolistic  rights,  these  had  in  practice  been 
created.  The  company,  while  denying  the  charge,  held  that 
a  measure  of  exclusive  privilege  was  necessary  to  enable  them 
to  meet  the  cost  of  administration,  which  their  rivals  in 
trade  had  not  to  incur. 

The  charter  included  vast  territories  in  the  north,  from 
Sokoto  to  Lake  Chad,  controlled  by  very  powerful  Moslem 
rulers,  with  most  of  whom  the  company  had  made  treaties, 
but  its  resources  were  not  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  comply 
at  once  with  the  dictum  of  "  effective  occupation,"  and 
French  aggression  on  its  frontier  was  the  primary  cause 
which  compelled  the  intervention  of  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment. It  was  not,  of  course,  easy  to  secure  capital  for  interior 
development  while  the  commercial  possibilities  of  the  regions 
nearer  to  the  coast  offered  much  more  tempting  returns  for 
investment.  The  achievement  of  its  founders  lay  in  the  fact 
that  they  had  succeeded  in  amalgamating  all  European  in- 
terests on  the  Mger,  and  were  thus  enabled  at  the  Berlin 
Conference  to  claim  on  behalf  of  Great  Britain  the  custodian- 
ship of  its  free  navigation. 

The  inherent  defect  of  aU  chartered  government,  where 
dividends  to  shareholders  must  inevitably  compete  with  ad- 
ministrative expenditure,  formed  the  chronic  obstacle  to  the 
desires  of  its  patriotic  directors.  But  if  the  exigencies  of  the 
company's  finance  did  not  admit  of  effective  administration, 
it  may  honourably  claim  that,  unlike  the  Congo  State  of  those 
days,  the  natives  were  not  subjected  to  any  form  of  forced 
labour,  or  even  to  any  direct  tax,  while  the  introduction  of 
spirits  in  the  north,  from  which  a  large  revenue  would  have 
accrued,  was  prohibited.^    The  baleful  system  of  the  "  domain 

'  That  spirits  had  already  begun  to  penetrate  is  clear  from  the  appeal  of 
Maleki,  Emir  of  Nupe,  a  Moslem  state. — "  United  Liquor  Committee  "  Keport, 
November  1886,  p.  31. 


20     THE  ACQUISITION  OF  THE  BRITISH  AFEICAN  TROPICS. 

piiv^  "  of  the  Congo  State — of  leasing  lands  and  forests  for 
exploitation  by  private  concessionaires — ^was  imknown,  and 
the  right  of  the  native  to  his  land  and  produce  was  not  inter- 
fered -with.  He  received  a  fair  price,  albeit  his  market  was 
practically  restricted  to  the  company's  depots.^ 

Germany  in  the  east  was  no  less  keen  a  competitor  for  the 
control  of  the  tropics  than  France  in  the  west.  Not  content 
with  the  vast  regions  comprised  in  German  East  Africa,  she 
threatened  to  absorb  Uganda  and  the  Nile  sources.  Sir  Wm. 
Mackinnon — a  man  of  large  fortune — obtained  in  1888  a 
Eoyal  Charter,  with  the  patriotic  object  of  securing  for  the 
Empire  the  area  which  had  been  declared  a  British  sphere  of 
influence.  His  co-directors  were  almost  all  men  pre-eminent 
for  their  public  services,  including  Lord  Lome,  Lord  Brassey, 
Sir  J.  Kirk,  Sir  A.  KembaU,  Sir  L.  PeUy,  Sir  F.  Buxton, 
Sir  D.  Stewart,  and  Mr  Burdett-Coutts.  It  was  the  great 
misfortune,  however,  of  the  company  that  at  the  crucial 
moment  of  its  inauguration  it  was  deprived  of  the  unrivalled 
experience  of  Sir  John  Kirk,  who  alone  of  the  directors  had 
personal  knowledge  of  East  Africa,  by  his  appointment  as 
British  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Brussels  Conference.  The  com- 
pany did  not  enter  into  the  heritage  of  a  "  going  concern  " 
as  the  Eoyal  Niger  Company  had  done.  The  country  was 
entirely  unexplored,  and  such  little  trade  as  existed  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Zanzibar  Arabs,  who  were  already  in  revolt 
against  the  Germans,  and  bitterly  resented  the  measures 
taken  by  Great  Britain  to  put  an  end  to  their  trade  in  slaves. 

The  company  had  only  recently  been  inaugurated  when 
the  notorious  Karl  Peters  by  way  of  the  Tana  river,  and 
Emin  Pasha  as  a  German  emissary  by  the  southern  route, 
started  with  the  object  of  annexing  Uganda.  The  British 
public  and  the  Foreign  Ofiice  looked  to  the  company  to  secuie 
effective  occupation  of  a  coimtry  800  nules  from  the  coast — 
from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  warlike  Masai  tribe — 
ere  yet  its  headquarters  had  been  fuUy  established  at  its 
coast  port.  Already  it  had  sent  an  exploring  expedition 
thither  in  the  hope  of  assisting  Stanley  in  his  quest  for  Emin. 
It  was  not  slow  to  respond  to  the  new  caU.  The  German 
projects  were  frustrated — Uganda  and  the  Nile  sources,  so 
vital  to  Egypt,  were  secured. 

But  no  revenue  was  coming  in,  and  private  funds  could 

'  Re  this  monopoly  see  Sir  J.  Kirk'e  report,  Africa,  3,  1896. 


ACHIBVEMENT  OF  THE  EAST  AERICA  COMPANY.     21 

not  indefinitely  sustain  tlie  heavy  cost  incurred.  Moreover, 
owing  to  the  withdrawal  by  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar,  acting 
on  the  advice  of  H.M.'s  Government,  of  the  reserves  under 
which  he  had  adhered  to  the  Berlin  Act,  the  company  was 
deprived  of  the  revenue  from  import  and  export  duties,  which 
were,  it  maintained,  an  integral  part  of  the  terms  of  the 
concession  from  the  Sultan  under  which  it  had  acquired  its 
rights,  and  upon  which  it  had  based  its  fiscal  poUcy.^  The 
company's  Board  consisted  chiefly  of  administrators,  and  its 
earliest  efforts  had  been  directed  to  administration  rather 
than  to  commerce.  It  appealed  to  the  home  Government 
for  assistance,  on  the  grounds  that  it  had  gone  to  Uganda 
on  the  mandate  of  the  nation.  But  Lord  Eosebery  was  dis- 
inclined to  assist,  and  the  company  was  forced  to  surrender 
its  charter  in  1895,  after  an  existence  of  only  six  and  a  half 
years. 

In  spite  of  its  apparent  failure  it  had,  like  the  Mger  Com- 
pany, succeeded  in  its  great  purpose.  It  had  secured  East 
Africa  and  Uganda,  when  the  Government  of  the  day  was 
imwilling  to  move.  For  a  moment  there  had  been  misgivings 
lest  Mr  Gladstone  should  abandon  the  results  which  the 
company  had  achieved  at  such  sacrifice.  The  edict  went 
forth  that  Uganda  should  be  evacuated,  and  with  it  a  large 
part  of  East  Africa.  But  the  feehng  of  the  nation  was  too 
strong  for  the  Government,  and  supported  the  company's 
continued  and  disinterested  efforts  for  the  "  retention  of 
Uganda."  A  Protectorate  was  declared,  and  a  new  British 
flag  replaced  the  company's  tattered  ensign.  The  salubrious 
highlands  of  East  Africa,  the  kingdoms  of  Uganda  and 
Unyoro,  with  boundaries  co-terminous  with  the  Congo  State 
on  the  west,  and  with  Abyssinia  and  the  Egyptian  Sudan 
in  the  north,  the  continuous  control  of  the  Nile  from  its 
sources  in  the  great  Victoria  and  Albert  Lakes,  were  secured 
to  the  Empire. 

The  credit  due  to  the  Mger  Company  for  its  treatment  of 
the  natives,  and  its  exclusion  of  the  concessionaire,  is  shared 
by  the  Imperial  British  East  African  Company. 

A  great  part  of  the  territory  covered  by  the  third  charter — 
that  of  the  British  South  African  Company — ^lay  south  of 
the  Zambesi,  within  the  temperate  or  sub-tropical  zone,  and 

1  See  Memo,  by  Sir  J.  Kirk.     '  British  East  Africa,'  by  P.  L.  M'Dermott,  p. 
446. 


22      THE  ACQtnSITION  OP  THE  BRITISH  AFRICAN  TEOPIOS. 

therefore  colonisable  by  Europeans.  It  was  contiguous  to 
the  colonies  and  Protectorates  under  the  control  of  the 
Colonial  OfBce,  and  it  therefore  (unlike  the  other  two)  came 
under  the  control  of  that  office.  The  Duke  of  Fife  was  its 
chairman,  but  the  dominating  personaUty  and  the  founder 
was  Mr  Cecil  Ehodes.  The  charter  was  granted  iu  October 
1889,  and  stiU  continues.  By  the  Northern  Ehodesia  Order 
in  Council  of  4th  May  1911  its  powers  were  extended  in 
respect  of  territories  north  of  the  Zambesi. 

The  South  African  Company  had  to  deal  with  conditions 
for  the  most  part  very  dissimilar  to  those  which  had  con- 
fronted the  other  two.  Its  territories,  with  a  population 
estimated  at  four  to  the  square  mile,  had  no  access  to  the 
sea,  and  the  construction  of  railways  was  the  first  neces- 
sity. It  was  believed  to  contain  great  mineral  wealth,  and 
its  frontiers  marched  with  territories  already  peopled  by  a 
considerable  European  population,  largely  concerned  in  the 
mining  industry,  who  hastened  to  peg  out  claims  in  the 
company's  territory.  The  ordinary  trade  in  raw  materials 
and  foodstuffs  was  hampered  by  lack  of  transport  and  dis- 
tance from  a  seaport.  The  wealth  of  the  founders,  Messrs 
Ehodes  and  Beit,  and  the  patriotism  and  confidence  in  the 
future  of  its  other  shareholders,  rendered  it  possible,  as  in 
East  Africa,  to  dispense  with  immediate  dividends.  The 
company  rapidly  became  the  parent  of  many  subsidiary  cor- 
porations, which  imdertook  the  exploitation  of  its  mineral 
wealth,  the  construction  of  its  railways,  and  even  the  pro- 
vision of  the  requirements  of  its  principal  cities.  The  char- 
tered company,  by  virtue  of  its  rights  in  lands  and  minerals, 
whether  acquired  by  treaties  or  inherent  in  it  as  a  govern- 
ment, retained  a  substantial  interest  in  these  concerns,  whose 
shares,  of  course,  became  the  subject  of  Stock  Exchange 
dealings.  As  the  European  population  increased,  the  inevi- 
table demand  for  the  revocation  of  the  charter  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  self-government  in  Southern  Ehodesia  arose — a 
matter  which  was,  of  course,  comphcated  by  the  expenditure 
incurred  by  the  company. 

North  of  the  Zambesi,  the  pressing  demand  for  immediate 
effective  occupation,  which  had  overwhelmed  the  other  two 
companies,  did  not  arise  in  so  acute  a  form,  though  Belgium 
succeeded  in  extending  her  frontiers  to  include  the  valuable 
mineral  districts  of  Katanga,  and  Germany  was  anxious  to 


THE  empire's  debt  TO   CHAETEEED  COMPANIES.  23 

encroach  to  the  south  of  Tanganyika.  Treaties  were  made 
and  frontiers  settled,  and  the  company  was  free  to  open  up 
the  country  gradually. 

Germany  had  coveted  these  regions — especially  south  of 
the  Zambesi — and  it  was  due  to  the  Chartered  Company  and 
its  great  founder,  Cecil  Ehodes,  that  the  British  flag  now 
flies  from  the  Cape  to  the  Lakes  Tanganyika  and  Nyasa.^ 

From  this  brief  review  of  the  causes  which  gave  rise  to  the 
creation  of  chartered  companies  in  the  nineteenth  century 
some  interesting  reflections  arise.  That  they  are  at  best  an 
imperfect  form  of  government  was  shown  conclusively  by 
Adam  Smith  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  modern 
experience  has  only  confirmed  his  arguments.^  But  it  is  due 
to  their  agency  alone  that  over  a  million  square  miles  of 
tropical  Africa,  with  a  population  of  over  twenty-five  miUions, 
has  been  added  to  the  British  Empire.  In  contrast  to  foreign 
methods  they  afford  a  striking  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
individual  enterprise  has  ever  in  our  history  anticipated  the 
action  of  government.'  They  came  forward  at  a  moment 
when  the  Government,  compelled  by  the  action  of  other 
Powers  to  take  some  decision,  not  imnatuxaUy  shirked  the 
responsibihty  of  directly  administering  great  regions,  at  a 
cost  of  which  no  estimate  could  be  made.  They  formed  a 
buffer  between  the  Imperial  Government  and  foreign  States, 
which  reduced  the  risks  of  international  friction  and  of  war, 
and  their  temporary  reverses  did  not  involve  Imperial  prestige. 
Alike  from  their  successes  and  their  failures  the  Government 
was  enabled  to  obtain  most  valuable  experience,  so  that  when 

'  "In  1890,"  said  the  chairman  at  the  last  annual  meeting,  "Rhodesia,  a 
country  as  large  as  Central  Europe,  was  sparsely  inhabited  by  uncivilised  and 
barbarous  peoples,  who  were  hunted  and  raided  by  the  strongest  amongst  them. 
After  thirty  years  of  Chartered  administration  we  see  them  immensely  advanced 
in  numbers,  order,  contentment,  and  wealth.  .  .  ■  Should  His  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment decide  that  Southern  Rhodesia  is  fit  for  self-government,  we  shall  cordially 
concur  in  their  decision.  What  higher  tribute  could  possibly  be  paid  to  a  cor- 
poration such  as  ours,  than  to  pronounce  that  in  thirty  years  it  had  brought  a 
great  territory  from  a  state  of  primitive  savagery  to  a  condition  in  which  it  is  fit 
to  take  its  place  among  the  self-governing  dominions  of  the  Crown." — Report, 
28th  October  1920. 

^  Mr  Kidd,  writing  in  1897,  says:  "Government  by  chartered  company  is 
the  oldest,  the  most  indefensible,  and  in  theory  the  most  reprehensible  of  all 
forms  of  government  in  the  tropics." — '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  p.  38. 

3  Compare  Adam  Smith  :  "  In  one  way,  and  one  way  alone,  has  the  policy  of 
Europe  contributed  to  the  first  establishment  or  the  present  grandeur  of  the 
colonies  of  America.  It  bred  and  formed  the  men  who  were  capable  of  achieving 
such  great?  actions,  and  of  laying  the  foundations  of  so  great  an  Empire." — 
'  Wealth  of  Nations,'  Bk.  iv.  p.  400. 


24      THE   ACQUISITION   OF   THE  BRITISH  AFEICAN   TROPICS. 

the  time  should  come  to  substitute  direct  Imperial  rule,  a 
more  or  less  adequate  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  task 
was  available. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  incurred  unknown 
UabiMties.  Ill-advised  action  on  the  part  of  a  chartered  com- 
pany might  at  any  time  involve  the  Government  in  serious 
controversy  with  a  foreign  Power.  Moreover,  the  bUl  of  costs 
on  revocation  of  the  charter  could  be  checked  by  no  satis- 
factory standard.  Expensive  mistakes  must  be  paid  for  by 
the  British  taxpayer,  or  iona-fide  expenditure  by  the  company 
repudiated,  with  scant  justice  to  shareholders  who  had  sub- 
scribed their  money  from  motives  of  patriotism.  Supposed 
assets  in  land  and  minerals  may  prove  untenable  by  Govern- 
ment. Plantations  and  plant  suitable  to  an  industrial  or 
commercial  company  may  find  no  purchasers.  If  rights  in 
land  or  minerals  acquired  by  the  company  have  already  been 
disposed  of  to  third  parties,  a  new  difficulty  arises. 

The  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  has  recently 
ruled  that  if  the  Government  cancels  the  charter  of  the  British 
South  African  Company,  it  is  Uable  for  aU  its  administrative 
deficits — a  riding  which  would  have  made  much  difference  to 
the  unfortunate  shareholders  of  the  East  African  Company. 
Over  the  company's  expenditure  the  Government  had  exer- 
cised little  or  no  practical  control,  and  prior  to  the  decision 
of  the  Privy  Council  it  had  been  assumed  that  the  land  and 
minerals  belonged  to  and  would  remain  the  property  of  the 
company  if  the  charter  were  revoked.^ 

In  the  case  of  the  Niger  charter.  Government  compounded 
for  its  own  advantage  by  giving  the  expropriated  company 
a  share  in  the  minerals  of  the  country.  This  forms  a  heavy 
and  increasing  burden  on  the  local  government  which  follows 
the  company.  It  is  short-sighted,  because  the  minerals  which 
an  undeveloped  country  may  contain  are,  of  course,  of  un- 

'  The  claim  amounted  to  £8,800,000  plua  accumulated  interest  on  the  yearly 
deficits,  less  receipts  from  lands — about  a  million.  Lord  Cave's  Commission  has 
since  awarded  the  Company  £4,400,000  plus  £830,000  for  public  works,  less  the 
value  of  lands  appropriated  by  the  Company,  or  disposed  of  otherwise  than  for 
cash.  Lord  Milner,  in  his  Memo,  of  December  1920,  informed  the  elected 
members  of  the  Rhodesian  Legislative  Council  that  responsible  government 
would  be  granted  if  the  demand  was  persisted  in.  The  new  government  would 
be  responsible  for  a  sum  of  about  IJ  million,  the  remaining  liability  to  the  Com- 
pany being  met  by  sales  of  unalienated  land. — See  Cmd.  547  of  1920,  pp.  40  and 
52,  Cd.  1129  (Privy  Council  award),  Cd.  1273  of  1921  (Lord  Milner's  Memo.),  and 
Cd.  7645,  appendix  i. 


LESSONS   PEOM   CHAKTEEBD   COMPANY  RULE.  25 

known  value.  A  parallel  may  be  found  in  the  land  rights 
retained  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  when  it  agreed  to 
the  transfer  of  the  North-West  Territory  to  the  Canadian 
Government.  The  value  of  these  lands  and  minerals  will, 
of  course,  increase  in  proportion  to  subsequent  expenditure 
by  the  local  government  and  private  enterprise,  briaging  an 
automatic  profit  to  the  origiaal  shareholders,  or  more  often 
to  those  who  had  subsequently  acquired  the  shares.  It  would 
seem  preferable  that  whatever  compensation  is  paid  for  the 
revocation  of  a  charter  should  accrue  to  those  who  risked 
their  money  in  the  original  venture,  rather  than  that  a  specu- 
lative benefit  should  be  conferred  on  the  changing  holders 
of  the  shares  of  the  commercial  company  which  succeeds  it. 
Whatever  may  be  said  for  a  bargain  of  this  kind,  i£  contracted 
with  the  natives  of  the  country,  whose  descendants  continue 
to  benefit,  it  is  inapplicable  to  the  conditions  of  a  trading 
corporation. 

The  chartered  company  experiment,  even  though  it  be  a 
bad  form  of  government,  may  be  said  to  have  been  justified 
by  its  results  for  the  Empire.  The  experience  gained  has 
taught  us  many  lessons,  among  which  I  venture  to  think 
that  the  following  may  be  included. 

A  chartered  company  should  obtain  its  administrative 
revenue  rather  from  funds  raised  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  a  government  than  from  its  commercial  profits,  and  the 
latter  should  be  strictly  limited  to  sources  equally  open  to 
its  competitors.  From  customs  and  taxes,  &c.,  paid  equally 
by  its  commercial  branch  as  by  its  rivals,  it  should  be  in- 
creasingly able  to  derive  an  adequate  revenue  for  adminis- 
trative purposes.  In  the  early  years,  while  they  are  still 
uisufflcient,  they  must  be  supplerhented  by  loans  from  its 
commercial  branch,  or  if  need  be  from  the  Imperial  Ex- 
chequer. Its  dual  functions  of  administration  and  commerce 
should  in  fact  be  kept  whoUy  distinct.  Though  its  adminis- 
trative machinery  need  not  be  so  elaborate  and  expensive 
as  that  of  the  Imperial  Government,  the  officers  engaged  in 
administrative  and  judicial  work  should  be  separate  from 
those  engaged  in  commerce,  for  it  is  impossible  to  maintain 
the  prestige  of  a  Government  (upon  which  so  much  depends 
in  Africa)  if  its  officers  have  at  one  moment  to  drive  a  trade 
bargain,  and  presently  to  act  in  a  magisterial  capacity  towards 
the  same  parties.    H  in  a  distant  and  unimportant  district 


26      THE  ACQUISITION   OF  THE  BRITISH  APEICAN  TEOPICS. 

a  commercial  agent  should  be  caUed  upon  to  act  as  an  adminis- 
trative officer,  he  shoidd  do  so  by  virtue  of  a  commission  as 
Justice  of  the  Peace. 

The  charter  should  not  only  preclude  the  possibility  of 
monopolies,  direct  or  indirect,  or  any  form  of  preference  in 
favour  of  the  charter  in  the  matter  of  customs  dues,  &c., 
but  railways  and  river  transport  services  should  be  provided 
and  maintained  from  administrative  fimds,  and  the  com- 
mercial branch  should  enjoy  no  privileges,  either  in  rates 
or  priority  of  despatch,  over  its  competitors.  Coinage  must 
be  guaranteed  by  an  adequate  reserve,  and  aU  the  servants 
of  the  administration  (including  the  troops  and  native  em- 
ployees) should  be  paid  in  the  legal  currency,  and  not  in 
"  barter  goods  "  at  values  arbitrarily  fixed  by  the  employer. 

In  view  of  the  dubious  right  of  chiefs  to  alienate  lands 
belonging  to  the  community,  and  their  total  inability  to 
estimate  the  value  of  such  grants,  the  charter  should  lay 
down  explicitly  the  principles  to  be  observed  in  dealing  with 
lands  and  minerals.  These  principles  should  be  identical  with 
those  observed  in  colonies  and  protectorates  administered  by 
the  Crown.  The  administrative  branch  of  the  company  in  its 
governmental  capacity  should  alone  be  competent  to  acquire 
rights  in  perpetuity  in  lands  and  minerals,  acting  as  trustee 
for  the  natives  on  the  one  hand,  and  as  custodian  for  the 
development  of  the  country  for  the  needs  of  civilised  man- 
kind on  the  other.  It  would  grant  leases  to  private  com- 
panies and  individuals — ^including  its  commercial  branch — 
on  reasonable  and  proper  terms,  the  proceeds  by  way  of 
rents,  royalties,  &c.,  being  spent  as  administrative  revenue 
only.  If  the  charter  is  revoked,  the  Government  which 
succeeds  it  would  inherit  that  revenue  without  compensation. 
Actions  at  law,  to  which  the  Imperial  Government  and  the 
chartered  company  are  parties — such  as  that  recently  before 
the  Privy  Council— indicate  a  lack  of  foresight  and  a  loose- 
ness of  conception  in  those  responsible  for  drafting  the  charter. 
Finally,  a  chartered  company's  reports  should  fully  explain 
its  laws  and  general  progress,  and  its  administrative  revenue 
and  expenditure,  in  order  that  the  nation  may  know  how  its 
delegated  sovereignty  over  native  races  is  being  exercised. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  task  to  trace  in  some  detail  the 
fortunes  of  the  earlier  charters  granted  to  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  the  East  India  Company,  and  the  Exeter  Merchants 


CONTRAST  WITH  OLDER  CHARTERS.  27 

in  West  Africa,  but  it  lies  outside  the  scope  of  my  present 
work.  The  "  Merchant  Adventurers  "  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury sought  a  Eoyal  Charter  to  secure  a  monopoly  of  trade. 
They  fought  their  own  battles  against  French,  Spanish, 
Dutch,  and  Portuguese,  and  the  East  India  Company  was 
empowered  to  seize  ships  and  goods  of  any  traders  not 
Hcensed  by  itself,  and  to  inflict  "  imprisonment,  or  such 
punishment  as  for  so  high  a  contempt  shall  seem  meet  and 
convenient."  ^  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  complained  of 
the  "  Free-Traders  "  who  robbed  it  of  its  profits,  and  the 
West  African  merchants  made  the  same  complaint  regarding 
their  rivals,  whom  they  called  the  "  Interlopers."  ^  But 
Parliament  did  not  greatly  favour  these  monopoUes  granted 
by  the  Crown,  and  in  1698  private  traders  were  recognised 
on  the  West  African  coast.^ 

But  to  say  that  the  East  India  Company's  conquests  and 
administrative  successes  were  merely  "  a  bye-product  of  trade, 
which  was  the  real  object  aimed  at,"*  is  to  ignore  the  spirit 
of  the  resolution  passed  as  early  as  1689  :  "  The  increase  of 
our  revenue  is  the  subject  of  our  care  as  much  as  our  trade  ; 
'tis  that  must  maintain  our  force  when  twenty  accidents  may 
interrupt  our  trade ;  'tis  that  must  make  us  a  nation  in 
India ;  without  that  we  are  but  a  great  number  of  inter- 
lopers united  by  a  Eoyal  Charter,  fit  only  to  trade  where 
nobody  of  power  thinks  it  their  interest  to  prevent  us,  and 
upon  this  ground  it  is  that  the  wise  Dutch  in  aU  their  general 
advices  that  we  have  seen  write  ten  paragraphs  concerning 
their  government,  their  civil  and  military  pohcy,  welfare  and 
the  increase  of  their  revenue,  for  one  paragraph  they  write 
concerning  trade."  ^ 

Nearly  a  century  later  the  East  India  Company's  adminis- 
tration acquired  legal  sanction  from  the  Moghul  Emperor, 
and  Parliament  at  once  questioned  the  right  of  a  trading 
company  to  acquire  territorial  sovereignty.  For  this  privi- 
lege they  were  caUed  upon  to  pay  £400,000  per  anmma  to  the 
home  Government  tOl  1773,  when  the  Begulating  Acts, 
which  culminated  in  Pitt's  Act  of  1784,  brought  the  whole 
machinery  of  administration  under  the  control  of  Whitehall. 

^  '  Government  of  India,'  Ilbert,  pp.  5,  6. 

^  'A  Tropical  Dependency,'  Lady  Lugard,  p.  239. 

^  Adam  Smith,  vol.  iii.  p.  125. 

*  'German  Colonies,"  Sir  H.  Clififord,  p.  28. 

'  Ilbert,  loc.  cit.,  p.  25. 


28      THE  ACQUISITION   OF  THE  BRITISH  AFRICAN  TROPICS. 

About  the  same  time  (1765)  the  whole  coast  of  West  Africa 
was  declared  to  be  exempt  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  African 
Company  (already  deprived  of  monopoly,  "  regulated  "  and 
subsidised  though  it  was),  and  vested  in  the  Crown  for  the 
free  trade  of  His  Majesty's  subjects.^  Crippled  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  slave-trade,  the  company  was  finally  dissolved 
in  1821. 

Meanwhile  monopoly  rights  (except  as  regards  China)  were 
withdrawn  from  the  East  India  Company  in  1813,  and  finally 
abolished  in  1833.  From  this  date  it  was  required  to  wind 
up  its  commercial  affairs,  and  was  vested  with  administrative 
powers  only,  imder  the  strict  control  of  the  home  Govern- 
ment, by  whom  its  Governor-General  was  appointed.^  It 
continued  to  hold  its  territories  "  in  trust  for  His  Majesty  " 
tm  superseded  in  1858. 

Even  so  brief  an  outline  as  this  wiU  serve  to  illustrate  the 
growth  of  the  conception  of  charters.  Begioning  with  a 
trade  monopoly,  the  older  charters  gradually  acquired  admin- 
istrative powers,  for  the  exercise  of  which  the  East  India 
Company  had  actually  to  pay  the  British  taxpayer.  To- 
wards the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  ParUament 
began  to  "  regulate  "  them,  to  withdraw  the  monopoly,  and 
to  charge  them  with  administrative  functions  only,  till  the 
Imperial  Government  was  ready  to  supersede  them.  The 
modem  charter,  on  the  other  hand,  started  as  an  administra- 
tion, the  expenses  of  which  were  to  be  met  from  commercial 
profits — in  theory  to  be  exercised  without  monopoly.  For 
protection  against  foreign  aggression,  and  even  in  case  of 
serious  internal  trouble,  it  had  to  look  to  the  home  Govern- 
ment. Thus  the  old  charters  were  in  theory  monopolistic 
trading  companies,  and  when  they  assimied  administrative 
functions,  the  monopoUes  were  revoked  and  they  became 
Governmental  agencies,  with  no  trading  fimctions.  The 
modern  charter,  on  the  other  hand,  was  created  for  adminis- 
tration, and  when  the  charter  was  withdrawn  it  was  left  as 
a  trading  company  only,  and  without  monopoly. 

We  have  seen  that  the  scramble  for  Africa  and  the  demand 
for  effective  occupation  hurried  the  Government  of  the  day 
into  the  declaration  of  spheres  of  influence  and  the  creation 

^  Adam  Smith,  vol.  iii.  p.  125. 

=  Ilbert,  loo.  cit.,  p.  65,  from  whom  the  chief  facts  regarding  the  East  India 
Company  are  taken. 


OTHER  METHODS   OF   ACQinSITION.  29 

of  chartered  companies,  upon  whom  should  fall  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  three  largest  areas  acquired  by  Great  Britain. 
There  were,  however,  some  smaller  areas  which  were  acquired 
by  a  dijEferent  method.  The  West  African  "  colonies  "  at  this 
time  (1889)  consisted  of  small  settlements  on  the  coast. 
Little  or  no  attempt  to  develop  their  hinterlands  was  made 
until  in  1895-96,  France,  in  pursuance  of  her  pohcy  of  linking 
up  her  various  possessions  in  West  Africa,  alleging  with  truth 
the  absence  of  any  effective  occupation,  seized  the  iaterior 
lands,  and  threatened  the  territory  immediately  contiguous 
to  these  colonies.  Mr  Hanotaux  ia  1896  claimed  that  she 
"  thus  gave  effect  to  the  hinterland  pohcy  before  it  had 
received  a  name,"  but  her  action  was  ia  fact  a  violation  of 
the  policy.  Under  Mr  Chamberlain's  energetic  direction  each 
of  these  colonies  now  bestirred  itself  to  secure  what  was  left 
of  its  hinterland.  An  epidemic  of  treaty-making  and  expedi- 
tions ensued,  and  eventually  frontiers  were  fixed  and  de- 
Umited,  but  not  without  "  incidents "  at  Waima  (Sierra 
Leone),  Wa  (Gold  Coast),  and  Meko,  Kissi,  and  Borgu  (Mgeria). 

The  limited  areas  thus  secured  were  at  once  declared 
Protectorates.  The  hinterland  of  the  Oil  Elvers,  which  had 
now  become  the  "  Mger  Coast  Protectorate,"  was  safe,  for 
the  chartered  company  formed  a  buffer  between  it  and  foreign 
aggression.  British  authority  was  represented  by  a  Consul- 
General,  with  several  Consuls  and  Vice-Consuls  distributed 
along  the  coast.  In  its  new  rdle  as  an  administrative  depart- 
ment the  Foreign  Oflfice  now  vested  these  officials  with  judicial 
and  administrative  authority  over  the  natives  of  the  country. 

Consular  officers  in  Africa  had  indeed  played  unusual  parts 
for  some  time.  Back  in  the  'sixties,  in  the  early  days  of 
African  exploration,  Livingstone,  accredited  to  the  chiefs  in 
the  interior,  with  no  jurisdiction  or  place  of  abode,  had  been 
granted  consular  rank  to  facilitate  his  work  as  a  traveller. 
Later  in  1878  Captain  Foote,  R.N'.,  was  appoiuted  Consul  in 
I^yasaland — at  that  time  under  the  protection  of  no  Euro- 
pean Power — ^with  instructions  to  watch  and  report  on  the 
slave  trade,  and  accredited  by  letters  from  Her  Majesty  to 
the  slave-trading  chiefs.  It  did  not  enhance  British  prestige 
that  he  was  necessarily  without  power  or  influence.  Shortly 
before  I  reached  IJTyasa  in  1888  his  successor  had  been  seized 
and  stripped  naked,  and  his  life  was  only  spared  in  considera- 
tion of  a  ransom ;  while  British  subjects,  whom  he  was  power- 


30      THE  ACQXUSITION   OF  THE  BEITISH  AFRICAN   TEOPICS. 


to  protect,  were  fighting  for  their  lives  at  Karonga's 
against  the  slave-trading  Arabs.  The  Consul-General  in 
Southern  Mgeria  was,  however,  fully  empowered  as  an  ad- 
ministrator. He  collected  revenue  from  customs,  and  differed 
only  in  title  from  the  Governors  or  High  Commissioners 
appointed  by  the  Colonial  Office. 

As  the  jealousy  and  friction  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  which  had  marked  the  era  of  acquisition,  gave  place 
to  more  cordial  relations,  it  became  possible  to  facilitate  each 
other's  task  by  reciprocal  courtesies,  such  as  extradition  of 
fugitive  crimiaals,  &c.  The  need  for  co-operation  is  sufQ- 
ciently  patent,  and  on  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  African 
administrators  have  been  wonderfully  successful  in  avoiding 
friction,  which  it  is  obvious  might  easily  be  generated  by  a 
thousand  incidents,  along  hundreds  of  miles  of  frontiers, 
where  systems  of  rule  and  of  taxation  differ,  and  communities 
are  apt  to  migrate  over  the  frontiers  on  the  smallest  provoca- 
tion. There  are  many  directions  in  which  this  co-operation 
might  be  carried  still  further. 

That  the  diversity  of  British  methods  of  acquisition  and 
control  might  lack  nothing  in  completeness,  we  find  the  India 
Office  controlling  Berbera,  and  parts  of  the  Somali  Coast 
from  its  base  to  Aden — a  survival  of  the  time  when  the 
British  representative  at  Zanzibar  was  an  Indian  appoint- 
ment. 

At  a  later  date,  in  the  equatorial  NUe  basin,  the  Foreign 
Office,  which  already  controlled  such  vast  areas  in  tropical 
Africa,  either  directly  through  its  Consuls  or  indirectly  through 
chartered  companies,  exercised  yet  a  third  form  of  control 
through  the  shadowy  segis  of  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  whose 
sovereign  rights,  based  on  conquest,  had  lapsed  through  the 
Mahdist  revolt,  and  accrued  by  the  same  right  to  the  con- 
querors when  the  Mahdi  was  defeated.  Here  again  a  failure 
to  define  our  claims  brought  us  into  conflict  with  the  French 
theory  of  so-called  effective  occupation,  represented  by  Colonel 
Marchant's  expedition  to  Fashoda  in  1895.^ 

1  In  a  series  of  very  interesting  articles  the  special  correspondent  of  the 
'Times'  (April  1900)  sketches  "the  opening  of  the  Sudan."  Here  sovereic^n 
rights  were  at  once  assumed  by  the  conquerors,  and  a  Governor-General  vi°as 
appointed  with  unlimited  autocratic  powers.  "He  unites  in  himself  and  dele- 
gates from  himself,  all  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  powers.  He' is  his  own 
parliament,  his  own  prime  minister,  his  own  chief  justice,  and  his  own  com- 
mander-in-chief.     He   'notifies'   his   ordinances   to   the  joint   sovereigns   (the 


FOEEIGN   OFFIOB   CONTEOL.  31 

The  Foreign  Office,  in  tlie  exercise  of  its  proper  functions 
of  conducting  the  delicate  negotiations  regarding  territorial 
claims  and  boundaries,  had  thus  by  the  force  of  circumstances 
found  itself  responsible  for  the  greater  part  of  British  tropical 
Africa.  It  was  an  unwelcome  rdle,  at  variance  with  its  tradi- 
tions, nor  did  it  possess  the  proper  machinery,  or  the  reserve 
of  trained  officials  from  which  to  draw  for  its  administrative 
staff.  Gradually,  as  the  rivalries  of  foreign  Powers  were 
adjusted  and  frontiers  fixed,  these  territories — ^including  the 
protected  State  of  Zanzibar,  but  not  the  Egyptian  Sudan — 
were  transferred  to  the  charge  of  the  Colonial  Office. 

British  and  Khedival  Governments),  but  he  is  under  no  obhgation  to  attend  to 
their  advice."  Such  was  the  origin  of  rule  in  the  Sudan— in  striking  contrast  to 
the  orthodox  regime  which  the  Colonial  Office  endeavoured  to  impose  from  the 
very  earliest  days  of  its  administration,  in  those  parts  of  Africa  for  which  it  was 
responsible. 


32 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   STATUS  AND   CONDITIONS   OF   THE   BRITISH  TEOPICS. 

Meaning  of  terms — The  sphere  of  influence — Protectorates — In  India — 
In  Africa — Status  of  the  people — Crown  colonies — Suggested  modifi- 
cation of  status — Registration  of  British  subjects — Tropics  misnamed 
"  colonies  " — Self-governing  colonies — Colonies  on  tropical  plateaux — 
Asiatic  colonisation — Contrast  of  temperate  and  tropical  development 
— Value  of  tropical  products — Area  and  population  of  British  tropical 
Africa— The  example  of  India. 

The  "  sphere  of  influence  "  had  served  its  purpose,  and  the 
tropical  African  dependencies  have  now  become  "  protec- 
torates "  and  "  Crown  colonies."  It  is  essential  to  an  under- 
standiug  of  the  evolution  of  these  territories  that  we  should 
have  some  clear  conception  of  what  these  terms  connote. 

The  sphere  of  influence,  as  we  have  seen  from  the  circum- 
stances in  which  it  origLaated,  "  is  a  term  to  which  no  very 
definite  meaning  is  attached.  ...  It  represents  an  under- 
standing which  enables  a  State  to  reserve  to  itseLE  a  right  of 
excluding  other  European  Powers  from  territories  that  are 
of  importance  to  it  politically  or  strategically.  .  .  .  Ifo  juris- 
diction is  assimied,  no  internal  or  external  sovereign  power 
is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  tribal  chiefs,"  says  Hall.'^ 
While  foreign  interference  would  be  regarded  as  an  ujofriendly 
act,  it  is  understood  that  "  within  a  reasonable  time  a  more 
solid  form  wiU  be  imparted  to  the  civilised  authority."  Juris- 
diction is  limited  to  British  subjects,  and  would  be  exercised 
over  foreigners  only  with  their  own  consent,  or  that  of  their 
State,  and  over  natives  as  a  result  of  treaties. 

"  Protectorates  "  are  difficult  to  define,  but  in  aU  cases  the 

'  See  Hall's  '  Foreign  Jurisdiction  of  the  British  Crown,'  on  which  these  para- 
graphs are  based,  pp.  228-234.  Sir  C.  Ilbert  similarly  describes  it,  '  Government 
of  India,  'p.  431,  note. 


PROTECTORATES   IN   INDIA   AND   AFRICA.  33 

protected  State  has  parted  with  its  freedom  of  action  in  foreign 
affairs.  The  control  exercised  over  the  protected  native 
States  of  India  varies  according  to  their  standing.  The 
Mzam  of  Hydrabad,  who  rules  over  83,000  square  mUes  and 
a  population  of  eleven  miUions,  imposes  taxes,  coins  money, 
inflicts  capital  punishment  without  appeal,  and  maintains  a 
powerful  contingent  of  troops  ;  while  Kathiwar,  the  lord  of 
a  few  acres,  exercises  only  a  shadow  of  judicial  authority, 
but  is  exempt  from  British  taxation.^ 

Generally  speaking,  the  Government  of  India  controls  the 
relations  of  the  States  towards  each  other,  and  since  it  guar- 
antees a  ruler  against  dethronement  by  his  subjects,  it  accepts 
a  limited  responsibility  for  preventing  misrule,  as  well  as  for 
the  safety  of  British  subjects  and  aliens.  To  ensure  justice 
to  these  it  may  enforce  extra-territorial  jurisdiction.  Land 
may  be  required  for  railways,  and  co-operation  is  expected 
against  external  aggression.  To  give  effect  to  these  obliga- 
tions a  Eesident  is  appointed  to  the  Court  of  the  native 
ruler.  His  influence  in  a  minor  State,  or  over  a  weak  or 
vicious  ruler,  may  be  very  considerable.  ^ 

The  African  protectorates  were  for  the  most  part  declared 
over  uncivilised  territories,  in  which  (since  the  native  Govern- 
ments were  incapable  of  maintaining  law  and  order)  there  were 
instituted  courts  of  law  and  poHce  for  the  benefit  of  both 
Europeans  and  natives.  With  some  exceptions,  therefore,  such 
as  Egypt  and  Zanzibar,  they  bear  little  resemblance  to  the 
protected  States  of  India,  though,  as  we  shall  see,  the  method 
of  rule  in  the  Moslem  States  of  Nigeria  has  some  analogies. 

Great  Britain  for  long  held  the  view  that  the  declaration 
of  a  protectorate  conferred  no  power  or  obligation  except 
towards  British  subjects,  but  it  was  evident  that  aU  the  other 
signatories  of  the  BerUn  Act  maintained  that  it  conferred 
jurisdiction  over  the  subjects  of  other  civilised  States  as  well 
as  over  the  natives.  The  Act  contemplated,  and  indeed 
prescribed  (Arts.  30-32),  extensive  assumption  of  internal 
sovereignty  by  the  protecting  Power.  It  is  true  that  the  Act 
had  reference  to  coast  protectorates  only,  but,  as  Hall  re- 
marks, since  these  differ  from  interior  protectorates  only  in 
that  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  effective  jurisdiction  in  the 
latter  is  greater,  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  powers  were 
not  restricted  to  coast  protectorates. 

1  Ilbert,  p.  204.  ^  Ilbert,  pp.  142-146,  &c. 

C 


34      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OP   THE   BRITISH   TROPICS. 

The  Brussels  Act  carried  these  principles  further,  and  en- 
joined progressive  administration  and  judicial  organisation — 
terms  which  amount  to  the  recognition,  as  a  principle  of 
iQtemational  law,  that  ia  an  unciviHsed  country  the  protect- 
ing Power  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  estabUshing  adminis- 
trative and  judicial  institutions.  The  British  attitude,  based 
on  the  exploded  theory  of  the  indivisibility  of  sovereignty, 
continued  to  be  held  tenaciously,  even  though,  as  we  have 
seen  (p.  13),  Lord  SaUsbury  had  in  1887  clearly  accepted  the 
other  view.  In  Zanzibar,  therefore,  jurisdiction  was  based  on 
treaty,^  and  there  and  in  Somaliland  foreigners  were  only 
amenable  by  consent.  The  African  Order  in  Council  1889, 
by  which  jurisdiction  was  assumed  over  foreigners  and  natives 
in  those  protectorates  to  which  it  was  applied,  was  supple- 
mented by  the  South  African  Order  of  1891,  and  the  Pacific 
Order  of  1893,  which  asserts  jurisdiction  over  both  classes, 
irrespective  of  consent.  The  principles  of  the  latter  were 
applied  to  regions  contiguous  to  the  Gold  Coast,  to  which 
neither  the  African  Order  nor  the  Berlin  Act  were  applicable. 
The  Matabeleland  Order  went  even  further.  Already  the 
South  African  Charter  had  conferred  complete  jurisdiction, 
and  the  High  Commissioner  of  South  Africa  was  similarly 
empowered  in  regard  to  the  protectorates  under  his  con- 
trol. The  Eoyal  Mger  Company  also  exercised  a  like 
jurisdiction,  based  so  far  as  the  natives  were  concerned  on 
treaties. 

However  complicated  and  unnecessary  this  multiplicity  of 
Instruments  may  seem  to  a  layman,  it  is  clear  that  at  the 
time  when  Hall  wrote  (1894),  and  still  more  when  Ilbert 
published  his  book  (1898),  Great  Britain  had  finally  accepted 
the  view  that  "  exercise  of  jurisdiction  over  aU  persons  within 
a  protected  country  is  necessary,  where  native  administrative 
and  judicial  organisation  is  inadequate,"  both  on  behalf  of 
foreigners  who  are  deprived  of  the  protection  of  their  own 

^  Even  as  late  as  October  1907  it  was  considered  necessary  for  the  Sultan  of 
AVitu,  whose  petty  state  "  forms  part  of  the  territories  known  as  the  British  East 
African  Protectorate,"  to  announce  by  proclamation  that  the  laws  of  British 
East  Africa  applied  to  and  were  in  force  in  his  territory.  The  administration 
of  the  Zanzibar  Protectorate  was  transferred  from  the  Foreign  to  the  Colonial 
Office  in  April  1914,  and  an  Advisory  Council,  without  legislative  power,  to  be 
convened  at  the  discretion  of  the  British  Resident,  with  four  official  and  three 
unofficial  members,  was  set  up,  with  the  Sultan  as  president.  The  High  Com- 
missioner was  hardly  justified  in  describing  this  as  "complete  autonomy  and 
independence." — Zanzibar  Report,  1914,  Cd.  7622  of  1915,  pp.  28,  29. 


STATUS   OF   THE   NATIVES   OF  A  PEOTECTOEATE.  35 

State,  and  on  behalf  of  natives  against  foreigners.^  Such 
powers  are,  "  so  far  as  they  go,  identical  with  those  which 
the  Crown  would  have  in  a  conquered  country.  ...  It  can 
prescribe  laws  until  Parliament  chooses  to  legislate.  It  can 
subject  to  its  administration  aU  persons  upon  the  protected 
soil."  2 

We  arrive,  then,  at  the  general  conclusion  that  "  for  pur- 
poses of  municipal  law  an  African  Protectorate  is  not,  but 
for  purposes  of  international  law  must  be  treated  as  if  it 
were,  a  part  of  British  dominions."  ' 

In  some  cases  a  community  whose  independence  had  been 
specifically  recognised  by  treaty — as,  for  instance,  the  Egbas 
in  Southern  Nigeria — ^were  nevertheless  included  in  a  protec- 
torate— a  contradiction  of  terms  which  involved  so  many 
anomalies  that  the  treaty  was  denounced  at  last  by  mutual 
consent.* 

Thus  the  term  "  protectorate  "  gradually  changed  its  mean- 
ing from  that  of  a  pact  with  the  ruler  of  a  State,  which 
maintained  its  internal  but  not  its  external  sovereignty,  to 
a  declaration  of  the  territorial  status  of  a  region  included  in 
the  Empire,  in  which  not  only  the  external,  but  in  varying 
degrees  the  internal  sovereignty  also,  had  passed  to  the 
controlling  Power,  in  many  cases  (since  unexplored  regions 
were  included)  without  even  the  "  treaty  "  consent  of  the 
people.  Powers  of  administration  coequal  with  those  of  a 
colony  have  been  assumed. 

The  inhabitants  of  a  British  protectorate  are  styled  "  British 

1  libert,  p.  433.     Hall,  p.  219, 

^  Hall,  p.  225.  Sir  S.  Olivier  writes  :  "  Effective  occupation  and  the  capacity 
to  enforce  the  law  of  the  sovereign  power  are  a  recognised  condition  of  the  right 
to  assert  sovereignty. " — 'Contemp.  Review,' Jan.  1919. 

'  Ilbert,  p.  431. 

■*  International  conventions  relative  to  firearms  and  spirits  were  made  appli- 
cable to  African  protectorates  by  the  Crown.  The  convention  enforcing  the 
protection  of  wild  animals,  however,  did  not  deal  with  imported  articles,  in  the 
interests  of  the  natives  themselves,  but  curtailed  rights  hardly  less  jealously 
cherished  than  rights  in  land.  Extra-territorial  jurisdiction  may  be  justified  on 
behalf  of  foreigners,  but  the  claim  to  exercise  it  on  behalf  of  wild  animals,  birds, 
and  fishes,  and  to  make  it  an  offence  to  kill  an  elephant  though  destroying  crops, 
is  an  assumption  of  internal  sovereignty  hardly  compatible  with  "independence." 
On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  suggested  on  high  authority  that  the  inde- 
pendence recognised  by  the  treaty  was  only  intended  to  mean  "independence 
from  other  native  control, "  and  was  in  effect  construed  in  that  way.  Prior  to 
amalgamation  in  Nigeria  I  found  that  "  neither  the  Colonial  Office  nor  the  Chief 
Justice  had  any  clear  idea  as  to  what  jurisdiction  the  Crown  could  legally  exercise, 
or  what  executive  powers  were  under  the  treaties  vested  in  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment" in  the  Lagos  Protectorate. — Cmd.  468,  1920,  sect.  17. 


36      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OF   THE  BRITISH   TROPICS. 

protected  persons,"  and  do  not  enjoy  the  status  of  British 
subjects,  although,  as  HaU  points  out,i  the  term  "British 
subject  "  is  defined  in  the  African  Order  1889  as  "  including 
aU  persons  enjoying  His  Majesty's  protection."  The  "  natives," 
however,  are  separately  defined  as  "the  subjects  of  any 
country  within  the  Umits  of  this  Order  not  being  British  sub- 
jects." The  wording  is  therefore  ambiguous,  but  in  practice 
the  natives  of  a  protectorate,  who  do  not  already  enjoy  the 
status  of  British  subjects,  have  apparently  no  rights  or  privi- 
leges either  within  or  beyond  the  limits  of  the  protectorate. 
A  "  British  protected  "  SomaU  complains  in  the  '  Times  '  that 
although  his  people  have  been  called  on  to  fight  for  the 
Empire,  they  are  ineUgible  for  the  Merchant  Service  because 
they  are  not  British  subjects.^ 

A  Crown  colony  is  annexed  territory,  and  an  integral  part 
of  the  Bang's  dominions,  acquired  either  by  conquest,  settle- 
ment, or  cession,^  and  since  aU  persons  born  in  it  have  the 
status  of  British  subjects,  herein  appeared  to  reside  the  chief 
distinction  between  it  and  a  protectorate.  The  injustice  of 
such  a  distinction  may  be  seen,  for  example,  in  the  case  of 
the  Lagos  Colony,  whose  boundaries  had  never  been  defined, 
and  were  unknown  to  the  judicial  officers  until  the  amalgama- 
tion of  1st  January  1914.  They  intersect  tribes,  and  include 
many  who  are  still  in  the  very  lowest  stage  of  primitive 
savagery. 

1  Hall,  p.  128. 

^  'Times,'  7th  August  1920.  Subjects  of  the  Indian  native  states  are  not 
British  subjects. — Ilbert,  pp.  436-457.  The  judge  of  the  High  Court  of  Mombasa 
defined  the  status  of  a  protectorate  "  which  has  never  been  acquired  by  settle- 
ment, or  ceded  to,  or  conquered,  or  annexed  by  His  Majesty,  or  recognised  by 
His  Majesty  as  part  of  his  dominions,"  and  the  status  of  the  native  inhabitants, 
in  the  following  terms,  relying  on  the  oasa  of  the  King  v.  the  Earl  of  Crewe 
(2  K.B.,  1900,  p.  577) :  "  East  Africa,  being  a  protectorate  in  which  the  Crown 
has  jurisdiction,  is  in  relation  to  the  Crown  a  foreign  country  under  its  pro- 
tection, and  its  native  inhabitants  are  not  subjects  owing  allegiance  to  the  Crown, 
but  protected  foreigners,  who,  in  return  for  that  protection,  owe  obedience." 
— Cd.  6939  of  1913,  p.  5. 

'  Taring,  'Law  Relating  to  the  Colonies,'  p.  3.  The  Governor  of  the  Gold 
Coast  observed  in  a  message  to  Council  that  "  the  colony  was  what  it  always  had 
been,  a  collection  of  little  states,  each  of  which  is  self-contained  and  entirely 
independent  of  its  neighbours,"  and  adds  that  in  none  of  the  treaties  or  agree- 
ments with  the  British  Government  was  any  cession  of  territory  made  or 
contemplated.  Yet  the  '  Colonial  Office  List '  states  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
Gold  Coast  was  acquired  by  cession  (1921,  p.  Ixii.).  If  before  annexation  it  was 
difficult  to  say  which  part  was  colony  and  which  protectorate,  it  seems  equally 
difficult  to  say  now  on  what  basis  it  was  declared  a  colony,  and  how  its  status 
has  been  affected  by  the  change. 


CROWN  COLONIES.  37 

On  the  creation  of  tlie  Kenya  Colony,  the  '  Times  '  corre- 
spondent informed  us  that  "  the  white  settlers  are  in  a  better 
position  than  as  dwellers  in  a  protectorate,"  but  fails  to 
explaia  in  what  way.^  To  say  that  the  native  laws  and 
customs  may  be  usefully  retained  in  a  protectorate  as  opposed 
to  a  colony,  is  to  ignore  the  fact  that  in  old-estabUshed 
colonies  in  West  Africa  the  Supreme  Court  Ordinance  enacts 
that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  any  existiug 
native  law  or  custom  which  is  not  repugnant  to  natural 
justice.  The  grant  of  Crown  colony  status  does  not  in  itself 
"  give  the  settlers  a  fuller  voice  ia  the  control  of  public 
affairs  "  than  they  already  possessed  ia  the  Legislative  Coimcil 
of  the  protectorate,  the  constitution  of  which  does  not  depend 
on  the  status  of  the  country. 

The  Governor,  when  announcing  the  change,  stated  that 
the  chief  result  would  be  to  enable  the  raisiag  of  a  loan. 
Nigeria,  when  raising  a  loan  with  the  revenue  of  the  protec- 
torate as  security,  was  only  permitted  to  do  so  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  small  colony  of  Lagos,  where  only  a 
microscopic  fraction  of  the  revenue  originated.  But  what 
are  the  grounds  for  this  official  limitation  ?  The  adminis- 
tration of  the  protectorate,  and  the  security  it  offers,  differ 
in  no  way  from  those  of  the  colony.  The  tenure  of  British 
rule  is  as  secure  ia  the  one  as  in  the  other. 

It  was  at  one  time  understood  that  the  institution  of 
slavery  could  not  exist  ia  a  colony,  as  beiag  part  of  the 
King's  dominions,  though  it  might  be  tolerated  in  a  protec- 
torate, which  is  not  a  "  possession,"  and  forms,  as  Ilbert 
expresses  it,  "a  convenient  half-way  house  between  annexa- 
tion and  complete  abstiaence  from  iaterference."  That 
wholesome  distinction  has,  however,  been  swept  away  by 
recent  annexations,  and  indeed  domestic  slavery  still  exists 
in  the  Gold  Coast  Colony,  the  slaves  being  owned  presumably 
by  British  subjects,  though  not  under  Mohamedan  law.  Sir 
C.  Ilbert  thought  the  liae  of  demarcation  between  a  colony 
and  a  protectorate  "very  thia."  It  has  become  attenuated 
almost  to  invisibility  since  he  wrote. 

Formerly  colonies  possessed  Legislative  and  Executive 
Councils,  while  a  protectorate  had  neither ;  but  here  again 
the  distinction  has  become  obliterated.  Gibraltar  and  St 
Helena   (both  Crown   colonies)  and  also  Ashanti  (which  is 

1  '  Times,'  9th  July  1920. 


38      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OP  THE  BRITISH  TROPICS. 

annexed  territory)  have  none,  while  Cyprus,  before  it  became 
a  colony,  had  a  Legislative  CouncU  of  an  advanced  type — 
partly  elected  and  with  an  unofficial  majority, — and  East 
Africa,  while  still  a  protectorate,  had,  and  ISTyasaland  has, 
one  of  the  ordinary  type.^  In  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Gambia 
(as  formerly  in  Southern  Mgeria)  the  Council  of  the  colony 
legislates  for  the  protectorate. 

The  official  distinction  between  colonies  and  protectorates 
led  for  a  time  to  the  adoption  of  such  meticulous  devices  as 
the  calling  the  oificer  admioistering  the  government  of  the 
former  a  "Governor,"  and  of  the  latter  a  "High  Commis- 
sioner," while  the  laws  of  the  one  were  styled  "  Ordinances  " 
and  of  the  other  "  Proclamations,"  but  these  confusing  differ- 
ences have  already  disappeared. 

The  distinction  between  the  two  is  now  without  practical 
difference,  nor  is  there  any  apparent  good  reason  why  in 
Africa  protectorates  should  not  be  accorded  the  status  of 
possessions  of  the  Crown,  or  why  jurisdiction  and  the  right  of 
administration  should  not  be  based  on  the  same  prerogative 
as  in  a  colony.  The  moment  at  which  the  civilised  Powers 
of  the  world  have  asserted  the  unequivocal  right  and  obliga- 
tion of  the  more  advanced  races  to  assume  responsibility  for 
the  backward  races  seems  an  appropriate  one  to  brush  aside 
these  archaic  and  anomalous  distinctions,  and  to  abandon 
the  farce  of  "  acquiring  "  jurisdiction  by  treaties  not  under- 
stood by  their  signatories,  and  foreign  to  their  modes  of 
thought.  The  time  would  seem  to  be  ripe  to  declare  the 
annexation  of  the  British  African  protectorates,  and  to  merge 
them,  including  the  JSTile  Sudan,^  with  the  Crown  colonies, 

1  Taring,  he.  cit.,  pp.  60-61,  and  '  Colonial  Office  List '  Regulations,  chapter  i. 

2  The  British  and  Egj'ptian  flags  at  present  fly  side  by  side  in  the  Anglo- 
Egyptian  Sudan.  This  territory,  won  originally  by  conquest,  chiefly  by  Gordon, 
was  lost  to  Egypt  by  the  Mahdist  revolt,  and  Mr  Hardinge,  on  behalf  of  the 
Egyptian  Government,  wrote  that  it  "declined  any  responsibility  with  regard  to 
the  natives  of  those  provinces  which  it  has  abandoned." — Desp.  of  7/8/92.  The 
demoralised  Egyptian  troops,  who  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  slaughtered  like 
sheep  at  Suakim,  in  spite  of  the  leadership  of  Sir  Valentine  Baker,  and  who  dare 
not  face  the  Dervishes,  were  reorganised  by  Kitchener,  and  some  of  them  were 
employed  in  the  reconquest  of  the  Sudan  ;  but  it  was  British  valour  and  British 
money  which  saved  Egypt  from  being  overrun  by  the  Dervish  hordes,  and 
eventually  overthrew  the  Mahdi.  No  impartial  judge  could  maintain  that  Britain 
owes  any  debt  to  Egypt  on  behalf  of  the  Sudan— it  is  Egypt  which  owes  her 
salvation  to  the  defence  of  her  frontiers  by  British  bayonets  in  the  critical  years 
of  1884-85.  There  is,  however,  a  nominal  claim,  I  believe,  for  about  £10,000,000 
for  advances  before  the  Sudan  became  self-supporting  in  1912— from  which  must 
be  deducted  the  customs,  &o.,  retained  by  Egypt.— (Foreign  Office  Handbook  98 


EEGISTEATION   OF  BRITISH   SUBJECTS.  39 

under  some  designation  more  appropriate  than  the  term 
"  colonies,"  accepting  for  all  alike  an  obligation  before  civilisa- 
tion to  promote  their  progress  and  weLEare,  and  confirming 
to  each  according  to  its  degree  of  advancement,  and  in  fulfil- 
ment of  all  existing  pledges,  its  present  form  of  government. 

From  what  I  have  said  in  a  previous  paragraph  regarding 
the  ambiguity  of  the  status  of  the  natives  of  a  protectorate, 
it  wiU,  I  think,  be  agreed  that  this  question  need  form  no 
obstacle  to  the  course  proposed.  In  the  British  African 
tropics  it  is  only  the  educated  class  who  would  set  any  value 
on  the  status  of  a  British  subject.  It  should,  I  suggest,  be 
made  obligatory  by  Order  in  Council  upon  every  person 
claiming  or  desiring  to  be  a  British  subject  to  register  his 
name  within  a  prescribed  period.  The  status  would  not  be 
denied  to  any  persons  who  now  enjoy  it,  or  to  others  whom 
the  competent  authority  considered  qualified.  Failure  to 
register  would,  of  course,  leave  a  native  in  the  same  position 
as  at  present,  but  any  person  born  after  the  date  of  the 
Order,  whose  father  was  not  registered,  would  by  the  terms 
of  the  Order  cease  to  enjoy  the  status  of  a  British  subject, 
and  thus  persons  still  in  a  condition  of  savagery  would  in 
course  of  time  cease  to  possess  it  automatically  from  the  mere 
accident  of  birth  in  a  colony.  On  the  other  hand,  registra- 
tion would  not,  of  course,  deprive  a  native  of  the  benefit  of 
the  clauses  in  the  Supreme  Court  Ordinance  relating  to  the 
application  of  native  law  and  custom.  Eegistered  British 
subjects  would  not  be  allowed  to  own  slaves. 

Such  a  system  of  registration  of  British  subjects,  as  a 
means  of  identification,  is  provided  for  in  Eastern  countries.^ 
Failure  to  register  entails  liability  to  non-recognition  as  a 
British  subject,  and  to  refusal  of  protection  (the  onus  of  proof 
resting  on  the  claimant),  but  there  is  no  co-relative  immunity 
from  the  consequences  of  illegal  acts,  since  even  though  un- 
registered he  cannot  divest  himself  of  h^s  nationality.  In  the 
African  tropics,  however,  unregistered  persons  would  eventu- 
ally cease  to  have  the  legal  status  of  subjects.  They  would 
remain  protected  persons,  whose  rights  as  such  would  be 

p.  158.)  Thia  claim  might  be  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Judicial  Court  of 
the  League  of  Nations.  Our  protectorate  over  Egypt  haa  now  International 
sanction,  and  so  long  as  the  Nile  Sudan  is  under  the  control  of  an  identical 
suzerain,  or  even  in  the  event  of  her  complete  independence,  Egypt  can  have  no 
fear  lest  her  essential  interests  should  be  neglected. 
'  Hall,  p.  l!i9. 


40      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OF   THE  BRITISH  TROPICS. 

clearly  defined  in  the  Order.  This  principle  has  been  adopted 
by  the  French,  who  aUow  natives  of  proved  loyalty  and  good 
character,  who  can  speak  French,  and  have  means  of  their 
own,  to  acquire  the  status  of  French  citizens,  with  all  the 
privileges  of  Europeans.^ 

The  term  "  colony,"  as  I  observed,  is  as  inappropriate  in 
the  tropics  as  that  of  "  protectorate  "  is  vague  and  indefinite. 
It  originated  in  the  idea — which,  strange  to  say,  was  at  one 
time  common  to  all  the  nations  of  Europe — that  the  tropics 
were  colonisable  by  the  white  races.  That  was  the  conception 
which  prompted  France  after  her  reverses  in  Europe  in  1871 
to  endeavour  to  create  a  greater  France  in  Africa,^  and  caused 
Portugal  to  ofier  free  domains  (prazos)  with  the  title  of 
"  Donna  "  to  Portuguese  women  who  would  settle  in  Africa. 
It  was  this  belief  which  caused  England,  according  to  Sir  John 
Keltic,  to  send  out  a  number  of  women  of  indifferent  reputa- 
tion to  the  freed  negro  settlement  in  Sierra  Leone,  together 
with  a  mmiber  of  English,  Dutch,  and  Swedish  colonists.^ 
That  the  belief  is  still  held  in  Germany  we  learn  from  Zimmer- 
man, himseU:  an  extensive  traveller  in  the  German  tropical 
colonies,  who  argues  that  iU-health  is  not  due  to  climate  but 
to  alcoholic  excess,  which  the  presence  of  white  women  would 
restrain.* 

l<ro  thoughtful  man  contemplating  the  incredible  triumphs 
of  modern  medical  science  would  presume  to  assert  that  the 
problem  of  tropical  colonisation  is  insoluble ;  but  Great  Britain, 
with  the  attractions  offered  to  her  surplus  population  in  the 
Dominions,  need  never  look  for  homesteads  in  the  low-lying 
tropics  of  Africa. 

The  true  colonies  situated  in  the  temperate  zone,  and 
possessing  responsible  government,  are  five  in  number,  and 
have  within  recent  years  been  christened  "Dominions." 
They  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  subject  of  this  book,  but  a 
very  brief  word  regarding  them  may  not  be  out  of  place. 
The  terms  of  their  admission  to  the  Peace  Conference  has 
involved  the  recognition,  not  by  Great  Britain  alone,  but  by 
the  whole  civilised  world,  of  their  status  as  nations,  and 
when  revising  the  nomenclature  of  the  component  parts  of 
the  Empire  they  might  well  be  caUed  the  "  United  N"ations 

1  Decree  of  25/5/1915  and  Arrete  of  29/10/1912,  F.  0.   Handbook,  No.   100, 
1920,  p.  13. 
^  '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  Kidd,  jjp.  28,  29. 
'  Keltic,  'Partition  of  Africa,'  p.  78. 
*  '  The  German  Empire  of  Central  Africa,'  p.  78. 


COLONIES  ON  TROPICAL  PLATEAUX.  41 

of  Great  Britain."  The  change  in  their  status  is  no  mere 
matter  of  sentiment.  Hitherto  the  Imperial  ParHament  has 
claimed  the  right  to  control  their  foreign  relations,  and  to 
make  treaties  on  their  behalf.  Now  they  claim,  and  the 
Mother  Country  admits  their  right,  to  have  a  voice  in  Britain's 
foreign  relations  and  treaties,  which  may  iavolve  the  Empire 
in  war.  The  United  Kingdom,  by  virtue  of  her  tradition, 
her  population,  her  wealth,  her  navy  and  army,  must  be  the 
predominant  partner,  but  claims  only  to  be  prima  inter 
pares.  When  granting  responsible  government  to  the  Cape 
and  ZsTatal,  the  Mother  Country  recognised  her  special  respon- 
sibility as  trustee  for  the  welfare  of  the  native  races,  and 
certain  large  tribal  units  were  placed  outside  the  jurisdiction 
of  these  Dominions.  Over  these  the  Governor  of  the  Cape 
assumed  the  title  of  "  High  Commissioner,"  and  the  Governor 
of  Natal  that  of  "  Paramount  Chief." 

Emphasis  has  been  laid  on  the  fact  that  the  tropical  de- 
pendencies in  Africa  cannot  be  colonised  by  British  emigrants. 
Against  this  dictum  the  British  settlements  on  the  plateaux 
of  East  Africa,  and  the  German  colonies  on  the  slopes  of 
Kilimanjaro  and  the  Camerun  Mountain,  hke  those  in  the 
Himalayas  or  the  Nilgherries  in  India,  and  those  in  Ceylon, 
may  be  quoted.  Here  the  altitude  creates  a  sub-tropical  or 
even  a  temperate  climate,  apparently  well  suited  to  the  white 
races.  It  has  not  yet,  however,  been  conclusively  established 
that  European  children  can  grow  to  maturity  in  such  con- 
ditions, and  many  consider  that  the  altitude  which  creates  the 
climate  induces  a  tendency  to  nervous  excitement  and  tension.^ 
However  this  may  be,  the  conditions  of  such  colonies,  owing 
to  their  close  proximity  to  the  tropics,  differ  very  radically 
from  those  of  a  true  colony.  The  presence  of  an  indigenous 
native  population,  which  is  available  for  the  imskilled  and 
menial  work,  militates  against  true  colonial  development. 
The  agricultural  immigrant,  instead  of  tUHng  his  own  fields, 
becomes  the  supervisor  of  native  labour,  and  is  apt  to  look 
on  manual  work  as  derogatory  to  his  position. ^    "  All  of  them," 

1  See  '  Official  Handbook  of  Kenya,'  I.D.  1216,  p.  321. 

^  Sir  Sidney  Olivier  expresses  the  view  that  "  such  settlements  in  Africa  pro- 
duce (as  they  have  done  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries)  first,  slavery,  predial  or 
domestic  ;  second,  compulsory  or  indentured  labour ;  third,  the  expropriation  of 
the  natives  from  the  land  in  order  to  compel  them  to  work  for  wages  on  the 
estates ;  fourth,  pressure  on  the  natives  to  labour  for  wages  through  direct  or. 
indirect  taxation, — each  of  which  has  in  turn  given  rise  to  reactions  of  the 
humanitarian  conscience." — 'Contemp.  Review,'  Jan.  1919. 


42      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OF  THE   BRITISH  TROPICS. 

say  the  bishops  in  their  memorandum,  "  depend  for  their 
very  existence  as  farmers  on  native  labour."  ^  Where  Euro- 
pean enterprise  depends  for  its  success — and  the  greater  the 
success  the  greater  the  demand — not  on  the  sole  efforts  of 
the  colonists,  not  on  climate  and  soil,  but  on  the  labour  of 
a  subject  race,  the  elements  of  true  colonisation  are  absent. 
With  this  aspect  of  the  subject  I  shall  deal  in  the  chapter  on 
labour. 

White  and  coloured  labour  have  not  learned  to  work  side 
by  side  on  equal  terms  in  our  dependBncies,  and  the  attempt 
has  hitherto  resulted  in  the  demoralisation  of  both.^  It  is 
essential  to  remember  that  whereas  the  settlers  in  the  Ameri- 
can colonies,  ia  Canada,  and  in  Australasia,  found  the  in- 
digenous races  (with  the  exception  of  the  Maoris)  sparse, 
decadent,  and  rapidly  tending  to  extinction,  the  settlers  in 
Africa  encounter  a  race,  virile,  iacreasing,  and  racially 
potent. 

While  climate,  except  at  the  higher  altitudes,  and  the 
difficulties  of  labour  supply,  operate  to  some  extent  as  de- 
terrents to  unrestricted  white  colonisation,  they  are  not 
deterrent  to  colonisation  by  Asiatics.  The  claims  of  Indian 
British  subjects  to  equal  facilities  with  Europeans  in  this 
regard,  has  of  late  become  a  matter  of  acute  contro- 
versy, which  I  shall  discuss  at  some  length  in  a  later 
chapter. 

Turning  from  the  questions  of  poUtical  status,  and  of 
different  types  of  colonisation  and  settlement,  let  us  consider 
for  a  moment  what  is  the  justification  of  the  assertion  that 
the  custodian  of  these  regions  becomes  a  trustee  for  their 
development  on  behalf  of  civUisation. 

In  the  temperate  zones  the  surplus  population  of  the  white 
races  can  find  new  homes,  create  new  wealth,  and  elaborate 
new  forms  of  government,  looking  in  their  earlier  years  to 
the  parent  State  for  protection  against  foreign  aggression, 
and  later  becomiag  sister  nations.  Such  colonies  as  Canada 
and  Austraha,  by  reason  of  their  vast  area  of  productive  land, 
are  able  to   export  great   quantities   of  surplus   produce — 

'  Cmd.  873  of  1920,  p.  8. 

2  It  is  reported  that  in  Alabama,  in  the  Southern  States,  "  white  and  black 
men  work  side  by  side  in  the  mines,  in  the  same  gangs,  and  for  the  same  pay  " 
('Times,'  1st  June  1921),  a  statement  in  startling  contrast  to  the  frequent 
descriptions  of  lynchings  of  negroes  in  the  Southern  States, 


THE   VALtTE   OF   TROPICAL  PRODUCTS.  43 

cereals,  meat,  fruit,  hides,  and  wool,  as  well  as  miaerals — to 
supplement  the  insufficient  output  of  the  congested  countries 
of  Europe,  and  in  the  earUer  years  of  their  development 
are  eager  to  exchange  these  for  the  manufactures  of  the 
parent  country.  Since  some  of  them  Ue  south  and  some 
north  of  the  Equator,  they  are  able — thanks  to  rapid  ocean 
transport — to  interchange  their  summer  produce  without 
competing  with  each  other's  markets.  The  exports  of  the 
temperate  colonies  are,  however,  of  the  same  character, 
and  in  augmentation  only  of  those  produced  in  the  parent 
country,  while  their  demand  for  manufactured  goods  in  pay- 
ment is  likely  to  decrease  as  they  themselves  become  indus- 
trialised, and  less  dependent  on  the  skUl  and  the  machinery 
of  the  older  countries.  Unless  by  a  mutually  agreed 
system  of  preferential  tariffs  they  eventually  differ  little, 
from  the  economic  and  trade  point  of  view,  from  foreign 
countries. 

The  tropics,  on  the  other  hand,  consist  for  the  most  part 
of  regions  populated  by  backward  races.  Both  for  this  reason 
and  on  account  of  their  climate,  they  offer  no  inducement  for 
permanent  settlement  by  white  races.  The  backward  con- 
dition of  the  people,  and  their  preference  for  agricultural 
pursuits,  offer  the  prospect  of  continued  markets  for  manu- 
factured goods.  The  tropics  produce  in  abundance  a  class  of 
raw  materials  and  of  foodstuffs  which  cannot  be  grown  in 
the  temperate  zones,  and  are  so  vital  to  the  needs  of  civilised 
man  that  they  have  in  very  truth  become  essential  to  civilisa- 
tion. It  was  the  realisation  of  this  fact  (as  I  have  said) 
which  led  the  nations  of  Europe  to  compete  for  the  control 
of  the  African  tropics. 

Consider,  for  instance,  the  uses  of  vegetable  oils — ^palm- 
oil,  kernel-oil,  copra,  beniseed,  cotton-seed,  shea,  grotmd-nut, 
&c. — aU  of  which  come  from  the  tropics.  As  food,  soft  nut- 
oils  are  now,  by  a  process  of  hydrogenisation,  being  hardened, 
deodorised,  and  increasingly  used  as  margarine,  and  the  resi- 
dues as  cake  for  cattle  food.  Ground-nuts  supply  much  of 
the  "  oUve-oil  "  of  commerce.  As  raw  materials,  only  those 
who  have  an  expert  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  many 
various  manufactures  can  appreciate  how  essential  they  are 
to  many  of  our  staple  industries.  Palm-oU  is,  of  course, 
used  for  the  lubrication  of  rolling-stock  and  other  machinery, 
and  for  the  making  of  soap  ;  it  is  also  essential  for  the  rolling 


14      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OF   THE  BRITISH  TROPICS. 

of  tin-plates,  which  in  turn  are  required  for  all  "  tinned  " 
provisions,  roofing-sheets,  &c. 

The  uses  of  rubber  are  endless,  from  the  "  waterproofing  " 
of  cloth  to  the  making  of  tyres,  and  of  many  medical  appli- 
ances. The  number  of  hides  and  skins  supplied  by  the  tem- 
perate zones  would  be  wholly  inadequate  for  the  provision 
of  leather,  whether  for  boots  or  for  belting  for  machinery, 
&c.,  unless  they  were  largely  augmented  by  the  output  of 
the  tropics.  It  is  needless  to  poiat  to  the  necessity  for  raw 
cotton, — add  to  these  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  rice,  sago,  tobacco, 
sugar,  jute  and  other  fibres,  gums,  drugs,  dye-stuffs, 
and  hard-wood  timbers,  and  we  can  realise  how  inti- 
mately our  daily  life  is  dependent  on  the  produce  of  the 
tropics. 

This  subject  was  admirably  dealt  with  by  Mr  Kidd  in  1898.^ 
He  gives  the  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom  with  the  British 
tropics  in  1896  as  £102,000,000.  We  may  see  how  enormously 
the  dependence  of  the  civilised  world  on  the  tropics  has 
increased  since  then  by  a  comparison  of  the  trade  of  British 
tropical  Africa  (with  which  alone  I  am  here  concerned)  in 
the  years  1899  and  1919.  In  the  former  year  the  value  of 
the  imports  of  the  Western  Group  was  calculated  at  £3,390,758, 
and  the  exports  at  £3,347,297— a  total  trade  of  £6,738,055. 
The  imports  of  the  Eastern  Group  were  valued  in  that  year 
at  £2,600,000,  and  the  exports  at  £1,900,000 — a  total  trade 
of  £4,500,000,2  of  which  more  than  half  was  with  the  little 
island  of  Zanzibar.  The  value  of  the  combined  trade  of 
British  tropical  Africa — which  I  have  assumed  to  include  the 
regions  lying  between  the  southern  frontier  of  Egypt,  lat. 
22°  N.,  and  the  Zambesi,  lat.  16°  S.— thus  stood  at  £11,238,055 
in  1899.  Only  twenty  years  later  it  had  multiplied  itself 
more  than  6|  times,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  table 
— ^for  the  figures  of  which  (as  well  as  those  I  have  quoted 
for  1899)  I  am  indebted  to  the  statistical  branch  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  with  the  exception  of  those  in  italics  : — 

1  '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  p.  10. 

^  The  Board  of  Trade  return  indicates  that  the  value  of  the  imports  and 
exports  of  the  Sudan  and  Northern  Rhodesia  are  not  ascertainable  for  1899. 
The  former,  in  the  year  following  the  defeat  of  the  Khalifa,  may  be  regarded  as 
negligible  ;  for  the  latter  I  have  added  £41,094  and  £30,789  respectively  to  make 
round  figures. 


AREA,   POPTJLATION,   AND   TRADE   OF  BRITISH  TROPICS.      45 


1 

ftaj 

Trade  (exclusive  of  specie)  in  1919. 

Area(insci. 
miles). 

Population 
in  1919. 

^B 

fl" 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Total. 

head. 

The  Western 

Gnoup. 

& 

£ 

£. 

Nigeria  .     .     . 

336,481 

17,587,000 

5S-2 

10,766,580 

14,675,790 

25,442,370 

28J11 

Brit.  Cameruna 

31,150 

a650,000 

m-8 

Gold  Coast      . 

79,506 

61,501,793 

19-8 

7,lii,919 

10,779,444 

17,981,363 

2S8I3 

Brit.  Togoland 

al2,500 

$44,000 

Z7-5 

Sierra  Leone    . 

24,908 

1,.WO,000 

60-% 

2,047,.577 

2,047,577 

4,082,447 

6415 

The  Gambia    . 

4,132 

240,000 

68- 

1,229,924 

1,229,924 

2,403,916 

WO/S 

Totals    .     .     . 

488,677 

21,822,793 

U-6 

21,087,361 

28,732,735 

49,820,096 

4517 

The  Eastern 

Group. 

The  Sudan  (/) 

1,014,600 

4,000,000 

3-9 

4,930,874 

3,108,464 

8,039,338 

4012 

Somaliland  (e) 

68,000 

336,000 

4-y 

503,212 

231,011 

734,223 

S3/8 

Kenya  («)    .     . 
Uganda  (e) .     . 

248,800 
111,828 

2,627,103 
2,962,650 

10-5 
B6-4 

c4,4ol,905 

3,563,724 

8,015,629 

2818 

Zanzibar     .     . 

1,020 

196,733 

192-8 

1,905,175 

2,439,817 

4,344,992 

44m 

Tanganyika  (e) 

365,000 

04,000,000 

10-9 

dl,  737,641 

dl,994,016 

3,731,657 

1817 

Nyasaland  (e) . 

39,573 

1,203,758 

30-4 

591,505 

413,062 

1,004,567 

16/8 

N.  Rhodesia    , 
Totals    .     .     . 

291,000 

823,502 

2-8 

434,354 

454,366 

888,720 

21/7 

2,139,821 

16,149,626 

7-5 

14,554,666 

12,204,460 

26,759,126 

33/1 

Western  Group 

488,677 

21,822,793 

44-6 

21,087,361 

28,732,735 

49,820,096 

4517 

Eastern  Group 

2,139,821 

16,149,626 

7-5 

14,554,666 

12,204,460 

26,759,126 

33/1 

Grand  totals   . 

2,628,498 

37,972,419 

U-4 

35,642,027 

40,937,195 

76,579,222 

40/4 

{a)  Approximate ;  (6)  1911 ;  (c)  Excluding  a  very  small  quantity  of  bullion  ;  (d)  BllO 
to  £1  ;  (e)  Trade  figures  are  for  the  12  months  ending  March  1920  ;  (/)  £E1=£1,  Os.  6Jd. 

The  trade  statistics  are  somewhat  abnormal.  The  year  1919  was  still  affected  by  war 
conditions,  while  the  year  1920,  in  which  several  dependencies  show  enormous  increases 
(Nigeria  from  25J  millions  to  over  42  millions,  the  Gold  Coast  from  18  millions  to  27J 
millions),  was  affected  by  the  "boom"  and  the  succeeding  "slump."  Trade  has  not  yet 
stabilised  into  normal  conditions. 


This  Empire  in  the  African  tropics  is  nearly  two  and  a  half 
times  the  size  of  British  India,  and  nearly  half  as  large  again 
as  all  India,  including  the  N^ative  States,  and  nearly  twenty- 
two  times  the  area  of  the  United  Eangdom.^    Its  population, 

'  The  figures  are  :  British  India,  area  1,093,074  sq.  miles  ;  all  India,  1,802,629 
sq.  miles ;  population  respectively  244J  millions  and  315  millions.  Area  of 
United  Kingdom,  121,377  sq.  miles. 


46      THE   STATUS   AND   CONDITIONS   OP   THE  BRITISH  TROPICS. 

though  small  for  so  vast  an  area — about  14-4  to  the  square 
mile — is  double  the  density  of  French  tropical  Africa,  if  we 
exclude  the  Sahara,  or  nearly  treble  its  density  if  we  include 
it.^  Its  trade,  which  is  rapidly  expanding,  is  more  than  double 
that  of  India  per  head  of  population,  and  more  than  a  .quarter 
of  its  total  volume,  and  is  equal  per  head  to  that  of 
Japan. 2 

The  problems  of  British  tropical  Africa,  with  which  I  am 
concerned  in  this  volume,  have,  of  course,  much  in  common 
both  with  those  sub-tropical  regions  in  the  north  and  south 
of  the  continent,  which  are  peopled  by  a  large  indigenous 
African  population,  and  also  with  India,  the  greatest  of 
British  tropical  dependencies.  The  Government  of  India  has 
been  described  as  a  model  of  beneficent,  bureaucratic  rule. 
India's  ancient  civilisation  and  social  organisation,  based  on 
and  an  integral  part  of  its  religions,  and  the  culture  and  high 
intelligence  of  its  educated  classes,  all  combine  to  differentiate 
the  problems  of  its  vast  population  from  those  of  other 
tropical  regions  of  the  Empire.  ParUamentary  debates, 
national  congresses,  and  the  Press  have  made  them  almost  as 
familiar  to  us  as  our  own.  For  a  long  series  of  years  they 
have  been  handled  by  some  of  the  ablest  administrators  whom 
Britain  has  produced. 

Eecently  the  decision  has  been  taken  to  grant  to  India 
progressive  self-government  on  Western  models.  It  is  a  new 
departure  in  the  world's  history — ^for  Japan  lies  outside  the 
tropics — and  only  the  event  can  show  how  far  alien,  demo- 
cratic systems  are  adapted  to  the  government  of  tropical 
races.  But  apart  from  questions  such  as  these,  there  is  a 
large  range  of  subjects  common  alike  to  India  and  to  Africa, 
including  the  details  of  provincial  and  village  organisation, 
which  are  not  beyond  the  region  of  useful  discussion  and 
suggestion.     In  many  of  these  there  is  much  to  be  learned 

^  French  tropical  Africa  consists  of  "French  West  Africa"  (including Togo- 
land),  area  1,822,459  sq.  miles,  population,  11,969,377;  "French  Equatorial 
Africa"  (including  Cameruns),  area  1,037,131  sq.  miles,  population,  8,870,000; 
Somaliland,  area  5790  sq.  miles,  population,  206,000  ;  and  Sahara,  area  1,544,000 
sq.  miles ;  population,  800,000.  Total  area,  4,409,380  sq.  miles ;  population, 
21,840,377.  Density,  4-95.  Excluding  the  Sahara,  the  density  would  be  7-3 
to  the  sq.  mile. — 'Statesman's  Year-Book,'  pp.  887,  891,  and  895. 

^  Trade  of  all  India,  £287  millions— viz.,  18s.  per  head  ;  Japan,  40s.  ;  British 
tropical  Africa,  40e.  The  independent  States  which  have  the  lowest  in  the  world 
are  Abyssinia  6s.,  and  Liberia  4s.  per  head.  Both  are  countries  of  enormous 
natural  possibilities. — 'Whittaker's  Almanac.' 


THE   EXAMPLE   OF   INDIA,  47 

from  Indian  experience  in  spite  of  differences  in  social  evolu- 
tion, in  religion,  and  in  the  intelligence  of  her  people. 

In  the  sphere  of  material  development  India  is  no  longer 
solely  a  producer  of  raw  materials,  and  a  consumer  of  im- 
ported manufactured  goods,  for  her  factories,  manned  by 
the  cheap  labour  of  a  frugal  and  industrious  race,  now  not 
only  supply  a  great  part  of  her  own  needs,  but  compete 
successfully  with  the  manufactures  of  other  nations.  Ahke 
in  the  early  stages  of  iadustriaUsm,  as  in  the  methods  and 
results  of  research  and  experiment,  in  transport,  and  in 
labour-saving  devices,  the  results  of  India's  experience  should 
be  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  Africa. 

It  is  one  of  the  defects  of  our  system  of  State  departments 
that  the  invaluable  lessons  of  Indian  administration  and 
economic  progress — the  result  of  much  costly  experience  and 
research — and  the  history  of  its  successes  and  failures,  is  not 
more  readily  accessible  to  other  tropical  dependencies,  which 
are  emerging  from  the  stage  ia  which  India  was  many  years 
ago. 


4S 


CHAPTER  III. 

PRINCIPLES   GOVERNING   CONTROL  IN   THE   TROPICS. 

The  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts — Unavoidable  limitations  of  these  Acts- 
Effect  of  the  war  and  treaty  of  peace — The  convention  of  September 
1919 — Delays  and  misunderstandings  regarding  Mandates — The  power 
to  enforce  observance — Omissions  and  suggestions — {a)  Territorial 
boundaries  and  adjustments — (6)  Free  trade — (c)  Eevenue  not  to  be 
alienated — Amenability  of  officials  to  the  courts — -International  con- 
trol— Summary  of  conclusions  re  Mandates — Responsibility  to  subject 
races — Responsibility  of  suzerain  to  itself — French  economic  policy — 
British  economic  policy — Alleged  infringements  of  the  "open-door" 
policy — Contrast  of  French  and  British  policy — Reciprocal  obligations 
on  the  part  of  the  natives — Appendix,  Article  22  of  Covenant. 

The  principles  which  should  guide  the  controlling  Powers 
in  Africa  were  first  laid  down  with  international  sanction  in 
the  Berlin  Act  of  1885,  which,  in  the  words  of  Professor 
Keith,^  "  aimed  at  the  extension  of  the  benefits  of  civilisa- 
tion to  the  natives,  the  promotion  of  trade  and  navigation 
on  the  basis  of  perfect  equaUty  for  aU  nations,  and  the  pre- 
servation of  the  territories  affected  from  the  ravages  of  war." 
The  moral  obligations  towards  the  natives  were  dealt  with 
more  explicitly  and  amplified  by  the  Brussels  Act,  which 
came  into  operation  in  1892,  and  have  lately  received  a 
wider  and  more  practical  sanction  under  the  Treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles and  the  Convention  of  September  1919,  to  which  I 
shall  presently  refer  more  fully. 

The  Berlin  Act  was  apphcable  in  its  entirety  only  to  the 
"  conventional  basin  of  the  Congo,"  and  its  results  were 
largely  nuUifled  by  the  failure  to  provide  any  means  of  en- 
forcing its  terms.  Though  the  Congo  was  ostensibly  an 
"  international  State,"  the  signatory  Powers  could  not  inter- 

1  'Journal,'  African  Society,  July  1918. 


THE   BERLIN   AND   BRUSSELS   ACTS.  49 

vene,  without  grave  risk  of  international  friction,  when  the 
provisions  of  the  Act  as  regards  the  natives  were  set  at  naught, 
or  even  when  the  commercial  interests  of  the  subjects  of  any 
one  of  them  were  involved,  or  State  monopolies  contrary  to 
its  spirit  created.  Free  trade  was  suppressed  in  the  "  Congo 
Free  State,"  and  Prance  for  a  time  adopted  the  same  regime 
in  her  neighbouring  colonies, — a  situation  which  was  only 
partially  remedied  by  the  Anglo-French  Convention  of  1898, 
in  which  reciprocity  in  certain  British  and  French  territories 
— outside  the  conventional  basin  of  the  Congo — was  arranged 
for  a  period  of  thirty  years,  simultaneously  with  a  territorial 
adjustment  favourable  to  France.^ 

The  Berlin  Act  originated  in  the  desire  of  the  signatory 
Powers  to  set  up  an  international  free  State  in  the  Congo 
basin.  Some  of  its  articles  extended  to  the  existing  coast 
possessions  of  the  Powers,  but  it  was  feared  that  its  applica- 
tion in  its  entirety  to  all  the  African  territories  of  individual 
nations  would  involve  interference  with  sovereign  rights. 
The  Congo  State,  by  international  consent,  has  now  become 
a  Belgian  colony,  and  has  no  longer  an  international  status 
under  the  Mandate  of  the  Powers. 

The  Brussels  Act  essayed  to  apply  certain  principles — 
especially  in  regard  to  the  import  of  arms  and  trade  spirits 
into  Africa — ^to  all  the  territories  under  European  control. 
It  was  a  notable  advance  towards  the  goal  which  the  "  Man- 
date system  "  hopes  to  attain  in  respect  of  ex- enemy  colonies, 
but,  Uke  the  Berlin  Act,  it  provided  no  means  of  enforcing 
its  stipulations,  and  even  the  periodical  reports  which  were 
to  show  how  far  they  were  being  carried  out  were  in  practice 
neglected. 

Some  features  of  the  era  of  aggressive  acquisitiveness, 
which  the  completion  of  the  partition  of  Africa  had  brought 
to  a  close,  have  been  recalled  by  the  allocation  between  the 
victorious  Allies  of  the  tropical  colonies  wrested  from  Ger- 
many. It  was  decreed  by  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  which 
embodied  the  Covenant  of  the  League  of  liTations,  that  Ger- 
many should  forfeit  these  colonies  on  the  grounds  (as  the 

'  The  clause  in  the  Convention  runs  as  follows:  "Within  the  Ivory  Coast, 
Gold  Coast,  Dahomey,  and  Nigeria,  the  persons  and  goods  of  both  countries  and 
of  their  colonies  shall  for  thirty  years  enjoy  the  same  treatment  in  all  matters 
of  river  navigation,  of  commerce,  and  of  tariff,  and  fiscal  treatment  and  taxes  of 
all  kinds,  but  each  may  fix  in  its  own  territory  tariffs,  fiscal  treatment,  and 
taxes." 

D 


50        PRINCIPLES   GOVERNING  CONTROL  IN   THE   TROPICS. 

Allies  explained)  of  misrule/  and  that  they  should  be  held 
by  the  respective  Allies  under  Mandates,  which  should  be 
based  on  Article  22  of  the  Covenant. 

A  new  Convention  abrogated,  as  between  the  parties  to 
it,  the  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts,  except  as  regards  the  matters 
dealt  with  in  Article  1  of  the  Convention,  which  appUed  the 
principle  of  "  complete  commercial  equality "  in  an  area 
therein  defined.  It  pledged  the  signatories  to  maintain  in 
their  respective  African  territories  "  an  authority  and  police 
forces  sufficient  to  ensure  protection  of  persons  and  property, 
and  if  necessary  of  freedom  of  trade  and  transit,"  and  it 
bound  "  the  signatory  Powers  exercising  sovereign  rights  or 
authority  in  African  territories,  to  continue  to  watch  over  the 
preservation  of  the  native  populations,  and  to  supervise  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  their  moral  and  material 
weUbeing."  Finally,  it  endeavoured  to  remedy  the  defect 
of  the  previous  Acts  by  agreeing  that  "  if  any  dispute  what- 
ever should  arise  between  the  signatory  Powers  relating  to 
the  application  of  the  Convention  which  cannot  be  settled 
by  negotiation,  this  dispute  shall  be  submitted  to  an  arbitral 
tribunal  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the  Covenant 
of  the  League  of  Nations."  A  separate  Convention  was  drawn 
up  to  deal  with  the  Uquor  traffic.^ 

The  precise  terms  of  Article  22  are  of  such  importance 
that  I  have  appended  it,  for  easy  reference,  at  the  end  of  this 
chapter.  It  embodies  the  latest  expression  of  the  conscience 
of  Europe  in  regard  to  "  peoples  not  yet  able  to  stand  by 
themselves,"  and  constitutes  not  only  a  pledge  in  respect  of 
Mandate  territories,  but  a  model  and  an  aspiration  for  the 
conduct  of  those  already  under  the  control  of  the  signa- 
tory Powers.  It  shows  how  great  has  been  the  advance, 
alike  in  knowledge  and  in  recognition  of  responsibility 
towards  the  subject  races,  since  the  days  of  the  poUti- 
cal    and    economic    rivalry   which   led   to   the   partition   of 

'  Setting  aside  the  atrocities  exposed  in  Blue-books,  one  may  judge  of  the 
nature  of  German  methods  of  promoting  the  moral  and  material  interests  of 
the  natives  by  the  three  regulations  for  S.W.  Africa  reported  some  years  ago 
in  the  'Times.'  (1)  Natives  are  prohibited  from  acquiring  any  rights  in,  or 
titles  to  land ;  (2)  from  possessing  any  big  cattle  or  riding  animals  without 
special  sanction  ;  and  (3)  every  native  must  have  a  passport.  On  the  otlier 
hand,  Herren  Dernburg  and  Solf— Colonial  Ministers— themselves  visited  Africa, 
and  expressed  enlightened  views  regarding  the  natives,  in  opposition  to  the 
local  governors  and  the  German  colonists. 

2  Conventions  of  10th  September  1919.     Cmd.  477  and  478  of  1919. 


DELAYS   AND   DIFFICtTLTIES   HE  MANDATES.  51 

Africa,  and  the  tentative  efforts  of  the  Berlin  and  Brussels 
Acts. 

It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  how  close  is  the  parallel 
between  the  task  of  the  Paris  Conference  of  191S>  and  that 
of  the  Berlin  Conference  of  1885,  when  at  the  iavitation  of 
the  German  Emperor  fourteen  of  the  great  Powers  of  the 
world  met  to  regulate  (inter  alia)  "  the  conditions  most  favour- 
able to  trade  and  development,  and  the  means  of  furthering 
the  moral  and  material  wellbeing  of  the  native  populations 
in  certain  regions  of  Africa."  By  the  recognition  of  the 
treaties  concluded  between  the  "  International  Association 
of  the  Congo  "  and  the  various  Powers  signatory  to  the  Act 
(Protocol  9)  "  the  new  Congo  State,"  said  Prince  Bismarck, 
"  is  called  upon  the  become  one  of  the  chief  protectors  of 
the  work  we  have  in  view,"  ^  and  King  Leopold  of  Belgiima, 
its  founder,  became  in  point  of  fact  the  Mandatory  of  the 
Powers.  Have  the  lessons  and  warnings  of  this  earlier  Man- 
date been  fully  appreciated  in  the  new  dispositions  ? 

There  has  been  great  delay  in  issuing  the  Mandates,  due 
no  doubt  to  the  difficulty  of  harmonising  opposing  views  of 
the  Mandatory  Powers  as  to  their  terms,  and  as  to  the  inter- 
pretation to  be  placed  on  Article  22.  This  has  necessitated 
carrying  on  the  administration  "  on  the  assumption  that  the 
Mandates  as  drafted  by  the  Mandates  Commission  did  cor- 
rectly define  the  conditions  of  the  trust,"  ^  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  Hague  Convention  expressly  precludes  a  Power  in 
military  occupation  of  conquered  territory  from  altering  the 
civil  administration.* 

Their  condemnation  of  German  methods  of  administration 
formed  (as  they  said)  *  the  justification  of  the  Allies  in  con- 
fiscating the  German  colonies,  but  the  Hague  Convention 
remained  unaltered,  nor  were  "  the  Mandates  as  drafted  " 
made  known  to  the  officers  charged  with  the  task  of  adminis- 
tration. There  also  appeared  to  be  much  misunderstanding 
as  to  the  functions  and  powers  of  the  League  of  Nations  in 
regard  to  the  Mandates.^ 

1  C.  4361  of  1886,  p.  303. 

^  Lord  Milner  (Chairman  of  Mandates  Commission)  in  the  debate  of  29th 
July  1920  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

5  See  also  '  Official  Manual  of  Military  Law,'  pp.  288-290. 

■*  See  reply  of  the  Allies  to  Germany's  protest,  July  1919. 

^  Mr  Asquith  asserted  that  Article  22  prevented  any  Mandate  from  being 
conferred  by  any  authority  other  than  the  League,  and  Mr  Bonar  Law  stated 
that  the  League's  confirmation  was  essential. — Debate  of  18th  June  1920.     In 


52        PRINCIPLES   GOVERNING   CONTROL  IN   THE   TROPICS. 

Finally,  though  Article  22  says  that  "  certain  territories 
can  best  be  administered  under  the  laws  of  the  Mandatory 
as  an  integral  part  of  its  territory,"  this  phrase  is  quaUfled 
by  the  words  "  subject  to  the  safeguards  mentioned,  in  the 
interests  of  the  indigenous  population,"  and  it  was  clear  that 
these  safeguards  apply  to  all  Mandated  territories.^  The 
French,  however,  are  reported  to  have  claimed  that  their 
portion  of  Cameruns  and  Togoland  were  not  included  in  the 
list  of  territories  placed  under  Mandate,  and  to  have  de- 
manded the  right  to  administer  them  "without  a  Mandate, 
though  in  the  spirit  of  a  Mandate,"  and,  inter  alia,  to  have 
asserted  the  right  to  recriut  troops  for  purposes  other  than 
the  defence  of  the  country,  which  Article  22  specifically  for- 
bids.^ These  views  seem  to  strike  at  the  very  root  of  the 
priQciples  at  stake,  and  jeopardise  the  whole  Mandate  system, 
and  with  it  the  League  of  Nations  itself.^ 

The  crucial  difference  between  the  Mandate  system  and 
the  former  Acts  lay  in  the  fact  that  while  the  latter  provided 
no  machinery  for  enforcing  the  obligations  undertaken  by 
a  signatory,  the  Mandates  were  supposed  to  have  provided 
something  in  the  way  of  a  supervising  authority  and  arbitral 
court.  To  what  extent  then  has  this  vital  principle  survived  ? 
We  now  learn  on  the  highest  authority  that  the  functions  of 
the  League  are  limited  to   examining  the  draft  Mandates 

reply  to  a  demand  by  the  Liverpool  Chamber  that  the  League  "shall  revise  all 
laws  and  regulations,  local  and  otherwise "  (a  function  obviously  incompatible 
with  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mandatory),  the  Foreign  Office  declared  that  "the 
Mandates  will  be  found  to  meet  all  the  points  raised"  (Letters,  27th  May  and  22Dd 
June  1920).  Lord  Milnerin  turn  declared  that  "neither  the  Supreme  Council, 
nor  the  Council  of  the  League,  nor  any  other  authority,  is  competent  materially 
to  alter  the  Mandates  without  upsetting  the  Covenant  of  the  League  itself,"  for 
they  are  nothing  more  than  a  setting  out  in  proper  legal  form  of  the  provisions  of 
Article  22. 

'  The  article  by  implication  excludes  countries  in  tropical  Africa  from  this 
exemption. 

^  M.  Sarraut  (French  Colonial  Minister)  is  stated  to  have  said  that  the  Supreme 
Council's  decision  of  7th  May  did  not  place  the  Cameruns  and  Togo  in  the 
Mandate  list,  and  that  it  decided  on  9th  December  1919  that  the  words  "  defence 
of  territory  "  did  not  mean  local  defence  only,  but  included  the  mother  country 
if  need  be.  France  demanded  complete  sovereignty.— 17th  Sept.  1919.  A  decree 
(Depeche  Coloniale,  25/3/1921)  "regulates  the  status"  of  the  Cameruns.  It  is 
placed  under  a  special  "  Commissaire,"  who  is  vested  with  the  fullest  powers, 
and  is  assisted  by  an  administrative  council.  The  country  is  declared  to  be 
autonomous  administratively  and  financially.  While  assisted  by  a  military  grant, 
it  may  be  called  upon  to  contribute  to  the  budgets  of  neighbouring  French 
colonies  with  common  interests.     Equal  commercial  opportunity  is  recognised. 

'  Since  this  was  written  France  has  accepted  a  Mandate,  though  in  slightly 
dififerent  terms  from  the  British.     See  Cmd.  1350/1921. 


THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  OBLIGATIONS.  53 

(prepared  by  the  Allied  Powers)  to  see  if  they  are  ia  con- 
fonnity  with  the  Treaty.  It  can  alter  nothing.  It  is  stated, 
however,  that  clauses  have  been  iaserted  in  the  Mandates 
themselves,  precluding  alteration  except  with  the  consent  of 
the  League.  If  it  is  the  Mandatory  itself  which  seeks  the 
alteration,  a  majority  of  the  Council  of  the  League  can  ap- 
prove it ;  but  if  the  proposed  alteration  emanates  from  any 
other  source  the  decision  must  be  imanimous,  and  hence  the 
Mandatory  can  veto  it.  A  clause,  it  is  said,  is  also  inserted 
providing  for  reference  to  the  Court  of  International  Justice 
in  the  event  of  any  dispute  as  to  interpretation — ^not  the 
execution — of  the  Mandate.  A  permanent  Mandate  Com- 
mission will  examine  the  annual  reports  from  Mandatories, 
and  report  any  breach  to  the  Council,  which  would  point  it 
out  to  the  Mandatory  Government,  and  rely  on  pubMc  opinion 
to  cause  the  Government  to  redress  it. 

If  the  function  of  the  International  Court  be  relegated  to 
decisions  on  interpretation,  and  the  control  of  the  League 
is  to  depend  on  the  public  opinion  of  the  accused  Mandatory, 
the  "  safeguards  in  the  interests  of  the  natives,"  which  Article 
22  was  designed  to  effect,  become  very  shadowy.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  recognise  the  fact  that  great  nations  are  un- 
willing to  accept  Mandates  of  a  precarious  nature,  subject  to 
revocation,  and  therefore,  as  M.  Sarraut  observed,  unfavour- 
able to  continuous  effort  and  liberal  expenditure  of  capital. 
E"or  would  they  lightly  submit  to  an  inquisition  on  their 
methods,  and  the  loss  of  prestige  which  it  would  entail. 

It  is  too  late  to  hope  that  the  altruistic  professions  of 
justice  to  the  native  races  should  include  the  restoration  of 
original  tribal  boundaries,  where  these  were  violated  by  the 
arbitrary  political  divisions  made  by  the  Powers  in  their  orig- 
inal appropriation  of  African  territory,  except  where  long  usage 
has  rendered  this  no  longer  desirable  by  the  natives,  or  where 
there  is  a  sufficiently  important  reason  (such  as  the  inclusion  of 
a  port  or  railway  in  one  or  the  other  sphere)  for  maintaining 
existing  boundaries.  Except  in  such  a  case  it  is  imperative  that 
further  injustice  should  not  be  perpetrated  by  fresh  violation  of 
tribal  boundaries  in  the  assignment  of  Mandates. 

It  was  at  first  proposed  that  the  inhabitants  of  a  country 
included  in  a  Mandate  should  have  some  voice  in  the  selection 
of  the  Power  which  would  be  appointed  as  their  suzerain. 
This  was  abandoned,  ostensibly  because  in  Africa,  with  the 


54:        PEIWCrPLES   GOVEENING   CONTROL  IN   THE   TROPICS. 

exception  of  a  few  educated  coast  natives,  the  tribes  would 
be  too  ignorant  to  select  between  European  Powers,  but  the 
real  reason  lay  in  the  competing  claims  of  the  Powers  in- 
terested. France  and  England  iadeed  undertook  to  com- 
pensate Italy  by  cession  of  territory,  if  they  increased  their 
possessions  in  Africa. 

It  can  readily  be  understood  that  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation  offered  practically  no  alternative  to  this  transaction. 
But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  is  the  last  occasion  on  which 
the  conscience  of  Europe  wiU  permit  the  exchange  of  "  pos- 
sessions "  in  Africa  as  though  they  and  their  inhabitants  were 
mere  chattels  for  barter,  regardless  of  the  pledges  of  protec- 
tion, for  the  fulfilment  of  which  the  protecting  Power  is 
individually  responsible,  and  which  it  has  no  moral  right  to 
transfer  to  another.  It  is  a  notable  proof  of  the  one-sided 
character  of  the  so-called  treaties.^ 

It  is,  I  think,  to  be  regretted  that  "  equal  opportunities 
for  trade  and  commerce  "  are  Umited  by  the  covenant  to 
members  of  the  League,  for  it  is  admittedly  essential  that 
Germany,  with  sixty-five  million  people,  must  have  assured 
access  to  sources  of  tropical  raw  materials  for  the  employ- 
ment of  her  industrial  population.^  It  is  in  her  late  colonies, 
where  methods  so  different  from  her  own  are  to  be  employed, 
that  Germany  should  learn  the  better  way. 

Free  trade  from  the  point  of  view  of  native  interests  means 
unrestricted  markets,  and  the  exclusion  of  aU  forms  of  mono- 
poly or  preference,  whether  by  private  persons  or  by  the 
local  government  in  the  interests  of  the  controlling  Power. 
The  Mandate  should  include  a  precise  stipulation  to  this 
effect,  and  that  aU  profits  accruing  from  the  exercise  of  such 
monopolies  as  the  local  Government  may  undertake  iu  the 
interests  of  the  country — such  as  railways,  posts  and  tele- 
graphs, river-transport  services,  &c. — shall  (of  course  after 

>  The  exchange  of  the  Gambia  for  French  Dahomey  was  at  one  time  the 
subject  of  prolonged  debate  (see  Cd.  2ii  of  1870  and  Cd.  1409  and  1498  of  1876, 
&o.),  and  has  been  revived  from  time  to  time  up  to  the  present  day.  It  would 
surely  be  an  immoral  and  indefeasible  transaction,  unless  with  the  consent  of  the 
people.     A  French  writer  in  the  '  Observer '  (11th  Nov.  1917)  endorses  this  view. 

^  Germany's  African  possessions  in  1914  are  stated  to  have  covered  931,460 
sq.  miles.  The  Allies,  in  reply  to  her  protest  at  being  deprived  of  them,  pointed 
out  that  only  one-half  of  1  per  cent  of  her  total  trade  was  with  them,  and  only 
3  per  cent  of  her  raw  materials  was  derived  from  them.  This  is  hardly  a 
reasonable  way  of  looking  at  colonies  in  an  early  stage  of  development,  the  more 
so  when  it  is  remembered  that  Germany  will  no  longer  have  such  free  access  to 
trade  in  the  colonies  of  other  nations  as  she  enjoyed  before  the  war. 


COLONIAL  EEVENTJES  INALEENABLE.  55 

providing  for  the  service  of  any  loan)  be  credited  solely  to 
the  local  revenue  for  the  benefit  of  the  country.  It  is  to  be 
noted  iu  this  connection  that  the  territories  to  which  the 
system  of  Imperial  Preference  appUes,  as  detailed  ia  the 
Board  of  Trade  JouTnal,^  may  by  Order  in  Coimcil  iaclude 
any  "  ia  respect  of  which  a  Mandate  may  be  exercised  by 
the  Government  of  any  part  of  H.M.'s  dominions." 

To  this  principle — viz.,  that  the  revenues  accruing  from 
a  Mandated  territory  must  be  spent  whoUy  upon  that  territory 
— a  principle  which  apphes  equally  to  dependencies  not  held 
under  Mandate — there  may  be  possible  exceptions,  as  there 
are  exceptions  to  every  rule.  If,  for  instance,  in  a  territory 
having  a  very  hmited  area  capable  of  development,  and  a 
very  small  population,  a  source  of  very  great  wealth  be  dis- 
covered, entirely  unconnected  with  native  industries,  and 
from  which  the  natives  without  foreign  assistance  would  not 
have  derived  any  benefit ;  in  such  a  case  the  exploitation  of 
the  wealth — ^be  it  mineral-oil  or  diamonds — ^by  Government 
or  private  enterprise,  would  in  itseK  bring  high  wages  and 
prosperity  to  the  natives,  and  a  fraction  of  the  net  profits 
would  sufBce  to  meet  aU  possible  local  needs  for  develop- 
ment, &c.  If  the  balance  of  the  revenue  realised  from  royal- 
ties accrued  to  the  Mandate  Power,  no  possible  injustice  would 
be  inflicted  upon  the  people.  The  case  of  the  island  of  JiTaura 
is  an  instance  in  point.^ 

But  in  such  rare  exceptions  there  should  be  one  essential 
proviso  to  safeguard  the  great  fundamental  principle  of 
trusteeship — ^viz.,  that  every  case  in  which  exception  is  sought 
should  be  laid  before  Parliament,  in  order  that  the  verdict 
of  the  nation  may  be  recorded  by  its  accredited  representa- 
tives. For  it  should  not  be  in  the  power  of  any  one  man, 
however  eminent,  to  decide  ex  cathedra  that  the  circum- 
stances were  such  as  to  justify  an  exception  in  a  matter  so 
vitally  affecting  the  national  honour. 

The  principle  that  the  oflEicials   of  the  Government  are 

1  9th  Sept.  1920. 

^  Nauru  Island  is  eight  miles  square,  with  1700  inhabitants.  Together  with 
an  even  smaller  neighbour — Ocean  Island — it  was  surrrendered  by  Germany  in 
the  war,  and  is  now  held  under  Mandate.  It  contains  vast  quantities  of  phos- 
phates of  very  great  commercial  value,  the  exploitation  of  which  is  shared  be- 
tween Great  Britain,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand.  The  justification  of  this 
arrangement- was  challenged  in  the  debates  of  18th  June  1920  and  later  dates. 
—See  "The  Crown  Colonies  and  the  British  War  Debt"  in  'The  Nineteenth 
Century,"  1920. 


56        PRINCIPLES  GOVEENING  CONTROL  IN  THE  TROPICS. 

amenable  to  the  JTirisdiction  of  the  local  courts — ^which  is 
recognised  in  all  British  dependencies — ^is  also  one  to  which 
efEect  should  be  given  by  the  Mandates.  Some  of  these  sug- 
gestions were,  I  think,  iacluded  in  the  model  Mandate  pre- 
pared by  the  Anti-Slavery  and  Aborigines'  Protection  Society 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Mandate  Commission. 

We  have  seen  that  the  League  is  not  charged  with  any 
executive  authority  over  a  Mandatory  Power.  It  cannot 
therefore  accept  direct  complaints  from  the  natives  or  their 
self-constituted  champions,  for  that  would  lead  not  only  to 
international  friction,  but  would  so  weaken  the  authority  of 
the  Mandatory  as  to  render  its  task  impracticable.  The 
natives  would  regard  the  League  as  their  real  suzerain,  and 
it  would  in  fact  become  an  International  Board  of  Adminis- 
tration. For  reasons  such  as  these,  if  for  no  other,  it  is 
inconceivable  that  (as  has  been  suggested)  the  Powers  already 
in  control  of  territory  should  voluntarily  place  them  under 
Mandate. 

The  Labour  Party,  however,  desires  that  all  territories  in 
tropical  Africa,  whether  held  under  Mandate  or  not,  should 
be  administered  by  a  Commission  under  the  supernational 
authority  of  the  League,^  and  some  sort  of  international  con- 
trol has  found  favour  elsewhere.  I  concur  with  Professor 
Keith,  that  such  an  expedient  "  must  be  ruled  out  as  whoUy 
unwise  and  impracticable."  It  would  paralyse  all  initiative 
and  progress,  and  the  dead  hand  of  a  super-bureaucracy 
devoid  of  national  incentive  and  patriotism  would  stifle  all 
enthusiasm.  Great  Britain  with  her  long  and  hard- won 
experience  could  never  submit  the  poUcy  and  development  of 
her  existing  dependencies  to  the  control  of  an  international 
board,  on  which  she  had  only  joint  representation  with 
Prance,  Italy,  Portugal,  and  Belgiunx;  nor  would  France 
tolerate  such  a  proposal  for  a  moment,  and  it  has  been  con- 
demned by  native  spokesmen.    It  does  not  merit  discussion. 

The  Mandate  system  has  the  serious  and  unavoidable 
defect  that,  like  its  predecessors,  it  lacks  the  power  of  co- 
ercion to  enforce  obUgations.  It  can  only  rely  on  the  pubUc 
opinion  of  the  country  whose  Government  is  charged  with 

'  The  reporter  of  the  Labour  Research  Committee  is  constrained  to  admit  that 
it  would  work  admirably  in  Africa  only  if  the  nations  were  guided  solely  by  the 
principles  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. — 'Empire  and  Commerce,'  L.  Woolf, 
p.  322. 


CONCLtrSIONS  RE  THE  MANDATE  SYSTEM.  57 

infringement.  This  opinion  is  likely  to  support  its  Govern- 
ment agaiast  outside  criticism.  Each  Mandatory  submits  a 
full  annual  report,  but  since  it  is  its  own  reporter  the  state- 
ment must  be  ex  'parte,  and  independent  investigation  would 
be  resented  as  casting  a  doubt  on  its  bona  fides.  Nor  are  the 
principles  iavolved  capable  of  very  precise  definition  in  prac- 
tice. Such  limitations  are,  however,  inevitable  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  the  world.  We  must  accept  the  fact  that 
the  Mandates  are  practically  irrevocable,  and  if  the  altruistic 
hopes  of  idealists  have  not  proved  possible  of  fulfilment,  we 
must  not  minimise  the  substantial  step  achieved  by  the  iater- 
national  recognition  of  the  principles  embodied  ia  Artiicle  22, 
and  the  machiaery — ^imperfect  as  it  is — set  up  to  preserve 
them.  It  is  no  mean  achievement  of  the  Conference  of  Paris, 
that  the  nations  assembled  have  succeeded  in  giving  a  more 
precise  and  definite  form  to  earlier  ideals.  Though  limited 
to  ex-enemy  colonies,  their  recognition  of  that  ideal  must 
■  of  necessity  influence  their  standards  in  the  territories  not 
formally  included  in  its  scope.  The  camouflage  which  I 
described  in  the  last  chapter  is  swept  away,  and  the  Powers, 
instead  of  arguing  over  the  theoretical  basis  of  sovereignty 
in  Africa  and  the  validity  of  so-caUed  treaties,  frankly  recog- 
nise that  "  the  tutelage  of  nations  not  yet  able  to  stand  by 
themselves  must  be  intrusted  to  advanced  nations  who  are 
best  able  to  undertake  it."  They  accept  control  under  the 
Covenant,  primarily  in  the  interests  of  the  subject  races, 
whether  as  Mandatories  or  otherwise. 

The  principle  that  "  the  weUbeing  and  development  of 
peoples  not  yet  able  to  stand  by  themselves  forms  a  sacred 
trust  of  civilisation,"  though  referring  in  its  context  to  the 
territories  which  before  the  war  were  under  enemy  control, 
must  obviously  in  future  be  regarded  as  no  less  applicable 
to  territories  under  the  control  of  the  AlUes.  We  may  assume, 
therefore,  that  the  "  vague  humanitarian  generalisations  "  (as 
Sir  S.  Olivier  calls  them)  of  the  earlier  Acts  have  now  given 
place  to  a  more  exphcit  obUgation  sanctioned  by  international 
consent. 

The  responsibility  is  one  which  the  advantages  of  an  in- 
herited civilisation  and  a  superior  intellectual  culture,  no  less 
than  the  physical  superiority  conferred  by  the  monopoly  of 
firearms,  imposes  upon  the  controlling  Power.  To  the  back- 
ward races  civiMsation  must  be  made  to  mean  something 


58        PRINCIPLES   GOVEENESTG  CONTROL  IN   THE  TROPICS. 

higher  than  the  methods  of  the  development  syndicate,  or 
the  assiduous  cultivation  of  new  wants.  Where  these  prin- 
ciples have  been  neglected,  history  has  taught  us  that  failure 
has  been  the  result.  Without  minimisiiig  the  great  work 
which  Prance  and  Belgium  are  doing  in  Africa,  it  is  to  Eng- 
land that  Beauheu  generously  awards  the  palm  ia  having 
led  the  way  ia  the  recognition  of  the  responsibility  which  is 
inseparable  from  rule.^  The  Brussels  Conference  met  at  the 
iastance  of  our  Queen  to  ampUfy  the  work  of  its  predecessor 
at  BerUn,  with  this  object,  and  to  check  iaternecine  war  with 
imported  firearms,  and  the  evils  of  the  spirit  traffic.  Eng- 
land has  consistently  endeavoured  to  give  effect  to  these 
Acts,  and  has  now  cordially  accepted  the  new  charter  of 
liberty  and  progress. 

The  means  by  which  practical  effect  may  be  given  to  these 
aspirations  merit  full  consideration.  They  include  such  ques- 
tions as  the  methods  of  rule  which  shall  give  the  widest 
possible  scope  to  chiefs  and  people  to  manage  their  own 
affairs  under  the  guidance  of  the  controlling  Power ;  the 
constitution  of  Courts  of  Justice  free  from  corruption  and 
accessible  to  aU ;  the  advancement  of  education,  and  its 
adaptation  to  the  needs  and  the  circumstances  of  the  people  ; 
slavery  and  the  institution  of  a  free  labour  market ;  the 
creation  of  a  system  of  taxation  which  shall  be  as  little  oner- 
ous as  possible,  and  protect  the  peasantry  from  the  exactions 
of  the  powerful ;  land  tenure  ;  the  liquor  traffic,  and  similar 
problems.  With  these  I  shall  endeavour  to  deal  in  sub- 
sequent chapters :  they  constitute  our  moral  obligation  to- 
wards the  subject  races. 

Nor  is  the  obligation  which  the  controUing  Powers  owe 
to  themselves  and  their  race  a  lesser  one.  It  has  been  well 
said  that  a  nation,  like  an  individual,  must  have  some  task 
higher  than  the  pursuit  of  material  gain,  if  it  is  to  escape 
the  benumbing  influence  of  parochialism  and  to  fulfil  its 
higher  destiny.  If  high  standards  are  maintained,  the  con- 
trol of  subject  races  must  have  an  effect  on  national  character 
which  is  not  measurable  in  terms  of  material  profit  and  loss. 
And  what  is  true  for  the  nation  is  equally  true  for  the  in- 
dividual officers  employed.  If  lower  standards  are  adopted 
—the  arrogant  display  of  power,  or  the  selfish  pursuit  of 
profit — the  result  is  equally  fatal  to  the  nation  and  to  the 

1  Beaulieu,  loc.  cit.,  vol.  i.  p.  92,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  246.     Quoted  on  p.  619. 


ECONOMIC  POLICY.  59 

individual.  Misuse  of  opportunity  carries  with  it  a  relentless 
Nemesis,  deteriorating  the  moral  fibre  of  the  individual,  and 
permeating  the  nation,  as  M.  Leroy  Beaulieu  has  shown  in 
his  masterly  survey  of  the  standards  and  principles  which 
have  guided  the  colonial  policy  of  successive  nations. 

But  if  the  standard  which  the  white  man  must  set  before 
him  when  dealing  with  uncivilised  races  must  be  a  high  one 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  moral  and  spiritual  balance,  it  is  not 
less  imperative  for  the  sake  of  the  influence  which  he  exer- 
cises upon  those  over  whom  he  is  set  in  authority.  The 
white  man's  prestige  must  stand  high  when  a  few  score  are 
responsible  for  the  control  and  guidance  of  miUions.  His 
courage  must  be  undoubted,  his  word  and  pledge  absolutely 
inviolate,  his  sincerity  transparent.  There  is  no  room  for 
"  mean  whites  "  in  tropical  Africa.  Nor  is  there  room  for 
those  who,  however  high  their  motives,  are  content  to  place 
themselves  on  the  same  level  as  the  uncivilised  races.  They 
lower  the  prestige  by  which  alone  the  white  races  can  hope 
to  govern  and  to  guide. 

Turning  now  to  questions  of  economic  policy,  we  find  that 
the  two  chief  Powers  have  adopted  radically  different  prin- 
ciples in  Africa.  The  French,  as  M.  de  Caix  expresses  it, 
adopt  "  a  sort  of  economic  nationalism,"  which  aims  at 
preserving  the  products  and  markets  of  her  colonies  for  the 
exclusive  use  of  France  by  every  means  in  her  power.^  It 
was,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  only  in  certain  specified  colonies, 
for  a  limited  period,  and  as  the  price  of  territorial  adjust- 
ments in  her  favour,  that  she  agreed  to  break  down  the 
tariff  waU. 

This  principle  is  regarded  as  essential  to  the  theory  that 
her  colonies  form  an  integral  part  of  France,  mutually  inter- 
dependent and  sufficing.  After  the  war  of  1870,  and  again 
after  the  recent  war,  the  doctrine  was  proclaimed  that 
"  France  can  only  remain  a  great  Power  by  knowing  how 
to  draw  from  her  colonies  all  she  requires."  ^ 

Dutch  methods  need  not  be  discussed  here,  since  they  do 
not  affect  Africa,  but  a  succinct  and  most  interesting  account 
may  be  found  in  Mr  EUiott's  work  on  the  Philippines.^ 

1  See  "  British  and  French  Colonial  Policy,"  by  M.  Devereux,  '  Anglo-French 
Eeview,'  Sept.  1920. 
^  French  Colonial  Minister  at  Paris  Conference  of  1917. 
'  '  The  Philippines,'  C.  B.  Elliott,  pp.  15-18,  and  Prefatory  Note  by  Mr  Root. 


60        PRINCIPLES  GOVERNING  CONTROL  IN  THE  TROPICS. 

The  conception  that  overseas  possessions  should  be  a  source 
of  direct  profit  to  their  "  owners  "  lost  Spaia  her  South 
American  colonies.  Tttrkey,  the  Congo  under  Leopold,  Hol- 
land and  Portugal,^  have  adhered  to  the  priaciple,  the  dis- 
astrous results  of  which  not  even  Adam  Smith  has  described 
with  more  relentless  logic  than  the  great  French  writer, 
M.  Beauheu.  France,  however,  while  imposing  no  tribute, 
maiataias  the  policy  of  monopoly  and  conscription. 

When  Great  Britain  undertook  the  control  of  great  regions 
in  tropical  Africa,  she  not  only  gave  to  her  commercial  rivals 
the  same  opportunities  as  were  enjoyed  by  her  own  nationals, 
but  she  assisted  in  the  development  of  these  territories  from 
Imperial  revenues — not  as  loans  to  be  repaid  when  they  grew 
rich,  but  as  free  gifts — and  later  by  the  use  of  Imperial  credit 
to  float  loans  for  development,  while  her  Navy,  and  on  occa- 
sion her  troops,  ensured  their  protection.  She  secured  to 
their  inhabitants  an  unrestricted  market  for  their  produce, 
and  to  aU  engaged  in  their  development,  of  whatever  nation- 
ality, equality  of  commercial  opportunity  and  uniform  laws. 

She  recognised  that  the  custodians  of  the  tropics  are,  in 
the  words  of  Mr  Chamberlain,  "  trustees  of  civiUsation  for 
the  commerce  of  the  world  "  ;  that  their  raw  materials  and 
foodstuffs — ^without  which  civilisation  cannot  exist — must  be 
developed  aHke  in  the  interests  of  the  natives  and  of  the 
world  at  large,  without  any  artificial  restrictions.  Here  are 
his  words  spoken  twenty-four  years  ago :  "  We,  in  our 
colonial  policy,  as  fast  as  we  acquire  new  territory  and 
develop  it,  develop  it  as  trustees  of  civilisation  for  the  com- 
merce of  the  world.  We  offer  in  aU  these  markets  over 
which  our  flag  floats  the  same  opportunities,  the  same  open 
field  to  foreigners  that  we  offer  to  our  own  subjects,  and 
upon  the  same  terms.  In  that  poUcy  we  stand  alone,  because 
aU  other  nations,  as  fast  as  they  acquire  new  territory — 
acting,  as  I  beUeve,  most  mistakenly  in  their  own  interests, 
and  above  all,  in  the  interests  of  the  country  they  administer 
— all  other  nations  seek  at  once  to  secure  the  monopoly  for 
their  own  products  by  preferential  and  artificial  methods." 
Viewed  from  this  standpoint,  the  tropics  are  the  heritage  of 
mankind,  and  neither,  on  the  one  hand,  has  the  suzerain 
Power  a  right  to  their  exclusive  exploitation,  nor,  on  the 

1  See  Admiralty  Handbook,  I.D.  1189,  p.  136.  Reforms  were  instituted  by 
the  law  of  August  1914. 


THE  POLICY   OP  THE    "  OPEN   DOCK."  61 

other  hand,  have  the  races  which  inhabit  them  a  right  to 
deny  their  bounties  to  those  who  need  them.  The  respon- 
sibility for  adequate  development  rests  on  the  custodian  on 
behalf  of  civilisation — and  not  on  behalf  of  civUisation  alone, 
for  much  of  these  products  is  returned  to  the  tropics  con- 
verted into  articles  for  the  use  and  comfort  of  its  peoples. 

The  democracies  of  to-day  claim  the  right  to  work,  and 
the  satisfaction  of  that  claim  is  impossible  without  the  raw 
materials  of  the  tropics  on  the  one  hand  and  their  markets 
on  the  other.  Increased  production  is  more  than  ever  neces- 
sary now,  to  enable  England  to  pay  the  debts  she  incurred 
in  preserving  the  liberties  of  the  world.  The  merchant,  the 
miner,  and  the  manufacturer  do  not  enter  the  tropics  on 
sufferance,  or  employ  their  technical  skill,  their  energy,  and 
their  capital  as  "  interlopers,"  or  as  "  greedy  capitalists," 
but  in  fulfilment  of  the  Mandate  of  civilisation.  America, 
since  she  became  a  world  Power,  has  adopted  the  same 
standards  in  the  Philippines. 

The  policy  of  "  the  open  door  "  has  two  distinct  though 
mutually  dependent  aspects — viz.,  equal  opportunity  to  the 
commerce  of  other  countries,  and  an  unrestricted  market  to 
the  native  producer.  The  tropics  can  only  be  successfully 
developed  if  the  interests  of  the  controlling  Power  are  identical 
with  those  of  the  natives  of  the  country,  and  it  seeks  no 
individual  advantage,  and  imposes  no  restriction  for  its  own 
benefit. 

It  has  been  alleged  that  in  the  matter  of  certain  export 
duties  on  palm  kernels  in  West  Africa,  as  also  in  regard  to 
"  Imperial  Preference,"  these  principles  have  been  violated, 
while  the  policy  of  "  Empire  cotton-growing  "  would  seem  to 
depend  for  its  success  upon  an  arbitrary  hypothecation  of 
the  crop.  The  principles  at  issue  in  each  of  these  cases  are 
of  such  importance  that  I  propose  to  consider  these  allega- 
tions in  some  detail  in  a  later  chapter  (see  pp.  268-279). 

French  writers  have  pointed  to  these  measures  as  a  viola- 
tion of  our  vaunted  policy  of  the  "  open  door,"  and  asked 
how  we  can  consistently  condemn  the  exclusive  tariffs  of 
Erance  while  adopting  such  measures  ourselves.  The  prin- 
ciple of  Imperial  Preference  is  that  of  voluntary  sacrifice, 
and  cannot  be  compared  with  obligatory  and  exclusive  tariffs 
imposed  on  colonies  in  restriction  of  their  markets  ;  if  in 
any  case  the  latter  have  been  imposed,  it  was,  as  we  shall  see, 


62        PRINCIPLES   GOVEENING   CONTKOL  IN   THE   TROPICS. 

as  a  temporary  war  measure  only.  Whether  the  exclusive 
tariffs  of  other  nations  may  compel  us  to  adopt  any  other 
policy  the  future  will  show,  but  there  is  no  burking  the 
conclusion  that  unless  it  is  adopted  with  the  consent,  or  for 
the  benefit,  of  the  dependency  concerned,  it  would  be  con- 
trary to  our  declared  policy  of  trusteeship. 

The  acceptance  of  this  policy  of  trusteeship  involves,  it, 
may  be  said,  some  reciprocal  obligation  on  the  part  of  the 
natives.  Their  lands,  which  Germany  coveted,  and  their 
liberties  were  at  stake  no  less  than  our  own  in  the  recent 
war.  They  owe  it  to  their  inclusion  in  the  Empire  that  they 
have  escaped.  Is,  then,  the  native  of  the  tropics  to  bear  no 
share  of  the  economic  burden  which  the  war  has  left,  or  in 
the  cost  of  defence  for  the  future  ?  The  African  is  not  by 
nature  ungrateful,  and  would  not  shirk  his  share  of  the 
burden.  I  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  response  he  would  make 
to  such  a  suggestion  if  he  understood.  Would,  then,  a  trustee 
be  justified  in  demanding  some  reciprocity,  or  exactiag  some 
participation  in  the  cost  of  defence,  as  an  obligation  properly 
due  from  his  ward,  after  consulting  the  vocal  minority  and 
the  more  intelligent  chiefs  ?  These  are  questions  which  merit 
consideration  in  their  proper  context  (see  pp.  274,  275). 


AETICLE   22   OP   THE   COVEJSTAlSrT   OP   THE 
LEAGUE   OP  ISTATIONS. 

To  those  colonies  and  territories  which  as  a  consequence  of  the  late 
war  have  ceased  to  be  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  which  for- 
merly governed  them,  and  which  are  inhabited  by  peoples  not  yet  able 
to  stand  by  themselves  under  the  strenuous  conditions  of  the  modern 
world,  there  should  be  applied  the  principle  that  the  wellbeing  and 
development  of  such  peoples  form  a  sacred  trust  of  civilisation,  and 
that  securities  for  the  performance  of  this  trust  should  be  embodied  in 
this  Covenant. 

The  best  method  of  giving  practical  effect  to  this  principle  is  that 
the  tutelage  of  such  peoples  should  be  entrusted  to  advanced  nations 
who,  by  reason  of  their  resources,  their  experience,  or  their  geographical 
position,  can  best  undertake  this  responsibility  and  who  are  willing  to 
accept  it,  and  that  this  tutelage  should  be  exercised  by  them  as 
Mandatories  on  behalf  of  the  League. 


AETICLE   22    OP   THE   COVENANT.  63 

The  character  of  the  Mandate  must  differ  according  to  the  stage  of 
the  _  development  of  the  people,  the  geographical  situation  of  the 
territory,  its  economic  conditions,  and  other  similar  circumstances. 

Certain  communities  formerly  belonging  to  the  Turkish  Empire  have 
reached  a  stage  of  development  where  their  existence  as  independent 
nations  can  be  provisionally  recognised  subject  to  the  rendering  of 
administrative  advice  and  assistance  by  a  Mandatory,  until  such  time 
as  they  are  able  to  stand  alone.  The  wishes  of  these  communities  must 
be  a  principal  consideration  in  the  selection  of  the  Mandatory, 

Other  peoples,  especially  those  of  Central  Africa,  are  at  such  a  stage 
that  the  Mandatory  must  be  responsible  for  the  administration  of  the 
territory  under  conditions  which  will  guarantee  freedom  of  conscience 
and  religion,  subject  only  to  the  maintenance  of  public  order  and 
morals,  the  prohibition  of  abuses  such  as  the  slave  trade,  the  arms 
traflSc  and  the  liquor  traffic,  and  the  prevention 'of  the  establishment  of 
fortifications  or  military  and  naval  bases,  and  of  military  training  of 
the  natives  for  other  than  police  purposes  and  the  defence  of  territory, 
and  will  also  secure  equal  opportunities  for  the  trade  and  commerce  of 
other  members  of  the  League. 

There  are  territories,  such  as  South- West  Africa  and  certain  of  the 
South  Pacific  Islands,  which,  owing  to  the  sparseness  of  their  popula- 
tion, or  their  small  size,  or  their  remoteness  from  the  centres  of  civilisa- 
tion, or  their  geographical  contiguity  to  the  territory  of  the  Mandatory, 
and  other  circumstances,  can  be  best  administered  under  the  laws  of 
the  Mandatory  as  integral  portions  of  its  territory,  subject  to  the  safe- 
guards above  mentioned  in  the  interests  of  the  indigenous  population. 

In  every  case  of  Mandate,  the  Mandatory  shall  render  to  the  Council 
an  annual  report  in  reference  to  the  territory  committed  to  its  charge. 

The  degree  of  authority,  control,  or  administration  to  be  exercised 
by  the  Mandatory  shall,  if  not  previously  agreed  upon  by  members  of 
the  League,  be  explicitly  defined  in  each  case  by  the  Council. 

A  permanent  Commission  shall  be  constituted  to  receive  and  examine 
the  annual  reports  of  the  Mandatories,  and  to  advise  the  Council  on  all 
matters  relating  to  the  observance  of  the  Mandates. 


0-1 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  PEOPLE   OF   BEITISH  TBOPICAL  AFRICA. 

Units  of  administration — Climate  and  physical  characteristics  of  the 
country — History — Paucity  of  population — Hamites  and  negroes — 
Physical  characteristics  of  the  people — Character  of  the  typical 
African — Illustration  of  lack  of  apprehension  —  Of  fidelity  and 
friendship — Diversity  in  evolution — Administrative  classification — 
Primitive  races — Settled  tribes — Pastorals — The  refugees — Social 
organisation — Advanced  communities — Pagan  tribes — Alien  con- 
querors^Influence  of  Islam — Influence  of  Christianity — Summary 
—  The  Europeanised  African — Characteristics — Comparison  with 
Indian  Progressives — The  negro  in  the  United  States — Claims  for 
self-government — Scope  in  municipal  work — The  true  path  to  self- 
government — Opportunities  now  enjoyed — Pitness  for  responsible 
positions — A  native  cadet  service — Critics  of  the  educated  native — 
Future  of  the  educated  African — The  debt  of  Africa  to  him- — The 
Syrian — Is  civilisation  a  benefit  ? — Some  drawbacks  and  some  benefits. 

Before  discussing  the  methods  by  which  the  controlliiig 
Power  can  promote  the  material  development  of  the  tropics 
and  the  welfare  of  the  inhabitants,  it  will  be  of  interest  to 
consider  what  manner  of  people  they  are,  and  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  country  they  inhabit. 

British  tropical  Africa  includes  some  of  the  most  densely 
populated  and  most  richly  endowed  regions  of  the  continent, 
including  Mgeria,  which,  in  view  of  its  area,  population,  and 
trade,  occupies  a  very  prominent  place  among  the  depen- 
dencies of  the  Empire.  We  have  already  seen  (vide  table, 
p.  45)  that,  unUke  India  and  the  Dominions,  the  African 
tropical  empire  is  divided  into  a  number  of  dependencies, 
in  some  cases  coterminous  with  each  other,  in  other  cases 
separated  by  intervening  territories  under  the  control  of 
foreign  Powers,  each  under  its  own  Government  and  separate 
laws,  and  all  except  the  Sudan  under  the  control  of  the 
Colonial  Office,  which  alone  forms  the  nexus  which  co-ordi- 
nates their  policies. 


PHYSICAL   OHAEACTEEISTICS   OF   THE  BKITISH  TROPICS.      65 

In  the  sub-tropical  regions  south  of  the  Zambesi  there  are 
other  dependencies  which  have  been  permeated  by  European 
settlement — Southern  Ehodesia,  Bechuana,  Basuto,  and  Swazi- 
land, as  well  as  the  regions  ia  the  South  African  Union.  The 
native  peoples  who  inhabit  them  are  still  for  the  most  part 
in  the  tribal  stage,  and  the  problems  of  administration  dis- 
cussed in  this  volume  apply  in  great  part  to  them. 

The  climate  and  physical  characteristics  of  a  country  which 
extends  over  sixty-two  degrees  of  longitude  and  thirty-eight 
of  latitude  (say  4200  by  2600  mUes)  must  naturally  be  ex- 
tremely diversified.  In  the  northern  hemisphere  the  heavy 
rains  faU  in  the  summer  months  (June-October),  in  the  south 
from  November  to  April,  while  on  and  near  the  Equator  there 
is  a  double  rainy  season  partaldng  of  both  characteristics. 

Across  the  northern  part  of  the  conttaent,  from  the  Eed 
Sea  to  the  Atlantic,  stretches  a  zone  of  arid  desert,  waterless, 
in  parts  devoid  of  vegetation,  a  sea  of  shifting,  wind-driven 
sands,  whose  billows  form  sand-dunes,  and  bury  and  baffle 
the  toil  of  man.  Throughout  its  breadth  in  the  British  tropics 
it  is  traversed  by  the  wonderful  Nile.  In  the  east  there  are 
great  mountaias  whose  crests  are  crowned  with  eternal  snow, 
and  elevated  plateaux  on  which  the  climate  and  rainfall 
invite  the  European  colonist.  Through  the  heart  of  the 
country,  from  the  temperate  latitudes  in  the  south  to  those 
in  the  north — and  beyond  them  across  the  Eed  Sea  to  Northern 
Palestine — ^runs  the  Great  Eift  VaUey,  3500  miles  long,  form- 
ing the  long  and  narrow  lakes  of  Tanganyika  and  Nyasa, 
with  a  maximum  depth  of  4758  feet  and  2316  feet  respec- 
tively. 

The  equatorial  belt  in  West  Africa  is  a  region  of  moist 
forests  and  profuse  vegetation,  with  a  rainfall  of  150  inches 
on  the  coast,  culminating  on  the  western  slopes  of  the  Camerun 
mountain  in  upwards  of  400  inches.  Here  was  no  induce- 
ment for  the  conquering  pastoral  tribes,  for  the  grasslands 
of  the  northern  savannahs  with  their  vast  herds  of  cattle  cease. 
Animal  and  bird  Ufe,  other  than  the  elephant,  the  hippo- 
potamus, the  buffalo,  the  monkeys  which  live  in  the  tree- 
tops,  the  great  fish-eagle,  and  aquatic  birds,  is  scarce.  Man 
is  at  perpetual  warfare  with  the  vegetable  and  insect  world, 
and  in  the  deltas  of  the  tropical  rivers  leads  a  semi-aquatic 
life,  subsisting  on  sylvan  produce  and  fish.  The  British 
tropics  in  Africa  include  a  great  part  of  those  mighty  rivers 

E 


66  THE  PEOPLE  OF  BKITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

— ^the  Mger  and  the  Nile — and  the  great  lakes  of  which 
Victoria  Nyanza  is  the  largest,  with  an  area  of  27,000  square 
miles,  but  little  less  than  that  of  Ireland. 

The  history  of  these  peoples  of  tropical  Africa,  except  on 
the  coast  fringe,  has  during  the  ages  prior  to  the  advent  of 
European  explorers  some  sixty  years  ago  been  an  impene- 
trable mystery.  Attempts  to  solve  it  consist  chiefly  in  con- 
jectural migrations  of  tribes  and  of  mythical  legends,  except 
in  so  far  as  the  history  of  the  West  African  empires  of  Ghana, 
Melle,  and  Songhay  have  been  recorded  by  the  Arabic  his- 
torians of  the  Moorish  Empire.^  Unlike  the  ancient  civilisa- 
tions of  Asia  and  South  America,  the  former  inhabitants  of 
Africa  have  left  no  monuments  and  no  records  other  than 
rude  drawings  on  rocks  like  those  of  neolithic  man. 

The  paucity  of  the  population  of  tropical  Africa,  as  con- 
trasted with  that  of  Europe  and  Asia,  is  shown  by  the  table 
on  page  45. ^  In  the  regions  imder  British  control  it  averages 
only  14'4  to  the  square  mile,  while  in  British  and  French  tropical 
Africa,  covering  over  seven  miUion  square  miles,  it  does  not 
exceed  8'5.  It  is,  moreover,  very  unevenly  distributed.  Con- 
siderable districts  in  Mgeria  have  a  density  of  over  300, 
while  in  vast  areas  in  the  Sudan,  owing  to  the  desert  condi- 
tions, there  is  only  one  person  to  two  square  miles.  Northern 
Ehodesia,  more  than  twice  the  size  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
fertile  and  well-watered,  has  only  three  to  the  square  mUe. 
This  astonishing  lack  of  inhabitants,  though  the  races  of 
Africa  are  virile  and  prolific,  has  been  due  in  the  past  to  inter- 
tribal warfare,  slave-raiding,  and  the  ravages  of  imchecked 
epidemics — especially  sleeping-sickness  and  smallpox, — in.  more 
recent  times  to  the  prevalence  of  venereal  disease,  with  its 
attendant  infant  mortality,  and  to  the  dissemination  of  dis- 
eases by  freedom  of  communications. 

The  fecundity  of  the  women — apart  from  the  effects  of 
venereal — appears  to  vary  greatly  in  different  tribes,  and 
while  some  are  decadent,  others  are  correspondingly  proMc. 
The  custom,  which  seems  fairly  general  among  the  negro 
tribes,  of  sucHing  a  child  for  two  or  three  years,  during  which 
a  woman  lives  apart  from  her  husband,  tends  to  decrease 

1  See  the  account  in  '  A  Tropical  Dependency,'  by  Lady  Lugard,  of  El  Bekri, 
Ibn  Khaldun,  Ibn  Batuta,  and  others  who  wrote  in  the  eleventh  and  fourteenth 
centuries. 

2  The  density  per  square  mile  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  374,  of  Germany  311, 
of  France  197,  of  India  158,  of  Japan  320,  and  of  China  97.— Whitaker,  1921. 


E.ACIAL  CHAEACTEEISTICS.  67 

population.  Polygamy,  in  so  far  as  it  ensures  that  every 
female  is  mated,  would  seem  to  conduce  to  increase,  but  the 
accumulation  of  great  numbers  of  women  in  the  harems  of 
despotic  rulers  would  have  a  contrary  tendency. 

It  is  essential  to  realise  that  tropical  Africa  is  inhabited 
by  races  which  differ  as  widely  from  each  other  as  do  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  that  some  of  the  principal  racial  types 
present  even  greater  divergence  than  those  of  Europe  and 
parts  of  Asia.^  Broadly  speaking,  the  coloured  population 
of  tropical  Africa  divides  itself  into  the  races  of  Asiatic  origin 
which  have  penetrated  the  continent  from  the  north-east 
and  east,  with  their  negroid  descendants,  who  chiefly  occupy 
the  northern  tropical  zone,  and  the  negro  tribes  which  inhabit 
the  greater  part  of  the  remainder. ^  The  immigrant  races, 
generally  called  Hamites,  are  supposed  to  have  invaded 
North-East  Africa  "  probably  a  good  deal  more  than  4000 
or  5000  B.C."  There  was  a  Semitic  invasion  some  2000  years 
later,  but  its  elements  have  entirely  disappeared,  though  it 
has  left  indelible  traces  on  the  language  and  racial  charac- 
teristics of  Abyssinia.  The  principal  Hamite — or  Hamitic 
negroid — tribes  in  East  Africa  are  the  Abyssinians,  the 
Somalis,  the  GaUas,  the  Masai,  the  Wahima,  and  the  IsTandi ; 
in  West  Africa  the  Pulani,  supposed  to  be  descended  from 
the  Berbers.  All  have  been  modified  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  by  admixture  with  negro  blood,  which  has  produced 
racial  types  differing  from  each  other,  and  widely  different 
from  the  negro  type.  They  vary  in  their  mental  and  physical 
characteristics  according  to  the  amount  of  negro  blood  in 
their  veins,  which  has  shown  itself  extremely  potent  in 
assimilating  alien  strains  to  its  own  type.  Perhaps  the  most 
distinctive  external  characteristic — ^much  more  reliable  than 
that  of  colour — by  which  the  degree  of  negro  blood  may  be 
gauged,  is  the  hair  growth  on  the  head  and  face,  varying  from 
the  wooUy  head  and  smooth  face  of  the  pure  negro,  to  the 
straight  hair  and  bearded  face  of  the  Asiatic. 

'  Sir  H.  Clifford  in  his  address  to  the  Nigerial  Council  (Dec.  1920),  received 
since  first  these  pages  were  written,  gives  a  very  striking  description  of  the 
greater  contrast  between  West  African  tribes  than  between  European  nations. 
' '  Even  the  Singalese  of  Ceylon  as  an  Aryan  people  are  more  nearly  allied  to  the 
English  and  Germans  than  are  to  one  another  many  of  the  peoples  of  West 
Africa." 

^  The  existence  of  non-negro  tribes  in  the  extreme  south  is  regarded  by  some 
as  evidence  that  in  very  ancient  times  the  conquering  Hamites  traversed  the 
whole  continent. 


68  THE  PEOPLE   OP  BRITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

The  Hamites  and  Hamitic  negroids  are  "  slim  and  wiry 
in  build,  markedly  dolichocephalous,  with  high  narrow  fore- 
heads, good  features,  reddish  complexions,  plentiful  frizzy 
hair,  and  small  hands  and  feet."  ^  They  exhibit,  as  we  shall 
see,  powers  of  social  organisation  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment in  advance  of  the  pure  negro  stock.  ^  They  are  capable 
of  immense  physical  endurance,  but  do  not  possess  the  phy- 
sique and  strength  of  the  negroes.  They  are  generally  nomadic 
and  pastoral,  and  for  the  most  part  have  embraced  Islam. 

The  finer  negro  races,  among  whom  are  included  the  group 
of  tribes  known  as  the  Bantus,  have  no  doubt  in  prehistoric 
times  assimilated  alien  blood,  which  has  diilerentiated  them 
from  the  aboriginal  negro  type.  They  may,  however,  be  said 
to  constitute  the  general  negro  race-type  of  to-day.  The  skidl 
and  forehead  are  better  developed,  and  the  thick  lips,  the 
bridgeless  nose,  and  the  prognathous  jaw  are  less  pronounced 
than  in  the  more  archaic  type.  Their  intelligence  is  more 
developed,  and  many  tribes  have  reached  a  degree  of  social 
organisation  which,  in  some  cases,  has  attained  to  the  kingdom 
stage  under  a  despot  with  provincial  chiefs  of  the  feudal  type. 

The  negroes,  and  the  negroids  who  approximate  most 
closely  in  race-type  to  them,  consist  of  innumerable  tribes — ^ta 
Northern  Mgeria  alone  there  are  said  to  be  about  380 — which 
have  each  their  own  special  traits,  but  they  share  in  varying 
degrees  the  general  characteristics  of  the  negro.  In  colour 
they  are  very  black,  with  woolly  hair  growing  in  little  tufts 
on  the  scalp,  and  with  practically  none  on  the  face.  They  are 
for  the  most  part  settled  agriculturists,  though  the  aborigtaal 
types,  such  as  the  Pigmies,  the  Wanderobbo,  and  the  Wasania 
are  nomad  hunters. 

The  Bantus,  and  most  other  negroes,  are  physically  fine 
specimens  of  the  human  race.  Powerfully  built,  they  are 
capable  of  great  feats  of  strength  and  endurance.  Indi- 
viduals win  carry  a  load  of  100  lbs.  on  their  heads  from 
morning  till  night,  up  hihs  and  through  swamps,  with  but 
brief  intervals  for  rest.  The  King's  messengers  in  Uganda, 
in  Mtesa's  time,  were,  I  believe,  expected  to  cover  sixty 
miles  in  a  day. 

1  See  Admiralty  manuals,  'Kenya,'  1216,  pp.  236,  237,  and  'Abyssinia,' 
pp.  104,  166,  &c..  and  Eliot,  'The  East  African  Protectorate,'  pp.  119,  133. 

^  We  are  told  that  the  Bantus  in  Ruanda  form  95  to  99  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation, but  are  kept  in  a  servile  status  by  their  Wahima  overlords. — Foreign  Office 
Handbook  113,  p.  10. 


DESCRIPTION   OP  THE   APEICAN.  69 

In  character  and  temperament  the  typical  African  of  this 
race-type  is  a  happy,  thriftless,  excitable  person,  lacMng  ia 
self-control,  discipline,  and  foresight,  naturally  courageous, 
and  naturally  courteous  and  polite,  full  of  personal  vanity, 
with  little  sense  of  veracity,  fond  of  music,  and  "  loving 
weapons  as  an  oriental  loves  jewelry."  His  thoughts  are 
concentrated  on  the  events  and  feeUngs  of  the  moment,  and 
he  suffers  little  from  apprehension  for  the  future,  or  grief 
for  the  past.  "  His  mind,"  says  Sir  C.  Eliot,  "  is  far  nearer 
to  the  animal  world  than  that  of  the  European  or  Asiatic, 
and  exhibits  something  of  the  animal's  placidity  and  want 
of  desire  to  rise  beyond  the  state  he  has  reached," — in  proof 
of  which  he  cites  the  lack  of  decency  in  the  disposal  of  the 
dead,  the  state  of  complete  nudity  common  to  one  or  other,  or 
to  both  sexes  among  so  many  tribes,  the  general  (though  not 
imiversal)  absence  of  any  feeling  for  art  (other  than  music), 
and  the  nomadic  habits  of  so  large  a  section  of  the  race. 

Through  the  ages  the  African  has  evolved  no  organised 
religious  creed,  and  though  some  tribes  appear  to  believe  in 
a  deity,  the  religious  sense  seldom  rises  above  pantheistic 
animism,  and  seems  more  often  to  take  the  form  of  a  vague 
dread  of  the  supernatural.  It  is  curious  that  whereas  in  East 
Africa  Sir  C.  Eliot  observes  that  prayers  are  always  addressed 
to  a  benevolent  deity,  in  the  West  the  prevalent  idea  seems 
to  be  the  propitiation  of  a  malevolent  spirit.  Belief  in  the 
power  of  the  witch  and  wizard,  and  of  the  Juju-priest  and 
witch-doctor,  in  charms  and  fetish,  and  in  the  ability  of 
individuals  to  assume  at  wiU  the  form  of  wild  beasts,  are 
also  common  among  many  tribes.  To  these  superstitions  the 
Hamite  is  less  prone. 

The  African  negro  is  not  naturally  cruel,  though  his  own 
insensibility  to  pain,  and  his  disregard  for  life — ^whether  his 
own  or  another's — cause  him  to  appear  callous  to  suffering. 
He  sacrifices  life  freely  under  the  influence  of  superstition, 
or  in  the  lust  and  excitement  of  battle,  or  for  ceremonial 
display.  The  wholesale  executions  of  Mtesa  of  Uganda,  or 
Behanzin  of  Dahomey,  would  seem  to  have  been  dictated 
rather  by  a  desire  for  the  ostentatious  display  of  power,  or 
even  by  a  blood-lust,  than  by  a  love  of  witnesstag  pain.  If 
mutilation  and  other  inhuman  punishments  are  inflicted,  it 
is  because  nothing  less  would  be  deterrent. 

He  lacks  power  of  organisation,  and  is  conspicuously  de- 


70  THE  PEOPLE  OF  BRITISH  TEOPIOAL  ABTIIOA. 

flcient  ill  the  management  and  control  alike  of  men  or  of 
business.  He  loves  the  display  of  power,  but  fails  to  realise 
its  responsibility.  His  most  universal  natural  ability  lies  in 
eloquence  and  oratory.  He  is  by  no  means  lacking  in  industry, 
and  will  work  hard  with  a  less  incentive  than  most  races. 
He  has  the  courage  of  the  fighting  animal — an  instinct  rather 
than  a  moral  virtue.  He  is  very  prone  to  imitate  anything 
new  in  dress  or  custom,  whether  it  be  the  turban  and  flowing 
gown  of  the  Moslem,  or  the  straw  hat  and  trousers  of  the 
European,  however  unsuited  to  his  environment  and  con- 
ditions of  life.  He  is  an  apt  pupU,  and  a  faithful  and  devoted 
friend. 

In  brief,  the  virtues  and  "the  defects  of  this  race-type  are 
those  of  attractive  children,  whose  confidence  when  once  it 
has  been  won  is  given  ungrudgingly  as  to  an  older  and  wiser 
superior,  without  question  and  without  envy.  "  Valiant, 
clever,  and  lovable,  they  bear  no  malice  and  nurse  no  griev- 
ance." ^ 

To  attempt  to  condense  into  a  paragraph  or  two  a  subject 
which  would  provide  material  for  as  many  chapters,  is  to 
court  contradiction,  and  indeed  there  is  hardly  a  single  trait 
that  I  have  named  to  which  I  caimot  quote  striking  excep- 
tions within  my  own  experience.  For  the  ability  to  evolve 
an  organised  system  we  may  point  to  the  Baganda,  the  Benis, 
and  the  Yorubas,  no  less  than  to  the  Abyssinians  and  the 
Pulani ;  for  indigenous  art  to  the  bronzes  and  the  wood- 
carving  of  the  Benis,  the  cloths  and  leather- work  of  the  Hausas 
and  Yorubas,  and  the  bead  and  straw  work  of  Uganda ;  for 
natural  religion  to  the  ancestor-worship  of  the  Bantus  and 
other  tribes  ;  and  so  on.  But,  speaking  generally,  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  predominantly  negro  races  are,  I  think,  as 
I  have  described  them,  and  Sir  Chas.  Eliot  from  personal 
experience  extends  his  description  to  the  West  Indies  and  the 
Southern  States  of  America.^ 

Perhaps  the  two  traits  which  have  impressed  me  as  those 
most  characteristic  of  the  African  native  are  his  lack  of  appre- 
hension and  iuabUity  to  visualise  the  future,  and  the  stead- 
fastness of  his  loyalty  and  affection.  In  illustration  of  the 
former,  I  may  recall  two  incidents,  told  elsewhere,  which 

'  Sir  F.  Fuller  (of  the  Ashantie),  'A  Vanished  Dynasty.' 

"^  His  description  of  the  African  is,  I  think,  the  best  I  have  read. — Loc.  cit., 
chap.  iv. 


LACK   OF   APPREHENSION.  71 

occurred  in  my  earliest  experience  of  Africa  thirty  odd  years 
ago,  and  seemed  to  me  to  afford  a  clue  to  his  character  and 
modes  of  thought. 

We  were  about  to  attack  a  powerfully-constructed  stockade, 
defended  by  a  band  of  well-armed,  slave-raiding  Arabs.  It 
was  a  hazardous  enterprise,  and  the  event  proved  that  it  was 
beyond  our  ability.  We  could  not  but  expect  a  heavy  loss  of 
life.  We  had  made  an  all-night  march  to  effect  a  surprise, 
and  as  I  lined  up  the  men  in  the  dark  in  front  of  the  stockade, 
which  in  a  few  minutes  we  were  about  to  charge,  they  in- 
stantly fell  asleep  !  Later  our  scouting  parties  caught  a  man 
with  a  cow.  He  was  a  Mkond^,  one  of  the  timid  unwarlike 
tribe  which  had  been  wiped  out  by  the  slave-raiders,  and  to 
whose  rescue  we  had  come.  Questioned. as  to  how  he  had  got 
the  cow,  he  replied  that  he  had  stolen  it  from  the  Arab 
stockade.  CrawHng  up  in  the  dark  of  night  he  had  slowly 
dug  out  one  pole  after  another,  and  made  a  breach  through 
the  wall  until  he  had  effected  an  entrance.  Did  he  not  feel 
afraid  when  he  heard  the  sentries  of  the  Slavers  chanting 
their  challenge  to  each  other  from  their  watch-towers  close 
by  ?  He  explained  in  reply  that  there  was  no  ground  for 
misgiving,  since  he  himself  was  only  worth  as  a  slave  a 
quarter  part  of  the  value  of  the  cow.  The  risk  was  worth 
taking,  for  the  prospective  gain  was  3  to  1  on  his  stake. 
That  it  should  make  any  difference  that  his  own  life  was 
the  stake  in  question  was  outside  his  comprehension,  and 
his  apologies  were  abject  for  his  presumption  in  having 
secured  an  article  so  much  more  valuable  than  himself.  He 
implored  me  to  take  it  and  spare  his  Ufe.  When  I  praised 
him  for  his  pluck,  and  sent  him  away  the  possessor  of  the 
cow,  his  delight  was  ludicrous,  but  both  he  and  his  captors 
thought  me  mad.  Criminals  condemned  to  death  show  the 
same  lack  of  apprehension  until  the  moment  of  execution 
arrives. 

I  can  give  no  better  illustration  of  the  constancy  and 
single-mindedness  of  the  African's  friendship  than  the  letters 
I  continue  to  receive  from  chiefs  in  Uganda  and  Toro,  though 
it  is  over  twenty-nine  years  since  I  left  their  country.  They 
cannot  be  prompted  by  any  possible  self-interest,  and  the 
initiative  was  theirs. 

The  character  in  which  the  African  presents  himself  de- 
pends very  greatly  on  the  personality  of  the  officer  with 


72  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH  TEOPICAL  AFEICA. 

whom  he  has  to  deal.  Continuity  alike  of  personnel  and 
policy  is  essential  to  gain  his  confidence  and  to  effect  pro- 
gress. Each  new  step  must  be  introduced  with  care,  and 
above  all  there  must  be  no  vacillation  or  change  of  front, 
and  no  broken  promises.  These  natural  characteristics  have 
been  modified,  and  in  many  cases  completely  changed,  by 
two  very  powerful  agencies.  The  first,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
the  influence  of  Asiatic  immigration ;  the  second  is  the 
introduction  of  monotheistic  religions  and  of  European  and 
Asiatic  education. 

Such  in  brief  are  the  peoples  for  whose  welfare  we  are  re- 
sponsible in  British  tropical  Africa.  They  have  a  fascination 
of  their  own,  for  we  are  dealing  with  the  chUd  races  of  the 
world,  and  learning  at  first  hand  the  habits  and  customs  of 
primitive  man ;  not  of  some  derelict  and  decadent  remnaint 
such  as  the  aborigines  of  Australia,  the  Todas  of  India,  or  the 
Ainus  of  the  Japanese  islands,  but  of  a  virile  and  expanding 
race  whose  men  are  often  models  of  symmetry  and  strength — 
a  race  which  Ulustrates  every  stage  in  the  evolution  of  human 
society,  from  the  hardly  himian  bushman  of  the  Kalahari 
and  the  lowest  type  of  cannibal,  to  the  organised  despotism 
and  barbaric  display  of  a  negro  kingdom  like  that  of  Uganda 
as  we  found  it,  where  royalty  is  hedged  about  with  more 
observance  than  in  a  modern  palace  in  Europe ;  or  to  the 
educated  native  community,  a  few  at  least  of  whose  members 
boast  a  training  in  the  English  universities  and  medical 
schools,  or  who,  on  the  other  hand,  have  inherited  a  civilisa- 
tion drawn  from  the  East,  and  owing  much  to  Arabic  litera- 
ture and  the  teaching  of  Islam.  Manifestly  the  system  of 
administration  suited  to  such  diverse  conditions  of  social 
organisation  must  vary  greatly  if  it  is  to  command  the  co- 
operation and  hearty  acquiescence  of  the  people  themselves, 
and  be  effective  in  promoting  the  progress  of  each  to  a  higher 
standard. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  administrator,  it  wiU  be  con- 
venient to  classify  the  people  of  tropical  Africa  into  three 
groups,  according  to  their  social  organisation — viz.,  the  primi- 
tive tribes,  the  advanced  communities,  and  the  Europeanised 
Africans.  Such  a  division  connotes  a  more  real  and  profound 
difference  than  that  of  racial  affinities,  for  intermarriage  and 
concubinage  with  alien  captives  and  slaves  have  tended  to 
obliterate  tribal  characteristics. 


THE  PEIMITrVE   TRIBBS.  73 

The  primitive  peoples  are  usually  classed  by  the  anthropo- 
logist as  settled  tribes  and  pastorals.^  The  latter  are  nomadic 
in  their  habits,  following  their  flocks  and  herds  according  to 
the  season  of  the  year,  and  building  no  cities.  The  tendency 
persists  even  among  some  of  the  settled  tribes,  who,  like  the 
Eikuyu  in  East  Africa,  the  Kanuri  of  Bornu,  and  some  Congo 
tribes,  constantly  desert  their  villages  and  fields  and  migrate 
to  new  sites  in  search  of  fertUe  land. 

The  settled  tribes  are  almost  entirely  agriculturists,  though 
a  small  section  is  engaged  in  industrial  crafts — ^weaving, 
dyeing,  and  the  forging  of  implements  of  agriculture  or  of 
war.  Exchange  of  such  articles  is  conducted  in  well-attended 
markets.  Those  tribes,  however,  which  inhabit  the  coastal 
regions  intersected  by  innumerable  salt-water  creeks,  and 
covered  by  the  densest  forest  growth,  or  interspaced  by 
dreary  mUes  of  mangrove-swamp,  are  precluded  from  engag- 
ing to  any  great  extent  in  agriculture,  and  sustain  life  chiefly 
by  fishing.  Since  flocks  and  herds  wiU  not  survive,  and  animal 
life  is  scarce,  they  have  no  flesh  diet,  and  often  resort  to 
cannibalism."  Here  the  exuberant  vegetation  is  too  much 
for  man,  and  the  lowest  and  most  primitive  tribes  are  to  be 
found. 

Thus  before  European  intervention  changed  the  conditions 
of  Ufe  in  Africa,  it  was  the  dweller  in  the  plains  and  the 
fertile  plateaux,  and  not,  as  in  Europe,  the  dwellers  in  the 
mountains,  who  were  the  virile  and  fighting  races.  On  the 
plains  the  cattle-owning  nomads  must  graze  their  herds,  and 
be  prepared  to  defend  them  with  their  lives.  The  settled 
population  must  no  less  be  able  to  repel  assaidt  on  the  village 
flocks  and  on  their  crops,  and  they  built  walled  cities  for 
protection.  The  natural  wealth  of  the  African  consists  of 
live  stock,  and  it  is  the  ambition  of  the  labourer  and  the 
peasant  to  buy  one  or  two  head  of  cattle  and  several  wives. 
The  system  of  land-tenure  (to  which  I  shall  refer  later)  does 
not  encourage  the  acquisition  of  personal  property  in  land, 
and  it  is  held  only  as  a  means  of  satisfying  the  absolute 
necessities  of  life.  Women  and  children  assist  in  production, 
and  no  more  land  is  desired  than  will  produce  these  neces- 

1  To  these  may  be  added  the  primitive  hunting  tribes,  who  wander  in  search 
of  game,  like  the  Wanderobbo  and  the  Pigmies. 

'^  It  is  the  craving  for  flesh  which  drives  the  human  animal  to  cannibalism — in 
Fiji  the  practice  was  abandoned  on  the  introduction  of  swine. 


74  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BKITISH  TROPICAL  AFBICA. 

sities.  But  cattle  represent  individual  and  communal  wealth. 
The  mountains,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  refuge  of  the 
conquered,  where  they  may  escape  extermination  and  lead 
a  precarious  existence  on  the  hill-tops. 

Though  as  a  rule  the  desires  of  the  pastoral  tribes  are 
limited  to  the  acquisition  of  grazing  lands,  and  they  were 
indifferent  to  territorial  sovereignty,  it  would  seem  that  small 
sections  were  otherwise  minded.  Thus  in  South-East  Africa 
the  cattle-owning  Zulus  (with  their  off-shoots,  the  Magwan- 
gwara  and  Mangoni)  founded  in  Zululand  the  dynasty  of 
Tchaka,  and  further  north  the  Wahima  became  kings  of 
Uganda,  Unyoro,  and  Ankol^.  In  the  west  the  Pulani  pas- 
torals in  like  manner  became  the  dominant  race.  The  Masai 
and  the  SomaUs,  on  the  other  hand,  though  they  held  un- 
disputed sway  over  the  greater  part  of  East  Africa,  founded 
no  dynasties.  But  though  in  these  instances  the  pastorals 
created  the  governing  caste  over  the  settled  agriculturists, 
the  bulk  of  the  tribe  remained  as  semi-nomad  pastorals,  com- 
pletely out  of  touch  with  their  aristocratic  kinsmen,  socially 
less  advanced  than  the  settled  and  urban  population,  but 
maintaining  by  rigorous  ordeals  and  tests  a  high  standard 
of  personal  courage  and  endurance.^  The  ruling  classes,  on 
the  other  hand,  became  enervated  by  luxury.  The  offspring 
of  their  innumerable  negro  concubines  lost  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  their  pastoral  ancestors,  and  in  Mwanga 
of  Uganda,  Kabarega  of  Unyoro,  and  many  of  the  Fulani 
Emirs  of  Mgeria,  we  see  the  negro  type  markedly  asserting 
itself.  Probably  most  of  these  pastoral  tribes  were  of  Asiatic 
origin,  and  migrated  slowly  from  north  to  south. 

The  aboriginal  negroes,  driven  by  the  advancing  migrations 
from  the  plains  and  plateaux,  found  refuge  in  the  mountains, 
or  in  the  dense  forests  or  the  interminable  swamps  of  the 
equatorial  belt,  such  as  surround  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
Wile  and  Zambesi,  and  the  delta  of  the  Mger.  In  such 
regions — ^including  the  coast  lands  of  West  Africa — may  there- 
fore be  found  the  purest  negro  types.  Where  detached  moun- 
tain masses  afforded  a  refuge  from  pursuit,  we  find  a  con- 
fusing number  of  remnants  of  tribes,  so  that  in  the  single 

'  Fulani  youths  voluntarily  subject  themselves  to  a  merciless  flogging  before 
they  are  allowed  the  privileges  of  manhood.  If  the  youth  flinches  or  cries  out 
he  is  degraded  for  a  year.  The  scars  of  this  flogging  are  generally  visible  all 
his  life. 


ADVANCED   COMMUNITIES."  75 

mountainous  province  of  Bauchi  (Mgeria)  it  has  been  esti- 
mated that  no  fewer  than  sixty-four  different  languages  are 
spoken. 

These  primitive  tribes  vary  in  social  status  from  those  who 
recognise  no  chief  and  are  still  in  the  patriarchal  stage,  lack- 
ing any  but  the  most  rudimentary  communal  organisation,! 
up  to  those  with  weU-deflned  tribal  institutions,  till  they 
merge  into  the  second  class  of  more  "  advanced  communities." 
Every  phase  of  human  evolution  may  be  studied  as  a  living 
force.  Among  the  most  primitive  the  family  is  the  unit,  and 
even  the  village  head  has  but  little  authority.  Among  many 
both  sexes  are  entirely  nude.  They  are  usually  industrious 
agriculturists  or  fishermen,  but,  especially  in  West  Africa, 
are  generally  the  victims  of  gross  and  cruel  superstitions 
and  of  degrading  practices,  such  as  cannibalism,  human  sacri- 
fice, and  the  murder  of  twins,  &c.^ 

Among  those  who  have  reached  the  tribal  stage,  with 
recognised  chiefs  and  some  cohesion  for  attack  and  defence, 
a  few  have  evolved  systems  of  government  more  or  less 
efficient  imder  paramount  rulers,  with  an  elaborate  subdivi- 
sion of  authority  and  ceremonial  observance.  They  have, 
however,  been  unable  to  evolve  a  written  language,  or  any 
approach  to  culture.* 

Where  these  institutions  were  of  indigenous  growth,  or 
fell  under  the  rule  of  dynasties  preponderantly  negro,  they 
appear  to  have  become  despotisms  marked  by  a  ruthless 
disregard  for  human  life.  Holocausts  of  victims  were  sacri- 
ficed to  appease  the  deity,  or  at  the  whim  of  the  despot. 

^  Ifc  is  in  the  lowest  stages  of  human  intercourse  that  men  and  women  herd 
together,  and  individual  effort  and  aspiration  is  effaced  in  the  communal 
principle.  Yet  in  such  communities,  I  believe,  some  bond,  however  fragile, 
exists  between  a  man  and  the  mother  of  his  child.  It  is  to  a  still  lower  plane 
which  the  cannibal  savage — nay,  the  anthropoid  apes — have  left  behind  them — 
the  level  of  mere  gregarious  mammals,  that  Bolshevist  theorists  aspire  to  drag 
western  civilisation. 

^  Among  the  Baganda  and  Banyoro  in  East  Africa,  the  birth  of  twins  is,  on  the 
contrary,  an  occasion  of  great  rejoicing. — 'Notes  on  Waganda  and  Wanyoro 
Tribes,'  Felkin,  pp.  62  and  82.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  moral  sense 
finds  expression  even  in  the  cannibal.  Asked  if  he  would  eat  his  mother,  a 
cannibal  expressed  horror  at  the  thought.  Only  "bad  men,"  he  said,  would 
so  degrade  themselves. 

^  The  very  remarkable  chief  of  the  little  state  of  Fumban  in  the  Cameruns 
(whose  dearest  wish  it  was  to  be  taken  under  British  rule)  had  not  only 
introduced  an  administrative  system  inc5mparably  more  advanced  than  those 
of  his  neighbours,  but  had  even  invented  an  alphabet,  and  reduced  his  language 
to  writing. — See  the  interesting  account  by  Capt.  Stobart  in  'Blackwood's,' 
March  1920,  p.  380. 


76  THE  PEOPLE   OP  BRITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

Such  were  the  kingdoms  of  Uganda  and  Unyoro  in  the 
east,  and  of  Dahomey,  Ashanti,  and  Benin  in  the  west.  Even 
where  this  wholesale  butchery  was  not  a  primary  feature  of 
the  despotism,  the  social  organisation  was  honeycombed  by 
secret  societies,  whose  ritual  was  a  mystic  secret,  appeasing 
the  deity  by  human  blood,  as  in  the  ancient  Toruba  nation 
under  its  semi-divine  head,  the  Alafin. 

But  for  the  most  part  the  progressive  communities  adopted, 
and  owed  their  advance  to  the  adoption  of,  an  aUen  mono- 
theistic rehgion,  which  brought  with  it  a  written  language 
and  a  foreign  culture.  It  is  to  the  creed  of  Islam  that  this 
political  and  social  iufluence  has  iu  the  past  alone  been  due. 
It  has  been  the  more  potent  as  a  creative  and  regenerating 
force,  because  it  brought  with  it  an  admixture  of  Aryan  or 
Hamitic  blood,  and  the  races  which  introduced  it  settled  in 
the  country  and  became  identified  with  its  iahabitants.  They 
possessed  greater  powers  of  social  organisation  than  the  negro 
aborigiaes,  and  may  therefore  claim  to  be  of  a  superior  race- 
type.i 

In  West  Africa  the  conquests  of  the  Arabs  and  Berbers 
from  the  north-east  introduced  the  creed  of  Islam  in  the 
belt  bordering  the  southern  edge  of  the  Sahara  early  in  the 
eighth  century.  The  modern  history  of  the  advanced  com- 
munities of  Hausaland  and  Bornu  in  Mgeria  "  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  period  at  which  they  accepted  the  Moslem 
religion,  though  the  purer  black  races  had  established  their 
domination  over  the  inferior,  and  ruled  by  force  of  superior 
intelligence  and  cultivation  long  before  that  time."  ^  They 
founded  kingdoms  which,  in  the  zenith  of  their  prosperity, 
rivalled  the  civilisation  of  Europe  of  that  day.  Their  de- 
scendants, the  Pulani,  stUl  form  the  dominant  caste,  and  rule 
the  Moslem  States  of  Mgeria. 

In  East  Africa,  Arab  Moslems  from  the  Persian  Gulf  founded 
the  dynasty  of  Zanzibar,  and  Bedouin  Arabs  became  the 
rulers  of  the  NUe  Sudan  ;  but  though  their  creed  has  made 
its  influence  felt  in  UsTyasaland  and  in  the  Tanganyika  terri- 
tory, and  was  at  one  time  dominant  in  Uganda,  they  cannot 

1  "  Neither  in  respect  alone  of  colour,  nor  of  descent,  nor  even  of  high  intellectual 
capacity,  can  science  give  us  any  warrant  for  speaking  of  one  race  as  superior  to 
another.  .  .  .  There  is  but  one  absolute  test  of  superiority.  It  is  only  the  race 
possessing  in  the  highest  degree  the  qualities  contributing  to  social  efficiency  that 
can  be  recognised  as  having  any  claim  to  superiority." — Kidd,  loo.  cit.,  p.  98. 

^  '  A  Tropical  Dependency,'  Lady  Lugard,  p.  21. 


THE  INFLTXENOE   OF  ISLAM.  77 

claim  to  have  founded  any  other  native  States  in  British 
East  Africa. 

Moslem  rule,  while  enforcing  the  social  regulations  of  the 
Koran,  has  generally  incorporated  whatever  indigenous  sys- 
tems were  worthy  of  survival.  The  system  of  government, 
of  dress,  and  of  social  observance  thus  obtained  a  hold  upon 
the  people  which  the  more  alien  habits  and  dress  of  Europe 
— ^ill-adapted  to  a  tropical  country — could  not  achieve.  Islam 
looks  for  its  language,  literature,  and  culture  to  Arabic  and 
the  East.  As  a  religion  it  does  not  evoke  in  the  pure  negro 
the  ardent  zeal  which  it  excites  in  the  races  of  alien  or  of 
mixed  blood,  and  there  is  often  little  to  differentiate  the 
peasant  or  labourer  who  caUs  himself  a  Mahomedan  from  his 
pagan  brother. 

Islam  as  a  militant  creed  which  teaches  contempt  for  those 
who  are  not  its  votaries,  panders  to  the  weakness  of  the 
African  character — self-conceit  and  vanity.  Centuries  of  law- 
less strife  have  made  the  African  a  worshipper  of  force,  and 
he  has  been  quick  to  adopt  the  creed  of  the  conqueror,  chiefly 
for  the  prestige  it  brought.  Its  very  excesses,  the  capture 
of  women  as  slaves  and  concubines,  and  the  looting  of 
villages,  though  hateful  enough  when  he  is  himself  the 
victim,  form  the  beau  ideal  of  his  desires  if  he  can  be 
the  aggressor.  It  is  the  law  of  might  to  which  he  is 
habituated. 

And  there  is  much  else  which  appeals  to  the  African  and 
suits  his  conditions,  in  the  reUgion  of  Mahomet.  It  sanctions 
polygamy,  which  is  natural  to  the  tropics.  It  not  merely 
approves  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery,  but  has  done 
much  harm  by  countenancing  the  ruthless  raiding  for  slaves. 
It  has  the  attraction  of  an  indigenous  religion  spread  by  the 
people  themselves,  or  by  men  of  like  race  with  similar  social 
standards,  and  not  depending  on  the  supervision  of  aUen 
teachers.  Its  great  strength  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  combtaes 
a  social  code  with  simple  religious  forms,  and  is  thus  inter- 
woven with  the  daily  life  of  its  followers.  Originating  in  the 
tropics,  it  is  essentially  a  code  and  a  religion  of  the  tropics, 
which  has  never  made  headway  in  the  temperate  zones,  just 
as  Christianity  has  been  the  religion  of  the  temperate  cHmates. 
Considering,  however,  the  many  centuries  of  unopposed  oppor- 
tunity which  it  had  enjoyed,  Islam  has  made  singularly  little 
progress  in  Africa,  except  among  the  Hamite  and  negroid 


78  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH   TEOPICAL  AFRICA. 

tribes,  and,  generally  speaking,  has  not  been  adopted  by  the 
negro  races. ^ 

Mr  Bosworth-Smith  shows  that  it  is  a  religion  incapable 
of  the  highest  development,^  but  its  limitations  suit  the 
limitations  of  the  people.  It  has  undeniably  had  a  civilising 
effect,  abolishing  the  gross  forms  of  pagan  superstition  and 
barbarous  practices,  and  adding  to  the  dignity,  self-respect, 
and  self-control  of  its  adherents.^  Though  its  tenets  among 
the  ignorant  peasantry  are  (as  in  India)  far  from  orthodox, 
and  much  coloured  by  superstition,  its  general  effect  has  been 
to  encourage  abstinence  from  intoxicants,  a  higher  standard 
of  life  and  decency,  a  better  social  organisation  and  tribal 
cohesion,  with  a  well-defined  code  of  justice. 

Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  has  not  proved  so  powerful 
an  influence  for  the  creation  of  political  and  social  organisa- 
tions, though  in  recent  years,  combined  with  Western  educa- 
tion, we  have  seen  remarkable  results  in  Uganda,  and  in  a  less 
degree  among  the  Egbas  and  others  in  West  Africa.  Its 
more  abstruse  tenets,  its  stricter  code  of  sexual  morality,  its 
exaltation  of  peace  and  humility,  its  recognition  of  brother- 
hood with  the  slave,  the  captive,  and  the  criminal,  do  not 
altogether. appeal  to  the  temperament  of  the  negro. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  a  most  powerful  auxiliary  in  its 
hymns  and  church  music,  which  are  infinitely  attractive  to 
him,  as  well  as  the  frequent  occasions  it  affords  for  a  display 
of  oratory.  Christianity  is,  I  think,  sometimes  apt  to  produce 
in  its  converts  an  attitude  of  intolerance,  not  intended  by  its 
teachers,  towards  native  rulers,*  native  customs,  and  even  to 
native  dress,  especially  when  wholesale  conversions  have  over- 
taxed the  supervision  of  the  European  mission  staff.  Its 
constructive  efforts  (combined  with  Western  education)  are 
to  be  foimd  chiefly  among  the  Europeanised  natives,  to  whom 
I  shall  presently  refer. 

1  Eliot,  loc.  cit.,  p.  96.  Sir  F.  Fuller,  loc.  cit,  p.  223.  Even  among  the 
Nilotic  negroes,  most  continuously  exposed  to  its  influence,  Islam  made  little 
progress,  and  a  Sliilluk  who  became  a  Moslem  was  looked  on  as  a  disgrace  to  the 
tribe.— F.O.  Handbook  98,  p.  55. 

^  '  Mahomet  and  Mahomedanism. ' 

'  Dr  Blyden,  who  has  been  acclaimed  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
native  African  writers,  says  of  Islam  in  Africa  :  "  It  has  been  the  most  effective 
instrument  in  moulding  the  intellectual,  social,  and  political  character  of  the 
millions  whom  it  has  brought  under  its  influence.  ...  It  is  the  most  effective 
educational  force  in  Negroland."— 'West  Africa  before  Europe,'  pp.  39,  74. 

*  See  Fuller,  loc.  cit.,  p.  223,  &c. 


THE  ETIBOPEANISED  APEIOAN.  79 

The  advanced  commuaities,  then,  whether  their  organisa- 
tion was  self-evolved  by  pagan  races,  or  due  to  the  advent 
of  conquerors  of  alien  blood,  and  the  introduction  of  Islam, 
held  sway  over  their  less  progressive  neighbours,  whom  they 
raided  and  enslaved.  They  rapidly  developed  the  commercial 
instinct,  and  the  traders  of  the  Hausa  States,  the  Yorubas 
and  others,  carried  the  produce  of  one  district,  or  the  im- 
ported goods  from  the  coast,  to  another,  in  organised  caravans. 
They  built  great  cities  (but  of  no  permanent  material),  and 
developed  the  industrial  arts.  They  introduced  a  highly 
centralised  form  of  government,  systems  of  taxation,  and 
courts  of  justice,  and  jealously  guarded  their  own  customs 
and  social  organisation  from  European  interference.  Agri- 
culture, with  the  help  of  slave-labour,  remained  the  staple 
industry,  and  the  dyer  continued  to  grow  his  own  indigo, 
and  the  weaver  his  cotton. 

I  come  now  to  the  last  group — ^the  Europeanised  Africans 
— ^who  are  chiefly  to  be  found  in  West  Africa.  Since  they 
form  but  an  infinitesimal  fraction  of  the  thirty-eight  million 
tohabitants  of  British  tropical  Africa — ^though  south  of  the 
Zambesi  they  may  be  foimd  in  greater  nxmibers — ^they  wotdd 
hardly  seem  to  merit  a  class  to  themselves.  But  they  occupy 
a  position  of  importance  out  of  proportion  to  their  mere 
numbers.  They  sit  on  the  Legislative  Councils,  and  make 
their  voices  and  opinions  heard  through  the  medium  of  their 
own  press  and  in  other  ways.  Whereas  those  progressive 
elements  which  assisted  in  developing  the  "  advanced  com- 
munities "  penetrated  Africa  from  the  north-east  across  the 
desert, — ^for  the  Zanzibar  Arabs  from  overseas  added  little  to 
social  progress, — European  influence  was  the  direct  outcome 
of  the  conquest  of  the  ocean,  and  its  earliest  origin  dates  from 
Vasco  da  Gama's  circumnavigation  of  the  continent  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  European  connection  with  tropical  Africa 
was  at  first  suUied  by  the  overseas  slave-trade,  and  its  educa- 
tional and  reUgious  influence — which  brought  the  European- 
ised African  into  existence — can  only  be  said  to  have  become 
an  effective  force  in  the  west  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  some  decades  later  in  the  east. 

The  Europeanised  African  differs  not  merely  in  mental 
outlook  from  the  other  groups,  but  also  in  physique.  Doctors 
and  dentists  teU  us  that  he  has  become  less  fertile,  more 
susceptible  to  lung -trouble  and  to  other  diseases,  and  to 


80  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH   TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

defective  dentition — disabilities  which  have  probably  arisen 
from  in-breeding  among  a  very  limited  class,  and  to  the 
adoption  of  European  dress,  which  writers  in  the  native 
press  say  is  enervating  and  inimical  to  the  health  of  the 
African.^ 

Europeanised  Africans  represent  no  tribe  or  community, 
but  form  a  class  apart  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  West  Coast, 
where  they  reside  in  a  varying  minority  among  an  illiterate 
population  ui  the  tribal  stage  of  development,  amid  sordid 
surroundings  for  men  of  education  and  culture.  They  may 
belong  to  one  or  other  of  the  neighbouriag  tribes  and  speak 
their  language,  or  they  may,  as  in  Sierra  Leone,  be  the 
descendants  of  liberated  slaves,  ignorant  of  any  African 
language.  Individuals  complete  their  education  in  England 
and  return  as  ministers  of  religion,  barristers,  doctors,  and 
journalists.  Some  few  are  traders  on  their  own  account, 
but  the  large  majority  have  a  very  incomplete  education, 
and  are  content  to  fill  subordinate  posts  as  clerks  in  the 
service  of  Government,  or  of  commercial  firms.  Some  have 
shown  a  balanced  judgment,  and  have  been  of  assistance 
to  the  local  governments  as  members  of  the  Legislature  and 
of  Municipal  Boards,  but  the  native  press  is  too  often  notable 
for  its  invective  and  racial  animosity.  The  most  popular 
professions  are  those  of  the  law — which  affords  opportunity 
for  the  African's  gift  of  oratory — and  journalism.^ 

The  educated  African  imitates  European  dress  and  customs 
closely,  however  iU  adapted  to  his  conditions  of  life,  and 
may  be  heard  to  speak  of  going  "  home  "  to  England.  He 
has,  as  a  rule,  little  in  common  with  the  indigenous  tribes 
of  Africa,  and  seldom  leaves  his  native  town  except  to  travel 

^  The  records  in  Sierra  Leone  "tend  to  show  that  the  deaths  considerably 
exceed  the  births,"  and  the  population  of  the  colony  is  apparently  maintained  by 
immigrants  from  the  protectorate.  —  F.  0.  Handbook  92,   p.  8. 

^  Writing  of  the  American  negro,  Mr  Graham  observes  that  "  he  has  a  passion 
for  journalism  in  advance  of  his  present  development  and  capacity  "  ('  Children 
of  the  Slaves,'  p.  53).  Each  of  the  British  colonies  in  West  Africa  boasts  of 
several  newspapers  owned  and  edited  by  natives.  The  Governor  of  the  Gold 
Coast  has  recently  pointed  out  the  injury  to  racial  co-operation  done  by  the 
local  press.  Its  invective  is  much  read  by  schoolboys,  and  Mr  Carr  (Acting 
Director  of  Education,  Nigeria — a  native)  was  of  opinion  that  it  does  much 
"grievous  harm."  Dr  Blyden  remarks  that  at  St  Louis  (capital  of  French 
Senegal),  "where  there  is  every  facility  for  such  a  thing,  they  have  not  a  single 
newspaper ;  and  they  are  happier  for  it  than  their  brethren  in  other  parts  of 
Africa,  who  rejoice  in  the  advantages  and  'freedom  of  the  Press'"  ('West  Africa 
before  Europe,'  p.  90).  The  French  law  of  1881  regarding  native  newspapers 
has  by  a  recent  decree  been  made  more  stringent. 


INDIAN   PEOGEESSIVES — AMERICAN   NEGEOES.  81 

by  sea  or  railway.^  The  Ettropeanised  African  is  indeed 
separated  from  the  rest  of  the  people  by  a  gulf  which  no 
racial  aflfinity  can  bridge.  He  must  be  treated — and  seems 
to  desire  to  be  treated — as  though  he  were  of  a  difEerent  race. 
Some  even  appear  to  resent  being  called  negroes,  the  universal 
race-term  in  America.  The  Eev.  E.  Keable  complains  lq 
'  East  and  West '  that  even  native  priests  showed  in  the 
war  a  contempt  for  and  aloofness  from  the  natives  ia  their 
spiritual  charge  unknown  between  white  men  of  unequal 
social  standing. 

The  "  Montague-Chelmsford  Eeport  "  describes  the  poUti- 
caUy-minded  Indian  in  terms  which  are  singularly  appropriate 
to  the  educated  African.  "  He  is  a  creation  peculiarly  our 
own,  the  product  of  an  educational  policy  in  the  past,  which 
aimed  at  satisfying  the  few  who  sought  after  English  educa- 
tion, without  sufficient  thought  of  the  consequences  which 
might  ensue  from  not  taking  care  to  extend  instruction  to 
the  many."  It  was  due  to  that  policy  (says  the  report)  that 
the  Indian  adopted  as  a  rule  the  non-practical  professions  bt 
law,  journalism,  and  teaching,  which  magnify  the  importance 
of  words  and  phrases,  and  he  has  only  recently  been  encour- 
aged to  create  wealth  by  applying  his  knowledge  to  industrial 
enterprise.  But  the  Indian  progressive,  however  divergent 
from  the  mass  of  the  people  in  habits  of  thought,  yet  speaks 
their  language,  shares  their  customs  and  religion,  and  knows 
their  country.  Though  the  percentage  of  Indians  who  speak 
English  is  infinitesimal  compared  with  the  total  population, 
it  is  probably  twenty  times  greater  than  the  percentage  of 
English-speaking  Africans  to  the  population  of  Africa,  and 
includes  a  certain  number  who  have  administrative  and 
municipal  experience. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  the  number  of  Europeanised 
natives  in  West  Africa  is  too  small  to  justify  any  generalisa- 
tions. Let  us  turn  therefore  to  America,  where  for  a  couple 
of  generations  at  least  the  African  has  had  an  opportimity 
of  vindicating  his  status,  and  of  proving  his  capacity  for 
social  progress.  The  negro  population  of  the  United  States 
reaches  some  12,000,000  souls,  and  though  there  is  a  con- 
siderable admixture  of  European  blood,  his  progress  there 
will  afford  some  clue  as  to  the  capability  of  the  race  for 
intellectual  development  and  social  organisation.   The '  Times  ' 

'  See  the  statement  by  Chief-Justice  Sir  K.  Speed,  quoted  in  Cmd.  468,  p.  80. 

P 


82  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

correspondent  draws  a  disheartening  picture,^  and  American 
opinion  seems  to  be  equally  pessimistic.  Dr  Stoddard,^  like 
M.  Beaulieu,^  is  emphatic  that  "  black  Africa  is  unable  to 
stand  alone,"  and  quotes  Meredith  Townsend's  observation 
that  the  negro  race  "  has  never  evolved  a  civilisation,  a  litera- 
ture, or  a  creed,  or  founded  a  stone  city,  or  built  a  ship,  or 
exercised  the  smallest  influence  over  people  not  black."  * 

Such  men  as  Booker  Washington  and  Moton  prove,  however, 
that  the  negro  race  can  at  the  least  produce  individuals  of 
great  force  of  character  and  high  ideals.  Dr  Moton's  recent 
book  5  combines  high  idealism  with  practical  organising  ability. 
Du  Bois — albeit  not  of  pure  negro  blood — is  said  to  have  the 
gift  of  leadership.^  He  touches  the  true  source  of  the  im- 
happiness  and  discontent  of  the  Europeanised  or  Americanised 
negro,  when  he  asserts  that  "  in  order  to  attain  his  place  in 
the  world  the  negro  must  be  himself  and  not  another."  ' 

^  "The  intellectual  negro,"  he  writes,  "seems  to  take  rather  kindly  to 
socialism  and  organised  agitation,  and  the  further  upwards  they  move  in 
the  social  scheme  the  greater  their  discontent.  .  .  .  The  fact  remains  that, 
after  more  than  half  a  century  of  freedom  and  educational  opportunity,  they 
have  not  been  able  to  rise  to  a  plane  above  that  of  agitator,  or  to  carve  out  for 
themselves  a  satisfactory  position  in  the  body  politic." — '  Times,'  16th  Oct.  1919. 

'  '  The  Rising  Tide  of  Colour,'  p.  102. 

'  "  Bien  plus  nous  croyons  que  I'autorit^  Europienne  ne  devra  pas  dtre 
temporaire  dans  la  majeure  partie  de  I'Afrique  ;  ce  n'est  pas  une  simple  affaire 
d'eduoation  devant  durer  un  ou  deux  siteles,  c'est  une  organisation  definitive. 
Le  climat  des  regions  equatorials  et  tropicales  de  I'Afrique  ainsi  de  la  race  qui 
s'y  trouve  etablie  ne  nous  paraissent  pas  de  nature  k  pouvoir  rendre  jamais 
compatible  autant  qu'on  en  pent  juger  la  prosp^rit^  de  ces  contre^s  et  leur 
absolue  autonomic,  11  serait  h  craindre  que  une  fois  detaches  mSme  dans  deux 
ou  trois  sifecles  des  Metropoles  ces  pays  .  .  .  revinssent  apres  deux  ou  trois 
generations  k  la  barbaric  primitive.  Toutes  les  colonies  ne  sont  pas  destinfe 
&  s'emanciper." — Vol.  i.  pp.  291-2.     See  notes  p.  198. 

■■  'Asia  and  Europe,'  pp.  92,  356-358.  =  '  Finding  a  Way  Out.' 

'  '  The  Children  of  the  Slaves,'  S.  Graham,  p.  261.  See  also  article,  "  The 
Colour  Problem,"   '  Edin.  Review,'  April  1921. 

'  'The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,'  Du  Bois,  p.  8.  A  series  of  interesting  articles 
appeared  in  the  Sierra  Leone  and  Lagos  native  press  in  Feb.  1902.  "The  foreign 
and  uncongenial  life  can  only  avail  to  display  the  oddities  and  eccentricities  that 
naturally  attach  to  abnormal  or  hybrid  life,"  says  the  former  ;  while  the  Lagos 
writer  laments  that  by  adopting  foreign  education  and  a  foreign  mode  of  life 
Africans  have  become  foreigners  to  their  own  people,  with  whom  they  can  only 
converse  through  interpreters.  There  is  no  class,  says  the  writer,  which  is  less 
welcome  to  the  lay  Englishman  than  the  "  black  white  man  "  who  has  abandoned 
his  racial  integrity  and  is  quick  to  learn  European  vices.  Compare  Locke's 
observation  that  to  teach  a  child  contrary  to  his  natural  bent  is  to  produce 
affectation.  "The  negro,"  says  Lebon,  "  will  never  be  fit  for  institutions  which 
are  not  in  some  way  a  direct  outcome  of  the  negro  character."  Dr  Blyden 
expresses  the  same  view  :  "  Progress  must  be  along  the  line  of  our  own  institu- 
tions. Intellectual  development  must  be  of  his  own  powers — the  present  policy 
makes  the  African  a  caricature." 


ASPIRATIONS  OP  THE  EDUCATED  APKICAN.  83 

Dr  Moton,  head  of  the  splendidly  organised  Tuskegee  Institu- 
tion, gave  dignified  expression  to  the  same'  feeUng  when,  after 
a  prolonged  tour  in  Europe,  he  -wrote  :  "  I  landed  on  American 
shores  with  the  feeling  that  whatever  may  be  the  disadvan- 
tages and  inconveniences  of  my  race  in  America,  I  would 
rather  be  a  negro  in  the  United  States  than  anybody  else  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world."  ^ 

This  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  recent  claims  by 
the  educated  West  African  for  a  larger  share  in  the  govern- 
ment. I  do  not  refer  to  the  spectacle  of  Mr  Garvey,  "  Pro- 
visional President  of  Africa,  arrayed  in  a  flowing  robe  of 
crimson  slashed  with  green,"  claiming  to  found  a  single 
republic  for  the  whole  continent,  and  parading  the  streets 
of  Hew  York  with  six  bands,^  for  such  wild  schemes  can  only 
fill  the  cultured  and  thoughtful  African  with  regret  and 
misgiviQg,  and  in  the  words  of  Dr  Moton,  lead  "  many  honest 
and  sincere  white  people  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  educating 
the  coloured  man." 

But  movements  such  as  the  Pan-African  Congress,  which 
met  at  Paris  under  the  presidency  of  M.  Diagne — a  native 
African,  and  Deputy  for  Senegal — during  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence, stand,  in  a  different  category,  and  in  so  far  as  they 
give  expression  to  the  desire  for  a  larger  individual  and  collec- 
tive responsibility  and  liberty — ^which  is  the  natural  outcome 
of  British  teaching — may  be  regarded  as  indications  of  pro- 
gress. The  principles  to  which  the  resolution  of  the  Congress 
gave  expression  are  in  the  main  reasonable,  and  differ  little 
from  those  which  have  guided  Great  Britain  in  her  dealings 
with  the  tropical  races,'  but  like  the  so-called  "  National 

'  Loc.  cit.,  p.  152.  '  'Times,'  2nd  Sept.  1920. 

^  The  terms  of  the  resolution  were  as  follows  : — 

The  Governments  of  the  Allies  and  their  associates  should  establish  an  inter- 
national code  of  laws  for  the  protection  of  natives.  A  permanent  secretariat  in 
the  League  of  Nations  should  see  to  the  application  of  these  laws. 

The  coloured  races  of  the  world  desire  that  henceforth  the  natives  of  Africa 
and  peoples  of  African  origin  should  be  governed  everywhere  in  accordance  with 
the  following  principles  : — 

(1)  The  Land. — The  soil  and  its  natural  resources  shall  be  reserved  and  safe- 
guarded for  the  natives,  who  shall  have  effective  ownership  of  the  lands  they 
cultivate. 

(2)  Capital. — A  system  of  concessions  shaU  be  so  fashioned  as  to  prevent  the 
native  from  being  exploited  and  the  natural  riches  of  the  country  from  being 
drained.  These  concessions  should  be  only  temporary,  and  be  under  State 
supervision.  Note  should  be  taken  of  the  growing  needs  of  natives,  and  part  of 
tlie  profits  should  be  used  for  the  moral  and  material  development  of  the  native. 

(3)  Labour. — The  abolition  of  slavery  and  corporal  punishment  of  any  nature. 


84  THE   PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH   TROPICAL   AFRICA. 

Conference,"  which  recently  laid  a  petition  before  the  King, 
the  Congress  could  lay  no  claim  to  be  considered  as  repre- 
sentative of  Africa,  which  is,  of  course,  too  vast  a  country 
and  with  too  diversified  a  population  to  be  represented  by 
any  delegation  from  any  particular  region. 

The  latter  body  consisted  of  a  group  of  native  barristers 
and  others,  for  the  most  part  resident  in  the  Gold  Coast, 
whose  claim  to  represent  the  advanced  thought  and  progres- 
sive elements  of  that  colony  was  indignantly  repudiated  by 
certain  of  its  chiefs,  while  probably  no  one  in  Mgeria  outside 
the  coast  towns  had  ever  heard  of  their  existence.  The 
Governor  (Sir  H.  Clifford)  poured  scathing  ridicule  on  "  the 
fantastic  claim  to  a  common  nationality,"  or  to  represent 
either  the  advanced  or  the  primitive  peoples  of  Mgeria, 
and  the  leading  representative  of  native  opinion  in  Lagos 
"  protested  with  aU  the  emphasis  at  his  command  at  the 
impudence  of  these  people  who  style  themselves  representa- 
tives of  Mgeria."  In  these  circumstances  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  discuss  their  voluminous  resolutions,  but  they  were 
not  couched  in  any  spirit  of  disloyalty.^ 

In  India  the  principle  was  enunciated  that  advancement 
in  self-government  must  depend  on  the  extent  to  which  the 
educated  class  is  in  sympathy  with,  and  capable  of  represent- 
ing the  illiterate  sections  of  the  people.  In  this  respect  the 
claim  of  the  African  "  intelligentsia  "  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
very  weak,  nor  has  the  educated  native,  generally  speaking, 
shown  himself  to  be  possessed  of  ability  to  rule  either  his 
own  community  or  backward  peoples  of  his  own  race,  even 
under  favourable  conditions.  "  Can  any  one  say  that  the 
Governments  of  Hayti,  San  Domingo,  or  even  of  Liberia  are 

The  abolition  of  forced  labour,  except  as  a  penal  procedure  for  the  punishment 
of  crimes.     The  promulgation  of  official  labour  rules. 

(4)  Education. — Every  coloured  child  shall  be  taught  its  mother  tongue  and 
the  language  of  the  trustee  nation.     Professional  education  shall  be  available. 

(5)  Health. — A  service  of  medical  assistance,  composed  of  hospitals  and 
doctors,  shall  be  established  by  the  State  which  shall  be  responsible  for  the 
welfare  of  the  inhabitants. 

(6)  The  State.  —  The  coloured  races  of  Africa  shall  be  allowed  gradually 
increased  participation  in  the  State,  as  their  intellectual  development  improves, 
by  virtue  of  the  principle  that  governments  exist  for  peoples  and  not  peoples  for 
governments. 

'  Mr  Hayford,  a  member  of  the  Delegation,  quotes  in  his  book,  '  Gold  Coast 
Native  Institutions,'  p.  312,  the  following  appreciation  of  British  rule:  "We 
labour  in  vain  to  find  one  spot  (upon  the  world-wide  map  of  the  British  Empire), 
where  the  people  possess  in  their  own  right  such  a  rich  and  unhampered  legacy 
of  liberty,  freedom,  and  enfranchisement  as  we  should  enjoy  on  the  Gold  Coast.'' 
See  note  on  page  619. 


SCOPE  FOR  THE  EDtTCATED  CLASS.  85 

successful,"  asks  a  native  writer  who  does  not  fear  to  face 
the  facts.i 

However  strong  a  sympathy  we  may  feel  for  the  aspirations 
of  these  African  progressives,  sane  counsellors  will  advise 
them  to  recognise  their  present  limitations.  At  no  time  in 
the  world's  history  has  there  been  so  cordial  a  hand  held 
out  to  Africa,  such  genuine  admiration  for  the  achievements 
of  such  men  as  Booker  Washington  and  Moton,  or  a  keener 
desire  to  assist  the  African  in  the  path  of  progress,  and  in 
Mr  Ehodes'  words  to  grant  "  equal  rights  to  all  civilised  men 
irrespective  of  race."  "  I  think,"  said  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonies  (Mr  Churchill),  when  addressing  the  Dominion 
Premiers  in  June  last  (1921),  "  there  is  only  one  ideal  that  the 
British  Empire  can  set  before  itself,  and  that  is  that  there 
should  be  no  barrier  of  race,  colour,  or  creed  which  should 
prevent  any  man  by  merit  from  reaching  any  station  if  he 
is  fitted  for  it." 

Meantime  there  is  abundant  opportunity  for  the  educated 
African,  if  he  wiU  avail  himself  of  it,  in  the  sphere  of  civic 
usefulness  and  the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  the 
people  in  the  cities  in  which  he  lives,  and  the  community  to 
which  he  belongs,  and  for  whom  he  can  claim  to  speak  with 
knowledge.  Let  us  learn  from  him  how  these  opportimities 
can  be  enlarged,  and  he  may  rest  assured  that  his  opinions, 
and  above  aU  his  visible  efforts  to  realise  the  obligations  of 
his  own  municipality,  will  be  met  with  sympathy. ^  Booker 
Washington's  "  first  and  last  word  was  co-operation  " — ^the 
aspiration  to  serve  others  and  not  himself. 

As  a  professional  man  the  educated  native  can  establish 
schools  and  obtain  financial  assistance  under  the  educational 
code,  or  he  can  conduct  hospitals  and  dispensaries.  As  a 
business  man  he  can  open  hotels  (which  are  much  needed) 

'  Nigerian  '  Pioneer,'  13th  Sept.  1918.  See  Stoddart's  account  of  Hayti,  loc. 
cit.,  pp.  141  and  100,  &c.  The  Bpeeches  of  the  present  and  late  Presidents  of 
Liberia  are  excellent  essays  on  the  art  of  government  by  a  foreign  ruler,  but 
the  reports  which  reach  us  of  disregard  for  native  rights,  insecurity  of  trade,  and 
lack  of  educational  facilities  testify  to  an  inability  to  put  them  into  practice. 

^  The  determined  hostility  of  the  civilised  native  community  to  the  imposition 
of  any  rates  strikes  at  the  very  basis  of  municipal  independence.  In  Lagos  a 
moderate  water-rate  to  defray  in  part  the  cost  of  a  pure  and  abundant  water- 
supply  led  to  riots.  In  Sierra  Leone  the  limitation  of  the  hut-tax  to  the  protecto- 
rate was  adversely  commented  on  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  In  the  Gold  Coast  the 
Governor  at  one  time  had  it  in  contemplation  to  abolish  the  small  rates  levied  in 
certain  coast  towns,  in  view  of  the  hostility  of  the  people  to  them.  This  opposi- 
tion has  in  all  cases  been  led  by  an  influential  section  of  the  educated  classes. 


86  THE  PEOPLE   OF  BRITISH  TROPICAL  Al'RIOA, 

or  employ  his  knowledge  and  capital  in  scientific  farming. 
In  aU  the  channels  of  civic  responsibility  he  can  establish 
his  claim  to  municipal  self-government.    (See  chapter  xxix.) 

The  episode  of  the  "  National  Conference  Delegation  "  has 
served  to  give  prominence  to  a  principle  of  far-reaching 
importance,  with  which  I  shall  deal  more  fully  in  the  chapter 
on  native  rule — ^viz.,  whether  the  path  to  self-government 
alike  among  Oriental  and  African  races  may  not  better  be 
sought  by  the  education  of  their  own  rulers,  and  the  gradual 
extension  of  their  powers,  than  by  the  introduction  of  an 
alien  system  of  rule  by  British  -  educated  and  politically- 
minded  progressives.  In  a  striking  speech  in  the  Gold  Coast 
Legislature,  Chief  Ofori  Atta,  C.B.E.,  supported  by  the  other 
three  native  members,  maintained  that  the  claim  of  a  hand- 
ful of  educated  lawyers  and  doctors  to  represent  the  people, 
instead  of  their  chiefs,  was  a  base  attempt  to  denationaUse 
the  institutions  of  the  country.  In  his  cabled  version  of  it 
to  the  Colonial  Ofl&ce,  the  Governor  says  that  the  delegates 
have  brought  discredit  on  education  since  "  illiterates  have 
now  a  just  complaint  that  education  leads  to  belittling  and 
ignoring  the  native  rulers."  ^ 

There  is  no  colour  bar  in  British  Africa,  and  the  educated 
native  enjoys  the  fullest  liberty.  He  is  allowed  the  utmost 
licence  in  the  newspapers  he  conducts,  unless  he  oversteps 
the  limits  which  render  him  liable  for  defamation  or  sedition. 
He  engages  in  trade,  in  professional  practice,  and  in  recreations 
on  equal  terms  with  Europeans,  and  there  are  many  highly- 
respected  and  influential  native  gentlemen  who  have  availed 
themselves  to  the  full  of  these  facilities.  Africans  are  ap- 
pointed to  such  posts  in  the  administration  as  they  are  quali- 
fied by  education  and  character  to  fiU. 

In  an  article  on  "  the  colour  problem  "  contributed  to  the 
'  Edinburgh  Eeview  '  of  April  1921,  I  summarised  my  con- 
clusions in  the  following  words,  which  the  President  of  the 
United  States  recently  quoted  in  a  speech  in  the  Southern 
States,  as  seeming  to  him  to  indicate  "  the  true  way  out "  :  ^ 

^  Telegram  communicated  to  the  Press  by  the  Colonial  Office  at  the  request  of 
the  Governor.     The  assertions  were  later  denied  by  other  chiefs. 

^  Speech  at  Birmingham,  Alabama,  26th  October  1921.  Individual  dislikes,  and 
aversion  to  social  intercourse,  which  between  persons  of  the  same  race  would  be 
ascribed  to  their  real  causes,  are  often  indiscriminately  attributed  to  colour  pre- 
judice. The  desire  to  tread  a  separate  path  in  matters  social  and  racial  is,  as  some 
coloured  writers  have  assured  us,  as  much  desired  by  themselves  as  by  whites. 


NO   RACIAL  DISCEIMINATION.  87 

"  Here,  then,  is  the  true  conception  of  the  inter-relation  of 
colour  :  complete  uniformity  in  ideals,  absolute  equality  in 
the  paths  of  knowledge  and  culture,  equal  opportunity  for 
those  who  strive,  equal  admiration  for  those  who  achieve ; 
in  matters  social  and  racial  a  separate  path,  each  pursuing 
his  own  inherited  traditions,  preserving  his  own  race-purity 
and  race-pride  ;  equality  in  things  spiritual,  agreed  divergence 
in  the  physical  and  material." 

Addressing  the  Legislative  Council  in  January  1921,  the 
Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  said  that  he  hoped  to  see  50  per 
cent  of  the  present  European  stafE  in  the  technical  departments 
replaced  by  natives,  and  announced  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  elaborate  the  organisation  of  a  native  Civil 
Service.  In  Nigeria  a  native  African  of  exceptional  ability 
has  long  held  the  second  highest  post  in  the  Education 
Department  in  the  south,  and  frequently  acted  as  its  head, 
and  was  appointed  by  me  to  the  highest  executive  post  under 
the  Administrator  of  the  colony.  Pour  hold  appointments 
as  medical  officers.  In  the  Gold  Coast  the  principal  medical 
officer  was  at  one  time  a  native.  That  there  are  but  few 
Africans  in  the  higher  branches  of  the  Civil  Service  is  in  part 
due  to  the  fact  that  few  are  well  quaUfled  by  force  of  char- 
acter and  educational  attainments,  and  in  part  to  the  fact 
that  unofficial  activities  offer  prospects  of  more  lucrative 
employment  to  the  really  capable.  Few  adopt  the  profession 
of  engineering,  and  it  is  obvious  that  difficulties  are  Ukely 
to  arise  if  a  young  African  engineer  is  placed  in  charge  of 
British  platelayers,  artisans,  and  sMlled  foremen,  but  the 
Survey  Department  offers  more  scope.  The  subordinate 
clerical  service  is  entirely  manned  by  natives,  as  also  the 
subordinate  posts  in  the  railway,  engineering,  medical,  print- 
ing, survey,  and  other  technical  departments.  In  Mgeria 
it  is  roughly  estimated  that  not  less  than  4500  posts  in  the 
clerical  and  2500  in  the  technical  departments  are  so  held, 
with  an  aggregate  of  not  less  than  £500,000  per  annum  in 
salaries.*  Outside  the  Government  service  half  the  unofficial 
members  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  the  colony  and  of  the 
Town  Council  of  Lagos  are  natives,  and  they  are  represented 
also  in  the  Nigerian  Council.  Efforts  have  been  made  to 
enlist  the  active  participation  of  African  gentlemen  on  the 
advisory  boards  of  the  various  townships,  on  school  com- 

1  Cmd.  468  of  1920,  p.  18. 


88  THE  PEOPLE   OP  BRITISH   TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

mittees,  and  similar  orgamsations,  both  in  the  colony  and  in 
the  protectorate. 

While,  therefore,  as  we  have  seen,  the  educated  native  has 
not  proved  himself  able  to  govern  communities  of  which  he  is 
iQ  no  way  representative,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  most  desir- 
able that  natives  who  have  the  necessary  quaMcations  of 
character  and  education  shoidd  be  afforded  every  opportunity 
of  participating  in  the  government  of  the  community  to  which 
they  belong,  whether  as  civil  servants  or  as  unofficial  members 
of  municipal  boards  and  councils,  even  if  at  first  their  stand- 
ards of  attaimnent  faU  below  those  of  the  British  staff,  for 
it  is  only  by  the  exercise  of  actual  responsibility  that  efficiency 
can  eventually  be  attained,  and  that  a  tradition  of  public 
service  can  be  created.  As  Lord  Milner,  speaking  at  Oxford, 
observed:  "We  may  even  to  some  extent  have  to  sacrifice 
efficiency  of  administration  in  order  to  promote  contentment, 
though  we  cannot  as  honest  trustees  afford  to  sacrifice  it 
too  much."  ^ 

I  am,  however,  reluctantly  compelled  to  admit  that,  so 
far  as  my  own  experience  goes,  it  is  extremely  difficult  at 
present  to  find  educated  African  youths  who  are  by  character 
and  temperament  suited  to  posts  in  which  they  may  rise  to 
positions  of  high  administrative  responsibility.^ 

It  is  a  natural  presumption  that  the  illiterate  tribes  would 
have  more  confidence  in  one  of  their  own  race  and  colour, 
who  could  speak  their  language  fluently,  view  life  from  their 
standpoint,  and  understand  and  sympathise  with  their  pre- 
judices as  no  European  could.  But  I  have  been  frequently 
assured  by  those  who  know  them  best  that  the  illiterate 
native,  even  of  the  coast  cities,  is  more  ready  to  give  his 
confidence  to  the  white  man  than  to  the  educated  native. 

With  the  object  of  creating  a  class  qualified  by  character 
and  educational  attainments  to  fill  responsible  positions  under 
Government,  I  have  suggested  the  formation  of  a  native 
Cadet  Service,  the  members  of  which  by  prolonging  their 

•  "  We  must  be  prepared  to  see  Indian  electorates  hurt  others— the  helpless 
as  well  as  themselves.  It  is  the  only  way  in  which  the  spirit  of  trusteeship  can 
be  called  into  being  and  made  to  grow."— L.  Curtis,  quoted  by  Sir  V.  Chirol. 
'Times,' 7th  June  1918. 

2  My  personal  experience  is  limited  to  the  colony  of  Lagos,  where  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  leading  native  gentlemen  are  immigrants  from  the  older 
colonies  of  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Gold  Coast,  in  which,  no  doubt,  a  larger  number 
are  fitted  for  responsible  positions. 


THE   TRUE  PATH   TO   SELF-GOVERNMENT.  89 

studies  during  the  earlier  years  of  their  service  under  special 
arrangements,  and  specialising  in  such  subjects  as  would 
qualify  them  for  the  higher  posts,  would  form  a  class  from 
which  the  Government  could  with  confidence  select  proba- 
tioners for  the  Civil  Service.  I  shall  discuss  this  more  fully 
in  the  chapter  on  education.  The  principle  might  perhaps 
be  inaugurated  by  the  formation  at  headquarters  of  a  group 
of  clerks  specially  recommended  by  heads  of  departments 
as  qualifled  for  positions  of  responsibility  and  control,  and 
by  affording  them  facilities  for  special  study. 

Some  bitter  criticisms  have  been  made  upon  the  educated 
African,  and  none  perhaps  more  searching  than  that  of  his 
distinguished  representative,  the  late  Dr  E.  Blyden.  A 
French  writer  draws  the  conclusion  that  a  literary  education 
on  European  lines  has  mischievous  results,  and  that  "  Great 
Britain,  though  animated  by  a  sense  of  duty  and  by  a  high 
ideal,  is  creating  classes  of  natives  who  feel  no  gratitude  to 
her,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  bitterly  hostile."  ^  The  edu- 
cated native  would  indignantly  repudiate  this  charge,  for  he 
loves  to  present  loyal  addresses  to  the  Throne.  But  he  some- 
times fails  to  realise  that  loyalty  does  not  begin  and  end 
by  singing  "  God  save  the  King,"  and  is  incompatible  with 
racial  antagonism,  which  treats  with  contempt  the  sym- 
pathetic efforts  of  those  who,  while  recognising  present  limita- 
tions, seek  his  best  welfare.  The  more  honour  is  due  to  those 
Africans — such  as  Messrs  Carr,  Ajasa,  and  Sapara  Williams 
in  Nigeria,  and  many  others  in  the  Gold  Coast  and  Sierra 
Leone — who  with  great  moral  courage  have  not  feared  to 
point  the  true  way  to  their  countrymen,  and  to  expose  and 
condemn  false  ideals. 

When  the  Europeanised  African  has  qualified  in  the  school 
of  municipal  training,  and  proved  his  ability  to  control  his 
own  community  and  improve  its  conditions,  he  can  claim, 
and  rightly  be  accorded,  increased  representation  on  the 
legislative  and  other  councils,  and  selection  by  elective  vote. 
The  area  over  which  the  Legislative  Coimcil  exercises  juris- 
diction can  be  gradually  extended  to  include  the  whole  of  the 
tribe  to  which  the  native  councillors  belong,  whose  customary 
law  and  language  they  understand,  and  whom  they  can  in 
fact  represent.    But  it  would  be  unjust  to  place  under  their 

'  'Lois  Psychol ogiques  de  I'Evolution   des  Peuples,'  Lebon.     See  'Colonial 
Journal,'  April  1914. 


90       THE  PEOPLE  OP  BRITISH  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

control  the  interior  tribes,  who  themselves  have  a  right  to 
a  measure  of  seL£-rule.  The  laws  which  affect  these  tribes 
must  be  made  by  those  responsible  for  their  government. 

But  though  the  claim  of  the  educated  African  to  represent 
or  to  rule  the  people  of  the  interior  may  be  denied,  though 
the  foibles  and  the  foUies  of  some  individuals  may  have 
brought  discredit  on  his  class,  and  chagrin  to  those  who  have 
a  wider  sympathy  and  culture,  let  us  not  forget  the  incalcul- 
able debt  which  Africa  owes  to  her  educated  sons.  Adminis- 
tration in  West  Africa  would  be  impossible  without  the  vast 
army  of  clerks  and  accountants  who  fill  the  departmental 
offices.  Eailway  extension  would  have  been  equally  impos- 
sible without  the  telegraphists,  guards,  signallers,  storekeepers, 
and  the  rest  of  the  trained  assistants.  In  every  branch  of 
effort  he  bears  his  share,  and  both  the  Government  and  the 
merchant  would  find  it  difficult  to  exist  without  his  services. 
He  has,  as  I  have  said,  a  special  claim  to  our  sympathy, 
since  he  is  the  creation  of  the  system  of  education  we  have 
introduced,  and  his  aspirations  are  the  natural  outcome  of 
the  ideals  we  have  taught  him. 

I  wQl  not  discuss  in  this  place  the  races  of  alien  origin 
which  have  created  so  profound  an  influence  in  parts  of 
British  tropical  Africa.  Of  the  Fulani  in  particular  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  in  the  chapter  on  native  adminis- 
tration. But  a  bttle-known  class  in  West  Africa — the  Syrians 
— merit  a  word  in  passing.  It  astonishes  the  newcomer  to 
see  a  white  man  as  pedlar  or  hawker  in  the  streets  of  Lagos 
or  Accra,  but  he  soon  learns  that  the  Syrian  has  come  to 
Africa  to  stay.  He  lives  at  first  on  the  same  plane  as  the 
illiterate  African,  but  he  does  not  inter-marry  with  him.  He 
brings  his  wife,  and  rears  his  children  in  the  tropics,  and  by 
rigid  thrift  he  often  rises  to  positions  of  considerable  affluence. 
As  a  trader  he  is  the  counterpart  in  the  West  of  the  Indian 
in  East  Africa. 

The  recent  riots  in  Sierra  Leone,  in  which  Syrians  were 
attacked  and  their  property  destroyed,  causes  us  misgivings 
as  to  the  ability  of  the  Europeanised  African  to  deal  justly 
by  others  when  his  material  interests  are  involved — a  mis- 
giving which  was  enhanced  by  the  inclusion  among  the  "  re- 
forms "  advocated  by  the  "  National  Conference,"  of  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Syrians,  and  their  exclusion  from  West  Africa, 
on  the  grounds  that  they  were  a  menace  to  the  good  govern- 


IS  CIYILIgATION  A  BENEFIT?  91 

ment  of  the  land — a  proposal  stigmatised  as  "  preposterous  " 
by  an  unofficial  councillor  in  Mgeria,  where  there  has  been  no 
such  movement.  In  French  West  Africa,  however,  "  measures 
have  been  taken  by  the  Government  to  control  the  entry  of 
Syrian  merchants  into  the  territory  and  the  conduct  of  their 
bustaess  with  the  natives,"  since  they  compete  seriously  with 
the  French  merchants.^ 

We  are  perhaps  somewhat  too  apt  to  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  introduction  of  civilisation  must  add  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  natives  of  Africa.  The  ascent  of  man  to  a  higher 
plane  of  intelligence,  self-control,  and  responsibility  is  a 
process  not  unattended  by  pain.  We  in  England  would  not 
hesitate  to  prefer  our  present  cidture  to  the  barbarism  of  our 
woad-painted  ancestors,  but  who  shall  say  that  we  are  either 
happier  or  physically  fitter  than  they  ? 

Under  the  conditions  of  primitive  communal  life  the  law 
of  might  prevails.  The  community  is  at  the  mercy  of  its 
most  combative  members,  and  the  older  men  are  generally 
unable  to  control  the  headstrong  young  warriors  who  bring 
war  upon  the  tribe.  It  is  the  weak  who  suffer.  Women, 
after  the  first  flush  of  youth,  lead  a  life  of  perpetual  toil  and 
slavery.  The  aged  and  the  sick  succumb  to  the  law  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  enhancement  of  the  value  of  life 
to  the  individual  brings  with  it  apprehension.  From  the 
ability  to  realise  cause  and  effect  spring  many  sources  of 
fear  unknown  to  primitive  man.  A  more  highly-developed 
brain  and  nervous  system  increases  the  sensibility  to  physical 
pain.  Evolution  and  progress  are  a  law  of  nature,  and  since 
the  necessities  of  his  existence  compel  civflised  man  to  share 
the  produce  of  the  tropics,  let  us  see  to  it  that  the  process  is 
accompanied  by  as  much  benefit  and  as  little  injury  to  the 
natives  as  may  be.  Let  us  admit  that  the  "  blessings  of 
civilisation  need  not  necessarily  be  limited  to  our  civilisation, 
and  of  religion  to  our  religion,  without  giving  a  thought  to 
the  value  of  other  civilisations,  older  than  and  perhaps  as 
admirable  in  practice  as  our  own,  and  to  other  religions  in 
which  men  have  lived  and  died  with  comfort  and  hope  for 
centuries  before  we  ourselves  emerged  from  the  rudest  bar- 
barism." ^ 

1  Foreign  Office  Handbook,  No.  100  of  1920,  p.  14. 

2  'Times,'  15th  January  1907. 


92  THE   PEOPLE    OF   BRITISH   TKOPICAL   APEIOA. 

The  practical  man,  however,  recognises  the  futility  of 
theoretical  disputations  as  to  whether  or  not  civilisation  is  a 
benefit.  Though  the  Allies  in  their  reply  to  the  German 
demand  for  the  restitution  of  her  colonies,  state  that  a  Man- 
datory Power  will  derive  no  benefit  from  the  exercise  of  his 
trusteeship,  it  would  be  absurd  to  deny  that  the  initial  motive 
for  the  penetration  of  Africa  by  Western  civilisation  was 
(with  the  exception  of  the  religious  missions)  the  satisfaction 
of  its  material  necessities,  and  not  pure  altruism.  In  the 
circumstances,  as  Sir  Charles  Lucas  says,  the  best  protection 
for  the  native  against  abuse  of  power  by  the  white  man  is 
to  place  the  white  man  under  the  control  of  a  civilised 
Government.^ 

It  is  impossible  to  strike  a  balance  of  the  immediate  profit 
and  loss  to  the  native  populations  by  the  advent  of  civilisa- 
tion. On  the  one  hand,  the  freedom  of  inter-communication, 
which  followed  the  cessation  of  inter-tribal  war,  has  had  the 
result  of  disseminating  diseases  previously  confined  to  par- 
ticular localities.  It  brought  from  the  Congo  the  "  Jigger," 
and  the  sleeping-sickness  which  decimated  the  population  of 
Uganda.  It  has  afforded  to  itinerant  native  traders  access 
to  primitive  commimities,  which  they  did  not  previously  dare 
to  invade,  and  they  have  carried  venereal  diseases  with  them 
both  in  the  east  and  in  the  west.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  medical  science  has  mitigated  the 
scourge  of  smallpox  by  vaccination,  and  is  waging  successful 
war  against  leprosy,  ankylostomiasis,  sleeping-sickness,  yellow 
fever,  and  other  endemic  diseases.  Civilisation  has  decreased 
the  sum  of  human  misery  inflicted  by  man  upon  man  by  tribal 
war,  barbarous  practices,  and  slave-raiding.  By  promoting 
trade  and  increasing  wealth  it  has  raised  the  standard  of  life 
and  comfort. 

The  white  man  was  at  first  engaged  in  consolidating  his 
own  position,  and  making  the  tropics  more  healthy  for  Euro- 
peans engaged  in  their  development.  He  has  now  accepted 
the  principle  that  they  must  be  made  more  healthy  for  the 

^  '  The  British  Empire,'  Lucas,  p.  207. 

^  A  Nigerian  resident  remarks  in  one  of  his  reports  that  Fulani  herdsmen  now 
penetrate  unmolested  into  pagan  areas,  where  before  the  era  of  British  rule  the 
cannibal  tribes  would  have  disposed  of  him  "  by  the  complete  method  of  eating 
both  him  and  his  cattle. " 


BENEFITS   AND   DRAWBACKS.  93 

native  population.^  If,  then,  we  have  to  admit  that  the  first 
impact  of  civilisation  on  barbarism — ^no  less  than  on  an 
Oriental  social  organisation — is  boimd  at  first  to  produce 
some  untoward  results,  we  may  find  encouragement  and 
promise  for  the  future  in  the  undeniable  alleviation  of  human 
suffering  which  it  has  also  brought. 

^  Colonel  Amery  (Under-Secretary)  in  the  debate  on  the  Colonial  Office  vote, 
August  1919. 


94 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOME   GENERAL  PEINCEPLES   OF  ADMINISTEATION. 

Nature  and  functions  of  the  administration — Constitution  of  a  Crown 
colony — Two  principles  of  administration  :  (a)  Decentralisation — 
Decentralisation  and  amalgamation — Reasons  for  amalgamation — 
The  case  of  Nigeria — Decentralisation  in  departments — Method  of 
amalgamation  in  Nigeria — The  principles  involved — (6)  Continuity  : 
of  personnel — Of  records — Of  Governor's  instructions  and  policy — 
Continuity  in  office  of  Governor — Scheme  of  continuous  respon- 
sibility— Anticipated  advantages — The  former  system — Objections 
by  permanent  officials — Object  and  limitations — The  "Man  on  the 
Spot " — The  scheme  abandoned — Suggestions  for  promoting  con- 
tinuity and  co-operation — Tenure  of  office  of  Governor. 

Tke  British  Empire,  as  General  Smuts  has  well  said,  has 
only  one  mission  —  for  liberty  and  self-development  on  no 
standardised  lines,  so  that  all  may  feel  that  their  interests 
and  religion  are  safe  under  the  British  flag.  Such  liberty 
and  self-development  can  be  best  secured  to  the  native  popula- 
tion by  leaving  them  free  to  manage  their  own  affairs  through 
their  own  rulers,  proportionately  to  their  degree  of  advance- 
ment, under  the  guidance  of  the  British  staff,  and  subject  to 
the  laws  and  policy  of  the  administration. 

But  apart  from  the  administration  of  native  affairs  the 
local  Government  has  to  preserve  law  and  order,  to  develop 
the  trade  and  communications  of  the  country,  and  to  protect 
the  interests  of  the  merchants  and  others  who  are  engaged 
in  the  development  of  its  commercial  and  mineral  resources. 
What,  then,  are  the  functions  of  the  British  staff,  and  how 
can  the  machinery  of  Government  be  most  efficiently  consti- 
tuted for  the  discharge  of  its  duties  in  those  coimtries  in  Africa 
which  fall  under  British  control  ? 

The  staff  must  necessarily  be  limited  in  numbers,  for  if 
the  best  class  of  men  are  to  be  attracted  to  a  service  which 


THE   MACHTNEEY    OF   GOVERNMENT.  95 

often  involves  separation  from  family  and  a  strain  on  health, 
they  must  be  offered  adequate  salaries  and  inducements  ia 
the  way  of  leave,  housing,  medical  aid — or  their  equivalents 
in  money — for  their  maintenance  in  health  and  comfort  while 
serving  abroad,  and  this  forms  a  heavy  charge  on  the 
revenues.  Policy  and  economy  alike  demand  restriction  in 
numbers,  but  the  best  that  England  can  supply. 

Obviously  a  consideration  of  the  machinery  of  British 
administration  in  the  tropics  involves  a  review  of  its  rela- 
tions to  the  home  Government  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  its 
local  constitution  and  functions  on  the  other.  I  wiU  take 
the  latter  first. 

The  Government  is  constituted  on  the  analogy  of  the 
British  Government  in  England.  The  Governor  represents 
the  King,  but  combines  the  functions  of  the  Prime  Minister 
as  head  of  the  Executive.  The  Councils  bear  a  certain  re- 
semblance to  the  Home  Cabinet  and  Parliament,  while  the 
detailed  work  of  the  administration  is  carried  out  by  a  staff 
which  may  be  roughly  divided  into  the  administrative,  the 
judicial,  and  the  departmental  branches. 

The  administrative  branch  is  concerned  with  the  super- 
vision of  the  native  administration  and  the  general  direc- 
tion of  policy  ;  with  education,  and  the  collection  and  control 
of  direct  taxes,  which  involve  assessment  and  close  relations 
with  the  native  popidation ;  with  legislation  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  in  courts  other  than  the  Supreme 
Court ;  and  with  the  direct  government  and  welfare  of  the 
non-native  section  of  the  population. 

The  departmental  staff  is  charged  with  duties  in  connec- 
tion with  transport,  communications,  and  buildings  (railways, 
marine,  and  public  works)  ;  with  the  development  of  natural 
resources  (mines,  collieries,  forestry,  agriculture,  and  geology)  ; 
with  the  auxiliary  services  of  government  (medical,  secretarial, 
accounting,  posts  and  telegraphs,  surveys,  &c.)  ;  and  the 
collection  of  customs  duties. 

The  task  of  the  administrative  branch  is  to  foster  that 
sympathy,  mutual  understanding,  and  co-operation  between 
the  Government  and  the  people,  without  which,  as  Sir  C. 
Ilbert  has  observed,  no  Government  is  really  stable  and  effi- 
cient. Its  aim  is  to  promote  progress  in  civUisation  and 
justice,  and  to  create  conditions  under  which  individual 
enterprise   may   most   advantageously   develop   the  natui-al 


96  SOME   GENERAL  PRINCIPLES   OP   ADMINISTRATION. 

resources  of  the  country.  The  task  of  the  departments,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  to  maintain  the  Government  machine  in  a 
state  of  efftciency,  and  to  afford  direct  assistance  in  material 
development.  Their  motto  is  efficiency  and  economy.  The 
two  branches  work  together,  and  their  duties  overlap  and 
are  interdependent  in  every  sphere.  The  efficient  discharge 
of  those  duties  ia  combination  constitutes  the  white  man's 
title  to  control. 

There  are  in  my  estimation  two  vital  principles  which 
characterise  the  growth  of  a  wise  administration — ^they  are 
Decentralisation  and  Contiauity.  Though,  as  Lord  Morley 
said  of  India,  "  perfectly  efficient  administration  has  an 
inevitable  tendency  to  over-centralisation,"  it  is  a  tendency 
to  be  combated.  It  has  indeed  been  said  that  the  whole 
art  of  administration  consists  in  judicious  and  progressive 
delegation,  and  there  is  much  truth  ia  the  dictum,  pro- 
vided that  delegation  of  duties  be  accompanied  by  public 
responsibility.  This  is  not  applicable  to  the  head  of  the 
Government  alone  or  in  particular,  but  to  every  single  officer, 
from  the  Governor  to  the  foreman  of  a  gang  of  daily  labourers. 
The  man  who  is  charged  with  the  accompUshment  of  any 
task,  and  has  the  ability  and  discrimination  to  select  the  most 
capable  of  those  who  are  subordinate  to  him,  and  to  trust 
them  with  ever-increasing  responsibiMty,  up  to  the  limits 
of  their  capacity,  will  be  rewarded  not  only  with  confidence 
and  loyalty,  but  he  will  get  more  work  done,  and  better 
done,  than  the  man  who  trie§  to  keep  too  much  in  his  own 
hands,  and  is  slow  to  recognise  merit,  originaUty,  and  effi- 
ciency in  others.  His  sphere  of  work  becomes  a  training 
school,  and  he  is  able  to  recommend  his  best  men  for  promo- 
tion to  greater  responsibility  than  he  himself  can  confer. 
The  Governor  wha delegates  to  his  Lieut.-Govemors,  Eesidents, 
and  heads  of  departments  the  widest  powers  compatible 
with  his  own  direct  responsibility  to  the  Crown,  will  witness 
the  most  rapid  progress. 

But  delegation  to  an  individual  who  is  not  equal  to  the 
responsibility  obviously  means  disaster,  and  it  is  there- 
fore often  advisable  to  entrust  extended  powers  to  the 
individual  rather  than  to  incorporate  them  as  a  part  of 
the  duties  of  his  office.  His  successor,  who  must  obviously 
have  less  experience,  and  may  or  may  not  be  his  equal 
in  ability,   will  not   then    automatically    enjoy    the    same 


DELEGATION  OF  POWEKS.  97 

latitude,  until  he  has  proved  his   capacity  in  the   higher 
office. 

Increased  latitude  to  the  individual  is  not,  however,  in- 
consistent with  increased  delegation  of  duties  to  the  office, 
more  especially  ia  the  administrative  branch  of  the  service, 
where  posts  must  of  necessity  grow  ia  importance  as  the 
country  as  a  whole  develops.  It  is  a  frequent  ground  of 
criticism  that  the  Colonial  Office  has  been  somewhat  backward 
ia  appreciatiag  the  value  of  this  principle  in  these  young  and 
rapidly-growing  dependencies. 

The  Governor,  by  delegatiag  work  to  others,  would  seem 
to  lighten  his  own  task,  but  in  point  of  fact  the  more  he 
delegates  the  more  he  will  find  to  do  ia  co-ordinatiag  the 
progress  of  the  whole.  Moreover,  in  order  to  have  a  right 
appreciation  of  the  abihties,  and  of  the  personal  character 
of  each  principal  administrative  officer  and  head  of  depart- 
ment, he  must  be  in  close  personal  touch  with  them,  and 
make  absolutely  clear  to  them  the  essential  features  of  his 
policy.  He  must  be  the  directiug  brain,  and  leave  the  execu- 
tion to  others.  The  task  he  imdertakes  is  no  light  one,  and 
if  he  should  be  caUed  on  to  create  an  administration  db  ovo, 
or  to  lay  down  new  Unes  of  pohcy  in  an  old  one,  the  work 
may  become  more  than  the  time  at  his  command  suffices  for, 
and  the  personal  touch  with  his  officers  may  temporarily 
suffer  from  the  insistent  demands  of  his  office,  until  he  is 
able  gradually  to  delegate  to  those  in  whom  he  has  confidence. 

In  applying  the  principle  of  decentraUsation  it  is  very 
essential  to  maintain  a  strong  central  co-ordinating  authority, 
in  order  to  avoid  centrifugal  tendencies,  and  the  multiplica- 
tion of  units  without  a  sufficiently  cohesive  bond.  I  shall 
revert  to  this  point  when  discussing  the  grouping  of  colonies. 

There  are  in  British  tropical  Africa  several  blocks  of  terri- 
tory under  separate  administrations  which  are  contiguous  to 
each  other,  and  the  question  arises  whether  it  would  be  more 
advantageous  that  they  should  be  placed  under  a  single 
directing  authority,  with  a  single  fiscal  system,  a  common 
railway  policy,  and  identical  laws — ^more  especially  if  one 
controls  the  coast  area,  and  the  other  has  no  access  to  the 
seaboard.  Such  a  process  would,  of  course,  be  in  no  way 
opposed  to  decentralisation  of  the  machinery  of  Government. 
Amalgamation  (that  is,  unification)  and  federation  are  both 
natural  processes  of  evolution,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  United 

G 


98  SOME   GENERAL  PRINCIPLES   OP  ADMINISTRATION. 

States,  in  Canada,  Australia,  and  South  Africa,  and  more 
recently  in  Nigeria.  The  French  have  gone  even  further, 
and  placed  colonies  widely  separated  from  each  other  under 
a  central  authority.  I  will  deal  here  only  with  the  question 
of  amalgamation.  The  federation  or  grouping  of  colonies 
raises  a  separate  issue,  which  I  shall  discuss  later. 

Where  one  administration  comprises  the  coast  area,  and 
collects  the  customs  dues  (which  have  hitherto  formed  the 
bulk  of  the  revenue  in  most  African  dependencies),  whQe 
another  forms  its  hinterland,  the  latter  must  either  estab- 
lish an  inland  fiscal  frontier,  or  share  the  duties  collected 
by  its  neighbour.  The  former  expedient  adds  to  the  cost 
of  all  imports — already  enhanced  by  the  inherent  expense  of 
long  and  costly  transport  services  (involving  a  slower  turnover 
of  commercial  capital), — and  is  obviously  opposed  to  the 
progress  of  trade  and  development,  apart  from  the  heavy  cost 
of  the  administration  of  an  effective  customs  and  preventive 
service.  The  latter  course  is  rendered  most  difficult  by  the 
impossibility  of  arriving  at  a  division  of  the  customs  revenue 
which  will  not  be  resented  by  both.  Imported  goods  which 
have  paid  duty  on  the  coast  pass  into  the  hands  of  native 
middlemen,  and  their  ultimate  destination,  by  a  thousand 
byways  of  trade,  may  be  in  the  hinterland ;  or  the  export- 
able produce  for  which  they  are  bartered  may  originate  in 
the  interior  territory.  It  is  clearly  impossible  to  discriminate 
with  any  accuracy  in  such  circumstances  between  the  value 
and  volume  of  the  trade  properly  belonging  to  each  adminis- 
tration. The  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  July  1893 
made  strong  representations  in  this  sense  to  Lord  Eosebery 
regarding  Nigeria.  The  French  Governor- General,  M.  Eoume, 
referring  to  the  fiscal  reorganisation  of  the  French  West 
African  colom'es,  observed  that  "  it  was  not  right  to  continue 
to  allow  the  coast  colonies  alone  to  benefit  by  trade,  a  large 
proportion  of  which  was  destined  for  the  interior,"  and 
Senegal  had  to  make  a  subsidy  to  its  hinterland. 

A  hinterland  Government  has  not  only  to  bear  heavy 
transport  charges  from  and  to  the  coast  on  its  imports  and 
exports,  but  upon  it  falls  the  burden  of  frontier  defence.  In 
order  to  balance  its  budget  it  will  probably  have  to  depend  on 
a  grant  from  Parliament,  paid  by  the  British  taxpayer,  while 
the  coast  Government  may  have  a  surplus  revenue.  A  grant- 
in-aid  involves  control  by  the  Imperial  Treasury — a  depart- 


AMALGAMATION — ^WHEBE  NECESSAEY.  99 

ment  whicli  knows  nothing  of  local  needs,  and  is  solely  con- 
cerned in  reducing  the  charges — and  the  dual  control  of  two 
departments  of  State  is  inimical  to  aU  progress. 

With  an  increase  of  material  prosperity,  new  and  dis- 
turbing factors  arise.  An  interior  administration  depends 
largely  for  its  development  on  railways  and  improved  water- 
ways, for  which  capital  is  required — but  loans  are  not  per- 
missible while  as  yet  a  country  depends  on  an  Imperial  grant. 
Even  if  sufficient  revenue  for  its  needs  were  raised  by  taxa- 
tion, payment  of  taxes  must  be  largely  made  in  kind,  which 
can  only  be  realised  by  conveying  it  to  the  coast.  Some 
smaU  part  may  be  sold  to  merchants  for  cash,  but  they 
will  not  establish  themselves,  unless  means  of  transport  are 
available. 

The  organisation  and  control  of  railways,  waterways,  and 
telegraph  lines  traversing  both  territories  must  of  necessity 
be  in  the  hands  of  a  central  administration.  It  would  obvi- 
ously be  iaadvisable  for  one  administration  to  treat  the 
other  as  foreign  territory,  and  to  conclude  railway  and  postal 
conventions  with  it  in  order  to  exercise  separate  control  over 
its  own  section.  Increased  cost  of  administration,  obstacles 
to  trade,  unnecessary  accounting,  and  the  certainty  of  fric- 
tion must  result.  A  comprehensive  and  far-sighted  railway 
policy,  to  which  the  efforts  of  both  would  be  consistently 
devoted,  becomes  impossible.^ 

When  legislation  pursues  two  different  channels,  differences 
in  policy  in  regard  to  native  administration,  the  courts  of 
law,  and  other  vital  matters  are  bound  to  arise,  and  it  is 
obviously  inadvisable  that  contiguous  communities  should 
be  under  different  systems  of  taxation,  and  different  penal 
codes.  The  evil  is  accentuated  by  the  fact  that  the  frontiers 
between  the  two — often  fixed  at  a  time  when  their  geography 
and  ethnology  were  ahnost  unknown,  by  lines  of  latitude 
and  longitude  instead  of  by  distinctive  natural  features — 
must  inevitably  intersect  tribal  boundaries.    It  goes  without 

'  The  railway  in  East  Africa  does  not  actually  traverse  Uganda,  and  the 
di£Sculty  is  therefore  not  so  acute,  but  it  depends  largely  for  its  earnings  on  the 
carriage  of  merchandise  to  and  from  Uganda.  Hitherto  Kenya  has  appropriated 
its  revenue.  A  railway  Board  has  now  been  formed  on  which  both  countries 
are  represented.  The  control  of  the  Board  (unless  amalgamation  of  the  two 
Governments  is  carried  out)  must  presumably  be  exercised  from  Downing  Street, 
— a  retrograde  step  opposed  to  decentralisation,  and  tending  towards  that 
absentee  control  from  London,  which  the  Indian  Railway  Committee  has  so 
unanimously  condemned.— See  Cmd.  1512/1921. 


100        SOME   GENERAL  PKIWCIPLES   OF   ADMINISTRATION. 

saying  that  a  single  co-ordinated  effort  will  achieve  more  for 
the  permanent  good  of  a  country  than  the  separate  efforts 
of  two  administrators,  not  focussed  on  a  common  objective. 

Such  conditions  were  applicable  to  Mgeria,  and  are  still 
probably  applicable  to  Kenya  and  Uganda.  They  were  fully 
described  by  me  iq  a  Memo,  dated  May  1905  ;  but  the  amal- 
gamation of  Mgeria,  though  supported  by  the  Governors  of 
the  coastal  administrations,  was  not  decided  upon  till  1912, 
when  Mr  Harcourt  charged  me  with  the  task.  To  administer 
such  enormous  territories  as  East  Africa  or  Mgeria  as  a 
single  unit,  decentralisation  is  more  than  ever  necessary,  but 
how  it  can  best  be  effected  is  not  an  easy  problem. 

In  the  administrative  branch  the  chain  of  responsibiUty 
from  the  most  junior  grade  to  the  head  of  the  Government 
— the  District  Officer,  the  Eesident  of  a  Province,  the  Lieut.- 
Govemor — ^is  easily  forged,  but  the  departments  offer  a  more 
difficult  problem.  If  on  the  one  hand  each  department  is 
under  a  single  head,  responsible  to  the  Governor,  the  ten- 
dency is  towards  a  highly-centralised  Government,  in  which 
the  Lieut.-Govemors  are  deprived  of  initiative  and  financial 
control,  and  there  is  a  danger  lest  their  instructions  to  the 
local  representative  of  the  department  may  conflict  with 
those  of  the  departmental  head.  The  Lieut. -Governor  for 
aU  jyractical  purposes  ceases  to  frame  his  own  budget.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  duplication  of  departmental  heads  in  each 
area  under  a  Lieut. -Governor  involves  extra  cost,  and  some 
loss  of  technical  efficiency  and  co-ordination.  There  are, 
moreover,  a  number  of  departments  whose  functions  are 
indivisible,  and  they  must  remain  under  the  direct  control 
of  the  central  authority — such  as  the  judicial,  railway,  mili- 
tary, &c. 

The  scheme  of  amalgamation  adopted  in  Nigeria  was  de- 
signed to  involve  as  little  dislocation  of  existing  conditions 
as  possible,  while  providing  for  the  introduction  later  of  such 
further  changes  as  were  either  foreseen,  but  not  immediately 
necessary,  or  might  be  suggested  by  future  experience.  They 
would  then  be  rather  in  the  nature  of  natural  evolution  than 
of  reversal.  There  are  twenty-one  provinces  in  Mgeria — 
exclusive  of  the  Mandate  territory  in  the  Cameruns  and  of 
the  colony  proper — each  with  an  average  area  of  16,000  square 
miles,  and  a  population  of  800,000.  To  invest  each  Eesident 
of  a  province  with  large  powers  of  autonomy,  or  at  the  least 


AMALGAMATION  tN  NIGERIA.  101 

to  create  half  a  dozen  Lieut.-Govemorships,  would  not  be  a 
measure  of  decentralisation  but  the  reverse,  for  the  work 
arising  from  each  of  the  separate  units — as  well  as  from  all 
the  departments — ^would  be  centralised  in  the  hands  of  the 
Governor.  The  truest  principle  of  decentralisation  was  to 
make  the  area  placed  under  a  Lieut.-Govemor  so  large  and 
important  that  the  oflBicer  appointed  to  its  charge  could  reheve 
the  Governor  of  all  the  routine  functions  of  administration, 
leaving  him  to  direct  the  general  poUcy,  initiate  legislation, 
and  control  those  departments  which  must  necessarily  be 
centrahsed. 

The  old  northern  and  southern  divisions  of  Nigeria  were 
retained  intact  (the  colony  being  a  separate  entity),  and 
placed  under  Lieut.-Govemors,  pending  the  unification  of  the 
laws,  the  judicial  system,  and  the  general  policy.  It  was 
thought  that  when  the  fundamental  divergencies  in  these 
should  have  been  removed,  it  would  be  possible  (should  the 
experience  gained  point  in  that  direction)  to  create  a  third 
Lieut. -Governorship,  or  to  make  other  changes.  The  task  of 
amalgamating  and  re-enacting  the  statute-books  of  the  two 
administrations  was  one  which  would  necessarily  take  some 
time. 

The  difficulty  regarding  the  decentraUsation  of  the  depart- 
ments to  which  I  have  alluded  was  dealt  with  in  the  following 
way.  A  central  secretariat  (which  woidd  naturally  later 
become  the  principal  secretariat  of  Mgeria)  was  set  up,  while 
Lieut. -Governors  retained  their  own  secretariats.  The  de- 
partments which  I  have  described  as  necessarily  indivisible 
remained  under  the  Governor  and  the  Central  Secretary. 
The  other  large  departments,  such  as  the  Medical  and  Public 
Works,  were  retained  in  each  imit  as  fuUy  organised  entities, 
and  their  receipts  and  expenditure  were  included  in  the  Lieut.- 
Governor's  budget,  but  they  were  placed  under  the  general 
supervision  of  an  officer  senior  to  both  the  departmental 
heads,  who,  without  interfering  with  the  Lieut.-Governor's 
control,  preserved  uniformity  and  technical  efficiency,  and 
acted  as  adviser  to  Government.^  Minor  departments,  such 
as  Police,  Education,  &c.,  whose  spheres  of  action  do  not 

'  In  proportion  as  the  head  of  a  department  ceases  to  exercise  executive 
functions,  and  acts  as  adviser  to  Government,  he  approaches  to  the  position  of 
a  "Minister"  in  a  self-governing  colony,  and  the  germ  of  a  future  development 
is  introduced. 


102        SOME   GENERAL  PEESrCIPLES   OF   ADMINISTEATION. 

overlap,  remained  separate  in  each  unit.  Departmental  pro- 
motion was  in  all  cases  to  be  determined  by  a  common  roster. 

In  fiscal  matters  the  whole  of  Nigeria  became  a  single 
entity.  All  revenue  was  paid  into  the  common  Treasury  (a 
"  central "  department),  and  each  Lieut. -Governor  and  the 
heads  of  the  central  departments  framed  and  submitted  his 
own  estimates  to  the  Governor,  who  personally  examined 
them  with  him,  and  assigned  such  funds  for  new  works  or 
for  departmental  expansion  as  the  requirements  of  the  coun- 
try as  a  whole  permitted.  I  shall  describe  more  fully  the 
functions  and  powers  of  the  Lieut.-Governor  and  other  ofl&cers 
in  the  next  chapter.  It  suffices  to  note  here  that  the  methods 
by  which  it  was  sought  to  secure  effective  decentralisation 
were  {a)  by  the  delegation  of  executive,  financial,  and  adminis- 
trative powers  to  Lieut.-Governors  who  would  exercise  re- 
sponsibility and  initiative,  and  not  be  merely  Deputy-Governors 
with  no  executive  powers  of  their  own  ;  ^  (6)  the  administra- 
tion of  native  affairs,  being  regarded  not  merely  as  a  depart- 
ment, but  as  the  most  important  duty  of  the  administration, 
the  Resident  of  a  Province  was  as  far  as  possible  reUeved  of 
all  other  administrative  duties,  in  order  that  he  might  devote 
his  undivided  time  and  thought  to  this  work  ;  (c)  the  authority 
of  its  head  over  a  department  was  unfettered,  and  subject 
only  to  the  control  of  the  Governor  or  Lieut.-Governor,  as 
the  case  might  be.  This  scheme  of  amalgamation  was  adopted 
in  the  particuJar  circumstances  then  existing  in  Nigeria  ;  and 
its  general  principles  would  of  course  require  adaptation  if 
applied  elsewhere,  and  wiU  require  modification  to  the  chang- 
ing conditions  of  the  development  of  Nigeria  itself.^ 

To  what  extent  the  principles  of  decentrahsation  may 
be  applied  as  between  the  Colonial  Ofl&ce  and  the  local  Govern- 
ment is  a  question  I  shall  discuss  in  chapters  vui.  and  ix. 

The  second  of  the  two  principles  which  I  have  described 
as  vital  in  African  administration  is  Continuity,  and  this, 
like  Decentrahsation,  is  applicable  to  every  department  and 
to  every  officer,  however  junior,  but  above  all  to  those  officers 
who  represent  the  Government  in  its  relations  with  the  native 
population.    The  annually  recurrent  absence  on  leave,  which 

^  Decentralisation  is  the  key-note  of  the  Sudan  administration,  where 
Qovemors  of  provinces  have  the  widest  powers. 

"  A  full  report  was  submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  published  as 
Cd.  468  of  1920. 


CONTrNtUTT  OF  STAFF  AND  RECORDS.  103 

withdraws  each  officer  in  West  Africa  from  his  post  for  about 
a  third  of  his  time,  the  occasional  invalidings  and  deaths, 
and  the  constant  changes  rendered  unavoidable  of  late  years 
by  a  depleted  and  iaadequate  staif,  have  made  it  extremely 
difficult  to  preserve  in  that  part  of  Africa  any  continuity 
whatever.  The  African  is  slow  to  give  his  confidence.  He  is 
suspicious  and  reticent  with  a  newcomer,  eager  to  resuscitate 
old  land  disputes — ^perhaps  of  half  a  century's  standing — ia 
the  hope  that  the  new  officer  ia  his  ignorance  may  reverse 
the  decision  of  his  predecessor.  The  time  of  an  officer  is 
wasted  ia  picMng  up  the  tangled  threads  and  informiag 
himself  of  the  conditions  of  his  new  post.  By  the  time  he 
has  acquired  the  necessary  knowledge,  and  has  learnt  the 
character  of  the  people  he  has  to  deal  with,  and  won  their 
confidence,  his  leave  becomes  due,  and  if  on  his  return  he  is 
posted  elsewhere,  not  only  is  progress  arrested  but  retro- 
gression may  result. 

It  is  also  essential  that  each  officer  should  be  at  paias 
to  keep  full  and  accurate  records  of  aU  important  matters, 
especially  of  any  conversation  with  native  chiefs,  ia  which 
any  pledge  or  promise,  imphed  or  expUcit,  has  been  made. 
It  is  not  enough  that  official  correspondence  should  be  filed 
— a  summary  of  each  subject  should  be  made  and  decisions 
recorded  and  brought  up  to  date,  so  that  a  newcomer  may 
be  able  rapidly  to  put  himself  au  courant.  The  higher  the 
post  occupied  by  an  officer,  the  more  important  does  the 
principle  become. 

It  is  especially  important  that  the  decisions  of  the  Governor 
should  be  fuUy  recorded  in  writing,  and  not  merely  by  an 
initial  of  acquiescence  or  a  verbal  order.  This  involves  heavy 
office  work,  but  it  is  work  which  cannot  be  neglected  if  mis- 
understandings are  to  be  avoided  and  contiauity  preserved. 
The  very  detailed  instructions  regarding  the  duties  of  each 
newly-created  department  which  were  issued  when  the  admia- 
istration  of  ^Northern  Mgeria  was  first  inaugurated,  served  a 
very  useful  purpose  in  maintaining  continuity  of  policy,  tUl 
superseded  on  amalgamation  by  briefer  general  orders. 

In  the  sphere  of  administration  there  are  obviously  many 
subjects — education,  taxation,  slavery  and  labour,  native 
courts,  land  tenure,  &c. — in  which  uniformity  and  continuity 
of  policy  is  impossible  in  so  large  a  country,  unless  explicit 
instructions  are  issued  for  guidance.     By  a  perusal  of  the 


104        SOME  GENERAL  PBINCIPLES   OF  ADMTMSTEATION. 

periodical  reports  of  Eesidents,  the  Governor  could  inform 
himself  of  the  difficulties  which  presented  themselves  in  the 
varying  circumstances  of  each  province,  and  think  out  the 
best  way  in  which  they  could  be  met,  and  could  note  where 
misunderstandings  or  mistakes  had  been  made.  By  these 
means  a  series  of  Memoranda  were  compiled,  and  constantly 
revised  as  new  problems  came  to  light,  and  as  progress  ren- 
dered the  earlier  instructions  obsolete.  They  formed  the 
reference  book  and  authority  of  the  Eesident  and  his  staff. 

In  a  country  so  vast,  which  included  communities  in  all 
stages  of  development,  and  differing  from  each  other  pro- 
foundly in  their  customs  and  traditions,  it  was  the  declared 
policy  of  Government  that  each  should  develop  on  its  own 
lines  ;  but  this  in  no  way  lessens  the  need  for  uniformity  in 
the  broad  principles  of  policy,  or  in  their  application  where 
the  conditions  are  similar.  It  was  the  aim  of  these  Memo- 
randa to  preserve  this  continuity  and  uniformity  of  priaciple 
and  policy.  ^Newcomers,  by  studying  them,  could  make 
themselves  fuUy  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  task 
before  them,  the  problems  to  be  dealt  with,  and  the 
attitude  of  Government  towards  each  of  those  problems. 
Senior  officers  were  spared  the  labour  and  loss  of  time  involved 
in  frequent  iteration,  when  noting  any  misunderstanding  or 
ignorance  in  the  reports  of.  their  subordinates,  by  simply 
inviting  attention  to  the  pertinent  paragraph  of  the  Memo- 
randum. Subversive  policies  cannot  gradually  creep  in,  and 
any  change  must  be  deliberately  inaugurated  by  the  formal 
cancellation  of  the  particular  instructions  in  the  Memoranda. 
Though  the  preparation  of  the  Memoranda  involves  consider- 
able labour,  they  result  in  an  eventual  saving  in  the  time 
both  of  the  Governor  and  of  senior  officers.  They  are  the 
embodiment  of  the  experience  of  the  most  capable  officers, 
co-ordinated  by  the  head  of  the  Government,  who  has  access 
to  the  reports  and  is  familiar  with  circumstances  of  aU.  When 
any  point  of  particular  difficulty  presents  itself  where  opinions 
are  in  conflict,  and  the  information  insufficient  to  form  a 
clear  judgment  on  the  principles  involved,  the  Governor  may 
perhaps  cause  a  precis  to  be  circulated  before  a  final  decision 
is  reached.  The  little  volume  of  '  Political  Memoranda  '  has 
been  of  much  use  in  Nigeria.  It  deals  solely  with  the  actual 
problems  of  practical  administration. 

The  Statute  Book,  the  Eegulations  and  Orders  made  under 


CONTINXHTY  IN   OFFICE  OF  GOVEENOU.  105 

the  laws,  the  General  Orders,  and  the  Governor's  Memoranda 
on  administrative  subjects,  contain  between  them  in  a  readUy 
accessible  and  compact  form  the  whole  structural  policy  of 
the  Administration,  and  constitute  the  "  Laws  and  Usages  " 
of  the  country.  Had  such  a  quartette  existed,  revised  de- 
cennially since  the  earliest  origin  of  our  Indian  Empire  and 
of  our  Crown  colomes,  they  would  have  formed  valuable 
material  for  the  history  of  the  Empire.  In  Africa  we  are 
laying  foimdations.  The  superstructure  may  vary  iu  its 
details,  some  of  which  may  perhaps  be  ill-designed,  but  the 
stability  of  the  edifice  is  unaffected.  Ton  may  puU  down  and 
re-erect  cupolas,  but  you  cannot  alter  the  design  of  the  founda- 
tions without  first  destroying  all  that  has  been  erected  upon 
them. 

Important  as  it  is  that  the  British  Staff,  so  long  as  they 
are  efficient,  should  remain  in  the  same  posts  without  more 
iutemiption  than  is  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  health, 
and  the  prevention  of  ennui  or  "  staleness,"  it  is  of  stiU  greater 
importance  that  contiauity  should  be  maintained  in  the  case 
of  an  efficient  Governor,  who  directs  the  poUcy  of  the  whole 
country.!  For  in  a  rapidly-progressing  country  poUcy  and 
legislation  are  developed  from  day  to  day.  Regulations  and 
Orders  in  Council  for  the  carrying  out  of  laws  are  matters  of 
daily  consideration ;  and  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  decentra- 
lise and  to  delegate  powers,  the  Governor  has  to  deal  daily 
with  large  numbers  of  Minute  papers,  each  calling  for  a 
considered  judgment  on  some  problem  of  sufficient  importance 
for  reference  to  him. 

It  is  above  all  important  that  he  should  be  present  towards 
the  close  of  the  year,  when  the  estimates  are  framed  ia  which 
the  programme  of  material  progress — ^railways,  roads,  buildings 
— and  increases  of  staff,  &c.,  are  settled.  These  months,  and 
the  first  quarter  of  the  new  year,  are  far  more  important 
from  an  administrative  and  business  point  of  view  than  the 
remaining  months,  which  form  the  rainy  season  in  the  tropics 
north  of  the  Equator.    The  accounts  are  completed  ;   annual 

'  The  'Times,'  diecuosing  the  "Administrative  problem  in  Equatorial  Africa," 
in  a  well-informed  article  some  years  ago  (1st  Oct.  1901),  pointed  out  that  the 
entire  absence  of  continuity  in  the  administration  of  Uganda  had  produced 
results  which  were  alike  "deplorable  and  discreditable."  The  bewUdering 
rapidity  of  the  changes  in  Commissioners,  each  of  whom  experimented  with 
the  unfortunate  country  by  introducing  new  and  subversive  policies,  made  it 
impossible  to  fix  any  responsibility. 


106        SOME   GENERAL  PRINCIPLES   OF   ADMINISTRATION. 

reports  from  all  departoents  begin  to  come  in,  and  must  be 
reviewed ;  and  the  yearly  report  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
for  which  they  form  material,  must  be  compiled.  Com- 
munications are  no  longer  impeded  by  washouts,  or  roads 
too  soft  from  rain  to  carry  vehicles,  and  the  season  permits  of 
travel  and  iaspection.  In  order  always  to  be  present  at  this 
season,  a  Governor  ia  West  Africa  must  take  his  leave  either 
after  eight  or  after  about  seventeen  months  in  the  country, 
and  so  make  his  absence  coincide  with  the  raiay  season. 
By  which  arrangement  wiU  continuity  be  best  preserved  ? 

The  seventeen  months'  tour  of  service  involves  a  heavy 
strain.  The  Governor's  absence  on  completing  it  would 
extend  over  a  period  of  about  6^  months,  iacluding  voyages, 
thus  seriously  encroaching  on  the  working  season.  During 
so  long  a  period  many  matters  of  first-class  importance  must 
be  decided  without  awaiting  his  return,  new  legislation  must 
be  put  through,  and  even  questions  of  policy  may  be  affected. 
By  so  long  an  absence  continuity  is  seriously  sacrificed. 
Another  hand  must  guide  the  hehn,  or  there  must  be  a  period 
of  stagnation  and  delay.  Important  questions  await  his 
return,  and  leave  him  but  little  time  to  read  up  aU  that  has 
transpired  during  his  long  absence,  so  that  he  finds  himself 
wasting  precious  time  in  the  hopeless  endeavour  to  overtake 
arrears  at  a  moment  of  exceptional  pressure,  or  dealing  with 
questions  with  which  he  is  perforce  imperfectly  acquainted. 

The  eight  months'  period  of  residential  service  offers  less 
disadvantage  in  these  respects,  and  is  already  applicable  to 
the  judges  in  Mgeria.  But  even  an  absence  of  four  months 
in  each  year  (including  voyages)  is  a  distressing  break  in  con- 
tinuity, if  the  Governor  during  this  period  is  wholly  detached 
from  his  work.  It  was,  however,  found  necessary  by  Lord 
Cromer — though  the  climate  of  Cairo  or  Alexandria  is  better 
than  that  of  West  Africa, — and  I  beUeve  he  attributed  much 
of  his  success  to  his  annual  holiday.  The  Governor-General 
of  the  Sudan  also  takes  an  annual  leave,  bringing  home  with 
him  during  the  rainy  season  many  of  his  senior  officers,  and 
transacting  much  business  for  his  Government  during  his 
time  in  England.  During  the  absence  of  Lord  Cromer,  or 
Sir  R.  Wingate,  the  locum  tenens  could  not  initiate  any  new 
policy  or  legislation.  This  was  the  Foreign  Office  solution  of 
the  problem.  The  Niger  Chartered  Company  had  found  it  no 
less  necessary  for  their  highest  officers  (the  Agent-General 


CONTINUOUS   ADMINISTRATION   SCHEME.  107 

and  Chief  Justice)  to  come  home  yearly,  though  iu  their  case 
the  admioistration  was  directed  from  London. 

After  six  years'  experience  in  West  Africa,  during  which 
an  exceptionally  robust  constitution  enabled  me  to  adopt 
the  sixteen  to  eighteen  months'  period  of  foreign  service, 
and  so  to  avoid  absence  at  the  essential  period  of  the  year, 
I  reaUsed  very  fuUy  its  disadvantages,  and  submitted  to 
Mr  Lyttelton,  then  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  a 
proposal  by  which  I  hoped  that  this  lack  of  continuity  might 
be  overcome,  and  at  the  same  time  a  closer  touch  assured 
between  the  Governor  and  the  Secretary  of  State  and  com- 
mercial interests  in  England.  The  proposal  was  seen  by 
Mr  Chamberlain,  who  had  recently  left  the  Colonial  OfBce, 
and  he  was  inclined  to  approve  it.  The  principle  was  also 
approved  by  Lord  Cromer  and  other  statesmen.^  Mr  Lyttelton 
declared  his  intention  of  giving  it  a  trial  in  Mgeria. 

In  brief,  I  suggested  that  "  the  Governor-General  (of  an 
amalgamated  Mgeria)  should  spend  six  months  of  each  year 
in  Airica,  and  six  in  England,  being  on  duty  and  not  on  leave 
while  at  home  .  .  .  whether  in  England  or  in  Africa  he  would 
remain  the  sole  working  head  of  the  administration."  The 
scheme  was  not  cordially  accepted  by  the  permanent  officials, 
and  did  not  at  that  time  take  effect ;  but  when  in  1912  I  was 
invited  by  Mr  (now  Lord)  Harcourt  to  undertake  the  amalga- 
mation of  the  two  Nigerias,  he  agreed  to  adopt  it  on  the 
basis  of  seven  months'  residence  abroad  and  five  months' 
absence,  including  voyages — ^which  I  think  is  better  than  six 
and  six.  With  rapid  sea  passages  it  might  even  be  eight  and 
four  months. 

The  scheme  was  in  operation  for  some  years,  and  I  doubt 
whether  the  task  of  amalgamation,  with  the  added  difficulties 
of  the  war,  cotdd  have  been  satisfactorily  carried  through 
without  it.  Arrangements  had  been  made  so  that  the  r61e  of 
the  permanent  officials  at  the  Colonial  Office  should  in  no 
way  be  interfered  with  by  the  presence  of  the  Governor,  while 
his  residence  in  England  for  four  months  during  the  rains 
each  year  involved  an  absence  from  Mgeria  no  longer,  though 
more  frequent,  than  the  normal  period  of  leave.    He  was  in 

^  Sir  A.  Hemming,  who  had  served  for  thirty  years  in  the  Colonial  OfiBce, 
latterly  as  head  of  the  West  African  Department,  and  subsequently  as  Governor 
of  two  Crown  colonies,  warmly  supported  it  in  a  letter  to  the  '  Times '  (26th 
December  1905). 


108        SOME  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES   OF  ADMINISTRATION. 

point  of  fact  more  closely  in  touch  with  his  deputy  than  it 
he  had  been  travelling  ia  a  distant  part  of  Nigeria.  His 
deputy  in  Africa  was  vested  with  full  powers  to  deal  with 
any  emergency  which  might  arise,  and  to  carry  on  routine 
work. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  arrangement  would  have  beneficial 
results  in  relieving  the  Governor  for  a  period  ia  each  year, 
when  he  could  best  be  spared,  of  the  burden  of  routine  work, 
and  enable  him  to  devote  time  to  the  study  of  larger  problems,^ 
and  to  maintaiu  a  close  touch  with  commercial  interests  in 
England.  For  the  latter  reason  it  was  welcomed  by  the  mer- 
chants." It  was  anticipated  also  that  the  Governor's  presence 
in  England — ^not  on  leave  but  on  duty — might,  if  duly  utUised, 
prove  of  value  to  the  home  authorities,  and  minimise  despatch- 
writing. 

Under  the  normal  Colonial  Office  system,  the  Governor 
when  on  leave  was  rarely  consulted,  except  on  a  matter  of 
very  exceptional  importance,  and  was  at  liberty  to  leave 
England  if  he  desired.  No  doubt  it  was  the  kiudly  iutention 
that  he  should  have  complete  rest.  The  Acting- Governor  was 
vested  with  full  powers,  and  for  the  time  being  entirely  super- 
seded the  Governor,  and  was  alone  recognised  by  the  Colonial 
Office.  Since  the  Governor  did  not  see  the  despatches  sent 
to  or  received  from  his  Government,  he  lost  all  touch,  and 
on  his  return  he  had  a  heavy  task  to  overtake  arrears  and 
possess  himself  of  what  had  transpired  in  his  absence.  The 
Foreign  Office,  as  Lord  Lansdowne  told  the  House  of  Lords, 
Uke  the  French  Government,  has  a  different  tradition. 

Experience  did  not  lessen  the  hostility  of  the  permanent 
officials  to  the  scheme.^    It  was,  they  considered,  contrary 

^  Compare  Burke,  addressing  a  member  of  the  French  National  Assembly  in 
1791 :  "They  who  always  labour  can  have  no  true  judgment.  You  never  give 
yourselves  time  to  cool.  You  can  never  survey  from  its  proper  point  of  sight  the 
work  you  have  finished  before  you  decree  its  final  execution.  You  can  never 
plan  the  future  by  the  past.  .  .  .  These  are  among  the  effects  of  unremitted 
labour,  when  men  exhaust  their  attention,  burn  out  their  candles,  and  are  left  in 
the  dark." 

"  One  of  them  had  in  fact  advocated  a  very  similar  scheme — viz.,  that  a 
Governor  "  should  return  home  for  six  months  after  nine  in  Africa,  and  be 
responsible  for  his  locum,  tenens  and  all  his  acts  during  the  interval." 

'  An  obviously  well-informed  article  appeared  in  the  '  Glasgow  Herald '  of 
13th  July  1912,  before  the  scheme  was  brought  into  effect,  stating  that  Mr 
Harcourt's  decision  "was  strongly  resented  by  the  permanent  ofBcials  ...  no 
other  Crown  Colony  [they  said]  is  carried  on  in  this  way,  which  means  the 
practical  supersession  of  the  permanent  Under-Secretaries." 


ITS   OBJECT  AND  LIMITATIONS.  109 

to  all  precedent,  and  even  to  constitutional  usage.  This 
coidd  not  indeed  be  gainsaid,  but  the  experiment  could  be, 
and  was,  legalised  Mke  other  experiments  in  Empire  Ad- 
ministration, by  Letters  Patent  and  Eoyal  instructions.  The 
apprehensions  of  the  permanent  ofBcials  were  not  unnatural, 
for  the  presence  of  the  Governor  at  the  Colonial  Office  seemed 
to  threaten  the  anon5rmity  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  from 
which  they  derived  the  powers  so  absolutely  essential  to  the 
working  of  the  Colonial  Office  system.  Eegarding  this  system 
I  shall  have  some  remarks  to  make  in  chapter  viii. ;  but  in 
so  far  as  this  scheme  is  concerned,  no  interference  with  the 
functions  of  the  permanent  officials  was  ever  contemplated, 
or  alleged  while  it  was  in  operation.  The  Governor,  though 
working  in  close  relation  with  the  department,  was  not  part 
of  it,  and  had  no  claim  to  see  the  Office  Minutes. 

The  primary  object  of  the  scheme,  as  I  have  explained, 
was  to  promote  a  true  continuity  of  responsibility  and  con- 
trol, in  lieu  of  a  continuity  which  was  not  real.  That  there 
is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  an  Acting-Governor,  vested  with 
the  fullest  powers,  to  inaugurate  policies  of  his  own,  had 
been  the  experience  of  more  than  one  West  African  colony. 
It  may  not  go  so  far  as  the  reversal  of  legislation — ^which 
could  be  vetoed  by  the  Secretary  of  State — and  it  may  even 
be  due  to  misunderstanding  rather  than  to  deliberate  inten- 
tion, but  the  result  is  equally  deplorable. 

The  practicability  of  the  principle  of  continuous  respon- 
sibility of  the  Governor  when  absent  from  his  post,  and  of 
his  annual  return  to  England,  must,  of  course,  depend  largely 
on  the  distance  of  the  colony  and  the  time  taken  in  sea 
voyages.  It  is  adapted  only  to  a  group  of  colonies  under  a 
Governor-General — and  the  two  Mgerias,  in  size,  population, 
and  wealth,  might  be  said  to  represent  such  a  group — and 
to  colonies  within  a  comparatively  short  sea  voyage  of  Eng- 
land. A  scheme  which  has  been  found  feasible  for  West 
Africa,  Egypt,  and  the  Sudan  would  not  be  suitable  for  the 
Straits  Settlements,  Ceylon,  or  Mauritius,  unless  aviation 
introduces  new  possibilities  in  the  future.  The  French  system 
in  West  Africa — ^which  I  shall  presently  describe — ^is  not 
dissimilar. 

British  pubUc  opinion  is  in  favour  of  trusting  the  "  Man 
on  the  Spot,"  who  represents  the  King,  and  is  held  respon- 
sible by  the  nation.    If  trouble  occurs  through  the  action  of 


110        SOME   GENERAL  PEINCIPLES   OF  ADMINISTRATION. 

his  deputy,  it  is  the  Governor's  policy  which  is  blamed.  He 
should  therefore  have  the  same  control  over  his  deputy  -when 
he  is  in  London  as  he  would  have  were  he  absent  in  some  dis- 
tant part  of  the  protectorate,  where  for  all  practical  admiaistra- 
tive  purposes  he  would  be  less  in  touch  than  when  in  London. 
But  the  scheme,  as  Mr  Churchill  wittUy  said,  involves  an 
enlarged  definition  of  the  "  Spot,"  due  to  the  rapid  means  of 
transport  and  communications  which  steam  and  telegraphy 
have  introduced,  in  order  to  give  effect  to  the  essential  prin- 
ciple— control  by  the  man  who  is  held  responsible. 

No  project  can,  however,  be  successfully  carried  out  to 
which  one  party  is  consistently  opposed,  and  the  scheme 
has  been  abandoned, — nor  shorild  I  have  devoted  so  much 
space  to  it  were  it  not  that  its  revival — possibly  ia  some 
modified  form — ^would  certainly  in  my  view  be  desirable,  if 
the  proposal  to  "  group  "  colonies — which  I  shall  deal  with 
in  chapter  ix. — were  adopted. 

How,  then,  in  the  meantime  can  contiauity  of  responsi- 
bility and  co-operation  best  be  preserved  ?  It  has  been  said 
that  contiauity  is  maintained  by  the  permanency  of  the 
officials  at  the  Colonial  Office,  whose  r61e  it  is  to  oppose  sub- 
versive policy  by  a  new  Governor  based  on  insufficient  ex- 
perience, or  the  assumption  of  too  wide  powers  by  an  Acting- 
Governor.  This  is,  of  course,  an  essential  function  of  the 
Colonial  Office  under  the  present  system — a  function  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  Foreign  Office  had  been  accused  of  fail- 
ing to  perform  in  Uganda.  The  duty  of  acting  as  a  drag  on 
the  wheels  may  indeed  preserve  continuity,  but  it  is  not 
necessarily  a  continuity  of  progress,  and  may  even  produce 
an  attitude  of  mind  tolerant  of  delays,  and  hostile  to  new 
lines  of  thought. 

If  it  were  made  manifest  to  a  Governor  on  leave  that  his 
presence  and  assistance  is  welcomed  at  the  Colonial  Office  ; 
if  he  saw  all  correspondence  with  the  Acting-Governor,  and 
were  informed  of  all  proposed  changes  ;  if  the  atmosphere 
of  secrecy  were  exchanged  for  one  of  absolute  frankness,  not 
only  by  the  seniors  but  by  the  juniors  of  the  Office,  and  he 
were  consulted  in  matters  regarding  his  sphere  of  work,  and 
invited  to  Conferences  and  Committees  ;  if  his  period  of 
leave  were  invariably  to  coincide  with  the  rainy  season — 
either  annually  with  an  absence  of  three  to  four  months 
only,  or  (siace  conditions  in  West  Africa  now  admit  of  longer 


SOME   SUGGESTIONS   FOR   CONTINUITY.  HI 

residence)  every  alternate  year,  with  a  total  absence  not 
exceeding  six  months  (say,  from  mid-March  to  mid-Septem- 
ber) ;  and  finally,  if  the  powers  of  the  Acting-Governor  were 
strictly  curtailed,  and  the  continuous  responsibility  of  the 
Governor  were  officially  recognised — much  might  be  done  not 
only  to  promote  continuity,  but  also  to  forward  the  best 
interests  of  the  country. 

In  the  latter  direction  clear  rules  should  be  laid  down 
and  published.  The  institution  of  legislation,  the  approval 
of  important  leases,  and  the  appropriation  of  any  con- 
siderable sums  unprovided  in  the  estimates,  should  be  re- 
served to  the  Governor.  His  deputy  should  have  no  power 
to  cancel  or  alter  existiag  Eegulations,  General  Orders,  or 
Governor's  instructions,  or  to  issue  any  iastructions  contrary 
to  these  in  letter  or  spirit,  or  incompatible  with  the  general 
policy  in  regard  to  the  native  administration.  He  should 
not  alter  the  boundaries  of  provinces,  depose  or  appoint 
chiefs  of  the  highest  rank,  alter  the  permanent  distribution 
of  the  military  forces,  or  give  pledges  to  merchants  or  mis- 
sionaries which  involve  important  principles,  without  prior 
reference  to  the  Governor. 

The  prosperity  of  a  colony,  and  the  welfare  of  its  popula- 
tion, must  obviously  depend  very  largely  on  the  character 
and  energy  of  its  Governor.  It  is  therefore  of  the  first  im- 
portance that  the  best  men  should  be  selected  for  these  posts, 
and  that  during  their  tenure  of  ofl&ce  the  Secretary  of  State 
shoiild  have  frequent  opportunities  of  judging  of  their  ability 
and  sustained  energy  and  enthusiasm. 

The  work  and  character  of  a  Governor  cannot  be  gauged 
by  his  popularity,  or  by  the  hearsay  evidence  of  juniors,  or 
of  those  whose  pecuniary  interests  may  have  been  affected 
by  measures  needed  for  the  good  of  the  country,  for  they  are 
necessarily  inadequately  informed.  Unpopularity  arising 
from  questions  of  pubhc  policy  may  indeed  be  a  proof  of 
strength  of  character  and  of  a  disinterested  sense  of  duty. 

It  is  manifest  that  when  the  right  man  is  in  the  right  place, 
it  is  to  the  benefit  of  the  country  that  his  tenure  of  office 
should  be  prolonged ;  but  in  order  to  avoid  the  retention  of 
a  man  who  has  not  come  up  to  the  expectations  formed  of 
him,  or  who,  though  thoroughly  capable,  is  unsuited  to  the 
particular  post,  the  period  of  Governorship  should  be  limited 
as  now  to  six  years  (though  earUer  transfers  could,  of  course. 


112        SOME   GENEEAL  PRINCIPLES   OF  ADMINISTEATION. 

be  made),  and  the  extension  of  this  term  should  carry  with 
it  an  increase  of  emoluments,  so  that  the  Governor  may  not 
suffer  in  pocket  or  status,  and  the  extension  may  be  regarded 
as  a  recognition  of  merit.  There  is  a  widespread  feeUng  in 
the  senior  ranks  of  the  service — the  bitterness  of  which  is 
probably  not  appreciated  in  Downing  Street — ^that  present 
methods  provide  no  safeguard  against  inefficiency,  and  no 
guarantee  for  the  selection  of  the  best  men. 

A  Governor  is  often  a  married  man  with  a  family.  In  the 
conditions  hitherto  prevailing  ia  Africa,  except  in  the  eastern 
Highlands,  he  must  be  separated  from  the  latter,  even  if 
his  wife  (probably  no  longer  young)  is  able  to  accompany 
him.  The  best  men,  therefore,  are  apt  to  look  for  promotion 
to  a  colony  which  does  not  necessitate  such  separations. 
It  is  only  within  the  last  dozen  years  that  Governors  have 
remained  for  their  full  period  of  office  in  West  Africa.  Formerly 
they  rarely  remained  for  more  than  three  years.  Continuity 
again  suffers,  for  Governors  appointed  from  the  eastern  colonies 
(as  so  many  have  been  in  West  Africa)  have  much  to  learn 
and  imlearn  before  they  become  familiar  with  African  con- 
ditions and  African  character — so  essentially  different  from 
those  of  the  East. 

In  the  self-governing  colonies  limitation  of  tenure  of  office 
has  special  advantages.  Continuity  is  maintained,  not  by  the 
Governor-General,  but  by  his  ministers.  Past  controversies  are 
buried  with  the  advent  of  a  new  Governor,  and  the  progress  of 
democratic  institutions  in  the  Mother  Country,  and  her  rela- 
tions towards  the  colony,  are  more  accurately  represented. 
The  new  Governor  is,  in  fact,  more  up-to-date  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  feelings  and  changes  in  Great  Britain.  In 
the  tropical  dependencies  the  case  is  otherwise.  Personality 
counts  for  so  much  with  native  races  that  the  departure  of  a 
man  who  has  gained  their  confidence  may  set  the  clock  back 
and  delay  progress — and  the  same  may  be  said  of  material 
development.  Given  the  right  man,  the  longer  he  stays  the 
better,  provided  he  retaias  his  energy  and  enthusiasm — as 
results  have  proved  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere.  On  the  other 
hand,  as  decentraUsation  proceeds,  the  force  of  these  argu- 
ments decreases.  Continuity  of  method  and  policy  is  better 
assured,  and  the  "  new  blood "  which  the  Colonial  Office 
constantly  endeavours  to  infuse  into  the  colonies  has  its 
advantages  in  bringing  new  ideas  and  new  experience,  and  in 


CONTINXJITY — THE  PARAMOUNT  NEED,  113 

preventing  an  administration  from  becoming  limited  in  its 
channels  of  progress  under  the  continued  control  of  the  same 
man. 

Continuity  may  therefore  suffer  in  three  ways :  first,  by 
the  short  tenure  of  his  post  by  a  Governor ;  secondly,  by  his 
long  absence  on  leave ;  and  thirdly,  by  the  indefinite  powers 
given  to  his  temporary  deputy. 

It  may  be  said  that  as  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity  are  to  the 
Christian  creed,  so  are  Decentralisation,  Co-operation,  and 
Continuity  to  African  Administration — and  the  greatest  of 
these  is  Continuity. 


H 


114 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   MACHINERY   OF   ADMINISTEATION. 

The  Legislative  Council — Unofficial  representation  :  (a)  European  un- 
official members ;  (6)  native  unofficials ;  (c)  representation  of  the 
masses — Method  of  enacting  laws — The  official  vote — The  Executive 
Council — Its  duties,  procedure,  and  composition^Value  of  Executive 
Council — Committees — The  Nigerian  Council — The  Governor — The 
Governor's  deputy — The  Lieut. -Governor — The  Resident — The  Ma- 
layan and  Nigerian  systems — Conditions  in  Malaya — Contrast  between 
the  two — The  District  OflSoer — His  training — Necessity  for  acquiring 
the  language — Advantages  of  a  lingud  francd — Duties  of  the  District 
Officer — Continuity  at  his  post. 

Ttirning  from  general  principles  to  the  machinery  of  ad- 
ministration, the  Governor  and  the  Councils  over  which  he 
presides  first  claim  consideration.  The  powers  and  duties  of 
the  Governor  and  the  constitution  and  functions  of  the 
Councils  are  laid  down  in  the  "  Letters  Patent  "  which  con- 
stitute each  colony,  or  the  Eoyal  "  Orders  in  Council  "  which 
take  their  place  in  the  case  of  a  protectorate.  These  instru- 
ments are  supplemented  by  "  Boyal  Instructions,"  in  which 
they  are  further  elaborated. 

The  constitution  of  the  Legislative  Council  varies  greatly 
in  different  colonies  and  protectorates.^  In  some  of  the 
Crown  colonies  there  is  an  unofficial  majority,  either  nomi- 
nated or  partly  elected  by  constituencies  ;  but  in  the  African 
dependencies  the  unofficial  members  are  in  a  minority,  and 
are  nominated  by  the  Crown  except  in  the  case  of  Kenya, 
which  has  eleven  elected  members.  Colonial  legislatures  can 
only  exercise  jurisdiction  in  their  own  territories,  unless  special 
power  is  given  to  them  to  legislate  for  adjacent  regions.*    In 

1  See  Taring's  'Law  relating  to  the  Colonies,'  p.  61.     Also  Colonial  Regula- 
tions, chap.  i. — '  Colonial  Office  List '  (1921),  p.  793. 

2  Taring,  pp.  61  and  132. 


TINOFFICIAI,  EEPB,BSENa?ATION.  115 

Southern  Nigeria,  prior  to  amalgamation,  the  Legislative 
Council  of  the  colony  legislated  for  the  protectorate,^  but  its 
functions  are  now  Umited  to  the  colony  proper,  and  the 
Governor  legislates  for  the  protectorate.  Every  protectorate 
Bill  is  placed  before  the  Executive  CouncU  before  the  Gover- 
nor's assent  is  given,  a  draft  having  been  published  in  the 
official  gazette  for  some  time  prior  to  enactment,  unless  the 
BUI  is  urgent,  or  there  is  other  good  reason  for  not  doing  so. 
This  affords  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  public  opinion 
in  regard  to  it,  a  course  which  is  the  more  necessary  in  West 
Africa,  since  the  principals  of  most  of  the  firms  there  retain 
the  direction  of  their  commercial  affairs  largely  in  their  own 
hands  in  England,  and  their  local  representatives  have,  ac- 
cording to  their  statements,  insufficient  authority  to  voice 
their  opinions.^ 

Unofficial  membership  of  the  Legislative  Council  is  shared 
between  the  European  and  native  communities.  The  "  Mon- 
tagu-Chehnsford  Eeport "  and  the  writings  of  Mr  Lionel 
Curtis  and  Sir  Valentine  Chirol  regarding  the  great  experi- 
ment which  is  now  being  tried  in  India,  have  very  clearly 
demonstrated  the  danger  of  enlarging  the  powers  of  criticism 
by  increased  unofficial  representation — such  as  was  accorded 
by  the  "  Morley-Minto  Eeforms  " — without  the  responsibility 
which  men  feel  when  they  may  be  called  upon  to  translate 
their  theories  into  practice.^  A  community,  therefore,  which 
is  ripe  for  representative  Government  should  be  able  to  pro- 
vide individuals  capable  of  holding  high  executive  ofiBce.*  I 
shall  revert  to  this  question  in  the  chapter  on  native  rule. 

The  petition  of  the  "  National  Conference "  from  West 
Africa  complained  that  nominated  counciQors  were  not  re- 
presentative of  the  people  (though  its  leading  signatories 
owed  their  position  to  nomination).     It  elicited  from  the 

^  These  powers  apparently  grew  out  of  the  extra-colonial  jurisdiction  acquired 
by  Governor  Maclean  in  the  Gold  Coast  hinterland.  They  were  formally 
conferred  on  the  Legislative  Councils  by  a  series  of  Orders  in  Council. 

«  See  Cd.  6427  of  1912,  question  99. 

'  'Dyarchy,'  by  L.  Curtis.  Letters  to  the  'Times'  by  Sir  V,  Chirol, 
7th  June  1918,  &o. 

*  "Representative  government"  is  the  term  used  for  an  unofficial  majority 
in  the  Legislature,  and  is  of  course  very  different  from  "  responsible  government, " 
viz.,  complete  home  rule.  The  danger  of  the  premature  grant  of  too  advanced  a 
form  of  government  was  shown  in  the  case  of  Jamaica,  where,  after  twenty  years 
of  friction  and  the  refusal  of  the  unofficial  majority  to  vote  supplies,  the  Con- 
stitution was  remodelled.  Mr  Alleyne  Ireland  considers  "the  divided  counsels 
of  an  elected  Legislature  "  to  be  "  the  insidious  evil  of  the  Tropics." 


116  THE   MACHTNERT    OF  ADMINISTRATION. 

Secretary  of  State  (Lord  Milner)  his  opinion  that  these  de- 
pendencies are  not  yet  fitted  for  the  principle  of  election  or 
of  an  unofficial  majority. 

It  may  be  accepted  as  a  pririciple  of  British  colonial  policy 
that  the  interests  of  a  large  native  population  shaU  not  be 
subjected  to  the  wiU  of  a  minority,  whether  of  Europeans  or 
of  educated  natives.^  Thus  in  India  the  Governor-General 
in  Council  legislated  without  reference  to  the  Legislature  for 
scheduled  (e.g.,  backward  or  primitive)  districts  and  for 
native  states.^  In  Natal,  prior  to  the  Union,  the  Governor 
had  a  commission  as  "  Paramount  Chief  "  for  the  control  of 
extra-colonial  natives,  and  the  Legislative  Council  could  not 
interfere  with  this  jurisdiction,  while  at  the  Cape  the  High 
Commissioner  governed  the  protectorates,  and  legislated  for 
them,  in  a  separate  capacity  from  that  in  which  he  presided 
as  "  Governor  "  in  the  Cape  Legislature.  They  remain  under 
his  control,  and  are  not  subject  to  the  Union  Government. 

The  weight  which  the  British  unofficials  should  carry  is  ia 
West  Africa  impaired  by  the  lack  of  authority  to  which  I 
have  referred.  Miss  Kingsley  protested  against  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  representation  accorded  to  British  merchants, 
but  I  do  not  recall  any  complaint  by  themselves.  Though 
the  local  representatives  are  assured  of  a  sympathetic  hearing 
and  a  full  investigation  of  any  suggestions  they  may  have  to 
offer,  the  methods  of  Crown  colony  Government  as  appUed 
in  the  African  dependencies  enable  the  principals  of  firms  in 
England  to  carry  their  proposals  direct  to  the  Colonial  Office, 
and  thus  to  be  somewhat  indifferent  to  local  representation. 

There  are  already  indications  that  the  rapid  progress  of 
commerce  in  West  Africa  will  bring  with  it  a  necessity  for 
responsible  heads  of  firms,  who  can  speak  with  authority,  to 
reside  on  the  spot,  and  a  fuller  realisation  of  the  duty  and 
privilege  of  bearing  their  share  in  the  councils  of  the  countries 
in  which  their  profits  are  made,  so  that  as  in  the  Eastern 
colonies  local  questions  affecting  trade  will  increasingly  be 
decided  locally  without  the  delay  and  circumlocution  involved 
by  Colonial  Office  intervention.  Increased  representation  to 
the  merchants  is  only  possible  (unless  there  be  an  imofficial 

^  Sir  C.  Dilke  expressed  the  view  that  autocracy  ia  preferable  to  a  "veiled 
oligarchy"  such  as  would  exist  if  a  small  body  of  unofficial  Europeans  were 
invested  with  the  power  of  taxing  the  natives. 

^  Ilbert,  'Government  of  India,'  pp.  108,  121,  and  214-15. 


REPRESENTATION   OF  THE  MASSES.  117 

majority  or  a  large  increase  in  the  size  of  the  councils)  at  the 
expense  of  the  banking  and  shipping  interests,  or  of  the 
native  members.  In  the  Kenya  Colony,  where  several  thou- 
sand British  have  settled,  the  case  is  of  course  quite  different. 

The  Europeanised  natives  form  a  very  important  section 
of  the  community,  and  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  have 
a  substantial  representation  in  the  Legislature.  They  are 
necessarily  drawn  from  the  English-speaking  section,  and  are 
not  generally  (as  I  have  explained)  representative  of  any  but 
their  own  class.  Owing,  moreover,  to  the  great  distances 
and  lack  of  means  of  rapid  commimication,  the  choice  of 
native  councillors  is  practically  limited  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  capital  city,  whose  commercial  and  other  interests 
are  not  always  identical  even  with  those  of  their  own  class 
outside  the  colony.^ 

That  the  cry  of  "  self-determination  for  small  nations  " 
should  have  awakened  aspirations,  while  as  yet  no  claim  to 
a  national  status  could  be  shown,  is  neither  to  be  wondered 
at,  nor  indeed  to  be  condemned.  For  these  aspirations, 
though  occasionally  marred  by  ill-advised  language  in  the 
native  press,  have,  on  the  whole,  been  characterised  by 
moderation,  and  conducted  by  constitutional  methods.^ 
Prosperity,  combined  with  a  wrong  system  of  education  and 
widespread  illiteracy,  has  indeed,  alike  in  Ireland,  in  Egypt, 
and  in  India,  invariably  given  rise  to  unrest  and  sedition.* 

The  real  problem  is  the  representation  of  the  bulk  of  the 
population,  more  especially  the  second  of  the  two  classes, 
which  in  chapter  iv.  I  described  as  the  "  advanced  com- 
munities." Some  of  these  are  literate  in  Arabic,  or  in  their 
own  language,  but  at  present  do  not  speak  Enghsh,  and  are 
too  far  distant  from  the  seat  of  Government  (which  in  West 
Africa  is  unfortunately  in  all  cases  on  the  coast)  to  render 
attendance  by  responsible  representatives  a  practical  pos- 
sibility. 

The  obvious  remedies  are  the  spread  of  education,  and 

'  'Times'  correspondent  in  Nigeria,  24th  May  1912. 

2  The  only  serious  exception  appears  to  be  the  "  Ethiopian  Church  movement" 
fostered  by  American  negroes,  which  was  the  probable  cause  of  the  Natal  riots 
and  led  to  bloodshed  in  Nyasaland  in  1915. 

'  Never  in  the  history  of  either  Ireland  or  Egypt  had  a  condition  of  such 
material  prosperity  been  reached  as  immediately  preceded  the  outbreak  of 
disorder  in  both,  while  of  India  the  'Times'  correspondent  writes  that  "a 
standard  of  prosperity  never  previously  approached  coincides  with  a  situation 
never  comparably  so  menacing." — 22nd  December  1913. 


118  THE  MACHINEBY   OF   ADMINISTRATION. 

especially  the  knowledge  of  English,  the  improvement  of  com- 
mimications,  and  the  delegation  to  such  communities  of  the 
largest  possible  powers  of  control  of  their  own  affairs.  But 
even  so  the  desirability  that  the  view  of  native  rulers  should 
be  heard  in  Council  on  questions  of  legislation  which  affect 
them,  and  on  other  matters,  cannot  be  denied.  This  could 
perhaps  best  be  effected  under  present  conditions  by  the 
appointment  of  an  officer  charged  to  ascertain  and  represent 
their  views,  and  to  act  as  their  spokesman,  both  in  the  Execu- 
tive and  Legislative  Councils — just  as  the  Protector  of  Chinese 
Lq  the  Straits  is  charged  with  the  interests  of  alien  immi- 
grants. His  explanation  to  them  of  the  Bills  before  Council, 
and  the  opportunity  offered  to  them  of  expressing  opinions, 
of  asking  questions,  or  of  submitting  motions  through  him, 
would  be  of  great  value  in  identifying  them  with  the  Govern- 
ment and  in  their  poUtical  education. 

Ordinances  applicable  to  the  colony  are  enacted  by  the 
Governor  "  with  the  advice  and  consent  "  of  the  Council. 
They  are  operative  on  receiving  the  Governor's  assent,  and 
are  transmitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  if  not  dis- 
allowed by  His  Majesty  become  part  of  the  Statute  Book. 
In  Nigeria,  in  order  to  avoid  duplication  and  tautology. 
Bills  which  refer — as  the  majority  do,  wholly  or  in  part- 
to  both  colony  and  protectorate,  are  laid  in  fuU  before  the 
Legislative  Council,  and  passed  "  so  far  as  the  provisions 
thereof  relate  to  the  colony,"  any  clause  which  relates  ex- 
clusively to  the  protectorate  being  outside  the  purview  of 
the  Council.  If,  as  I  have  suggested  in  a  previous  chapter, 
the  colony  and  protectorate  were  merged  under  a  new  title, 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Legislative  Council  should  remain  re- 
stricted. It  might  perhaps  be  made  co-extensive  with  that 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  where,  as  in  Nigeria,  that  Court  ope- 
rates within  "  local  Mmits."  The  Eoyal  instructions  direct 
that  Bills  relating  to  certain  specified  matters  shall  not  be 
assented  to,  except  in  case  of  urgency,  without  prior  instruc- 
tions from  His  Majesty  through  the  Secretary  of  State.  Most 
ordinances  contain  a  section  empowering  the  Govemor-in- 
Council  to  make  any  necessary  Eegulations  for  giving  effect 
to  the  law,  and  the  main  heads  under  which  such  Eegulations 
may  be  made  are  usually  specified  in  the  ordinance. 

The  influence  on  legislation  which  is  exerted  by  the  Council, 
and  the  extent  to  which  Bills  submitted  to  it  are  modified 


THE  OFFICIAL  VOTE.  119 

and  improved  before  being  finally  passed,  depends,  of  course, 
on  the  interest  taken  by  members — especially  by  the  unoffl- 
cials — and  the  abUity  with  which  their  views  are  presented. 
It  is  the  desire  of  the  Governments  to  appoint  to  the  Legis- 
lative Council  those  members  of  the  community  who  are 
most  representative  of  its  interests,  and  can  best  voice  its 
opinions. 

The  procedure  of  the  Legislative  Council  both  as  to  motions 
and  as  to  Bills  is  modelled  on  that  of  the  Imperial  ParUament. 
The  Government  majority  is  represented  by  the  offlcial 
members — ^viz.,  the  holders  of  certain  offices  named  in  the 
"  Letters  Patent,"  who  are  expected  to  vote  with  the  Govern- 
ment— while  the  unofflcials  represent  the  independent  criti- 
cism of  the  Parliamentary  "  Opposition." 

This  principle  was  laid  down  in  a  circular,  dated  17th 
August  1868,  from  the  Duke  of  BucMngham  and  Chandos — 
at  that  time  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies.  Ofificial 
members  may,  if  necessary,  be  required  to  support  the  Crown 
— e.g.,  to  vote  ia  favour  of  a  Government  BiU — ^but  if  an 
officer  of  the  Crown  has  conscientious  scruples,  which  the 
Governor  is  unable  to  remove,  he  may  be  excused  from  taking 
part  in  measures  to  which  he  objects  on  these  grounds.  He 
could  not,  however,  continue  to  hold  an  office  which  carries 
with  it  a  seat  on  the  Council,  if  his  conscience  should  not 
permit  him  to  give  to  the  Crown  such  support  as  may  be 
necessary.  In  practice,  therefore,  an  official  member  may  in 
no  case  vote  against  Government.^  If  there  is  a  unanimously 
hostile  unofficial  vote,  a  clause  may  (if  the  Governor  so 
directs)  be  inserted  suspending  the  operation  of  the  ordi- 
nance until  His  Majesty's  pleasure  is  known. 

The  Executive  CoimcU  consists  of  the  holders  of  the  prin- 
cipal offices  of  the  Government,  who  are  named  in  the  Boyal 
instructions.    They  form  an  advisory  body,  before  which  the 

^  Lord  Milner,  speaking  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  12th  May  1920,  justified  the 
official  majority  in  the  following  terms :  "  The  only  justification  for  keeping  an 
official  majority  in  any  colony  is  that  we  are  convinced  that  we  are  better  judges, 
for  the  time  being,  of  the  interests  of  the  native  population  than  they  are  them- 
selves. Unless  we  thought  that,  we  should  not  be  justified  in  keeping  our 
official  majority.  If  that  is  the  case,  then  I  think  that  the  argument  that  the 
unofficial  vote  was  against  you  is  not  an  argument  which  possesses  any  force. 
The  responsibility  rests  with  us.  It  is  not  as  if  we  departed  from  the  principle 
of  trusteeship.  On  the  contrary,  on  the  principle  of  trusteeship,  we  keep  the 
authority  in  the  hands  which  we  think  for  the  time  being  most  competent  to  use 
it,  and  we  must  not  be  fearful  about  making  use  of  that  reserve  power."  Lord 
Cromer  expressed  the  same  view. — '  Literary  and  Political  Essays,'  p.  12. 


120  THE  MACHTNERT  OF  ADMINISTBATION.      ■ 

Governor  must  lay  all  matters  of  importance,  and  in  par- 
ticular any  BiU  which  he  proposes  to  bring  before  the  Legis- 
lative Council,  or  to  enact  for  the  protectorate,  and  any 
Eegulation  or  Order  which  he  proposes  to  make  under  any 
ordinance  which  requires  that  the  Eegulations,  &c.,  shall  be 
made  by  the  Govemor-in-Council. 

In  addition,  various  duties  are  laid  upon  the  Council  either 
by  Eoyal  instructions  or  by  Statute,  or  by  His  Majesty's 
Colonial  Eegulations,^  such  as  the  final  approval  of  all  pen- 
sions, gratuities,  and  other  expenditure  not  specifically  pro- 
vided in  the  estimates,  the  review  of  aU  capital  sentences, 
the  confirmation  of  sentences  of  deportation,  and  inquiry 
into  cases  of  misconduct  by  any  except  very  subordinate 
officers. 

The  Governor  presides,  and  in  case  of  divergence  of  opinion 
his  decision  prevails  ;  but  any  member  may  record  his  dis- 
sent in  the  Minutes,  which  are  periodically  transmitted  to 
the  Secretary  of  State.  Only  such  matters  are  discussed  as 
are  laid  before  the  Council  by  the  Governor ;  but  a  member 
who  wishes  to  bring  forward  any  question,  and  is  not  per- 
mitted by  the  Governor  to  do  so,  may  in  like  manner  record 
the  fact  with  his  reasons.  The  proceedings  of  the  Council 
are  confidential,  and  every  member  is  bound  by  oath  not  to 
dividge  the  matters  debated. 

The  Council  may  include  unofficial  members  nominated 
by  the  Crown,  if  so  provided  by  the  Eoyal  iastructions.  The 
advice  of  such  members  may  on  occasion  be  of  great  value  to 
the  Governor ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  merchant  may  find 
his  position  embarrassing,  should  projects  be  discussed,  or 
information  acquired  in  his  capacity  as  ComiciUor,  which 
affect  his  personal  interests,  and  are  not  known  to  his  com- 
mercial competitors.  An  Executive  Councillor,  moreover, 
would  usually  be  a  member  of  the  Legislative  Council,  and  his 
position  as  an  independent  critic  of  any  BUI  is  prejudiced  if, 
as  a  member  of  the  Executive  Council — ^which  is  practically 
the  Government — ^he  has  already  committed  himself  before 
consulting  public  opinion.  So  far  as  Europeans  are  concerned, 
business  men  in  the  tropics  have  rarely  time  to  devote  to  the 

'  These  Regulations  are  merely  directions  given  by  the  Crown  to  Governors  of 
Crown  colonies  and  protectorates  for  guidance.  They  do  not  constitute  a  con- 
tract between  the  Crown  and  its  servants ;  on  the  contrary,  tbey  are  alterable 
from  time  to  time  without  the  consent  of  Qovernment  servants. — Taring,  p.  56. 


VALUE  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL.  121 

details  of  executive  government.  The  new  constitution  of 
Kenya  provides  for  two  unofflcials  on  the  Executive  Council. 

In  Mgeria  and  other  dependencies  of  great  size  the  Gover- 
nor (unless  he  delegates  all  powers  to  his  deputy)  must  be 
able  to  summon  a  Council  at  more  than  one  centre,  if  it  be 
only  for  the  transaction  of  statutory  obligations.  This  need 
is  met  by  the  power  vested  in  the  Governor  to  summon 
oflBcers  as  "  Extraordinary  Members." 

The  Executive  CouncU  is  an  institution  of  the  utmost 
value.  It  affords  the  Governor  an  invaluable  opportunity 
of  inviting  the  criticism  and  suggestions  of  the  ablest  and 
most  experienced  of  his  staff,  not  individually  but  collectively, 
when  the  views  of  one  are  opposed  or  confirmed  by  another, 
weak  points  are  detected  and  new  aspects  brought  to  Mght. 
Every  dependency  should  be  provided  with  an  Executive 
Council.  There  was  none  in  Northern  Mgeria  prior  to  its 
amalgamation  with  Southern  Mgeria,  and  there  is  stiU  none 
in  Uganda.^ 

The  Governor,  of  course,  always  has  it  in  his  power  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  deal  with  any  particular  matter ;  and 
in  formulating  any  large  scheme,  or  in  drafting  any  specially 
constructive  ordinance,  he  would  naturally  have  availed 
himself  to  the  full  of  the  advice  of  the  officers  who  had  special 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  But  committees  and  departmental 
experts  are  alike  liable  to  take  too  restricted  a  view.^  When 
the  results  of  their  labours — expanded  it  may  be  by  the 
Governor's  own  views  and  experience — are  laid  before  the 

^  There  are  "  Advisory  Councils  "  in  Zanzibar  (see  note,  p.  34),  the  Sudan,  and 
Northern  Rhodesia.  The  latter,  consisting  of  the  Administrator  and  Secretary 
and  five  unoflBeial  members  elected  by  the  European  settlers,  was  created  in  1918. 
The  unofficials  submit  a  list  of  questions,  to  which  the  Administrator  replies,  and 
resolutions  are  passed  and  recorded.  In  response  to  a  petition  from  them  for  an 
increased  share  in  the  government,  the  Chartered  Company  has  agreed  that  all 
details  of  revenue  and  expenditure,  and  all  draft  laws  affecting  Europeans  (unless 
urgent  and  affecting  Imperial  policy),  shall  be  laid  before  them,  and  their  views 
submitted  to  the  High  Commissioner  before  the  law  is  enacted.  Lord  Buxton's 
Committee  recommends  the  creation  of  a  Legislative  Council. — Cmd.  1471/1921. 

The  Governor-General's  Council  in  the  Sudan  was  created  in  1910,  and  consists 
of  four  ex-officio  and  two  to  four  members  nominated  by  him.  The  Budget  and 
all  laws  must  be  passed  in  Council.  There  is  no  Legislative  Council. — F.O. 
Handbook  98,  p.  69. 

^  The  East  African  'Economic  Commission'  of  1919  (pp.  23,  24)  suggests  that 
decentralisation  could  be  achieved  by  the  creation  of  Advisory  Boards,  and  in 
particular  by  an  "  Economic  Development  Board."  The  powers  which  it  is 
suggested  should  be  conferred  on  this  Board  go  far  beyond  those  of  an  Advisory 
Committee,  and  would  almost  certainly  result  in  friction  with  the  Legislative  and 
Executive  Councils. 


122  THE  MACHINERY   OF   ADMINISTEATION. 

Executive  Council,  it  has  in  my  experience  constantly  hap- 
pened that  suggestions  of  great  value  are  made,  and  flaws 
detected,  by  the  fresh  minds  brought  to  bear  on  the  subject. 

Government  by  committees  is  proverbially  unsatisfactory, 
and  may  degenerate  into  a  means  of  shirking  responsibility 
or  of  limiting  free  discussion.  Their  chief  value  consists  in 
sifting  evidence  and  recording  opinions,  upon  which  a  larger 
body,  unbiassed  as  the  representatives  of  particular  interests, 
may  form  a  considered  judgment.  Undue  weight  is  apt  to  be 
attached  to  the  recommendations  of  a  committee  of  experts, 
whose  conclusions  are  not  infrequently  the  result  of  a  com- 
promise on  points  of  very  unequal  importance.^  The  Execu- 
tive Council  forms  an  admirable  body  for  fuU  and  free  dis- 
cussion, to  which  experts  can,  if  desired,  be  summoned. 

In  a  smaU  colony  in  which  the  interests  of  the  bulk  of 
the  population  are  focussed  in  the  capital  city,  or  in  which 
the  means  of  communication  by  railway  are  good,  the  Legis- 
lative Council  may  be  a  fairly  representative  body.  Its 
unofficial  members  are  influenced  by  a  pubUc  opinion  voiced 
in  the  Press,  and  made  vocal  wherever  men  meet  and  discuss 
affairs.  Membership  is  a  dignity  which  carries  with  it  con- 
siderable responsibility. 

Except  perhaps  in  East  Africa,  where  there  is  a  large 
number  of  European  settlers,  these  conditions  are  not  usually 
found  iQ  an  African  dependency.  Great  distances  intervene, 
necessitating  many  days'  travel,  and  the  Press  is  not  an 
efficient  organ  of  the  best  opinion — ^European  and  native. 
In  Mgeria,  for  instance,  there  is  a  considerable  European 
and  educated  native  community,  not  only  at  Lagos,  where  the 
Council  sits,  but  at  Kano,  Kaduna,  Bukuru  (Minesfield), 
Calabar,  and  Port  Harcourt,  none  of  which  are  less  than 
three  days'  travel  by  sea  or  land  from  Lagos — equal  in  point 
of  time  to  the  distance  between  London  and  Gibraltar.  Clearly 
no  ordinary  Council  can  succeed  in  focussing  public  opinion 
in  such  circumstances. 

To  afford  in  some  degree  a  paUiative  for  this  difficulty, 
there  has  been  established  in  Mgeria  a  Council  which,  like 
the  General  Council  of  French  West  Africa,  meets  yearly, 
usually  on  the  last  days  of  the  year,  and  has  a  large  member- 
ship, including  representatives — British  and  native — ^from 
every  important   centre,   and   of   aU   important  interests — 

'  See  Mr  Bonar  Law's  opinions  quoted  on  page  171. 


OBJECT   OF   THE   NIGERIAN   COUNCIL.  123 

banking,  shipping,  commerce,  and  mining  (the  Lagos  and 
Calabar  Chambers  of  Commerce,  and  the  Chamber  of  Mines, 
each  appoint  a  member).  The  official  members  include  all 
Executive  Councillors  and  Residents  of  Provinces,  &c.  The 
unofficial  members  comprise  six  Europeans  and  six  natives, 
the  latter  including  some  of  the  leadiag  chiefs  from  the  most 
distant  parts.^  It  is  unfortunate  that  at  present  few  of  these 
can  speak  EngUsh,  but  this  wiU  be  remedied  ia  course  of  time, 
and  the  prospect  of  attending  the  Council  wiU  form  an  incen- 
tive to  the  rising  generation  to  learn  EngUsh. 

The  proceedings  hitherto  have  consisted  of  an  address  by 
the  Governor,  in  which  he  reviews  the  events  of  the  year, 
gives  the  latest  possible  statistics  of  trade  and  finance,  and 
explains  questions  of  policy  and  legislation.  This  is  followed 
by  debates  both  on  the  address  and  on  motions  previously 
submitted  by  members  to  the  president.  Thus  ample  scope 
for  criticism  or  suggestion  is  afforded  in  regard  to  legislation 
past  and  future — or  in  regard  to  development  works  (railways, 
harbours,  &c.),  or  any  other  matter  which  members  may 
desire  to  bring  forward.  The  Council  has  no  legislative 
powers. 

The  Mgerian  CouncU  is  an  attempt  to  bring  together  re- 
presentatives from  all  parts  of  a  vast  country  for  purposes 
of  discussion,  at  least  once  in  the  year,  siace  distances  and 
lack  of  means  of  communication  render  it  impossible  for  them 
to  assemble  as  frequently  as  is  necessary  in  the  case  of  a  Legis- 
lative Council.  As  an  experiment  still  ia  embryo,  it  may,  I 
think,  claim  some  success,^  and  the  experience  gained  wiU 
show  in  what  directions  its  usefulness  can  best  be  augmented. 
My  successor  has  intimated  that  it  is  proposed  to  endow  it 
with  some  measure  of  financial  control.  Some  of  the  desiderata 
put  forward  by  unofflcials  may  perhaps  be  better  attained  by 
the  Economic  Board  suggested  in  a  later  chapter  (p.  492). 

^  The  honour  of  appointment  is  much  coveted.  The  Sultan  of  Sokoto  was 
eager  to  attend,  though  the  journey  involved  256  miles  by  road  and  over 
700  by  rail. 

^  The  Member  of  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  vfho  was  deputed  to 
report  for  that  body  on  the  proceedings  of  the  Council  for  1916  writes  :  "  After 
reading  the  report  through,  as  I  have  done,  several  times,  I  have  become  much 
more  firmly  convinced  that  the  Nigerian  Council,  so  long  as  it  is  treated  by  the 
Governor  of  the  colony  as  a  deliberative  and  active  body  (as  now),  has  in  it  the 
possibility  of  doing  an  immense  amount  of  good  service,  and  of  developing  the 
colony  on  sound  business  lines,  and  we  merchants  should  appreciate  .  .  .  the 
idea  of  such  a  Council  and  its  present  formation  and  importance." 


124  THE  MACHINEEY   OF  ADMINISTEATION. 

West  African  merchants  have  raised  the  question  of  directors 
of  firms  coming  to  Nigeria  to  attend  the  Council  as  temporary 
extraordinary  members,  and  the  secretary  of  their  association 
remarks  that  it  is  due  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Council  that 
the  merchants  have  been  prompted  to  take  a  part  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  problems  of  Mgeria,  instead  of  merely  criticis- 
ing Government  action,  as  they  have  usually  done  in  the  past. 

Coming  now  to  the  oflBcial  personnel  of  the  administration ; 
— ^the  Governor  is  appointed  by  a  Eoyal  Commission,  and 
his  duties  are  defined  in  Eoyal  instructions.  "  He  is  the 
single  and  supreme  authority,  responsible  to  and  representa- 
tive of  His  Majesty  .  .  .  entitled  to  the  obedience,  aid,  and 
assistance  of  all  military  and  civil  oflBcers."  ^  He  may  grant 
pardons  or  remit  penalties.  He  appoints,  and  subject  to 
certain  Eegulations  suspends  and  dismisses,  public  servants, 
assents  or  refuses  assent  to  Bills  passed  by  the  Legislative 
Council,  with  the  exception  of  Bills  on  certain  matters  re- 
served for  the  signification  of  His  Majesty's  pleasure.  He 
issues  warrants  for  the  expenditure  of  money  required  for 
the  public  service.  "  The  Governor  is,  of  course,  bound  to 
obey  the  King's  commands  conveyed  to  him  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  in  his  legislative  as  well  as  in  his  executive  capacity, 
whether  or  not  the  course  prescribed  accord  with  his  personal 
views  and  opinions."  ^  A  Secretary  of  State  recently  observed 
that  "  the  authority  and  responsibility  of  the  Governor  is 
the  basis  on  which  Crown  colony  administration  is  founded, 
and  it  must  not  be  weakened." 

The  autocracy  of  the  Governor  is  limited  on  the  one  hand 
by  the  control  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  exercises  a  real 
autocracy,  and  whose  sanction  is  required  not  merely  in  matters 
of  importance,  but  in  many  which  are  absurdly  trivial ;  and 
on  the  other  hand,  by  the  influence  of  the  Councils.^  A 
Governor  normally  holds  office  for  six  years.  In  West  Africa 
he  is,  or  was,  expected,  like  all  other  Government  servants, 
to  take  leave  to  England  after  twelve  months'  residence, 
involving  an  absence  from  his  duties  of  upwards  of  five 
months  (see  pp.  105-110). 

■  Colonial  Regulations.  ^  Circular  of  17th  August  1868. 

'  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  island  of  Guam  the  American  Governor 
exercises  absolute  powers,  and  lately  issued  a  decree  that  since  "  the  practice  of 
whistling  is  an  entirely  unnecessary  and  irritating  noise,  no  person  shall  whistle 
within  the  limits  of  the  city,"  under  penalty  of  $5  executive  fine. — 'Times,'  29th 
July  1920. 


POWERS   OF  THE  ACTrNG-GOVEENOE.  125 

During  his  absence  the  officer  who  takes  his  place  is  vested 
■with  the  full  powers  of  Governor.  He  has  the  legal  right  to 
make  or  repeal  laws  or  regulations,  to  inaugurate  or  abandon 
important  works ;  and  ia  matters  of  policy,  especially  as 
regards  native  afEairs,  he  can  give  ruliags  and  pledges  to 
chiefs  in  the  name  of  the  Government.  He  occupies  Govern- 
ment House,  and  is  addressed  as  "  His  Excellency."  He 
would  not,  however,  in  practice  be  allowed  to  reverse  the 
policy  of  the  Governor  or  to  initiate  radical  changes. 

The  officer  who  acts  as  Governor  is  usually  the  Colonial 
Secretary,  through  whose  hands  all  the  Minutes  and  files  have 
passed  which  relate  to  the  various  matters  which  have  been 
submitted  by  the  Governor.  He  is  therefore  famUiar  with 
the  history  and  antecedents  of  each  question  which  may 
arise,  and  has  been  in  close  touch  with  the  Governor,  and 
knows  his  views.  These  are  undoubted  advantages  ;  but 
if  we  may  assume  that  the  guidance  of  the  policy  ia  regard 
to  the  native  population,  and  discrimination  ia  matters  in- 
volving  the  interests  of  non-natives,  constitute  not  only  the 
most  important  of  the  functions  of  the  Governor,  but  also 
the  sphere  in  which  the  initiative  rests  primarily  upon  him- 
self, and  is  not  shared  with  the  departmental  officers  of  his 
Council  to  the  same  extent  as  his  other  duties,  it  seems  clear 
that  the  officer  who  takes  his  place  as  Acting-Governor  should 
be  a  man  of  administrative  experience,  rather  than  one 
with  the  training  of  a  secretariat  officer.  To  meet  this  diffi- 
culty the  experiment  has  been  tried  of  appointing  as  secretary 
the  senior  or  most  capable  officer  from  the  administrative 
branch,  but  this  course  has  two  disadvantages.  In  the  first 
place,  the  administrative  officer  is  without  experience  in  the 
management  of  a  large  office,  and  out  of  touch  with  depart- 
mental requirements.  In  the  second  place,  the  staff  of  the 
secretariat  (to  which  it  is  especially  necessary  to  attract 
exceptionally  good  men)  are  afforded  no  prospect  of  attaining 
to  the  highest  post  in  their  department,  and  it  consequently 
becomes  unpopular. 

It  has  been  argued  that  a  sacrifice  of  continuity  is  in- 
volved if  a  Lieut.-Governor  acts  for  the  Governor  ;  but  since 
it  can  be  arranged  that  the  same  Lieut.-Governor  should 
always  act  as  deputy,  continuity  in  the  Governor's  office 
would  be  maintained;  and  since  the  same  Resident  would 
usually  act  for  the  Lieut.-Governor  (who  as  Deputy-Governor 


126  THE  MACHINEEY   OF   ADMINISTKATION. 

is  himself  present  to  ensure  continuity),  the  argument  does 
not  seem  to  have  much  force.  Moreover,  since  it  is  probable 
that  the  senior  Besident  would  in  due  course  succeed  to  the 
Lieut.-Governorship  if  he  has  proved  his  competence,  a  greater 
measure  of  permanent  continuity  would  be  secured. 

In  my  judgment  there  should  be  at  least  one  Lieut.-Governor 
in  every  African  dependency,  and  he  (or  the  senior  i£  there 
is  more  than  one)  is  the  officer  best  qualified  to  act  for  the 
Governor.  The  normal  duties  of  a  Lieut.-Governor  in  Mgeria 
are  (as  we  shall  presently  see)  only  less  onerous  and  responsible 
than  those  of  the  Governor  himself ;  and  as  a  member  of 
the  Executive  Council  he  is  already  familiar  with  most  of 
the  larger  questions  of  material  development,  and  in  close 
touch  with  the  Governor. 

The  appointment  of  the  Colonial  Secretary  to  act  as  Gover- 
nor compels  the  Secretary  of  State,  when  selecting  a  new 
Governor,  to  choose  between  a  man  whose  training  has  been 
chiefly  in  an  office,  and  one  who  has  wide  experience  in 
administrative  work  among  the  natives  but  has  never  been 
tested  as  an  Acting-Governor.  Possibly  this  may  have 
prompted  him  to  look  outside  the  ranks  of  the  Colonial  Civil 
Service. 

The  Lieut.-Governor — ^who  would,  as  I  suggest,  act  on 
occasion  as  Deputy- Governor — would  usually  be  selected  from 
the  ranks  of  the  Provincial  Administrative  Staff,  though, 
of  course,  exceptions  would  be  made.  He  will  bring  to  his 
new  post  a  wide  understanding  of  the  people  and  their  lan- 
guage, and  as  Eesident  of  a  Province  will  have  had  practical 
experience  in  the  handling  of  men.  A  capable  man  will  soon 
pick  up  the  threads  of  his  wider  administrative  duties,  and 
his  early  course  of  training  in  the  secretariat  will  have  made 
him  sufficiently  familiar  with  its  routine.  His  capability  for 
the  post  will  already  have  been  put  to  practical  test  by  acting 
for  the  Lieut.-Governor  in  his  absence — and  there  are  plenty 
of  Besidents  from  whom  to  choose  if  one  proves  unsuitable. 

The  secretariat-trataed  officer,  on  the  other  hand,  has  not 
that  experience  of  actual  administrative  responsibility  which 
is  only  acquired  by  the  District  Officer  who  has  risen  to  be  a 
Eesident.i    Nor  does  the  proposal  to  combine  the  secretariat 

1  Lord  Curzon,  when  Viceroy  of  India,  set  himself  to  meet  the  criticism  that 
"  the  Government  of  India  has  been  aystematised  and  formalised  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  executive  officers  are  the  slaves  of  clerical  routine,  and  the  judicial  ones 


POWERS   OP  LIEUT.-GOVEENORS.  127 

with  the  administrative  branch  as  a  single  department  appear 
to  offer  any  better  solution.  Bach  requires  specialised  tratu- 
ing,  and  the  qualifications  which  make  for  excellence  in  the 
one  are  almost  the  reverse  of  those  required  in  the  other.^ 
Moreover,  since  the  number  of  admiuistrative  ofificers  in  a 
large  protectorate  may  be  twenty  times  that  of  the  secre- 
tariat, the  latter  under  such  a  system  would  suffer  from  con- 
stant change  ;  and  since  it  is  a  department  of  record  on 
which  the  Governor  depends  for  accuracy  of  reference  and 
knowledge  of  precedent,  this  would  be  fatal  to  its  utility. 
Some  secretariat  training  is  invaluable  to  a  District  Officer, 
and  for  this  he  can  be  temporarily  attached  as  supernumerary. 

These  views  will  no  doubt  be  opposed  by  the  office  men, 
who  alone  have  the  opportunity  of  writing  Minutes  on  such 
subjects  ;  but  for  my  part  I  have  no  doubt  as  to  which  class 
will  have  the  widest  knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with  the 
subject  races,  and  the  more  practical  experience  of  adminis- 
trative problems.  Neither  have  I  any  doubt  from  which  class 
the  more  useful  type  of  African  Governor  can  be  recruited. 

A  Lieut.-Govemor  in  Mgeria  is  in  supreme  administrative 
charge  of  the  group  of  provinces  for  which  he  is  responsible. 
He  prepares  an  annual  budget,  and  submits  it  to  the  Governor, 
and  when  it  is  approved  he  controls  the  expenditure  votes. 
Such  of  the  Governor's  powers,  whether  statutory  or  execu- 
tive, as  are  delegated  to  him  are  precisely  notified  in  the 
'  Gazette,'  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding 
either  on  his  part  or  that  of  the  public.  They  are  as  wide 
as  possible,  and,  generally  speaking,  exclude  only  matters 
reserved  by  statute  to  the  Govemor-in-Council  (which  can- 
not be  delegated),  the  initiation  of  legislation,  the  general 
direction  of  policy,  and  the  approval  of  unbudgeted  expendi- 
ture— ^in  which  the  Governor  himself  has  very  limited  powers. 

The  post  of  Lieut.-Govemor  was  not  a  new  one  in  West 
Africa,  but  hitherto  the  officer  who  held  the  appointment 

of  legal  technicalities  ;  that  both  alike  have  lost  their  old  touch  with  the  people  ; 
and  that  the  only  classes  which  benefit  by  this  development  are  the  office  Babus, 
and  the  barristers  and  'pleaders,'  parasitic  growths  alien  to  the  soil  of  India, 
but  thriving  on  the  system  we  have  introduced  .  .  .  that  the  District  Officers 
have  lost  their  old  touch  with  the  people  under  the  pressure  of  modern  '  Secre- 
tariat' government." — 'Times'  (special  correspondent),  13th  November  1901. 

'  In  the  very  interesting  description  of  Lord  Curzon's  "New  Province"  in 
India,  we  are  reminded  that  "  a  methodical  and  highly-trained  administrative 
class  in  proportion  to  its  scientific  evolution  becomes  less  and  less  adapted  to 
pioneering  in  wild  tracts." — Ibid. 


128  THE  MACHINEB.Y  OP  ADMINISTRATION. 

had,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  clearly  defined  powers  or 
authority  on  which  the  public  could  rely.  His  functions  and 
duties  were  shadowy,  and  depended  on  the  latitude  given  by 
the  Governor.  When  dealing  with  the  subject  of  Decentralisa- 
tion ia  the  last  chapter,  I  discussed  the  relations  of  the  Lieut.- 
Governor  with  the  Governor  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  various 
departments  on  the  other.  His  most  important  duty  is  to 
watch  over  and  co-ordinate  the  political  administration. 
"  The  question,"  wrote  Lord  Morley,  "  is  whether  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Lieut. -Governor  should  be  fortified  and  enlarged 
by  two  or  more  competent  advisers,  with  an  ofi&cial  and 
responsible  share  in  his  deliberations."  Later,  the  Lieut.- 
Governor  ia  India  was  provided  with  an  Executive  CouncU  of 
three  administrative  heads — but  no  such  step  has  as  yet  been 
taken  in  Africa. 

Next  to  the  Governor  and  Lieut.-Governor,  the  most  impor- 
tant administrative  officer  in  Nigeria  is  the  Eesident  of  a 
Province — the  average  area  of  which  is  16,000  square  miles, 
with  an  average  population  of  800,000.  As  the  senior  official, 
he  is,  generally  speaking,  responsible  for  the  efficiency  of  the 
pubUc  service  ia  his  province,  but  his  first  duty  is  with  the 
native  administration,  including  the  conduct  of  the  pro- 
vincial and  native  courts.  The  departmental  services  are 
controlled  by  their  own  heads,  who  assign  to  their  subordi- 
nates their  professional  duties  and  responsibilities,  and  convey 
their  orders  to  them  direct. 

The  Eesident  is  the  backbone  of  the  administration.  He  is 
Judge  of  the  Provincial  Court,  of  which  his  staff  are  com- 
missioners. Through  them  he  supervises  and  guides  the 
native  rulers — as  I  shall  describe  in  chapter  x.  In  the 
provinces  with  the  most  advanced  native  organisation  he  is 
counsellor  and  adviser,  while  among  primitive  tribes  he  must 
necessarily  accept  a  larger  measure  of  direct  administration. 
His  advice  when  given  must  be  followed,  and  his  authority 
is  supported  by  the  weight  of  the  British  Administration. 
His  powers  and  duties  are  clearly  and  fully  set  out  in  the 
printed  iastructions  which  I  have  described  in  the  last  chapter. 
Ahke  for  the  information  of  the  Governor — to  enable  him  to 
maintain  uniformity  of  policy — and  to  afford  the  Eesident 
a  means  of  setting  out  his  difficulties  and  describing  his  pro- 
gress, he  submits  a  yearly  report  under  specified  headings 
(to  which  are  appended  a  few  statistical  forms),  dealing  with 


RESIDENTS  "  IN  MALAYA.  129 

the  provincial  and  native  courts,  taxation  and  assessment, 
education,  slavery,  trade,  general  progress,  and  other  matters 
of  interest.  These  reports  stimulate  thought,  and  form 
valuable  records.  They  afford  to  a  Eesident's  successor  a 
full  account  of  aU  matters  of  interest,  and  enable  him  to 
preserve  continuity.^ 

A  Eesident  is  relieved  as  far  as  possible  of  general  adminis- 
trative work  (unconnected  with  the  native  administration) 
by  the  Lieut.-Governor,  and  by  "  Station  Magistrates  "  ap- 
pointed to  the  principal  centres.  The  provinces  ia  Nigeria 
are  so  large — Sokoto  and  Bornu  are  each  larger  than  Ireland, 
and  two  others  have  a  much  denser  population — ^that  a 
Eesident  must  rely  largely  upon  his  District  Officers,  and 
delegate  many  duties  to  them.  He  and  they  are  the  medium 
of  aU  important  deahngs  with  the  natives. 

The  Eesidential  system  of  the  Federated  Malay  States 
has  been  quoted  as  similar  to  that  set  up  in  Nigeria,  but  siace 
both  in  its  origin  and  development  it  differed  essentially 
from  it,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  contrast  the  two. 

When  the  Imperial  Government  replaced  the  Chartered 
Company  in  Northern  Nigeria,  and  effective  occupation  had 
become  necessary  to  establish  British  rights,  the  new  Govern- 
ment found  itself  compelled  to  overcome  the  hostility  of  the 
Moslem  Emirs,  and  to  check  their  slave-raiding  by  force  of 
arms.  They  were  conquered,  or  submitted,  and  the  country 
was  divided  into  provinces,  each  of  which  was  placed  under 
the  charge  of  a  Eesident,  who  was  thus  the  representative 
of  the  Governor  in  a  country  in  which  the  King's  sovereignty 
had  been  asserted,  and  full  responsibihty  for  administration 
assumed. 

In  the  early  history  of  Malaya  very  different  conditions 
existed.  The  British  settlements  were  surrounded  by  wholly 
independent  native  states,  with  which  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment had  no  desire  whatever  to  interfere,  in  spite  of  their 
requests  for  protection.  In  1873  the  chronic  internecine  war 
which  existed  among  them,  and  their  interference  with  the 

'  The  report  includes  extracts  from  those  of  the  DWisional  OflBcers,  so  that  the 
progress  of  each  division  may  be  separately  related  as  part  of  the  single  unit  of 
the  province,  under  its  various  subject  heads.  Departmental  statistics  are 
eliminated,  but  a  general  summary  of  the  work  of  departments  in  relation  to 
their  bearing  on  the  provincial  administration  is  given.  The  report  deals  with 
facts,  events,  and  conclusions.  Recommendations  and  discussions  are  excluded 
from  it. 

I 


130  THE  MACHINEEY  OF  ADMINISTEATION. 

trade  of  the  British  colony,  induced  Lord  Kimberley  to 
suggest  the  possibility  of  appointing  a  British  officer  to  reside 
in  such  of  them  as  might  consent  to  the  arrangement — on 
the  analogy  of  the  Eesidents  at  the  Courts  of  independent 
Eajas  in  India. 

In  the  event  a  Eesident  was  murdered,  and  a  powerful 
military  force  exacted  reprisals.  The  effect  of  this  punish- 
ment, and  the  removal  of  obstructive  chiefs,  proved  more 
effective  than  many  years  of  futile  advice.  Though  Eesidents 
were  stiU  instructed  that  they  would  be  held  answerable  if 
they  exceeded  their  rdle  as  advisers,  they  were  now  feared, 
and  were  able  to  engage  a  staff  of  Europeans,  to  raise  a  poHce 
force,  and  to  collect  the  revenue.  This  was  adequate  for 
an  effective  administration,  for  the  country  was  very  rich. 
State  Councils,  on  which  the  Eesident  and  his  assistant  sat, 
were  set  up,  and  Courts  of  Law,  with  European  magistrates. 

Sir  P.  Swettenham,  from  whose  book  I  am  quoting,^  speak- 
ing of  one  of  the  Eesidents,  says  :  "  No  doubt  he  consulted 
the  local  chief  in  aU  matters  of  importance,  but  he  received 
no  help  from  that  quarter,  and  simply  pushed  on  alone,  when 
he  could  not  carry  him  with  him."  The  British  officers  had, 
in  fact,  ceased  to  be  "  Eesidents  "  except  ia  name,  and  were 
actually  "  administering  the  country  in  the  name  of  the 
Sultan  " — a  rdle  which,  when  it  had  first  been  proposed,  was 
disapproved  by  the  then  Secretary  of  State.  "  Each  Eesident 
followed  his  own  line  in  his  own  State  without  any  particular 
reference  to  his  neighbours,"  and  resented  any  interference 
or  suggestion  from  outside,  until  the  differences,  at  first 
irritating,  became  unbearable,  and  led  to  Federation — with 
the  approval  of  a  Secretary  of  State  of  wider  outlook  (Mr 
Chamberlain).  "  The  system,"  says  Sir  F.  Swettenham, 
"  was  built  up  without  much  more  than  routine  references  to 
the  Governor,"  who  only  knew  what  Eesidents  chose  to  tell 
him — ^for  Singapore  was  too  distant  for  him  to  exercise  any 
effective  control.  They  submitted  an  annual  report  and  a 
budget,  which  required  the  Governor's  approval,  and  no  vote 
could  be  exceeded  without  his  sanction — a  "  very  great  and 
necessary  safeguard,"  as  Sir  F.  Swettenham  observes. 

Prom  first  to  last  the  theoretical  independence  of  the 
States  was  the  governing  factpr  in  the  system  evolved  in 
Malaya.     The  so-called  "  Eesident  "  was  in  fact  a  Eegent, 

'  '  British  Malaya,'  chapters  viii.  to  xii. 


BESroENTS  "  IN  NIGERIA.  131 

practically  uncontrolled  by  the  Governor  or  by  Whitehall, 
governing  his  "  independent  "  State  by  direct  personal  ride, 
with  or  without  the  co-operation  of  the  native  ruler.  He 
had  no  aggressive  European  neighbours  on  his  frontiers,  and 
in  the  last  resort  depended  on  his  armed  police  and  the 
military  forces  of  the  colony,  and  his  abundant  revenue  made 
him  self-supportiQg.  This,  as  we  shall  see,  is  the  very  anti- 
thesis of  the  Mgerian  system.  Sir  P.  Swettenham  describes 
how  Downing  Street  disarmed  the  criticism  of  the  non- 
progressive party  at  home  by  reiterating  that  the  Eesident 
must  only  give  advice,  and  the  onus  of  exceeding  those  orders 
was  thrown  on  the  men  on  the  spot,  as  the  only  possible 
way  of  avoiding  failure,  and  of  carrying  out  the  wishes  of  the 
Secretary  of  State. 

Northern  Mgeria  up  to  the  time  of  amalgamation  was 
still  dependent  on  a  grant-in-aid,  and  ia  the  early  days  it 
had  no  great  source  of  wealth  and  no  industrious  Chinese 
to  develop  its  resources,  or  to  supply  nine-tenths  of  the  tax 
revenue.  By  the  Secretary  of  State's  instructions,  it  had  to 
maintain  a  very  large  and  costly  military  force,  which  absorbed 
a.11  and  more  than  all  of  its  local  revenue.  To-day  its  native 
administrations  are  comparatively  wealthy,  but  the  railway 
which  has  created  that  wealth,  and  the  whole  machinery 
of  Government — outside  the  native  administrations  them- 
selves— ^was,  and  is,  paid  for  from  general  revenue.  The  one 
"  very  great  and  necessary  safeguard  "  imposed  on  the  Resi- 
dents of  the  Malay  States — viz.,  that  the  votes  in  their  ap- 
proved budgets  should  not  be  altered  or  exceeded  without 
the  Governor's  sanction  (though  the  States  they  administered 
were  independent,  and  solely  self-supporting) — ^has,  however, 
been  ruled  by  the  Colonial  Ofl&ce  to  be  unnecessary  in  the 
case  of  the  native  administrations  of  Mgeria. 

Dissiinilar  as  the  two  systems  were  in  origin  and  in  method, 
the  problems  which  confronted  the  Eesidents  were  practically 
identical,  and  have  been  solved  with  the  same  success  in  both 
cases.  The  conclusion  emphasised  by  Sir  P.  Swettenham  is 
"  the  advisability  of  letting  people  who  live  8000  miles  away 
manage  their  own  domestic  affairs  without  foreign  inter- 
ference." 

Every  province  is  divided  into  three  or  four  divisions, 
each  imder  a  District  Officer,  who  again  has  assistant  dis- 
trict officers  under  him  in  charge  of  districts.    The  District 


132  THE  MACHTNEET  OF  ADMINISTBATION. 

OflBcer  comes  of  the  class  which  has  made  and  maintained 
the  British  Empire.  That  Britain  has  never  lacked  a  super- 
abundance of  such  men  is  in  part  due  to  national  character, 
in  part  perhaps  to  our  law  of  primogeniture,  which  compels 
the  younger  son  to  carve  out  his  own  career.  His  assets 
are  usually  a  public  school,  and  probably  a  university,  educa- 
tion, neither  of  which  have  hitherto  furnished  him  with  an 
appreciable  amoimt  of  positive  knowledge  especially  adapted 
for  his  work.  But  they  have  produced  an  English  gentleman 
with  an  almost  passionate  conception  of  fair  play,  of  pro- 
tection of  the  weak,  and  of  "  playing  the  game."  They  have 
taught  him  personal  initiative  and  resource,  and  how  to  com- 
mand and  to  obey.  There  is  no  danger  of  such  men  faUing  a 
prey  to  that  subtle  moral  deterioration  which  the  exercise 
of  power  over  inferior  races  produces  in  men  of  a  different 
type,  and  which  finds  expression  in  cruelty.  The  military 
officer  turned  civiUan  invariably  becomes  an  ardent  champion 
of  his  prot^g^s,  and  no  one  shows  greater  aversion  to  mili- 
tarist methods  than  he.^  If  occasionally  some  colonial  officer 
suffers  from  "  swoUen-head  "  (as  a  member  complained  in  the 
House),  and  exaggerates  the  importance  of  his  office,  may  it 
not  be  charitably  ascribed  to  that  very  devotion  to  his  work, 
and  realisation  of  its  responsibility  and  magnitude  which  has 
made  our  Empire  a  success  ?  No  words  of  mine,  after  long 
experience,  can  do  justice  to  the  unselfish,  conscientious  work 
of  these  officers. 

There  is  no  career  ia  which  the  aspirations  of  youth  can 
take  a  finer  form  than  ia  the  service  of  the  Empire,  and 

^  "  The  administration  so  far  as  the  masses  are  concerned  is  mainly  carried  on  by 
the  District  Officers,  .  .  .  upon  them  the  maintenance  of  latr  and  order  largely 
depends.  They  alone  represent  the  British  Baj  in  the  minds  of  tens  of  millions 
who  have  not  the  faintest  idea  of  what  a  Legislative  Council  means.  The 
ultimate  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the  native  races  rests  not  with  the 
educated  native,  nor  yet  with  the  native  rulers,  but  in  the  hands  of  the  control- 
ling power — e.g.,  the  District  Officer,  to  whom  the  native  ultimately  appeals  for 
justice.  He  is  the  exact  opposite  of  the  bureaucrat."  So  writes  Lord  Sydenham 
of  India,  and  the  words  are  equally  true  of  Africa. — ('Times,'  10th  August  1917.) 
The  code  which  must  guide  the  administrator  in  the  tropics  is,  as  Mr  Churchill 
has  finely  said,  to  be  found  in  no  book  of  regulations.  It  demands  that  in  every 
circumstance,  and  under  all  conditions,  he  shall  act  in  accordance  with  the 
traditions  of  an  English  gentleman,  whose  first  quality  it  is  to  comprehend  the 
point  of  view  of  the  other  side. — (Speech,  June  1921.)  Sir  W.  Geary,  writing  of 
West  Africa,  says  that  to  each  individual  native  there  has  come  prosperity,  and 
not  merely  acquiescence,  but  a  joyous  and  friendly  welcome  of  British  rule.  This 
he  ascribes  to  the  high  character  and  judicious  conduct  of  the  officials  of  the 
Civil  Service,  which  has  admirably  fulfilled  its  duty  to  the  Crown  and  to  Africa. 
—('West  Africa,'.6th  November  1920.) 


THE  BISTEICT  OFFICER— NATIVE  LANGUAGES.  133 

there  is  none  with  less  sordid  ideals.  To  fit  him  for  his  duties, 
the  candidate  selected  for  an  administrative  post  in  the 
tropics  must  go  through  a  special  course  of  study  in  England. 
He  attends  the  lectures  prescribed,  and  must  show  that  he 
has  profited  by  them.^  After  he  has  arrived  in  Africa  he  must 
pass  an  examination  in  simple  law,  judicial  procedure,  and 
in  the  ordiuances,  regulations,  and  general  orders  of  the  local 
Government.  If  his  duties  lie  in  a  Moslem  State,  he  must 
know  something  of  Koranic  law,  which  controls  ahke  the 
procedure  of  the  courts  and  the  social  Ufe  of  the  people. 
He  must  study  the  native  laws  and  customs,  which  react 
on  Koranic  law  in  Moslem  districts,  and  replace  it  in  pagan 
areas.  Within  a  specified  time  he  must  pass  a  preUminary 
examioation  ia  one  of  the  most  widely-spoken  native  lan- 
guages, to  be  followed  by  a  more  severe  test  later  on.  Failure 
to  qualify  in  these  tests  may  delay  his  promotion. 

There  is  no  need  to  emphasise  how  completely  an  officer 
who  knows  nothing  of  the  native  language  is  in  the  hands 
of  his  interpreter,  who  either  from  his  imperfect  knowledge 
of  Enghsh,  or  by  criminal  latent,  may  whoUy  misrepresent 
what  he  was  told  to  translate,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  may 
threaten  an  ignorant  native  that  he  will  mislead  the  Dis- 
trict Officer  unless  he  is  bribed.  Incalculable  harm  has 
thus  been  done,  and  the  interpreter  becomes  the  real  power. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  officer  who  knows  the  language  cannot 
fail  to  acquire  a  keener  iaterest  in  and  sympathy  with  the 
people.  If  the  language  used  be  some  pagan  dialect,  and 
the  officer  can  speak  the  more  generally  known  language, 
it  will  be  better  for  him  to  use  it  ia  speaking  to  his  inter- 
preter, for  by  so  doing  he  ensures  simplicity  of  diction,  and 
the  iaterpreter  is  more  likely  to  understand  his  meaniag 
than  if  he  spoke  ia  fluent  English.  If  he  uses  Enghsh  he 
should  employ  the  simplest  phrases,  and  make  the  interpreter 
repeat  what  he  is  about  to  translate ;  and  later,  if  possible 
(if  the  matter  is  of  importance),  he  should  verify  his  accuracy 
by  employiag  a  second  interpreter.  The  vital  importance 
of  this  matter  is  my  justification  for  this  somewhat  lengthy 
reference  to  it. 

An  officer  is  fortunate  if  there  be  a  siagle  language  in  his 
district,  which  has  been  reduced  to  writing  with  text-books 
and  vocabularies.     It  is  ia  the  iaterest  of  the  natives  and 

^  See  footnote,  p.  138. 


134  THE  MACHLNERY   OF  ADMINISTRATION. 

of  good  administration  that  the  Government  should  use  every 
endeavour  to  promote  the  use  of  a  lingua  franca — in  Mgeria, 
Hausa  in  the  north  and  Yoruba,  and  Ibo  iu  the  south ;  in 
East  Africa,  Swaheli.  These  are  already  generally  understood 
even  among  primitive  tribes,  owing  to  their  use  by  itinerant 
native  traders.  Where  no  such  medium  can  be  used,  English 
— even  though  it  be  "  pidgin  EngUsh  " — ^is  already  a  means 
of  communication,  and  will  become  more  so  as  education 
increases. 

The  duties  which  a  District  Officer  is  called  upon  to  per- 
form are  very  varied.  In  an  isolated  station  he  may  have  to 
discharge  the  functions  of  all  the  departments — ^postal,  cus- 
toms, poUce,  and  engineer — ^in  addition  to  his  normal  work. 
He  is  the  medium  of  communication  between  the  military  or 
the  departmental  officer  and  the  native  chiefs  in  matters  of 
labour  and  supplies,  and  is  especially  charged  to  see  that 
labourers  are  fuUy  paid  and  properly  treated.  To  him  alike 
the  missionary,  the  trader,  and  the  miner  look  for  assistance 
and  advice.  The  leper  and  the  slave  find  in  him  a  protector. 
As  in  India,  he  combines  judicial  with  executive  powers,  and 
as  Commissioner  of  the  Provincial  Court  he  deals  with  cases 
on  the  spot,  within  the  limits  of  the  judicial  powers  conferred 
upon  him.  These  powers  in  Mgeria  vary  with  the  extent  of 
his  legal  knowledge  and  proved  judicial  competence,  irrespec- 
tive of  his  rank.  He  is  also  charged  with  the  constant  super- 
vision of  the  native  courts  (see  chapters  xxvii.,  xxviii.)  He 
enforces  the  ordinances,  issues  licences,  keeps  up  the  pre- 
scribed records,  and  renders  the  prescribed  returns.  These 
are  reduced  to  the  minimum  necessary,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
afford  his  superior  officers  an  insight  into  the  way  he  is  doing 
his  work,  and  on  the  other,  for  the  compilation  of  such  ad- 
ministrative and  statistical  records  as  the  Government  may 
consider  essential.  "  The  work  done  by  a  political  officer," 
said  Sir  H.  Lawrence,  "in  his  district  surrounded  by  the 
people,  is  greatly  superior  to  the  work  done  in  his  office  sur- 
rounded by  untrustworthy  officials."  Eecognising  this  great 
truth,  it  must  be  the  aim  of  the  Government  to  reduce  office 
work  in  every  possible  way,  and  to  leave  the  District  Officer 
free  to  travel  and  work  among  the  people. 

His  duties  as  assessing  officer  of  the  direct  (income)  tax 
effect  much  more  than  the  mere  collection  of  revenue.  He 
is  brought  into  close  touch  with  the  people,  and  gains  an 


DTJTIES  OF  A  DISTRICT  OFFICEK.  135 

intimate  knowledge  of  them,  and  of  the  personality  and  char- 
acter of  the  chiefs  and  elders  in  every  village.  Dmiag  his 
visit  to  each  town  he  administers  justice,  inquires  iato  and 
settles  disputes,  collects  valuable  statistics  of  population, 
agriculture,  and  industries.  He  uses  every  effort  to  detect 
oppression  and  extortion  if  it  exists,  and  impresses  on  the 
village  elders  the  allegiance  they  owe  to  their  chiefs,  and 
through  them  to  the  Government,  the  obhgation  to  cease 
from  lawless  acts,  and  the  right  of  every  individual  to  appeal 
against  injustice. 

The  primary  object  of  travelling  (accompanied  when  possible 
by  the  local  chief  or  district  headman)  is  that  the  District 
Officer  may  hear  the  complaiats  of  the  people  at  first  hand. 
It  is  only  by  the  advent  of  a  British  ofBcer  that  scoundrels, 
misrepresenting  the  Government  action,  or  extorting  what 
they  will  from  the  natives  in  the  name  of  Government,  can 
be  caught ;  for  the  villagers  in  their  ignorance,  supposing 
them  to  be  genuine,  dare  not  as  a  rule  complain.  It  has  been 
abundantly  shown  by  experience  that  "  unrest,"  resulting  in 
murders  and  outrages,  and  eventually  necessitating  the  use 
of  force,  inevitably  takes  place  among  primitive  tribes  when 
districts  are  not  regularly  and  systematically  visited.  By 
frequent  touring,  abuses  are  redressed  before  they  become 
formidable,  the  law-abiding  people  are  encouraged  to  restrain 
the  turbulent  and  lawless  elements,  and  trust  and  confidence 
in  Government  is  fostered.  The  results  of  the  District  Ofiicer's 
careful  and  precise  inquiries  are  contained  in  the  '  Provincial 
Eecord  Book  '  and  in  the  map  of  the  district,  to  which  he  is 
always  adding  the  new  information  acquired  on  tour. 

The  District  Officer  who  has  achieved  success  in  the  assess- 
ment of  his  district  will  have  done  much  to  promote  its  pro- 
gress and  civilisation.  The  test  of  his  work  is  the  absence 
of  crime  and  the  efficiency  of  the  chiefs  and  native  courts. 
Nor  must  he  neglect  the  development  of  its  economic  re- 
sources, the  best  method  of  improving  them  and  enhancing 
their  market  value  by  proper  preparation,  and  the  cheapest 
methods  of  transport.  For  this  purpose  he  should  maintain 
touch  with  the  traders,  prospectors,  and  miners  in  his  dis- 
trict. The  measure  of  his  efficiency  depends  largely  on  his 
interest  in  his  work,  and  this  is  stimulated  by  the  feeling  of 
responsibility,  which  is  the  natural  result  of  being  trusted. 

A  District  Officer's  influence  in  his  district  naturally  depends 


136  THE  MACHTNEET  OF  ADMTNISTEATIOPf. 

on  the  extent  to  which"  he  has  acquired  the  confidence  of 
chiefs  and  people,  mastered  their  language,  and  studied  their 
local  customs.  It  is  therefore  important  that  he  should  not 
be  transferred  to  another  sphere  of  work,  where  he  has  to 
begiD  afresh — least  of  all  should  contiguous  colonies  have  a 
single  roster  of  promotion  as  has  been  suggested.  It  may  be 
valuable  for  the  newly-joiaed  oflBcer  to  serve  under  different 
Eesidents,  and  in  different  districts,  in  order  to  enlarge  his 
outlook,  and  enable  him  to  learn  from  each  ;  nor  is  it  possible 
to  retain  juniors  permanently  ia  the  same  district,  or  to  gauge 
their  qualifications  and  special  aptitudes  imtil  they  have  had 
a  varied  opportunity.  But  as  a  District  Officer  gains  seniority, 
and  with  it  enlarged  powers,  it  becomes  increasingly  impor- 
tant that  he  should  remain  in  the  district  or  province  where 
he  has  acquired  local  knowledge  and  influence,  for  the  African 
is  naturally  reserved  and  suspicious,  and  slow  to  give  his 
confidence.  It  is,  moreover,  disheari;ening  to  the  zealous 
District  Officer  to  have  to  begui  all  over  again  in  a  new  sphere. 
There  are  some  who  like  change.  They  are  not  the  best. 
When  eventually  he  becomes  the  Eesident  of  a  Province 
he  should  never  be  changed  without  strong  reasons.  The 
war,  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  staff  even  prior  to  it,  have 
no  doubt  nulitated  greatly  against  the  application  of  this 
principle. 


137 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  BRITISH   STAFF   AND   CONDITIONS   OF  LIFE  IN 
THE   TROPICS. 

The  classification  of  the  stafi' — Selection  by  nomination — Selection  by 
modified  competition — Courses  of  study — Adequacy  of  staff — Cost  of 
the  staff  in  West  Africa — Medical  examination  of  candidates — Wives 
in  the  tropics — Housing  in  Northern  Nigeria,  1898-1901 — Causes  of 
mortality — Improved  conditions — Need  of  sanataria  and  recreation — 
Native  huts  as  dwelling-houses — House-building  in  the  tropics — 
Water-supply  —  Segregation  —  Food  in  the  tropics  —  Medical  and 
nursing  staff — Private  practice — Hints  for  health — Medical  work 
among  natives. 

The  staff  in  the  tropical  dependencies  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes — (a)  the  administrative  and  secretarial, 
corresponding  to  the  Covenanted  Service  in  India — to  which 
may  be  added  the  judicial ;  (6)  the  Departmental,  corre- 
sponding to  the  Indian  Uncovenanted  Service ;  and  (c)  the 
temporary  staff,  which  consists  either  of  officers  seconded 
from  the  permanent  staff  of  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  or 
of  men  appointed  on  agreements  with  the  Crown  agents  for 
specific  periods,  and  non-pensionable,  who,  however,  after 
completing  a  certain  number  of  years'  service,  may  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  pensionable  staff.  All  military  officers  and 
some  few  civilians  belong  to  the  seconded  class,  while  to  the 
third  category  belong  the  large  majority  of  foremen  in  the 
public  works  and  railway  employees. 

The  employment  of  seconded  officers  in  the  Postal,  Public 
Works,  Survey,  and  other  departments  has  the  advantage 
of  bringiag  in  up-to-date  technical  knowledge ;  but  unless 
the  department  is  entirely  or  mainly  manned  by  such  officers, 
their  introduction  in  the  senior  posts  disheartens  the  per- 
manent staff  by  robbing  them  of  opportunities  for  promotion. 


138      BRITISH  STAFF  AND   CONDITIONS   OF  LIFE  IN   TROPICS. 

The  administrative  staff  of  the  Home,  Indian,  and  Eastern 
Colonial  services  are  recruited  by  open  competitive  examina- 
tion. For  the  African  tropics,  candidates  are  selected  by  the 
patronage  department  of  the  Colonial  Office  (for  the  Sudan 
by  the  Governor-General).  Selected  officers  must  satisfy  ex- 
aminers that  they  have  benefited  by  a  course  of  lectures, 
which  they  are  required  to  attend  before  taking  up  their 
appointments.^  This  preliminary  training  was  suggested  by 
me  in  September  1903,  but  proposals  which  were  in  advance 
of  existing  methods  eighteen  years  ago  demand  reconsidera- 
tion with  the  enormous  increase  of  the  Tropical  Civil  Service 
and  its  extension  to  the  Mandated  territories. 

"  The  problem  of  maintaining  order  and  creating  civilisa- 
tion in  our  African  possessions,"  says  Colonel  Amery,  "  is 
at  least  as  difficult  as  that  of  administering  a  settled  country 
like  India."  The  staff  should,  he  considers,  be  recruited  in 
the  same  way  as  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  and  on  terms  of 
pay  and  pension  equally  attractive,  and  not  by  "  the  hap- 
hazard methods  of  personal  nomination,  which  have  survived 
from  a  bygone  period."  There  is  ample  scope  for  the  creation 
of  an  African  Civil  Service,  capable  of  playing  a  part  as  dis- 
tinguished as  that  which  the  Indian  Civil  Service  has  played 
in  another  field.  ^ 

While  the  Indian  Civil  Service  seems  likely  to  decrease 
both  in  numbers  and  in  attractiveness.  West  Africa  can  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  a  "  death-trap,"  and  the  frequent  leave 
to  England  is  a  great  attraction  to  those  who  have  children 
at  school  at  home.  Each  group  of  colonies  throughout  the 
Empire  has  its  own  attractions  and  disadvantages.  In  one 
the  climate  is  good,  but  long  and  bitter  separations  from 
children,  and  perhaps  from  wives,  are  unavoidable.  Another 
offers  better  chances  of  promotion ;  in  a  third,  the  nature 
of  the  work  is  more  attractive. 

The  results  of  an  absolutely  open  competition  have  not, 
I  believe,  been  considered  to  be  an  unqualified  success  in 
India ;    but   competition,    qualified  by   such   conditions   as 

'  Three  courses,  each  of  three  months,  held  annually  at  the  Imperial  Institute, 
were  inaugurated  in  1908.  Lectures  were  given  in  tropical  hygiene,  criminal 
law,  procedure,  and  evidence,  accountancy,  and  the  cultivation,  preparation,  and 
uses  of  tropical  products — vegetable  and  mineral.  There  was  also  a  separate 
course  in  surveying,  and  facilities  were  afforded  for  learning  Hausa,  Arabic,  &c. 
Officers  of  the  police  forces  could  be  attached  for  six  months  to  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary. 

2  '  Union  and  Strength,'  p.  284. 


SELECTION  AND  TEAININGt  OF  THE  STAFF.  139 

would  attract  the  right  class  from  our  public  schools  and 
universities,  while  excluding  as  far  as  possible  the  "  bounder," 
the  "prig,"  and  the  "book- worm,"  would  secure  the  best 
that  England  can  give,  and  would  relieve  the  Colonial  Offtce 
of  much  irksome  work. 

Sir  F.  Swettenham,  recognising  this  necessity  for  temper- 
ing competition  by  selection,  proposes  that  the  candidates 
should  be  required  to  obtain  a  nomination  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  before  examination.^  This  would,  however,  per- 
petuate the  burden  on  the  patronage  department,  and  the 
same  result  might  perhaps  be  attained  by  a  headmaster's 
certificate  as  to  character  and  participation  in  field  sports, 
&o.,  which,  equally  with  the  medical  certificate,  would  be  a 
necessary  qualification  for  the  open  examination.  The  patron- 
age department  could  still  give  nominations  in  exceptional 
cases.  Alternatively  the  task  of  selection  might  be  entrusted 
to  a  Standing  Board — ^possibly  a  Standing  Committee  of  the 
Council  suggested  in  the  next  chapter.  It  would  seem  desirable 
that  the  subject  should  be  thoroughly  examined  by  an  expert 
committee,  with  a  view  to  fixing  a  uniform  method  of  selection, 
and  preliminary  training  of  officers  of  the  non-professional 
branch  of  the  Civil  Service. 

The  courses  of  study  would  in  the  main  be  common  to  all, 
but  special  classes  would  provide  for  special  needs.  They 
coidd  be  arranged  at  the  universities,  or  by  such  agencies  as 
the  London  School  of  Economics,  the  School  of  Oriental  Lan- 
guages, Kew,  and  the  Imperial  Institute.  Since  it  is  desir- 
able that  ofiBcers  should  not  take  up  their  appointments  in 
the  tropics  until  they  are  twenty-three  years  of  age,  there  is 
ample  time  for  takiiig  a  university  degree.  In  the  Indian 
Civil  Service  selection  precedes  the  imiversity  course,  and 
thus  an  opportunity  is  afforded  for  specialised  study, 
which  university  candidates  for  the  African  tropics  have 
missed. 

Such  a  scheme  as  I  suggest  would  ensure  that  the  existence 
of  these  colonial  appointments  should  be  widely  known  in 
the  public  schools  and  universities.  The  conditions  of  service 
in  each  group  of  colonies  (salaries,  leave,  pensions,  &c.) 
could  be  studied  by  intending  candidates.  Ignorance  of 
their  existence  has  in  the  past  restricted  the  list  of  well- 
qualified  candidates,  and  inquiries  add  to  the  correspondence 

1  '  British  Malaya,'  p.  339. 


140     BRITISH  STAPF  AND  CONDITIONS   OF  LEFE  IN  TROPICS. 

entailed  on  the  Colonial  OfSce.  The  alternative  methods 
are : — 

(a)  A  list  of  special  subjects,  including  those  peculiar  to 
any  group  of  colonies,  would  be  advertised.  Young  men 
desirous  of  entering  the  Tropical  Civil  Service  would  specialise 
in  these  at  a  university  or  elsewhere  at  their  own  expense. 
The  Selection  Board  would  be  largely  influenced  by  the 
diplomas  obtained. 

(&)  Selection  prior  to  special  training,  and  the  payment  to 
the  selected  candidate  of  a  salary  while  undergoing  it. 

Writing  in  1903,  I  pointed  out  that  the  French  had  long 
had  such  a  school.  The  course  was  three  years,  and  the  fees 
£4  per  annum.  Those  who  passed  the  examinations  were 
granted  diplomas  which  quaMed  them  for  the  public  service, 
and  a  list  was  sent  to  the  ministers  concerned.  The  Dutch 
system  appears  to  be  somewhat  similar.^ 

It  is  of  essential  importance  that  the  British  staff,  especially 
on  the  first  inception  of  an  administration,  should  be  adequate 
for  its  very  onerous  duties.  The  lack  of  a  sufficient  staff  in 
the  first  years  of  an  administration,  when  the  work  is  heaviest, 
means  that  whoUy  impossible  demands  are  made  on  a  few, 
at  the  cost  of  many  lives  and  injured  constitutions,  that  touch 
cannot  be  kept  with  the  native  chiefs,  and  the  motives  of 
Government  explained,  with  the  inevitable  result  of  outbreaks 
due  primarily  to  misconceptions  and  baseless  reports.  Of 
this  there  has  been  ample  evidence,  with  needless  loss  of  life, 
both  in  East  and  West  Africa.  Delays  in  filling  appointments 
for  which  monetary  provision  has  been  made,  and  for  which 
there  was  an  abundant  supply  of  applicants — as  in  the  early 
days  of  Northern  Mgeria — ^is  especially  deplorable,  and  has 
called  forth  protests  from  the  Press. ^ 

'  Mr  Alley ne  Ireland  states  that  "since  1864  no  one  is  appointed  to  an 
administrative  post  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies  who  has  not  passed  the  grand 
examination  for  officials.  ...  It  covers  only  the  history,  geography,  ethnology, 
laws,  institutions,  and  customs  of  Netherlands  India,  and  the  Malay  and 
Javanese  languages" — the  subjects  required  being  exclusively  local. — 'Far 
Eastern  Tropics,'  p.  183. 

^  "This  is  a  poUoy  of  unintelligent  parsimony.  The  question  which  Ministers 
have  consciously  or  unconsciously  asked  themselves  is,  '  What  is  the  smallest 
sum  with  which  we  can  keep  things  going  ? '  What  ought  to  be  asked  is,  '  What 
sum  is  required  to  establish  and  maintain  an  efficient  administration,  and  to 
put  the  country  as  speedily  as  possible  into  a  position  to  meet  its  expenditure 
from  its  internal  resources?'  It  is  a  form  of  economy  which  has  repeatedly  led 
to  disasters  which  have  cost  hundreds  of  thousands  to  rectify." — 'Times,' 
1st  October  1901. 

When  urging  a  more  adequate  sta£f  for  Northern  Nigeria  (in  August  1905)   I 


ADEQUATE  BRITISH  STAFF  ESSENTIAL.  141 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must,  of  course,  be  recognised  that  the 
staff  of  a  tropical  dependency  must  necessarily  be  small  in 
comparison  with  its  area  and  population.  A  liberal  grant-in- 
aid — ^by  way  of  loan  if  otherwise  unobtainable — ^may  at  first 
be  necessary  to  supplement  the  local  revenue,  which  is  in- 
evitably very  limited  until  its  resources  are  developed.  Large 
calls  are  made  on  that  revenue,  for  the  maintenance  of  troops 
and  police  to  preserve  order  and  to  guard  its  frontiers.  In  the 
absence  of  railways  and  roads,  the  cost  of  transport  for  build- 
ing materials  and  supplies  are  unduly  heavy.  Poor  food  and 
bad  housing  add  to  the  effect  of  a  trying  chmate,  especially 
in  West  Africa,  and  necessitate  frequent  leave,  with  a  conse- 
quential increase  of  staff  to  maintain  the  actual  minimum  for 
duty,  and  a  disproportionately  large  medical  staff  is  reqtiired. 

Financial  considerations  therefore  reinforce  those  of  policy, 
and  dictate  the  necessity  of  ruling  through  the  native  rulers 
themselves,  while  devoting  the  efforts  of  the  British  staff 
to  making  that  rule  at  once  effective  and  humane.  This 
policy,  however,  takes  time  to  inaugurate. 

In  West  Africa,  to  supply  the  vacancies  caused  by  the 
absence  of  officers  on  leave  in  England,  one-third  additional 
staff  has  hitherto  normally  been  required.  But  if  to  this  be 
added  the  deficiencies  due  to  invaUdings,  extensions  of  leave 
for  ill-health,  and  local  absence  from  duty  for  the  same  cause, 
the  proportion  actually  available  for  duty  is,  or  certainly  was, 
probably  not  more  than  half.  In  other  words,  the  Eevenue 
must  provide  for  double  the  British  staff  required  for  the 
efficient  conduct  of  the  administration.'-  But  it  is  not  only 
or  even  primarily  a  question  of  cost,  even  though  efficiency 
depends  on  meeting  that  cost.  An  even  more  serious  aspect 
lies  in  the  drain  thus  caused  on  the  yoimg  manhood  of  the 
Empire. 

wrote  :  "  In  1902-3,  three  years  after  the  inauguration  of  the  administration,  the 
Political  department  cost  £30,545,  and  collected  a  revenue  of  £1260.  In 
1905-6  it  cost  £59,089,  and  collected  £69,756,  besides  carrying  out  the  whole 
of  the  administrative  and  judicial  work.  The  cost  was  rather  less  than 
doubled,  the  receipts  were  multiplied  by  56." 

'  The  committee  appointed  to  consider  the  desirability  of  revising  the  leave 
and  pension  rules  for  West  Africa  presented  its  report  in  March  1920.  It  is 
recommended  that  the  normal  residential  period  of  service  abroad  should  be 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  months,  and  it  should  be  left  to  the  discretion  of 
the  Governor  to  allow  any  officer  to  proceed  on  leave  after  twelve  months — an 
extension  of  the  former  system  in  Northern  Nigeria,  which  was  afterwards 
abandoned.  A  curtailment  of  the  period  of  leave  in  England  is  also  recommended, 
with  a  grant  of  local  leave,  and  officers  are  to  be  encouraged  to  take  their  wives. 


142      BRITISH   STAPP   AND    CONDITIONS    OF   LIFE   ESf    TEOPICS. 

Of  late  years  this  responsibility  has  been  more  fully  recog- 
nised. Candidates  for  West  African  service  must  be  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  and  have  to  undergo  a  medical  examina- 
tion before  selection.  If,  as  sometimes  occurs,  the  local 
medical  officers  attribute  the  death  of  an  officer  to  physi- 
cal causes  which  ought  to  have  ensured  his  rejection,  the 
responsibility  should  be  brought  home  to  the  officer  who 
"  passed  "  him.  It  never  is.  Such  cases  are  not  frequent 
in  the  Government  service,  but  I  am  informed  that  they  are 
comparatively  common  among  the  young  employees  of  com- 
mercial firms. 

In  the  debate  on  the  Colonial  Office  Vote,  the  spokesman 
of  the  Colonial  Office  (Colonel  Amery)  said  that  it  was  the 
desire  of  the  Secretary  of  State  that  married  life  should  be 
the  rule  rather  than  the  exception  in  the  Crown  colonies  and 
Protectorates.^  That  is  the  desire  of  every  Governor,  but 
in  the  conditions  of  Africa  it  is  difficult  to  reahse.  In  some 
instances  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  married  man,  accom- 
panied by  his  wife,  to  discharge  his  duties  efficiently,  and 
such  instances  form  no  small  part  of  the  total — as  in  the 
case  of  District  Officers,  surveyors,  and  others,  who  are  con- 
stantly travelling,  often  in  districts  where  a  man  would 
hesitate  to  leave  his  wife  alone  in  camp,  while  she  would 
seriously  hamper  his  work  if  she  were  by  his  side.  But  puttiag 
these  aside,  there  remains  the  serious  difficulty  in  regard  to 
children — ^inherent  in  a  career  in  the  tropics.  Those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  conditions  of  life  in  India,  which  the  writings 
of  Mr  Kipling  and  Mrs  Steel  have  pictured  to  the  British 
public,  know  that  even  there — where  hill-stations  with  hotels 
and  boarding-houses  aboimd,  and  there  is  a  large  "  Society  " 
— the  official  tied  by  his  work  to  the  plains,  and  the  "  grass- 
widow  "  in  the  hills,  present  conditions  of  life  not  altogether 
attractive. 

In  the  highlands  of  East  Africa  the  case  is,  of  course, 
different,  and  in  other  parts  of  tropical  Africa  we  may  hope 
that  the  reign  of  law  and  order  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
creation  of  attractive  sanataria  in  the  uplands  on  the  other, 
will  in  part  at  least  provide  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  The 
advent  of  heads  of  commercial  firms  will  tend  to  faciUtate 
conditions  favourable  to  European  family  life. 

The  necessity  of  proper  housing  is  now  recognised,  though 

1  Debate  of  23rd  August  1920. 


NECESSITY  OF  PROPER  HOUSING.  143 

the  war  interfered  with  this  in  the  colomes  no  less  than  at 
home.  When  I  recall  the  deplorable  conditions  which  existed 
in  1898  and  subsequent  years,  the  measure  of  progress  is 
striking.  British  ofBcers  in  N.  Mgeria  then  lived  in  tem- 
porary grass-huts — ^not  rain-proof,  and  liable  to  be  carried 
away  by  the  violent  tornadoes  of  the  Mger  Valley,  and  very 
inferior  to  the  well-thatched  mud-waUed  native  house.  A 
year  or  two  later  we  considered  ourselves  fortunate  when 
three  oflacers,  or  five  British  N.C.O.'s,  shared  a  wooden  hut, 
with  a  galvanised  iron  roof,  containing  three  rooms  12  ft. 
square.  But  it  was  long  before  all  were  thus  accommodated, 
even  at  headquarters.  The  expenditure  for  the  whole  civil 
establishment,  "  including  house-building,  vessels,  telegraph 
construction,  railway  survey,  &c.,"  in  the  first  complete 
financial  year,  1900-1,  is  given  in  the  official  report  as  £96,407 
only !  And  £35,593  was  "  saved  "  from  the  available  funds, 
pitifully  smaU  as  they  were,  "  chiefly  through  the  non- 
appointment  of  officials  till  late  in  the  year,  more  especially 
the  Director  of  Works,  so  that  the  urgent  works — houses  for 
staff,  &c. — ^were  not  begun  till  towards  the  close  of  the  year."  ^ 
I  recollect  that  at  one  time  we  desisted  from  retaining  the 
flag  at  half-mast,  which  signalled  another  death,  because  its 
frequency  had  so  depressing  an  effect. 

I  have  served,  with  short  intervals,  for  forty  years  in  the 
tropics,  mostly  in  places  with  the  worst  climatic  reputation, 
and  I  think  that  the  appalUng  death-rate  in  those  early 
years  in  West  Africa  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  climate  as 
to  the  absence  of  the  necessary  housing,  &c.,  and  that  the 
death-roll  would  have  been  hardly  appreciably  less  had  we 
lived  in  the  Thames  Valley  aU  the  year  round  in  the  same 
conditions  of  overwork,  anxiety,  housing,  and  food. 

Looked  at  from  the  meanest  point  of  view,  it  was  false 
economy,  for  not  only  was  efficiency  sacrificed,  but  heavy 
expense  was  incurred  by  invalidings,  and  revenue  was  wasted 
by  the  inadequacy  of  the  staff  to  collect  it.  It  is,  as  I  have 
already  said,  a  cruel  mistake  to  ask  of  the  early  pioneers — 
at  a  time  of  inevitable  strain,  anxiety,  and  heavy  responsi- 
bility, with  impaired  vitality  due  to  bad  housing,  imnutritious 
food,  and  latent  malaria — that  they  should  work  incessantly 
by  day  and  night  with  the  harassing  feeling  of  inability  to 
overtake  arrears  of  importance.  Lack  of  adequate  subordi- 
1  Annual  Reports,  No.  377  of  1901,  p.  43. 


144     BRITISH  STAFF  AND  CONDITIONS  OP  LIFE  IN  TROPICS. 

nate  staff,  moreover,  compels  an  oflBcer  to  waste  valuable  time 
in  trivialities  and  the  maintenance  of  necessary  records, 
and  leaves  him  insuflBcient  time  to  deal  with  essentials.  He 
works  on,  as  a  British  officer  will,  over-wrought  and  losing 
groimd,  till  his  health  breaks  down,  and  a  new  hand  has 
to  take  his  place,  with  a  sacrifice  of  continuity  and  efficiency. 
That  is  the  tale  I  heard  too  often  in  those  days. 

Much  of  this  mortaUty  and  deficiency  of  staff  might  have 
been  avoided  by  an  Imperial  loan  charged  against  the  revenues 
of  the  future,  if  the  nation  had  appreciated  the  value  of  the 
country  as  Mr  Chamberlain  did.  The  Transvaal  administra- 
tion began  with  a  loan  of  £30,000,000  ;  Palestine  and  Mesopo- 
tamia have  cost  unknown  nulhons — ^but  the  whole  authorised 
civil  expenditure  of  Northern  Mgeria  in  the  year  of  its  in- 
auguration was  £86,000,  with  a  further  £50,000  for  purchase 
of  worn-out  steamers  and  for  buildings  !  "If  the  British 
nation,"  I  wrote  in  1902,  "  is  not  prepared  to  bear  the  cost 
of  an  enterprise  which  promises  good  returns,  and  already 
shows  substantial  progress,  it  were  better  that  it  had  never 
undertaken  it."  ^ 

Experience  thus  acquired  has  taught  the  home  authorities 
a  better  way.  Great  care  is  now  taken  to  see  to  the  physical 
fitness  of  officers  selected,  and  of  those  returning  to  duty. 
But  the  chief  cause  to  which  the  staff  owe  their  improved 
conditions  is  the  material  prosperity  of  the  colonies.  The 
Secretary  of  State  has  no  longer  to  persuade  the  Treasury, 
and  can  afford  to  approve  of  adequate  housing,  improved 
sanitation,  and  means  of  recreation,  and  even  to  contemplate 
the  creation  of  a  local  sanatarium,  since  the  colony,  and  not 
the  Treasury,  pays  the  cost. 

A  brief  word  as  to  what  is  needed.  The  diseases  of  tropical 
Africa  are  comparatively  few — ^blackwater,  malaria,  dysentery, 
and  ansemia  are  the  principal  ones.  Lung  diseases,  enteritis, 
cholera  are  rare  or  unknown  among  Europeans.  We  have  now 
in  the  African  tropics  a  most  efficient  Medical  Service,  and, 
generally  speaking,  excellent  hospitals,  with  an  adequate 
nursing  staff.  To  the  skiU  of  the  doctors,  and  to  the  im- 
provements they  have  effected  in  sanitation,  &c.,  it  is  due 
that  the  returns  of  deaths  and  invaUdings  show  such  a  won- 
derful decrease.  It  is  time  that  the  Governments  in  West 
Africa  considered  the  feasibility  of  providing  a  sanatarium  in 

1  '  The  Making  of  Nigeria,'  Capt.  Orr,  pp.  77  and  140. 


HOTJSE-BTJILDrNG  IN  THE  TROPICS.  145 

the  higMands,  where  men  who  are  nm  down  and  need  rest 
might  recuperate.  One  of  the  minor  worries  of  African  life 
is  the  servant — especially  the  cook — difficulty.  The  sana- 
tarium  should  therefore  possess  an  hotel,  where  a  man  could 
stay  at  a  reasonable  cost.  Various  forms  of  recreation  are 
essential. 

It  is  indeed  weU  worth  the  while  of  Government  to  encourage 
the  formation  of  recreation  clubs  at  every  centre,  by  pro- 
viding ground,  and  even  by  financial  support  at  their  incep- 
tion. They  should  soon  become  self-supporting,  under  the 
management  of  local  committees.  Polo,  tennis,  golf,  cricket, 
and  even  football  have  each  their  votaries,  and  Government 
might  build  a  racquet  (or  squash-racquet)  court  at  each  large 
centre,  as  in  India.  A  club-room,  with  a  library,  newspapers, 
and  even  a  biUiard-table,  would  add  much  to  the  amenities 
of  life,  and  promote  healthy  intercourse  between  officials  and 
non-ofiBicials. 

So  much  has  been  written,  and  such  admirable  practical 
results  have  been  obtained  by  the  medical  staff,  in  matters 
which  come  within  the  field  of  their  endeavours,  that  notes 
which  I  had  put  together  some  years  ago  are  now  quite  out 
of  date.  A  few  brief  comments — ^the  result  of  long  tropical 
experience — may,  however,  be  of  some  use,  albeit  from  a 
layman.  District  OflBcers  are  not  infrequently  found  to 
prefer  a  well-made  native  hut  to  a  European-built  house. 
It  is  cool  and  roomy,  and  if  provided  with  properly-made 
doors  and  windows  to  exclude  wind  and  rain,  it  is  not  un- 
attractive. The  preference  should,  I  think,  be  discouraged. 
The  thatch,  though  cool,  becomes  soaked  with  moisture  in 
the  rains,  which  is  driven  inwards,  through  decomposing 
matter,  by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  The  mud  floor  is  unhealthy, 
and,  like  the  roof,  favours  rats,  scorpions,  centipedes,  white 
ants,  and  other  unwelcome  visitors.  The  darkness,  especially 
in  the  apex  of  the  conical  roof,  harbours  mosquitoes.  Nor 
is  it  an  economical  policy — apart  from  questions  of  health 
and  comfort, — ^for  the  annual  renewals,  added  to  the  com- 
pensation allowance,  are  more  costly  than  the  erection  of 
permanent  houses. 

The  style  of  house  best  suited  to  the  tropics  is  a  matter 
of  much  controversy  and  prohflc  experiment.  My  own  view 
is  that  houses  should,  when  possible,  be  built  with  an  upper 
storey,  which  should  contain  the  hving,  and  especially  the 

K 


146      BRITISH  STAFF  AND   CONDITIONS   OF  LIFE  IN   TEOPICS. 

sleeping  rooms,  the  ground-floor  being  used  for  dining-rooms, 
office,  and  stores.  The  practice  common  with  commercial 
firms,  of  housing  their  employees  in  rooms  buHt  oyer  produce- 
stores  is,  however,  to  be  deprecated,  for  the  effluvia  cannot 
be  conducive  to  health.  The  tendency  to  enlarge  the  verandah, 
close  it  in,  and  use  it  as  the  living  and  sleeping  portion  of 
the  house,  tends  to  make  the  interior  rooms  dark  and  imin- 
viting.  Its  light  roof  is  often  insufficient  protection  from  the 
sun.  Floors  should  be  covered  with  linoleum,  which  is  easily 
washed,  and  prevents  smeUs  and  draughts  ascending  through 
a  boarded  floor.  The  houses  should  be  oriented,  so  that  the 
sun  passing  over  from  end  to  end,  as  nearly  as  may  be  through- 
out the  year,  does  not  render  the  front  and  back  verandahs 
alternately  untenable.  Windows  should  be  low,  and  doors 
half -glazed. 

The  space  between  the  ceiling  and  the  apex  of  a  sheet- 
iron  roof  in  the  tropics  becomes  fiUed  with  hot  air  during 
the  day,  and  ventilators  in  the  ceiling  only  increase  the 
temperature  of  the  room.  VentUation  should  be  secured  by 
open  windows  and  doors,  and  by  gauze-netting — or  gratings 
in  a  masonry  house — around  the  outer  walls  near  the  ceiling. 
Tiles  are  the  best  and  coolest  roofing  material,  and  if  locally 
made  have  been  found  to  be  not  appreciably  more  costly 
than  corrugated-iron  sheeting,  even  though  the  framework  of 
the  roof  must  be  strengthened  to  carry  their  weight.  For 
wooden  houses,  corrugated  iron  or  asbestos  sheeting  (uraUte) 
laid  on  match-boarding  is  probably  the  best.  Houses  which 
have  only  a  ground-flour  should  be  raised  above  the  sur- 
rounding level.  If  of  wood,  they  should  be  built  on  masonry 
or  iron  pillars,  2  ft.  from  the  ground.  The  eaves  should 
descend  to  within  5  ft.  6  in.  of  the  floor-level.  Pitch-tar  or 
siderothen  paint  is  invaluable  for  preventing  the  access  of 
white  ants  to  any  part  of  the  wooden  structure  of  a  house. 

The  heat  of  a  house  in  the  tropics  is  caused,  not  so  much 
by  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  as  by  radiation  from  the  ground. 
Some  therefore  prefer  to  break  the  back  of  the  roof  at  the 
edge  of  the  verandah,  and  extend  it  for  a  few  feet,  at  a  very 
gentle  slope,  supported  by  uprights  outside  the  house.  Of 
aU  vermin  in  the  tropics,  the  most  oilensive  and  insanitary 
are  bats.  They  will  enter  a  building  by  incredibly  small 
orifices,  and  establish  themselves  in  the  roof,  or  between  the 
weather  and  match-boarding,  and  their  odour  is  repulsive. 


MOSQtJITOES — ^WATEE  SUPPLY.  147 

Particular  care  must  therefore  be  taken  to  close  every  crevice, 
and  protect  every  grating  by  wire-gauze. 

The  house  should  not  be  surrounded  by  so  many  trees  as 
to  exclude  the  breeze  and  Ught.  Vegetation  which  harbours 
mosquitoes  should  not  be  allowed  near  to  it.  Compounds  or 
gardens  should  not  be  too  large,  and  the  servants'  quarters 
must  be  as  distant  as  possible.  Township  by-laws  wiU 
regulate  the  erection  of  private  houses,  so  that  they  may  con- 
form to  a  reasonable  standard  for  health  and  general  amenity. 

Mosquito-proof  sleeping  cubicles  of  copper-gauze  are  now 
much  in  vogue,  but  they  have  the  disadvantage  that  mos- 
quitoes which  have  gained  access  by  the  inevitable  careless- 
ness of  servants  are  not  as  easily  detected,  or  dislodged,  as 
in  an  ordinary  mosquito-net.  They  also  exclude  the  air. 
Duplicate  gauze  windows  and  doors  in  an  ordinary  living- 
room  are  in  my  experience  excellent.  They  can  be  closed 
in  the  evening,  admit  air,  and  exclude  flies  as  well  as  mos- 
quitoes, and  temper  too  violent  a  breeze.  Common-sense 
dictates  that  dark-coloured  clothes  which  harbour  mosquitoes 
should  be  kept  folded  up,  and  not  hung  on  the  waUs,  and 
that  the  mosquito-net  should  be  carefully  examined  and  well 
tucked  in  before  going  to  sleep. 

The  purity  of  the  water-supply — a  matter  of  vital  import- 
ance to  health — ^is,  of  course,  a  question  to  which  the  medical 
staff  devotes  unremitting  attention.  There  is  no  need,  there- 
fore, for  me  to  dwell  here  on  the  desirability  of  a  pipe-borne 
supply  from  an  uncontaminated  source  ;  on  the  necessity  of 
eliminating  native  villages  from  proximity  to  a  stream  which 
supplies  the  township  ;  of  drawing  off  the  surface  water 
(which  contains  most  larvae,  &c.),  and  keeping  reservoirs 
stocked  with  fish  ;  of  boiling  drinking-water  and  using  good 
filters  ;  of  protecting  wells  by  a  curb,  and  using  a  pump  to 
draw  the  water  ;  of  preventing  the  sinking  of  weUs  near  con- 
taminated ground  ;  of  detaching  pipes  from  rain-water  tanks 
till  the  first  showers  have  cleansed  the  roofs,  and  allowing 
feed-pipes  to  empty  into  a  gauze  bucket  to  prevent  the  ingress 
of  lizards,  &c. — ^for  these  are  now  well-established  customs.^ 

1  A  writer  in  the  '  Pioneer  Mail'  (Srd  February  1905)  advocates  the  sterilisation 
of  water  by  chemicals  in  preference  to  filtration  or  boiling,  since  the  latter  are 
often  neglected  for  lack  of  vessels  or  time,  and  are  suitable  for  stations,  but  not 
for  troops  on  the  march.  Permanganate  of  potash  is  not  effective.  Sulphate  of 
copper  has  not  been  fully  tested.  He  advocates  the  passing  through  the  water  of 
chlorine  gas,  "  liquefied  and  stored  in  little  cylinders  like  those  used  for  carbonic 


148      BRITISH  STAFF  AND  CONDITIONS   OF  LIFE  IN  TROPICS. 

But  it  may  be  worth  while  to  mention  that  in  the  early  years 
in  Northern  Nigeria  we  practically  eliminated  dysentery  from 
many  centres  by  the  use  of  portable  condensers  burning  wood 
fuel.  These  were  procured  through  the  Crown  agents,  and 
are  invaluable  in  isolated  stations  with  a  bad  water-supply. 
They  are  simple,  and  can  be  managed  by  a  native,  and  trans- 
ported by  two  carriers.^ 

The  question  of  the  segregation  of  Europeans  and  natives 
is  one  which  merits  a  word  here.  We  have  learnt  that  malarial 
germs — and  at  times  those  of  yellow-fever  also — are  present 
in  the  blood  of  most  natives,  especially  of  native  children,  and 
their  dark  huts  and  insanitary  surroundings  foster  mosquitoes, 
by  which  these  diseases  are  conveyed.  Doctors,  therefore, 
urge  that  Europeans  should  not  sleep  in  proximity  to  natives, 
in  order  to  avoid  infection. 

We  do  not  go  to  Africa  for  our  health,  and  every  other 
consideration  must  give  way  to  the  discharge  of  duties,  which 
iQ  some  cases — such  as  the  headmaster  of  a  school,  the  keeper 
of  a  prison,  missionaries,  and  others — must  of  necessity  ren- 
der the  observance  of  this  rule  impossible.  But  where  segre- 
gation is  compatible  with  work  and  duty,  commercial  firms, 
no  less  than  the  Government,  incur  a  moral  responsibility  not 
to  expose  their  employees  to  infection  which  can  be  avoided. 

With  this  object  in  view,  new  townships  are  divided  into 
European  and  native  reservations,  separated  by  a  non- 
residential area  440  yards  ia  breadth,  cleared  of  high  grass 
and  scrub.  Europeans  are  not  allowed  to  sleep  in  the  native  re- 
servation, and  natives,  other  than  domestic  servants  and  other 
necessary  employees,  may  not  reside  in  the  European  quarter. 

The  belt  of  clear  groimd  which  intervenes  between  the 
two  quarters  forms  an  effective  fire-guard  from  bush-fires, 
and  the  conflagrations,  so  frequent  in  the  dry  zone,  of  the 
inflammable  huts  and  enclosures  of  the  natives,^  which  also 
harbour  rats  and  other  vermin.  It  may  be  used  for  recrea- 
tion and  parade  grounds,  railway  and  public  works  depart- 

aoid  for  soda-water,  with  a,  tube  attached,  liberating  only  one  gramme  at  a  time." 
The  chlorine  kills  every  species  of  germ  in  thirty  minutes,  and  by  adding  sulphate 
of  soda  the  taste  is  removed.  A  5-lb.  cylinder  will  sterilise  111,944  gallons  at 
a  cost  of  Id.  per  1000  gallons. 

1  Condensed  water  was  discarded  in  the  Philippines  as  lacking  the  natural 
salts.     Artesian  water  was  there  obtainable. — Elliott,  loc.  cU.,  p.  204. 

2  The  serious  fire  which  occurred  in  the  Niger  Company's  premises  at  Burutu, 
with  a  loss  of  some  half-million  sterling,  due,  it  is  believed,  to  natives  cooking 
over  an  open  fire,  is  a  case  in  point. 


THE  POLICY  OP  SEGREGATION.  149 

ment  yards,  cemeteries,  &c.,  and  even  for  buildings  in  which 
Europeans  or  natives  do  not  sleep,  provided  that  they  do 
not  form  connecting  links  for  the  spread  of  fire,  or  resting- 
places  for  mosqmtoes.  They  should  for  this  reason  never 
be  allowed  on  the  side  on  which  the  native  reservation  is 
located.  In  old  townships  these  principles  can  only  be  in- 
troduced very  gradually ;  and  in  order  to  avoid  difficulties 
in  the  future,  much  care  and  foresight  must  be  exercised 
when  granting  long  leases  in  places  which  may  eventually 
expand  into  a  township.  Europeans  should  never  be  per- 
mitted to  reside  in  a  native  city,  or  close  to  but  outside  a 
township. 

Such  in  brief  is  "  the  poUcy  of  segregation  "  ^  which  Lord 
Milner  considers  to  be  desirable  no  less  in  the  interests  of 
social  comfort  and  convenience  than  in  those  of  health  and 
sanitation.^  It  is  obviously  applicable  only  to  large  centres 
of  population,  and  since  Europeans  and  natives  must  neces- 
sarily be  in  close  association  during  the  day-time,  it  affords 
at  best  a  very  partial  safeguard  against  insect-borne  diseases, 
for  which  the  only  real  cure  is  the  extermination  of  the 
mosquito — or  the  rats  which  harbour  the  plague-flea — alike 
in  the  native  as  ia  the  European  quarter,  and  the  isolation 
of  persons  suffering  from  insect-borne  diseases. 

The  policy  has  given  rise  to  bitter  controversy,  and  the 
allegation  by  both  British  Indians  and  Africans  that  it  is 
merely  a  manifestation  of  racial  arrogance  and  prejudice.^ 
This  is,  I  think,  in  part  due  to  a  misapprehension,  in  part  to 
an  attempt  to  carry  the  policy  to  extremes.  On  the  one  hand 
the  policy  does  not  impose  any  restriction  on  one  race  which 
is  not  appUcable  to  the  other.  A  European  is  as  strictly 
prohibited  from  living  in  the  native  reservation,  as  a  native 
is  from  living  in  the  European  quarter. 

^  The  members  of  the  African  section  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce declare  that  they  are,  "  without  exception,  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
principle  of  the  segregation  of  Europeans ;  but  they  stipulated  (a)  that  the 
area  proposed  to  be  assigned  to  Europeans  should  be  officially  declared,  and  not 
subject  to  alteration,  with  a  view  to  avoiding  the  erection  of  buildings  which 
would  become  useless  by  a  change  of  boundaries  ;  and  (6)  that  there  should  be 
no  compulsion,  and  one  or  more  Europeans  should  be  allowed  to  sleep  on  the 
business  premises  as  a  guard  against  burglary." — Letter  to  Colonial  Office, 
6th  May  1921.  The  latter  proposal  is  open  to  the  objection  that  it  accords  to 
Europeans  an  exemption  denied  to  Africans. 

2  Debate  of  14th  July  1920. 

^  See  the  presidential  address  by  Mr  Jewanjee  at  the  Indian  Congress, 
Mombasa,  11th  December  1920,  and  Indian  and  African  press  passim. 


150      BRITISH  STAFF   AND   CONDITIONS   OP  LIFE  IN   TROPICS. 

On  the  other  hand,  since  this  feeling  exists,  it  should  in 
my  opinion  be  made  abundantly  clear  that  what  is  aimed 
at  is  a  segregation  of  social  standards,  and  not  a  segregation 
of  races.  The  Indian  or  African  gentleman  who  adopts  the 
higher  standard  of  civilisation  and  desires  to  partake  in  such 
immunity  from  infection  as  segregation  may  convey,  should 
be  as  free  and  welcome  to  live  in  the  civilised  reservation  as 
the  European,  provided,  of  course,  that  he  does  not  bring 
with  him  a  concourse  of  followers.  The  native  peasant  often 
shares  his  hut  with  his  goat,  or  sheep,  or  fowls.  He  loves  to 
drum  and  dance  at  night,  which  deprives  the  European  of 
sleep.  He  is  sceptical  of  mosquito  theories.  "  God  made 
the  mosquito  larvse,"  said  a  Moslem  deputation  to  me ;  "  for 
God's  sake  let  the  larvae  Uve."  For  these  people  sanitary 
rules  are  necessary  but  hateful.  They  have  no  desire  to 
abolish  segregation. 

In  order  that  there  may  be  no  legitimate  ground  for  alleg- 
ing that  public  money  is  unduly  spent  on  the  "  European  " 
quarter,  separate  rates  should  be  levied  in  each  reservation, 
and  spent  wholly  on  the  quarter  from  which  they  accrue, 
whUe  any  grant  from  public  revenue  to  the  township  should 
be  spent  impartially  on  both. 

Improvement  in  the  quality  of  food  in  the  tropics  is  a 
matter  of  great  importance  for  health  and  efficiency.  Meat 
(including  fowls)  is  generally  tough  and  tasteless,  and,  like 
tinned  foods,  is  deficient  in  nutritive  qualities,  while  vege- 
tables and  fruit  (except  bananas)  are  rarely  procurable. 
"  Mutton  clubs  "  in  India,  by  feeding  the  animals  weU — 
especially  on  grain — succeed  in  producing  excellent  meat, 
and  the  same  system  can  be  adopted  in  Africa,  and  extended 
to  poultry,  and  the  quality  can  be  improved  by  crossing  with 
imported  stock.  Vegetables  can  be  raised  in  properly-tended 
gardens  under  municipal  supervision,  and  sold  to  Europeans  ; 
but  raw  salads  should  be  avoided  in  the  tropics.  Gardens  in 
the  dry  zone  depend  on  irrigation,  which  can  be  effected  by 
raising  weU-water  by  windmills.  The  French  have  set  us 
an  example  in  the  production  of  garden  produce  in  Africa. 
"  Cold  storage  "  in  West  Africa,  especially  in  the  coast  towns, 
now  suppUes  imported  joiats,  vegetables,  and  fruit,  and  is 
capable  of  extension  to  inland  centres  by  railway.  Above  all, 
the  need  of  training  native  cooks  is  a  matter  of  such  import- 
ance that  it  is  well  worth  considering  whether  cookery  classes 


MEDICAL  STAPP  AND  EESEAEOH.  151 

could  not  be  instituted  as  a  special  subject  in  Government 
schools.  Mrs  Euxton  and  Mrs  Tew  have  rendered  a  great 
service  by  their  admirable  books  on  simple  tropical  cookery. 

Too  much  emphasis  cannot,  of  course,  be  laid  on  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  an  adequate  and  weU- qualified  Medical 
staff,  with  specialised  training  in  the  splendid  schools  of 
Tropical  Medicine  which  now  exist  in  this  country  for  re- 
search work.  Well-equipped  laboratories  for  local  research 
work — ^like  the  Wellcome  Institute  attached  to  the  Gordon 
College  at  Khartum,  and  the  smaller  institutions  in  Nigeria 
and  elsewhere — are  doing  increasingly  valuable  work,  and 
demand  every  encouragement  from  the  local  Governments. 

It  is  to  Mr  Chamberlain's  sympathetic  foresight  that  we 
owe  the  creation  of  an  adequate  Medical  Service  in  the  tropics, 
the  inauguration  of  Tropical  Schools  of  Medicine,  and,  above 
all,  the  institution  of  hospital  nurses.  The  Colonial  Nursing 
Association,  in  which  Mrs  Chamberlain  took  a  very  promi- 
nent part,  was  formed  in  1896  by  private  subscription,  with 
the  object  of  supplying  trained  nurses — a  need  which,  I 
think,  I  was  one  of  the  fijst  to  advocate,  for  nursing  sisters 
were  unknown  in  Africa  during  my  first  eight  or  ten  years' 
service  there.  The  Gold  Coast  has  recently  appointed  women 
doctors  for  the  schools,  to  combat  child  diseases  and  mortaUty. 

The  utility  of  the  Medical  department  can  be  greatly 
increased  by  providing  motor-cars  or  cycles  for  the  doctors, 
as  we  found  in  Mgeria  during  the  war,  when  the  bulk  of  our 
medical  staff  was  lent  for  war  work  elsewhere.  By  thus  cover- 
ing long  distances,  even  over  the  roughest  of  native  roads, 
they  are  enabled  to  save  many  a  life.  The  story  of  African 
development  is  fuU  of  deeds  of  self-devotion  by  doctors,  who 
have  travelled  day  and  night  under  almost  impossible  condi- 
tions to  save  the  life  of  a  sick  comrade  in  an  isolated  and 
distant  post. 

It  is  primarily  due  to  medical  research,  and  to  the  zeal 
of  medical  officers,  that  the  wonderful  decrease  in  mortality 
among  Europeans  in  West  Africa  is  to  be  ascribed,  though 
better  conditions  of  Ufe,  greater  moderation  in  the  use  of 
alcohol,  and  other  causes,  have  of  course  had  their  share  in 
the  result.^    Further  decrease  will  no  doubt  result  from  the 

'  Dr  Sambon,  Lecturer  iu  the  London  School  of  Tropical  Medicine,  in  an 
interesting  paper  contributed  to  the  Press  ('West  Africa,'  3rd  August  1918),  states 
that  100  years  ago  the  mortality  of  white  troops  in  West  Africa  was  1500  per 


152      BRITISH  STAFF  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  LIFE  IN  TEOPICS. 

improvement  of  sanitary  conditions  among  the  natives,  and 
from  the  discovery  of  an  effective  treatment  for  the  great 
scourges  of  blackwater  fever  and  sleeping-sickness, — the  case 
mortality  of  the  former  has  already  greatly  decreased,  and  a 
cure  for  the  latter  appears  to  be  in  sight  at  last.  The  pro- 
vision of  dentists  is  a  further  departure  of  the  greatest  possible 
value. 

I  shall  not  here  discuss  at  any  length  the  debated  question 
of  private  practice  by  medical  officers  in  the  Government 
service.  Since  there  are  but  a  few  centres  where  an  income 
can  be  made  by  this  means,  it  is  inevitable  that  there  should 
be  heart-burnings  and  friction  in  regard  to  the  selection  of 
officers  for  these  posts.  The  salaries,  pension,  and  promotion 
of  Government  medical  officers  should  be  sufficiently  generous 
to  attract  good  men,  without  such  extraneous  inducements  ; 
and  if  the  acceptance  of  any  fee,  except  as  consultant,  were 
disallowed,  the  field  would  be  left  open  to  private  practi- 
tioners, and  Government  medical  officers  woidd  have  more 
time  to  devote  to  research,  and  to  free  hospital  and  dis- 
pensary work  among  the  natives. 

A  few  brief  words  to  the  newcomer  to  the  tropics,  before 
he  has  had  time  to  acquire  experience,  or  to  benefit  from 
the  advice  of  the  doctor,  may  be  of  use  : — 

Wear  light  flannel  next  to  the  skin,  and  use  a  cummer- 
bund. Never  be  separated  from  your  mosquito-net — a  small 
one  can  be  carried  on  the  saddle, — and  see  that  it  is  well  tucked 
in  at  night,  and  that  your  feet  or  hands  do  not  Ke  against  it 
while  asleep.  Wear  some  head-covering  when  under  an  in- 
sufficient roof  or  in  a  verandah,  and  on  no  account  go  into  the 
sun  without  a  hat,  even  for  a  moment.  When  marching  on 
foot,  wear  thick  wooUen  socks  and  roomy  boots.  Bathe  in 
warm  water.  Be  moderate  in  eating  and  drinking  ;  always 
eat  something  before  going  to  work,^  and  eat  frequently,  but 
not  largely  at  one  time.  Eat  fresh  food,  even  though  un- 
appetising, in  preference  to  tinned  food.    Obtain  all  the  vege- 

mille  !  The  average  for  the  quinquennial  period  ending  1917  appears  to  have 
been  9  "87  per  mille  for  the  Gold  Coast,  and  20*44  for  Nigeria,  in  spite  of  war 
conditions.  Dr  Sambon  looks  forward  to  the  time  when  the  African  tropics, 
like  Panama,  will  be  made  colonisable  by  the  conquest  of  parasitic  diseases. 

^  Khatib  Musa,  who  for  forty  years  was  Imam  of  the  Mosque  of  Timbuktu, 
without  a  single  day's  illness,  attributed  his  good  health  to  the  observance  of 
three  rules.  "He  never  slept,"  he  said,  "exposed  to  the  night  air;  he  never 
missed  anointing  himself  at  night,  and  taking  a  hot  bath  in  the  morning  ;  and 
he  never  went  out  without  breakfast." — '  Tropical  Dependency,'  p.  126. 


MEDICAL  WOEK  AMONG  THE  NATIVES.  153 

tables  and  fruit  you  can,  but  eat  sparingly  of  uncooked  salads. 
Boil  aU  drinking  water  and  milk  bought  from  the  natives. 
Take  five  grains  of  quinine  daily,  preferably  in  liquid  form — 
tabloids  sometimes  become  so  hard  that  they  pass  through 
the  system  without  dissolving.  If  unavoidably  exposed  to 
mosquitoes,  take  an  extra  dose  on  alternate  days  for  ten  days. 
Personally,  see  to  the  cleanliness  of  all  cooking  utensils  by 
frequent  inspection.  See  that  your  clothes  are  not  washed 
in  water  used  for  this  purpose  by  natives. 

Turning  to  the  native  population,  we  need  not  be  dis- 
heartened because,  as  I  have  said,  the  first  impact  of  civilisa- 
tion has  not  brought  with  it  all  the  alleviations  and  benefits 
which  we  had  hoped.  The  discouraging  reports  of  the  Belgian 
Congo  Commission,^  and  of  the  East  African  Commis- 
sion,* Sir  H.  Belfield's  assertion  that  the  population  of  the 
Gold  Coast  is  not  increasing,^  and  Sir  E.  Coryndon's  report 
to  the  same  effect  as  regards  Uganda,*  will,  rightly  used,  point 
the  way  in  which  our  efforts  should  be  directed  in  the  future, 
no  less  in  the  sphere  of  administrative  action  than  iu  that  of 
technical  research  and  medical  treatment.  In  the  one  we 
shall  learn  to  abstain  from  interference  in  the  mode  of  life 
of  the  people,  leaving  them  to  work  on  their  own  land  in  their 
own  way  instead  of  as  hirelings  under  conditions  which  do  not 
suit  them,  or  in  places  far  distant  from  their  natural  climate 
and  food.  In  the  other,  as  Dr  Sambon  says,  a  very  much 
larger  staff  is  required  to  achieve  adequate  results.  Vaccina- 
tion should  be  more  widely  extended.  Bad  water,  lack  of 
drains,  open  cesspools,  iusanitary  customs,  such  as  burial 
in  houses,  overcrowding,  and  absence  of  sanitation  in  the 
cities,  cause  iofant  enteritis  and  dysentery,  with  an  appalling 

^  The  Commission  was  constituted  under  the  Belgian  Congo  Charter.  It 
reports  that  the  depopulation  of  that  country  is  rapid  and  alarming  ;  that 
indigenous  diseases,  such  as  sleeping-sickness,  have  spread,  and  hitherto  unknown 
diseases,  such  as  tuberculosis,  cerebro-spinal-meningitis,  and  typhoid,  have  been 
introduced ;  that  immorality  and  venereal  disease  have  greatly  increased,  and 
the  population  has  decreased  by  half. 

^  The  report  states  that  evidence  given  shows  that  50  %  of  our  native  popula- 
tion are  relatively  incapable  of  physical  exertion  ;  that  pneumonia,  malaria,  yaws, 
syphilis,  phthisis,  and  heart- weakness,  as  well  as  infant  mortality,  are  of  appal- 
lingly wide  distribution. — P.  29. 

*  Cd.  6278,  p.  12.  The  population  of  the  Sokoto  province  (Nigeria),  on  the 
other  hand,  is  reported  to  have  largely  increased  since  1893, — due,  however, 
largely  to  immigration. 

•■  In  several  districts  statistics  show  that  33  %  of  the  children  are  still-born,  in 
others  that  the  population  is  decreasing — due  to  venereal  disease. — 'United 
Empire,'  June  1920,  p.  396. 


154     BRITISH  STAFF  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  LIFE  IN  TEOPICS. 

infant  mortality.  The  efforts  made  through  the  native 
administrations  by  the  establishment  of  dispensaries  in  the 
cities,  the  provision  of  sanitary  gangs  (prisoners  and  others) 
under  expert  supervision,  of  incinerators,  and  of  improved 
latrines,  above  all,  of  venereal  hospitals  and  leper  settlements, 
need  to  be  made  on  a  more  extended  scale,  and  with  a  larger 
medical  staff  and  trained  subordinates  who  can  speak  the 
native  languages. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  inadequate  resources  in  the 
earlier  years,  we  can  claim  some  successes.  Loss  of  life  by 
direct  human  agencies — tribal  war,  slave-raiding,  witchcraft 
ordeals,  and  fetish  practices — has  Ibeen  checked  by  adminis- 
trative action,  while  an  enthusiastic  Medical  Service  has  been 
established  which  affords  treatment  to  the  people.  In  Nigeria 
— ^which  I  quote  in  illustration,  solely  because  I  have  more 
personal  knowledge  of  that  country  than  of  others — vaccina- 
tion, at  first  feared  and  disliked,  is  now,  generally  speaking, 
popular.  The  advanced  "  native  administrations,"  which 
I  shall  presently  describe,  are  showing  increased  apprecia- 
tion of  sanitation,  and  are  establishing  dispensaries  supported 
by  native  funds.  They  have  taken  up  the  cause  of  the  leper 
outcasts.  When  I  left  Nigeria  the  single  asylum  in  Bornu 
had  534  lepers,  and  a  venereal  hospital  had  been  established. 
In  Sokoto,  where  leprosy  is  most  rife,  there  has  been  a  notable 
decrease,  the  cause  of  which  is  obscure,  but  probably  due  to 
better  conditions  of  life — ^from  5  per  miUe  in  1910  to  3' 7  in 
1916,  and  in  the  Gando  division  from  4-2  in  1911  to  '56  ;  lUo, 
3'14  to  1*14.  A  similar  decrease  in  the  number  of  blind  is 
reported — from  6  and  7-6  per  mille  in  two  districts  in  1911  to 
1'2  and  1-9  respectively.  The  injection  of  chambuga-oU  for 
leprosy  appears  to  promise  success,  and  a  definite  policy  for 
leper  settlements  has  received  legislative  sanction. 


155 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

The  demand  for  reform — The  constitution  of  the  Colonial  Office — The 
Secretary  of  State — The  Parliamentary  Under-Secretary — The  per- 
manent Under-Secretary  and  staff — The  work  of  the  Colonial  Office — 
Results  of  congestion — Lord  Elgin's  reorganisation — Relations  of  the 
Colonial  Office  with  the  colonies — Grounds  of  dissatisfaction — Inter- 
vention by  the  Office — The  Office  view — Treasury  control — The  func- 
tion of  the  Colonial  Office— Results  of  the  system — Ability  of  Colonial 
Office  officials — Government  by  departments— Suggested  palliatives — 
A  second  Under-Secretary  —  Sir  C.  Bruce's  scheme  —  Alternative 
schemes — Direct  responsibility  of  Under-Secretary — A  Director  of 
Protectorates — Committees  and  Councils — Standing  Committees — 
Councils — The  Indian  Council — Contrast  with  the  Colonial  Secretary. 

Theee  has  been  for  many  years  past  a  consistent  complaint 
that  the  Colonial  Office  needs  reform  and  adaptation  to 
modern  requirements.  Several  leading  statesmen  have  fore- 
shadowed changes/  and  many  of  the  principal  newspapers 
and  monthly  journals  have  published  articles  with  the  object 
of  demonstrating  its  deficiencies — its  delays,  its  unnecessary 
interferences,  and  what  not, — as  exemplified  in  some  par- 
ticular matter  or  some  particular  colony  ;  but  few  have  made 
any  definite  constructive  proposals,  viewing  the  subject  as 
a  whole. 

I  propose  in  this  chapter  to  discuss  the  grounds  of  some 

'  Lord  Selborne  and  Lord  Emmott,  both  of  them  former  Under-Secretaries 
at  the  Colonial  Office,  may  be  cited.  The  former  says  :  "  The  Colonial  Office, 
excellent  as  the  work  of  that  department  has  always  been  within  my  personal 
knowledge,  has  never  been  modelled  to  meet  the  conditions  that  are  growing  up 
in  West  Africa  in  the  way  that  the  India  Office,  for  instance,  was  modelled  to 
meet  the  conditions  in  India  ;  and  I  suggest  that  we  are  on  the  eve  ...  of 
political  developments  in  connection  with  West  Africa,  as  well  as  commercial 
developments."— Speech  of  14th  July  1917. 

Lord  Emmott  says:  "There  must  be,  owing  to  this  war,  an  enormous  in- 
crease in  the  responsibilities  and  work  of  the  Colonial  Office,  and  with  this  there 
must  be  an  increase  of  hberty  so  far  as  the  colonies  and  protectorates  which  are 
governed  by  us  are  concerned." — Speech,  July  1919. 


156   THE  HOME  GOVBENMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

of  these  complaints,  and  to  offer,  with  much  diffidence,  some 
suggestions  which  may  possibly  form  a  basis  for  discussion 
and  reform. 

Through  the  Press  and  Eeuter  the  public  is  made  aware 
of  what  happens  in  the  most  distant  colonies,  and  the  Secretary 
of  State  is  expected  by  Parliament  to  be  conversant  with  their 
affairs  almost  from  day  to  day.  With  their  growing  import- 
ance the  office  of  Colonial  Secretary  has  become  one  of  the 
most  important  in  the  State,  to  be  held  by  a  Minister  whose 
position  in  Parliament  and  in  the  Cabinet  makes  heavy  de- 
mands on  his  time,  wholly  unconnected  with  the  duties  of 
his  office.  He  comes  to  it  generally  ignorant  of  the  problems 
of  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  colonies,  and  holds  office  for  only 
a  brief  period.  Since  Mr  Chamberlain's  time  the  average 
tenure  has  been  only  two  and  a  half  years. 

The  Parliamentary  Under-Secretary  is  the  representative 
of  the  Colonial  Office  in  the  House  in  which  the  Secretary  of 
State  does  not  sit.  He  defends  the  policy  of  his  chief,  and 
answers  questions.  He  vacates  his  post  on  a  change  of  Gov- 
ernment, and  may  at  any  time  do  so  on  promotion.  The 
average  tenure  of  the  post  in  the  same  period  has  been  less 
than  two  years.  He  can  caU  for  any  papers  in  the  Office  and 
minute  upon  them,  and  if  so  authorised  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  may  deal  finally  in  his  name  with  the  less  important 
ones.  He  receives  deputations,  and  acts  as  chairman  of  many 
committees.  His  energy  is  usually  unbounded,  and  he  forms 
a  link  between  the  department  and  the  public.  As  most  of 
the  questions  with  which  Parliament  expects  him  to  be 
familiar  are  new  to  him,  his  task  is  no  light  one  ;  but  the 
business  of  the  Office  goes  on,  whether  he  participates  in  it 
to  a  greater  or  a  less  degree. 

The  permanent  staff  of  the  Colonial  Office  consists  of  one 
Under-Secretary  and  four  Assistant  Under-Secretaries  of 
State — one  for  the  Dominions,  one  as  "Accounting  Officer," 
and  two  for  the  Crown  colonies.  The  two  latter  are  in  charge 
of  the  five  departments  into  which  the  Crown  colonies  are 
grouped,  for  office  purposes.  Each  group  is  under  the  charge 
of  a  "principal  clerk."  ^     Papers  on  aU  subjects  for  sub- 

1  See  Colonial  OflBce  Liat,  pp.  xv.-xviii.  The  latest  issue  shows  the  "Account- 
ing Officer"  and  "Dominions"  combined,  and  the  fourth  Assistant  Under- 
Secretary  as  seconded  from  the  India  Office  for  Mesopotamia,  Palestine,  and 
Arab  areas. 


THE  WOEK  OF  THE  COLONIAL  OFFICE.  157 

mission  to  the  Secretary  of  State  pass  through  the  permanent 
Under-Secretary,  who  is  his  chief  adviser,  and  acts  in  his 
name  in  any  matters  to  which  he  is  not  personally  able  to 
attend.  He  deals  with  the  diverse  affairs  of  a  couple  of  score 
of  Dominions,  colonies,  protectorates,  and  Mandate  terri- 
tories ;  the  representations  of  merchants,  shipowners,  and 
mine-owners  ;  Imperial  and  other  conferences  and  deputa- 
tions ;  Parliamentary  and  Treasury  questions  ;  and  a  thou- 
sand other  matters.  He  has,  as  one  of  them  said  to  me,  no 
time  at  all  to  tJiink. 

Since  the  Colonial  Office  was  set  up  as  a  separate  depart- 
ment in  1825 — ^ninety-six  years  ago — the  post  of  permanent 
Under-Secretary  has  only  been  held  for  an  aggregate  of 
eighteen  years  by  promotion  from  the  office  itself,  pro- 
bably in  order  that  its  head  may  bring  to  his  task  a  wider 
view  than  a  lifelong  training  in  the  department  would 
secure. 

Almost  the  whole  of  British  tropical  Africa  is  the  creation 
of  the  past  three  decades,  for  prior  to  1890  it  consisted  chiefly 
of  small  enclaves  on  the  West  Coast.  The  work  of  the  Colonial 
Office  was,  of  course,  greatly  increased  when,  some  fifteen 
years  ago,  it  took  over  the  control  of  the  African  Protectorates 
from  the  Foreign  Office.  Prom  that  time  to  the  present  day 
expansion  has  been  extremely  rapid,  and  of  late  the  territory 
held  under  Mandate  has  been  added,  including  Palestine 
and  Mesopotamia. 

The  increase  of  work  is,  however,  due  not  merely,  or  even 
primarily,  to  territorial  expansion,  but  rather  to  the  in- 
creasing diversity  and  complexity  of  the  problems  arising 
from  the  development  of  the  material  resources  of  these 
dependencies  by  railways  (which  have  facilitated  the  ex- 
ploitation of  vegetable  and  mineral  products,  with  the  con- 
sequent influx  of  merchants  and  miners),  the  progress  in 
medical  and  sanitary  methods,  the  increase  in  British  staff, 
and  to  a  less  degree  the  problems  of  native  administration. 
The  improvement  ia  ocean  and  cable  services  has  caused  a 
more  rapid  turnover  of  busiaess.  Even  a  dozen  years  ago  it 
was  estimated  that  the  correspondence  had  already  increased 
four  or  five  times  in  volume.  The  expansion  of  the  depart- 
ment of  the  Crown  agents,  who  transact  the  purely  business 
requirements  of  the  colonies,  is  typical.  When  I  joined  the 
Colonial  Service  they  occupied  a  few  rooms  on  the  ground 


158   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

floor  in  Downing  Street,  but  they  now  find  it  necessary  to 
occupy  a  spacious  block  of  buildings  of  their  own. 

It  is  clear  that  in  these  circumstances  the  Secretary  of 
State  must  delegate  some  of  his  functions,  or  that  all  except 
the  most  important  questions  must  be  dealt  with  in  his 
name  by  the  permanent  officials.  It  is  equally  clear  that  the 
work  devolving  upon  the  permanent  Under-Secretary  cannot 
be  dealt  with  by  a  single  man,  however  able  and  industrious, 
and  that  much  must  be  left  to  the  two  assistants.  These  in 
turn  are  compelled  to  relegate  much  of  their  proper  work 
to  the  clerks  in  charge  of  departments,  who  moreover  are 
called  upon  to  attend  many  committees,  and  devote  much 
of  their  time  to  the  endeavour  to  condense  into  minutes  and 
precis  for  their  seniors  the  contents  of  despatches  on  important 
questions  which  should  be  read  in  original.  It  is  hardly 
surprising  that  the  result  gives  rise  to  much  dissatisfaction 
among  the  more  zealous  servants  of  the  Crown  in  the  colonies, 
the  extent  of  which  is  probably  unknown  to  the  Secretary  of 
State.i 

In  response  to  a  Eesolution  adopted  at  the  Imperial  Con- 
ference in  May  1907,  Lord  Elgin  "  reorganised  "  the  Colonial 
Office.  Under  his  scheme  it  was  to  consist  of  three  depart- 
ments, styled  respectively  "  the  Dominions,"  "  the  Crown 
Colony  "  (political  and  administrative),  and  "  the  General  " 
Department ;  the  latter  included  matters  common  to  all  the 
Crown  colonies  (currency,  banking,  posts  and  telegraphs, 
education,  medical,  pensions,  &c.)  The  Crown  Colony  De- 
partment was  divided  into  four  geographical  "  Divisions," 
supplemented  by  four  Standing  Committees  on  patronage 
and  promotion,  railway  and  finance,  concessions,  and  pen- 
sions. A  single  Under-Secretary  remained  as  "  the  permanent 
head  of  the  whole  Office,  and  the  principal  adviser  to  the 
Secretary  of  State."  Of  the  four  Assistant  Under-Secretaries, 
two  were  assigned  to  the  Dominions,  and  one  each  to  the  other 
two  departments.^  This  scheme  was  later  modified  in  the  way 
I  have  explained. 

The  object  of  this  rearrangement  was  not  to  lighten  the 

1  Sir  Charles  Bruce  writes  :  "  Seventy  years  ago,  Sir  H.  Taylor,  speaking  with 
intimate  knowledge  from  within,  declared  that  the  far  greater  proportion  of  the 
duties  performed  in  the  Office  were  performed  under  no  effective  responsibility. 
The  whole  history  of  the  Office  is  a  record  of  conflicts  with  the  ablest,  and  even 
the  most  trusted  of  Governors." — 'Broad  Stone  of  Empire,'  p.  182. 

2  Cd.  3795,  1907,  p.  4. 


KELATIONS  WITH  DEPENDENCIES.  159 

burden  on  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  permanent  Under- 
Secretary  by  judicious  delegation,  but  primarily  to  satisfy 
the  Dominions,  at  whose  instance  it  was  undertaken,  by 
assigning  to  them  "  a  distinct  division  "  of  the  Office,  and 
facilitating  the  work  of  the  Conferences.  In  point  of  fact, 
it  would  seem  to  have  actually  increased  the  congestion  in 
the  Crown  colony  branch,  while  the  senior  Assistant  Under- 
Secretary  for  the  Dominions  had  apparently  little  to  do, 
and  left  England  for  a  prolonged  tour  in  them.  The  time  is 
probably  not  distant  when  the  Dominions  branch  at  the 
Colonial  Office  will  be  transferred  elsewhere.^ 

When  Mr  Chamberlain  took  oflBce  in  1895,  "  Downing 
Street "  was  not  popular.  The  criticism  was,  no  doubt, 
chiefly  expressed  by  the  self-governing  colonies,  for  the 
Crown  colonies  were  then  even  less  vocal  than  now.  When 
he  left  office  a  remarkable  change  had  taken  place ;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  talk  with  senior  officials  of  the  different 
colonies  to-day  without  noting  the  recrudescence  of  the 
critical  feeling.  The  cause  of  their  dissatisfaction  may  be 
exaggerated,  but  it  is  none  the  less  subversive  of  that  cordial 
co-operation  which  should  animate  the  two  branches  of  a 
service  engaged  in  a  common  task,  for  which  both  are  spend- 
ing themselves  freely — ^not  for  reward,  but  for  the  sake  of 
the  work.  I  trust  that  in  scrutinising  the  grounds  for  this  dis- 
satisfaction and  in  venturing  to  put  forward  some  suggestions, 
I  may  be  credited  with  the  sole  desire  to  promote  the  best 
interests  of  the  Empire. 

The  dissatisfaction  arises,  I  think,  mainly  from  three  alleged 
causes  : — 

(a)  First,  that  the  considered  recommendations  of  the 
Governor  and  his  expert  advisers  (which  necessarily  embody 
the  best  local  opinion)  are  overruled  in  important  matters  by 
the  senior  Colonial  Office  officials,  and  in  less  important  matters 
by  juniors,  whose  decisions  are  recorded  over  the  lithographed 
signature  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  against  which  there  is  no 
appeal. 

(6)  Secondly,  that  the  Colonial  Office  shows  an  increasing 

'  The  task  of  preparation  for  the  Imperial  Conferences  is  heavy,  but  the  direct 
work  with  the  Dominions  concerns  the  Premier,  the  Foreign  OiEce,  the  War 
Office,  the  Admiralty,  the  India  Office,  and  the  Board  of  Trade,  equally  with  the 
Colonial  Office — viz.,  treaties  with  foreign  States,  defence  by  sea  and  land,  alien 
immigration,  trade  and  Imperial  preference,  emigration,  shipping  rings,  patents 
and  similar  matters. 


160   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

tendency  to  interfere  in  matters  of  detail  in  internal  adminis- 
tration— an  interference  which  is  largely  attributed  to  junior 
officials, — with  consequent  delay  in  those  other  matters  which 
properly  fall  withia  its  duties.  This  delay  is  prejudicial  to 
the  interests  of  the  colonies,  and  complained  of  by  both 
officials  in  the  colonies  and  by  business  men. 

(c)  Thirdly,  that  the  Colonial  Office  lacks  that  element 
of  actual  administrative  experience  which  would  understand 
and  sympathise  with  the  difficulties  of  the  man  on  the  spot, 
and  that  the  Secretary  of  State  and  his  office  are  out  of  touch 
with  the  local  administrations. 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  there  exists  at  present  a 
widespread  feeUng  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  imnecessary 
interference  from  Whitehall  in  the  sphere  of  actual  administra- 
tion— ^which  under  the  Eoyal  Letters  Patent  is  the  function 
of  the  Governor, — thereby  increasing  the  work  of  the  Colonial 
Office,  while  delaying  and  impeding  the  task  of  government 
in  the  colonies,  and  creating  unnecessary  friction — due,  it  is 
alleged,  to  "  the  deplorable  system  of  goverimient  by  junior 
clerks." 

Sir  A.  Hemming,  in  a  letter  to  the  '  Times,'  ^  claims  to 
write  with  thirty  years'  experience  in  the  Colonial  Office, 
where  he  was  head  of  the  West  African  Department,  and 
later  as  Governor  of  two  Crown  colonies.  "  A  great  por- 
tion of  the  work,"  he  says,  "has  been  entrusted  to  junior 
officials.  These  men  have  not  and  cannot  have  the  experi- 
ence and  knowledge  required  for  such  duties,  and  it  is  natu- 
rally galling  to  high  officials  in  the  colonies  to  know  that  their 
suggestions  are  criticised  by  youths  almost  fresh  from  school 
or  college,  and  their  mature  and  weU-weighed  advice  possibly 
rejected  on  the  recommendation  of  these  embryo  statesmen. 
That  the  bulk  of  the  work  in  the  Colonial  Office  is  done  well 
and  conscientiously  I  should  be  the  last  to  deny ;  but  the 
pressure  on  the  seniors,  and  especially  on  the  Under-Secretary 
of  State,  is  too  great,  and  the  junior  clerks  consequently 
obtain  a  much  larger  portion  of  authority  and  control  than 
their  position  properly  justifies."  ^ 

1  '  Times,'  26th  December  1905. 

^  Sir  Charles  Bruce  (who,  after  long  colonial  service,  was  Governor  of  the 
Windward  Islands  and  of  Mauritius)  goes  even  further.  The  passage  is  too  long 
to  quote  in  extenso.  He  argues  that  the  Secretary  of  State  is  not  informed 
of  all  that  is  going  on  in  his  own  office,  and  "  must  only  know  what  it  is  good  for 
him  to  know,  .  .  .  the  tradition  was  upheld  in  the  Colonial  Office  for  many  years, 


UNNECESSARY  INTERVENTION.  161 

The  Oflace,  it  is  said,  iatervenes  in  every  detail  of  economic 
development  and  of  administrative  policy.  It  demands  ex- 
haustive reports — ^tavolving  iaterminable  despatch- writing — 
on  matters  often  of  trivial  importance,  and  its  sanction  is 
necessary  for  imbudgeted  expenditure,  however  petty.  Some- 
times, says  Sir  C.  Bruce  (and  I  can  corroborate  it  from  my 
own  experience),  a  decision  well  adapted  to  the  colony  in 
which  it  was  evolved  is  offered  in  substitution  of  carefully- 
considered  proposals,  as  a  solution  of  a  problem  where  the 
conditions  render  it  merely  "grotesque."  Consequential 
delay  and  apparent  vacillation — perhaps  for  over  a  year — 
before  a  scheme  is  eventually  carried  out  with  little  if  any 
change,  is  placed  by  critics  to  the  discredit  of  the  local  Govern- 
ment, and  is  heart-breaking  to  those  on  the  spot. 

That  this  criticism  does  not  origiaate  merely  from  the 
impatience  of  local  officials  and  "prancing  pro-Consuls" 
may  be  seen  from  the  opinion  expressed  in  the  House  of  Lords 
by  the  late  Lord  Salisbury :  "  I  do  not  think,"  he  said,  "  that 
our  government  is  of  much  advantage  to  the  Englishmen  who 
go  into  a  new  country.  Almost  everythiag  that  is  done  at 
home  is  apt  to  hinder  them  ;  and  though  we  have  officers 
unparalleled  in  the  world,  they  come  generally  with  their 
hands  tied  to  their  sides  with  red  tape,  and  beside  them  sits 
the  spirit  of  the  Treasury,  like  care  Ibelund  the  horseman, 
which  paralyses  every  effort,  and  casts  a  shadow  on  any 
enthusiasm  they  may  feel.  I  do  not  think  Governments  aid 
our  people  much  when  they  go  into  the  possession  of  a  new 
territory."  ^ 

The  officer  selected  for  the  responsible  post  of  Governor, 
especially  when  he  has   acquired  long  local  experience,  is 

during  which  grave  inconvenience  to  the  public  service  was  caused  by  circum- 
stances known  to  every  member  of  the  Office  except  the  Secretary  of  State.  .  .  . 
The  Office  must  decide  to  a  large  extent  on  what  questions  they  may  act  without 
his  direct  authority  under  cover  of  his  constitutional  responsibility,  .  .  .  but 
the  tradition  is  prolonged  into  a  wider  area  of  activity  when  the  Office  claims, 
as  it  does,  a  rigidly  exclusive  monopoly  of  access  to  the  Minister  either  by  docu- 
mentary or  personal  communication."  He  explains,  with  emphasis,  that  he 
intends  no  reflection  on  the  personal  ability  of  the  permanent  officials,  and 
quotes  Sir  F.  Swettenham's  panegyric  on  the  admirable  ability  and  efficiency  of 
their  work — the  patient  care  with  which  each  question  is  examined,  and  the 
anxiety  to  be  just  in  every  case, — a  description  in  which  I  think  all  who  have 
knowledge  will  concur.  "  What  was  deprecated  was  a  system  which  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a  group  of  officials,  living  in  the  artificial  atmosphere  of  a  public 
office  in  the  centre  of  the  Empire,  absolute  control  over  the  destinies  of  com- 
munities" living  far  away. — 'Broad  Stone  of  Empire,'  pp.  196-99. 
'  House  of  Lords  debate  of  14th  February  1895. 

L 


162   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

justified  in  expecting  to  be  trusted  to  decide  (with  the  aid, 
if  necessary,  of  his  Legislative  and  Executive  Councils  and 
departmental  advisers)  such  matters  as  the  incremental  pay 
of  a  foreman  of  works,  the  promotion  of  very  junior  officers, 
the  engagement  of  a  mechanic  on  some  small  increase  of  pay 
in  special  circumstances,  the  writing  off  of  small  sums  of 
public  money  after  full  investigation  by  a  committee  and  re- 
vision by  the  Council,  the  amount  of  baggage  which  an  officer 
may  carry  free  by  local  raU,  or  to  take  appropriate  measures 
in  similar  questions  of  a  purely  admiaistrative  and  local  nature 
in  Africa.  Or  at  most  it  should  suffice  to  caU  his  attention 
to  any  apparent  inconsistency,  of  which  the  Office  may 
become  aware — for  it  is,  of  course,  well  understood  that  such 
matters  are  dealt  with  by  juniors.  In  some  cases  it  is  alleged 
that  the  Office  has  even  xmdertaken  the  drafting  of  local 
ordinances,  and  drawn  up  departmental  regulations,  with 
the  aid  of  subordinate  colonial  officers,  for  the  Governor  to 
enact.  A  case  is  quoted  in  which  the  clerk  in  charge  of  a 
department  averred  that  a  particular  colony  had  for  years 
been  administered  from  his  room  and  not  by  the  local  Governor. 

In  larger  questions  which  do  reach  the  Secretary  of  State, 
the  Governor  in  Council  may  find  his  recommendations 
overruled,  without  opportunity  of  personal  explanation.  For 
the  advice  tendered  to  the  Minister  is  "  the  office  view," 
limited  by  tradition  and  precedent,  and  uninformed  by 
personal  experience.  A  strong  Secretary  of  State  like  Mr 
Chamberlain  (whose  office  nickname  was  "  Our  Master ") 
will  exercise  an  independent  judgment  so  far  as  time  permits 
of  his  studying  the  matter.  A  weaker,  or  an  overpressed,  or 
less  industrious  Minister  may  allow  the  office  view  to  pre- 
vail, and  be  transmitted  to  the  colony,  justified  and  elaborated 
by  its  exponent,  over  the  signature  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
whose  decision  must  be  loyally  accepted.^  By  the  fine  tradi- 
tion of  British  statesmanship,  the  mistakes  of  the  permanent 
officials — if  they  make  any — are  accepted  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  as  his  own,  to  be  defended  before  Parliament  with 
all  the  influence  and  ability  at  his  command. 

If  a  protectorate  is  dependent  on  a  grant,  Colonial  Office 

^  "Every  Secretary  of  State,  however  well-intentioned,  energetic,  and  capable, 
is  likely,  sooner  or  later,  to  become  the  medium,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
through  which  the  permanent  heads  of  the  Office  carry  out  their  policy,  .  .  .  able 
and  trusted,  but  necessarily  academic  advisers." — Bruce,  loc.  cit.,  p.  200. 


THE  FUNCTION   OP  THE   COLONIAL   OFFICE.  163 

supervision  is  supplemented  by  Treasury  control,  which,  says 
the  '  Times,'  "  largely  consists  in  interference  in  technical 
detail,  refusing  an  extra  draughtsman  or  a  subordinate  clerk, 
and  generally  hampering  and  exasperating  the  responsible 
administrator.  It  is  this  form  of  control  in  the  past  that  has 
kUled  aU  sense  of  financial  conscience  in  the  public  service." 
The  Oflace  then  experiences  something  of  the  exasperation 
which  its  own  methods  are  apt  to  produce  in  the  local  Govern- 
ment, when  the  responsible  Administrator  feels  inclined  to 
exclaim  with  Job,  "  No  doubt  but  ye  are  the  people,  and 
all  wisdom  shall  die  with  you,  but  I  have  understanding  as 
well  as  you." 

That  the  function  of  the  Colonial  OfQce  is  not  creative  or 
initiative — still  less  administrative — was  a  principle  affirmed 
by  Mr  Chamberlain — a  limitation  ignored  in  the  public  pro- 
nouncements of  several  of  his  successors.  Lord  Onslow,  his 
Under-Secretary  (than  whom  the  men  on  the  spot  have  never 
had  a  more  appreciative  and  generous  supporter),  stated  that 
it  was  Mr  Chamberlain's  settled  policy  never  to  interfere  with 
the  decision  of  the  policy  of  the  Governor.  All  they  asked  for 
at  the  Colonial  OflBice  in  return  was  that  they  should  be  kept 
fully  informed  of  what  the  man  on  the  spot  intended  to  do, 
and  what  he  advised  the  Government  to  do.^  J.  S.  Mill  thus 
formulates  the  principle  in  regard  to  India  :  "  The  Executive 
Government  of  India  is,  and  must  be,  seated  in  India  itself. 
The  principal  function  of  the  Home  Government  is  not  to 
direct  the  details  of  administration,  but  to  scrutinise  and 
review  the  past  acts  of  Indian  Governments  ;  to  lay  down 
principles  and  issue  general  instructions  for  their  future 
guidance,  and  to  give  or  refuse  sanction  to  great  political 
measures,  which  are  referred  home  for  approval."  The 
Foreign  OflBce  apparently  acts  on  this  principle,  for  a  recent 

^  'African  Society's  Journal,'  March  1907.  The  distinguishing  characteristic 
of  ]tfr  Chamberlain  as  Colonial  Secretary,  which  rendered  possible  the  great 
development  which  took  place  during  his  eight  years  of  office,  and  endeared  him 
to  those  who  served  under  him,  was  the  trust  he  placed  in  his  Governors  and  the 
latitude  he  allowed  to  those  in  whom  he  had  confidence.  The  present  Secretary 
of  State  (Mr  Churchill),  in  his  speech  at  the  Corona  Club  in  June  1921,  alluded 
to  Mr  Chamberlain's  success  in  inspiring  co-operation  and  loyal  comradeship,  and 
himself  struck  the  same  note.  "  The  Colonial  service  (he  said)  must  be  a  self- 
reliant  service,  because  its  representative  is  constantly  confronted  with  the 
problems  on  the  spot,  and  must  have  the  initiative  and  resolution  and  the 
conviction  to  decide  upon  the  necessary  action,  and  to  take  it  when  the  decision 
has  to  be  made.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  govern  the  British  Empire  from 
Downing  Street,  and  we  do  not  try." 


164   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

inquiry  regarding  the  Sudan  elicited  the  response  that  the 
Home  Government  is  not  concerned  with  the  details  of  its 
administration  since  the  country  is  self-supporting  and 
manages  its  own  affairs,  the  Home  Government  being  only 
concerned  with  such  important  questions  as  may  be  referred 
to  it. 

The  effect  of  unnecessary  intervention  in  administrative 
affairs  is  to  dishearten  the  higher  ranks  and  to  weaken  their 
sense  of  responsibility,  while  engendering  in  the  lower  ranks 
a  feeling  that  it  is  not  to  the  Governor  and  his  Council  that 
they  must  look,  but  to  an  anonymous  official  at  the  Colonial 
Office.  Delay  and  friction  are  inevitable.  It  does  not  suffice 
to  say  that  these  occasions  of  discontent  are  exaggerated, 
or  even  in  some  cases  fanciful,  so  long  as  they  exist.  If  the 
officials  admitted  their  truth,  they  would  no  doubt  regard 
such  results  as  inherent  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  as 
"  watch-dogs  " — to  quote  a  term  recently  used  in  a  public 
speech  by  the  Under-Secretary.  Watch-dogs  are  employed 
to  guard  against  an  enemy,  not  against  a  partner  in  a  joint 
task. 

I  am  anxious  to  emphasise  the  fact — as  other  critics  have 
done — that  it  is  the  system  that  is  criticised  and  not  the 
individuals. 1  The  individual  officials  have  great  experience, 
and  uphold  the  traditions  of  a  most  honourable  service. 
The  seniors  have  grown  grey  in  the  study  of  Colonial  affairs. 
They  form  an  invaluable  repository  of  knowledge  and  pre- 
cedent. It  would  be  a  crucial  mistake  to  undervalue  the 
benefit  of  their  moderating  counsels,  and  of  their  influence 
in  preserving  continuity  and  checking  hasty  changes  by  a 
new  and  inexperienced  Governor.  That  their  lifelong  training 
in  the  Office  should  leave  its  mark  upon  them  is  inevitable. 
The  guardian  of  continuity  may  sometimes  be  slow  to  recog- 
nise progress  and  reform,  and  ignorance  of  the  local  condi- 
tions may  lead  to  false  analogies  and  misapplication  of  pre- 
cedents. But  all  administrators  alike  have  testified  to  the 
conscientious  industiy  and  ability  and  high  sense  of  honour 
which  the  officials  of  the  Colonial  Office  bring  to  their  task, 
and  their  desire  to  do  the  thing  that  is  just. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  Government  by  Department  is  the 
worst  of  aU  forms  of  Government,"  and  it  is  permissible, 
alike  for  the  British  public  and  the  colonies,  to  ask  whether 

'  See  footnote,  p.  161, 


SOME  SUGGESTIONS.  165 

in  the  interests  of  the  Empire  these  high  qualities  are  directed 
into  the  best  possible  channels,  and  whether  the  officials 
shoidd  not  bear  a  measure  of  public  responsibility  com- 
mensurate with  the  powers  they  exercise  ;  and  to  demand 
that  the  duties  laid  on  them  should  be  limited  to  what  a 
man  weighted  with  responsibility  can  reasonably  discharge 
with  efficiency.  The  public  at  large  knows  but  little  of  the 
administration  of  the  colonies.  Even  an  officer  like  myself, 
who  has  served  for  twenty  years  in  the  highest  office  abroad, 
knows  so  little  of  the  internal  organisation  and  methods 
of  the  Colonial  Office,  that  suggestions  must  of  necessity 
be  made  with  diffidence  and  reluctance.  Officials  iq  harness 
may  not  speak,  and  those  who  have  retired  are  glad  to  avoid 
controversy  and  seek  rest  and  quiet. 

The  causes  of  friction  to  which  I  have  referred  can  never 
be  wholly  removed,  for  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
dependent  Governments  should  chafe  at  control,  and  that 
Home  Departments  shoidd  exhibit  a  leaning  towards  bureau- 
cracy. There  are,  however,  three  ways  in  which  I  suggest 
that  on  the  one  hand  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Colonial  Gov- 
ernments may  be  lessened,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  work 
devolving  upon  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  permanent 
Under-Secretary  may  be  so  adjusted  as  to  render  its  accom- 
plishment less  impossible. 

(a)  By  duplicating,  or  even  triplicating,  the  post  of  Under- 
Secretary,  and  delegating  to  the  Under-Secretaries  some  public 
and  personal  measure  of  responsibility  for  their  actions. 

(b)  By  creating  a  CouncU,  or  Councils,  to  advise  and  assist 
the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties. 

(c)  By  giving  a  wider  latitude — especially  in  matters  of 
finance — to  Governors,  and  by  creating  groups  of  Colonies 
under  Governors-General. 

A  combination  of  all  three  would  no  doubt  be  best.  I  will 
essay  a  few  remarks  on  each. 

The  volume  of  work  at  the  Colonial  Office  has  expanded 
like  a  bladder,  but  it  has  still  to  pass  through  a  single  narrow 
neck.  It  is  suggested  that  there  should  be  two  permanent 
Under-Secretaries,  as  in  the  Treasury,  mutually  independent 
but  acting  in  close  co-operation,  with  independent  access  to 
the  Secretary  of  State.  The  Office  alone  can  judge  how  the 
duties  could  best  be  allocated  between  them.  One  might, 
perhaps,  deal  with  the  general  work  of  the  Office,  and  control 


166      THE   HOME   G0V?;KNMENT  AND   THE   DEPENDENCIES. 

its  legal,  financial,  and  other  departments,  and  supervise  the 
Mediterranean  colonies  with,  or  without  the  Eastern  groups  ; 
while  the  second  would  deal  with  the  tropical  dependencies, 
especially  the  large  African  groups,  with  or  without  those 
in  the  East  and  the  West  Indies.  He  would  supply  that 
closer  touch  demanded  by  the  merchants  interested,  and  would 
encourage  enterprise,  which,  it  is  alleged,  under  present  con- 
ditions has  sometimes  been  driven  to  find  other  outlets  ;  and 
he  would  maintain  close  personal  touch  with  the  Governors 
and  senior  colonial  oflficials  when  in  England.  ^  This  would 
ensure  that  all  matters,  other  than  mere  routine,  which  were 
not  dealt  with  by  the  Secretary  of  State  himself,  would  at 
least  pass  under  review  of  the  most  responsible  officer.  The 
first  Under-Secretary  would  probably  be  selected  from  the 
ranks  of  the  Colonial  Office,  the  second  from  among  the 
Governors,  with  actual  administrative  experience  in  one  or 
more  colonies,  and  his  tenure  of  the  appointment  might  be 
limited  to  the  period  for  which  a  Governorship  is  usually 
held  (five  or  six  years),  though  renewable  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  if  he  proved  especially  suited  to 
the  post,  in  order  that  accumulated  experience  might  be 
available.  Under  such  a  regime.  Governors  would  feel  that 
their  difficulties  were  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  could  appre- 
ciate them  from  his  own  experience.  There  would  thus  be 
two  well-organised  channels  of  communication  with  the 
Secretary  of  State,  each  under  responsible  and  experienced 
officers,  with  time  to  deal  adequately  with  the  various  ques- 
tions, and  to  review  the  minutes  of  juniors.^ 

The  appointment  of  a  second  Under-Secretary  is  preferable 

^  This  suggestion  was  made  by  me  to  the  Secretary  of  State  in  1904.  It  was 
also  made  by  Colonel  Amery,  writing  in  January  1908. — 'Union  and  Strength,' 
p.  283,  and  the  '  Times,'  29th  April  1908.  The  transfer  to  the  Colonial  Office 
of  Mesopotamia,  Palestine,  Aden,  and  "Arab  areas,"  which  has  been  announced 
since  these  pages  were  written,  would  suggest  the  provision  of  a  third  Under- 
Secretary  for  the  Eastern  and  Far  Eastern  dependencies. 

^  The  existing  system  is  thus  trenchantly  described  by  an  "  outside  observer  " 
(of  whose  identity  I  am  unaware)  in  the  '  Times  '  of  28th  August  1917  :  "The 
permanent  Under-Secretary  is  frankly  and  undisguisedly  head  of  the  whole 
concern ;  his  ability,  his  familiarity  with  precedents,  his  devotion  to  public 
interests,  are  all  unquestioned.  But  his  education  has  been  purely  literary, 
he  has  sat  in  the  office  since  he  left  the  university,  ...  in  a  word,  he  is  an 
official  and  not  a  practical  man."  The  functions  of  the  political  head  of  a 
Government  department,  he  argues,  seem  to  resemble  fairly  closely  those  of 
the  chairman  of  a  company — ' 'but  in  a  Government  department  there  is  no 
general  manager,  no  man  that  is  trained  in  the  actual  practical  conduct  of 
business." 


ALTERNATIVE  PROPOSALS.  167 

to  the  alternative  of  each  assistant  Under-Secretary  dealing 
direct  with  the  Secretary  of  State,  for  this  would  result  in 
"  water-tight  compartments,"  tend  to  divergence  and  lack 
of  co-ordination,  and  render  the  position  of  the  Under-Secre- 
tary anomalous  and  tadeed  impossible. 

Sir  C.  Bruce  suggests  a  division  into  "  two  branches,  one 
dealing  with  questions  of  politics  and  adminLstration,  the 
other  with  the  development  of  the  material  resources  of  the 
colonies."  The  latter,  he  considers,  lies  "  altogether  outside 
the  competence  of  the  oflScials  of  the  Colonial  OfBce,"  and 
must  be  manned  by  men  of  the  first  scientific  attainments. 
"  Such  an  organisation,"  he  adds,  "  would,  of  course,  have 
to  be  carried  out  in  detail,  so  as  to  put  an  end  to  the  deplor- 
able, but  apparently  admitted  system  of  government  by 
junior  clerks."  ^  Those  who  have  intimate  inside  knowledge 
can  best  decide  whether  such  proposals  are  practicable  from 
the  Colonial  Office  standpoint ;  but  if  the  administrative 
affairs  of  each  colony  are  to  be  dealt  with  by  one  branch, 
and  its  material  development  in  another,  it  can  easily  be 
imagined  that  there  would  be  many  occasions  for  overlapping, 
duplication,  and  friction.  Moreover,  the  consequential  amal- 
gamation of  the  Colonial  Office  and  the  Crown  agents  would 
constitute  a  somewhat  unwieldy  machine,  and  the  system 
proposed  would  probably  result  in  a  tendency  to  centraUse 
admroistration  ta  Colonial  Office  experts,  and  to  usurp  the 
duties  and  functions  of  the  local  Government.  This  is  op- 
posed to  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  imposes  on  the  Colonial 
Office  a  rdle  of  direct  administration  which,  as  Mr  Chamber- 
lain said,  is  not  its  proper  function. 

Others  have  poiated  out  that  the  present  organisation 
on  a  purely  geographical  basis  postulates  a  competency 
in  the  officials  of  each  section  to  criticise  aUke  adminLstra- 
tion, finance,  currency,  railways,  harbours,  commercial 
questions,  and  every  other  problem  of  Government.  The 
knowledge  of  each  of  these  subjects  displayed  by  officials 
is,  they  admit,  surprisingly  large,  but  it  is  purely  critical 
and  local.  They  suggest  that  an  organisation  according  to 
subjects  (though  naturally  subdivided  geographically)  on 
the  lines  of  the  War  Office  and  Admiralty  would  produce 
"  greater  uniformity  of  policy,  and  a  more  helpful,  active, 
and  less  purely  critical  attitude."  They  would  amalgamate 
1  Loo.  eit.,  pp.  187-188. 


168   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

the  Crown  Agent's  Office  with  the  Colonial  Office,  and  the 
former  would  supply  several  of  the  branches.  These  might 
consist  of  administration,  finance  (including  loans  and  cur- 
rency), and  public  works  and  development  branches,  the  heads 
sitting  together  as  a  Colonial  Office  Departmental  CouncU. 

But  though  the  appointment  of  a  second  Under-Secretary 
would  lighten  the  work  of  the  present  head  of  the  Office, 
it  would  not  reUeve  the  Secretary  of  State.  His  constitutional 
responsibility  at  present  necessitates  the  use  of  his  signature 
on  every  despatch,  however  routine  and  trivial,  and  its  litho- 
graphed reproduction  is  evidence  of  how  farcical  its  use  has 
become.  Would  it  not  be  feasible  to  introduce  a  measure  of 
decentraUsation  by  allowing  the  two  permanent  Under-Secre- 
taries to  deal,  over  their  own  signatures,  with  correspondence 
which  does  not  demand  reference  to  the  Secretary  of  State  ? 
For,  as  I  said  in  chapter  iv.,  decentralisation  and  delegation 
must  be  accompanied  by  public  responsibility.  The  exercise 
of  power  without  personal  and  public  responsibility  is  the 
weakness  of  the  present  system.  The  anonymity  conferred 
by  the  use  of  the  Uthographed  signature,  and  even  the  time- 
honoured  fiction  of  being  "  directed  to  say  that  the  matter 
has  received  the  consideration  of  the  Secretary  of  State," 
would  disappear.  The  responsibility  for  that  large  class  of 
correspondence,  which  it  is  well  understood  that  the  Secretary 
of  State  has  never  seen,  would  then  frankly  rest  on  the  Under- 
Secretary,  while  mere  routine  papers  could  be  signed  by  an 
Assistant  Under-Secretary,  and  addressed  to  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary of  the  colony.  If  in  any  rare  instance  the  Governor 
considered  that  a  matter  dealt  with  by  the  Under-Secretary 
should  be  laid  before  the  Secretary  of  State,  he  would  be  at 
liberty  to  ask  that  this  should  be  done. 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  Governor,  as  the  King's  repre- 
sentative, should  take  his  instructions  only  from  the  King's 
Minister,  and  that  the  Under-Secretary  is  not  his  senior  in 
rank  and  dignity.  He  would,  however,  be  the  delegate  of 
the  Minister  (who  is  not  himself  a  delegate  but  the  repre- 
sentative of  King  and  Parliament).  In  order  to  make  this 
clear,  and  to  avoid  over-sensitive  susceptibilities,  the  use 
of  the  first  person  might  be  avoided,  and  despatches  (as  in 
the  Army)  be  signed  "  By  Order."  This  proposal  may  appear 
to  be  of  smaU  moment,  but  I  am  convinced  it  would  have 
a  far-reaching  effect. 


A   "  DIBBCTOR  OF  PROTECTORATES."  169 

When  the  Foreign  Office  controlled  the  greater  part  of 
British  tropical  Africa,  the  post  of  "Director  of  African 
Protectorates  "  was  created.  His  duties  included  personal 
visits  to  Africa.^  Were  a  second  Under-Secretary  appointed 
at  the  Colonial  Office,  it  might  be  possible  for  him  to  make 
such  occasional  visits.  It  would,  however,  be  necessary  that 
his  position  vis-d-vis  the  Governor  should  be  most  clearly 
defined,  in  order  to  maintain  that  unchallenged  responsi- 
bility of  the  King's  representative  abroad  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  "the  basis  of  Crown  colony  Government."  The 
object  of  his  visit  would  be  to  study  at  first  hand,  with  the 
friendly  aid  of  the  Governor,  the  local  problems  which  could 
only  be  inadequately  described  in  despatches,  more  especially 
in  their  relation  to  contiguous  colonies  and  to  the  expressed 
views  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  He  would  explain  what  is 
being  done  in  other  colonies,  and  the  opinion  of  the  Secretary 
of  State.  He  would  not  pose  as  one  authorised  to  give  orders 
or  instructions,  nor  even  as  an  adviser  or  critic,  but  as  a 
learner.  He  would  not  advise  or  give  pledges  to  either  officials, 
unofficials,  or  native  chiefs,  or  even  interview  them,  except 
with  the  concurrence  and  generally  in  the  presence  of  the 
Governor.  Coming  with  the  sole  desire  to  acquire  full  informa- 
tion, with  the  object  of  making  himself  more  efficient  and 
his  advice  of  greater  value  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  his 
visits  should  prove  very  useful.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
made  any  attempt  "to  go  behind  the  Governor,"  to  pose 
as  a  higher  authority,  or  to  collect  ex  parte  evidence  to  support 
his  own  theories,  he  would  probably  find  that  the  best  in- 
formed were  also  the  most  loyal,  and  his  information  would 
be  unreliable.  I  do  not  minimise  the  delicacy  of  such  a  task, 
and  I  recognise  that  its  utility  is  open  to  question  unless  it  is 
discharged  with  the  utmost  tact. 

Mr  Chamberlain  even  desired  that  the  Secretary  of  State 
should  himself  visit  the  colonies,  and  did  actually  go  to 
South  Africa ;  while  Mr  Churchill,  as  Parliamentary  Under- 
Secretary,  visited  East  Africa.  In  practice,  however,  this  is 
not  generally  feasible,  and  even  were  it  possible,  the  informa- 
tion thus  acquired  is  lost  on  a  change  of  Government.     The 

1  According  to  Mr  Colquhoun,  the  French  in  1908  were  considering  a  scheme 
by  which  a  council  of  experienced  ofBcials  in  Paris,  aided  by  a  body  of  inspectors 
(who  were  frequently  to  visit  and  report  on  the  colonies),  would  be  responsible 
for  colonial  affairs.— '  Morning  Post,'  18th  April  1908.  Sir  F.  Swettenham  ad- 
vocates this  system. — 'Malaya,'  p.  340. 


170   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

knowledge  gained  by  a  permanent  Under-Secretary  would 
be  at  the  service  of  successive  Secretaries  of  State. 

The  advocates  of  the  system  of  Colonial  Office  reorganisa- 
tion on  War  Office  and  Admiralty  lines,  which  I  have  described 
in  a  previous  paragraph,  would  carry  their  analogy  further, 
and  appoint  an  Inspector -General  with  a  regular  staff  of 
subordinates,  competent  to  inspect  in  each  branch,  and  they 
express  the  view  that  such  an  organisation  would  strengthen 
the  hands  of  a  competent  Governor.  I  think  that  there  is 
little  doubt  but  that  the  opposite  would  happen,  and  the 
Colonial  Office  would  look  to  the  Inspector-General  rather 
than  to  the  Governor,  whose  position  would  be  almost  un- 
tenable. It  is  essential  to  remember  that  the  War  Office 
and  Admiralty  are  responsible  for  the  direct  administration 
of  every  detail  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  Tor  the  Colonial 
Office  to  assume  such  a  rdle  would  be  contrary  to  the  traditions 
of  the  Empire,  and  I  believe  fatal  to  its  prosperity. 

My  second  suggestion  referred  to  the  creation  of  a  Council. 
It  is  obviously  desirable  that  the  Secretary  of  State — and 
also  the  Under-Secretaries — should  have  the  best  independent 
advice  on  matters  of  policy,  especially  when  they  concern 
more  than  one  colony.  Such  advice  may  be  obtained  by 
means  of  ad  hoc  committees — appointed  with  definite  terms 
of  reference  to  inquire  into  some  particular  matter,  and  to 
take  evidence  from  aU  available  sources — or  by  Standing 
Advisory  Committees,  or  by  a  permanent  Statutory  Council. 

The  Standing  Committee  is  usually  concerned  with  a 
technical  subject,  such  as  medical  and  sanitary  matters, 
surveys,  &c.,  and  consists  of  experts  whose  opinion  must 
carry  the  greatest  possible  weight.  Such  committees,  how- 
ever, have  serious  drawbacks,  and  are  not  always  satisfactory 
in  operation,  either  to  the  Secretary  of  State  or  to  the  local 
Governments,  of  whose  special  and  varying  conditions  they 
rarely  have  first-hand  knowledge.  They  make  large  demands 
on  the  time  of  the  permanent  officials  deputed  to  attend  them 
as  members  or  secretaries. 

Once  appointed,  they  are  apt  gradually  to  acquire  powers 
not  originally  intended.  A  member  of  one  of  them  remarked 
to  me  on  the  tendency  shown  to  deal  with  matters  of  local 
and  minor  detail,  thus  usurping  the  functions  and  duties  of 
the  departmental  heads,  who  may  occupy  seats  on  the  Colonial 
Executive  and  Legislative  Councils,  and  be  in  close  touch 


COMMITTEES  AND  COUNCILS.  171 

with  the  Government  policy.  Subordinate  officers  are  apt  to 
look  to  the  Committee  rather  than  to  their  own  departmental 
chief  or  Governor — especially  if  promotion  depends  on  its 
recommendation.  Lack  of  identity  with  the  colony  in 
which  they  are  serving,  and  departmental  indiscipline,  are 
the  results. 

But  perhaps  an  even  more  serious  and  inherent  defect 
is  that  a  committee  of  experts,  without  financial  responsi- 
bility for  the  execution  of  their  proposals,  is  almost  bound  by 
professional  zeal  to  recommend  counsels  of  perfection.  "  The 
tyranny  of  the  expert  "  is  the  bugbear  of  the  administrator, 
who  has  to  balance  the  comparative  urgency  of  many  com- 
peting claims  when  framing  his  budget. 

"  Government  by  Committee  "  shares  with  "  Government 
by  Departments  "  the  distinction  of  being  dubbed  the  worst 
of  all  possible  forms  of  Government,  and  it  was  probably  to 
such  Standing  Committees  that  Mr  Bonar  Law  referred  in 
his  speech  in  the  House  on  15th  and  22nd  April  1915,  when 
he  expressed,  amid  cheers,  his  disbelief  in  committees.  "  If 
you  wish  to  get  something  done,  do  not  set  up  a  committee, 
but  tell  somebody  to  do  it,  and  entrust  him  with  it.  .  .  .  All 
business  must  be  done  by  an  autocrat  more  or  less.  It  could 
never  be  effectively  done  in  any  other  way." 

A  Council  is  a  Statutory  Standing  Committee,  and  in 
some  ways  shares  its  defects.  Its  object  is  to  place  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Secretary  of  State  the  assistance  of  men  of 
ripe  experience,  and  sufficient  leisure  to  study  the  problems 
presented  to  them.  It  may,  like  "  the  India  Council,"  exer- 
cise important  statutory  functions,  both  in  regard  to  legisla- 
tion and  finance,  or  it  may  be  purely  advisory. 

The  India  Office  is  the  only  department  of  State  to  which 
we  can  turn  for  a  working  example  of  a  Statutory  Council, 
for  the  Boards  of  Trade,  and  of  Agriculture,  and  the  Local 
Government  Board,  in  spite  of  their  titles,  possess  no  Boards. 
The  Army  Council  and  the  Admiralty  Board  afford  httle  or 
no  analogy,  for  they  are,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  the  actual 
working  heads  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  they  are  not  Uke 
the  India  Office,  concerned  with  the  administration  of  terri- 
tories under  their  own  local  Governments  overseas. 

The  "  Coimcil  of  India  "  is  the  descendant  of  the  old  East 
India  Company's  "  Board  of  Control,"  and  inherited  some  of 
its  powers.    It  is  the  prototype  of  the  Executive  Council  of 


172   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

the  Governor  of  a  colony.  All  orders  emanated  from  the 
"  Secretary  of  State  in  Council,"  thus  establishing  the  prin- 
ciple of  Executive  control  "  in  Council  "  as  opposed  to  indi- 
vidual autocracy.  "  It  was  a  consultative  body  without 
any  power  of  initiative,  and  a  very  limited  power  of  veto," 
but  its  consent  was  necessary  in  financial  and  some  other 
matters. 

Under  Lord  Morley  its  powers  were  greatly  restricted,  and 
what  one  Liberal  statesman  had  begun,  his  successors,  Lord 
Crewe  and  Mr  Montagu,  endeavoured  to  complete.  By  the 
Council  of  India  BUI  of  1914  (which  was  shelved  by  the  war) 
the  Secretary  of  State  was  empowered  to  transact  business 
with  the  aid  of  individual  members  ;  and  Lord  Crewe's 
Committee  (9th  July  1919)  recommended  its  abolition,  and 
the  substitution  of  a  purely  Advisory  Council  in  its  place,  in 
order  "  to  establish  the  individual  responsibility  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  to  Parliament  " — ^in  other  words,  com- 
plete autocracy. 

Thus  the  history  of  the  India  Council  is  that  of  a  body 
vested  originally  with  powers  which  curtailed  those  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  ;  of  the  efforts  of  the  latter  to  free  himself 
from  these  restraints,  at  first  by  ignoring  and  evading  the 
Council,  and  finally  by  abolishing  its  powers  altogether  and 
retaining  it  only  as  an  advisory  body.^ 

The  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  on  the  other  hand, 
exercises  a  practically  unfettered  control,  abte  over  the 
legislation  and  the  finances  of  the  majority  of  the  colonies. 
He  can,  if  need  be,  instruct  the  Governor  to  pass  a  law  with 
the  aid  of  his  official  majority.  He  can  disapprove  any  item 
in  the  annual  budgets,  which,  though  passed  by  the  local 
legislatures,  require  his  final  approval. 

The  story  of  the  India  Council  shows  how  strong  is  the 
modern  tendency  towards  bureaucracy  imder  the  guise  of 
"  the  undivided  responsibility  of  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
Parliament  " — at  a  time  when  the  control  of  either  Parlia- 
ment or  the  Cabinet  has  dwindled  to  vanishing-point.  It 
is  idle,  therefore,  to  discuss  whether  the  Colonial  Secretary's 
functions  could  be  better  discharged  in  the  interests  of  the 
Empire,  if  he  had  to  act  as  "  Secretary  of  State  in  Council  " 

1  See  Dbert,  '  Government  of  India,'  p.  112  et  seq.  Also  the  'Times'  of  29th 
June  1914  and  of  10th  July  1919,  where  the  later  history  of  the  India  Council  is 
admirably  summarised. 


THE  INDIA  COUNCIL.  173 

under  the  statutory  restraints  imposed  on  the  Secretary  for 
India  for  the  last  half  century.  It  would  wholly  depend  on 
the  individuality  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  A  beneficent 
autocracy  has  much  to  commend  it  if  the  autocrat  is  sym- 
pathetic, industrious,  and  has  time  to  devote  to  his  duties. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  may  he  doubted  whether  an  Executive 
Council  of  this  kind  would  lighten  those  duties.  It  would  no 
doubt  completely  alter  the  position  of  the  permanent  Under- 
Secretary,  who  could  no  longer  be  "frankly  and  undisguisedly 
head  of  the  whole  concern." 


174 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

(Continued.) 

An  African  Council :  Its  functions ;  its  constitution  ;  its  procedure — 
Wider  latitude  to  Governors — Grouping  of  colonies — Position  of 
Governor  -  General  —  Governor  -  General's  Council  —  Advantages  of 
federation — The  French  system — Summary  of  suggestions — Personal 
touch  with  the  Secretary  of  State — With  the  Under-Secretary — Inter- 
change of  officers  —Juniors — Seniors — Commercial  intelligence — Cost 
of  the  Colonial  Office — Crown  colonies  without  means  of  expression. 

If  the  principle  of  an  Advisory  CouncU  were  adopted  at  the 
Colonial  OfSce,  it  would  probably  be  recognised  that  the 
Secretary  of  State  would  require  separate  Councils  to  deal 
with  groups  of  colonies  with  such  widely  dissimilar  conditions 
as  the  Par  Eastern,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  West  Indian 
on  the  one  hand — all  of  which  are  colonies  with  constitutions 
more  or  less  advanced — and  the  group  of  African  dependencies 
on  the  other  hand.  But  whether  there  be  a  single  council 
or  two  is  immaterial,  for  their  duties  and  functions  would,  I 
assume,  be  practically  identical.  It  is  sufficient  to  deal  here 
with  an  African  Council  for  tropical  Africa  lying  between 
the  Union  in  the  south  and  Egypt  in  the  north. ^ 

The  object  of  the  CouncU  would  be  to  place  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Under-Secretaries  the  ex- 
perience, independent  judgment,  and  local  knowledge  of  men 
who  had  held  office  as  Governor,  and  of  others  who  had 

^  I  suggested  such  a  Council  as  long  ago  as  1893  (see  'Our  East  African 
Empire,'  vol.  ii.  p.  658),  and  later  in  fuller  detail  to  the  Secretary  of  State. 
It  has  also  been  advocated  by  Sir  A.  Sharpe,  Sir  C.  Bruce,  and  others.  On 
the  other  hand,  Mr  Chamberlain,  in  1901,  dissented  from  its  creation  at  that 
time,  and  preferred  appointing  a  powerful  commission  to  proceed  to  West  Africa 
and  report. — (Speech  to  Liverpool  deputation.  See  Annual  Report  of  Chamber 
for  1901.)  The  Liverpool  merchants  have  consistently  supported  the  proposal 
up  to  the  present  day. — See  also  'Morning  Post,'  18/7/1898. 


PROPOSED  AFRICAN  COUNCIL.  175 

special  experience  of  its  material  problems,  thus  serving  the 
same  useful  purpose  as  the  India  Council,  without  fetteriag 
the  authority  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  As  an  official  body 
it  should  not  attempt  "  to  make  its  voice  heard,  and  to  pro- 
mote a  continuous  and  weU-informed  interest  in  Africa,"  as 
suggested  by  the  '  United  Empire  Journal,'  for  that  is  the 
sphere  of  an  independent  pubUc  body.  Its  advice  would  be 
confined  to  matters  referred  to  it  for  report.  These  would  em- 
brace most  of  the  really  important  questions,  to  the  exclusion 
of  those  which  are  concerned  with  local  administration,  and 
lie  outside  the  sphere  of  Colonial  Office  intervention.  It 
might  review  and  co-ordinate  the  policy  underlying  important 
legislation,  and  report  on  large  schemes  of  development, 
changes  in  scales  of  emoluments  affecting  more  than  one 
colony,  new  methods  of  raising  revenue  which  diifer  from 
those  in  contiguous  colonies,  and  similar  questions.  It 
might,  perhaps,  with  the  consent  of  the  President,  discuss 
and  make  recommendations  on  matters  laid  before  it  by  its 
unofficial  members  ;  and  if  so  invited  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  it  might  submit  suggestions  for  fllbng  vacancies  in 
the  highest  grades.  It  might  even  assist  a  local  Government 
in  the  solution  of  a  problem,  by  affording  it  information  as 
to  how  a  similar  matter  had  been  dealt  with  in  another  colony 
or  in  India.  It  might  sift  the  accusations  of  philanthropic 
bodies,  and  hold  the  balance  between  them  and  the  merchants 
and  settlers. 

The  permanent  Under  -  Secretary  for  the  African  depen- 
dencies (if  that  post  were  created)  would  preside,  and  the 
Assistant  Under-Secretary  would  be  a  member.  Two  seats 
might  be  filled  by  Governors  who  had  retired  within  the  five 
preceding  years,  and  in  spite  of  the  objection  that  officers 
if  appointed  while  still  in  the  service  would  be  fettered  in 
the  expression  of  their  opinions,  I  think  that  a  seat  might 
be  given  to  an  officer  who'  had  held  office  as  Governor  and 
had  not  yet  retired.  The  knowledge  he  would  acquire  of  the 
reasons  which  dictate  the  pohcy  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
the  point  of  view  of  the  merchants,  and  the  way  in  which 
various  problems  of  administration  were  being  dealt  with  in 
different  colonies,  would  be  of  great  value  to  the  colony  (or 
group  of  colonies)  he  subsequently  administered,  while  his 
local  and  up-to-date  knowledge  would  be  most  useful  to  the 
Council.     These  three  members  would  be  appointed  by  the 


176   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

Secretary  of  State,  and  would  retain  their  seats  for,  say,  five 
years,  and  be  eligible  for  reappointment.  If  the  system  of 
grouping  colonies,  to  which  I  shall  presently  refer,  were 
adopted,  the  Governors-General  shoidd,  I  suggest,  be  ex-officio 
members  of  Council  while  in  England,  or  at  least  attend  its 
meetings. 

In  addition  to  the  five  official  and  salaried  members  there 
should,  I  suggest,  be  three  unofficial  members  without  salary. 
Eepresentation  on  the  permanent  CouncU  would  no  doubt 
be  welcomed  by  the  African  sections  of  the  London,  Man- 
chester, and  Liverpool  Chambers  of  Commerce,  in  Ueu  of  the 
conferences  held  three  or  four  times  a  year  at  the  Colonial 
Office.^  The  object  of  these  meetings  was  to  afford  informa- 
tion to  the  merchant,  and  not  to  frame  recommendations  to 
the  Secretary  of  State. 

AH  matters  discussed  by  the  Council  would  be  regarded 
as  confidential.  The  members  would  be  brought  into  close 
working  relations  with  the  high  officials  of  the  Colonial  Office, 
and  benefit  by  their  accmnulated  experience.  A  member  of 
Parliament  who  had  shown  special  interest  in  colonial  affairs 
might  on  occasion  be  invited  to  attend  meetings  of  the 
Council.  A  secretary  would  be  provided  to  record  proceed- 
ings, and  the  cost  of  the  Council  would  be  distributed  between 
the  several  African  dependencies. 

Business,  it  is  suggested,  could  be  transacted  partly  by 
meetings  and  partly  by  written  minutes.  The  former  are 
useful  when  it  is  desired  to  hear  the  evidence  of  experts, 
or  when  the  attendance  of  any  Governor  on  leave  is  desired. 
When  the  problem  is  complex  and  controversial,  involving 
reference  to  many  documents,  the  best  result  wOl,  however, 
probably  be  obtained  by  written  minutes,  after  a  short  pre- 
liminary discussion.  By  this  method  the  inherent  defect  of 
committees  is  to  some  extent  avoided — viz.,  that  the  most 
fluent  and  argumentative  members  monopolise  the  discussion, 
and  there  is  a  difficulty  in  arriving  at  definite  conclusions. 

^  Miss  Kingsley,  in  an  address  to  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce,  in 
which  she  denounced  the  "Crown  colony  system"  in  very  trenchant  terms, 
advocated  in  its  place  an  African  Council  composed  entirely  of  the  "  trade-lords  " 
who  had  pecuniary  interests  in  Wsst  Africa,  whether  they  had  resided  in  the 
country  or  not.  The  German  African  Council  appears  to  have  consisted  of 
twelve  merchants.  It  seems  unnecessary  to  discuss  at  length  why  it  would  be 
unwise  for  those  members  to  predominate  in  the  Council,  whose  advice,  however 
disinterested,  might  be  condemned  by  the  ill-informed  as  biassed  by  personal 
interests,  and  who  would  have  had  no  actual  experience  of  administration. 


THE  PTIBPOSE   OF   THE   COUNCIL.  177 

Incidentally  the  time  of  the  President  (the  permanent  Under- 
Secretary),  who  has  little  to  spare,  would  be  saved. 

A  clearly- worded  "  reference  "  would  be  circulated  to  each 
member  with  the  papers  on  the  subject.  He  would  briefly 
record  his  opinion,  with  the  least  possible  delay,  on  the  definite 
points  raised,  and  the  reasons  on  which  it  is  based.  If  the 
opinions  are  divergent,  a  copy  of  them  would  be  sent  simul- 
taneously to  each  member,  who,  with  the  opinions  of  his 
colleagues  before  him — ^which  may  modify  his  earlier  view — 
would  record  his  conclusion  as  though  the  final  decision  lay 
with  himself.  The  members  would  be  men  who  have  had  to 
deal  with  committee  reports,  and  to  base  a  decision  on  some 
degree  of  compromise,  and  on  the  particular  weight  which 
they  attach  to  each  recorded  opinion.  Sir  A.  Frazer  told  me 
that  in  his  experience  as  Lieut. -Governor  of  Bengal  this 
method  had  hardly  ever  failed  to  produce  a  imanimous  con- 
clusion.   The  Council  minutes  will  form  valuable  records. 

The  Council  would  have  no  direct  dealings  with  local 
Governments.  Its  object  would  be  to  bring  together  the 
heads  of  the  service  at  home  and  representative  men  with 
administrative  experience,  with  a  view  to  mutual  understand- 
ing and  co-operation,  and  in  order  that  their  combined  advice, 
together  with  that  of  representatives  of  commerce,  might  be 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Secretary  of  State  whenever  he  requires 
it,  and  he  could  use  it  or  not  in  Parliament  as  he  might  desire. 
Such  a  Council  would  afford  a  means  of  retaining  a  lien  on 
the  services  of  men  with  a  specialised  knowledge,  and  the 
Umit  fixed  for  their  appointment  (though  renewable)  would 
enable  the  Secretary  of  State  to  dispense  with  their  services, 
without  appearing  to  undervalue  them,  when  by  reason  of 
age,  or  of  changes  brought  by  time,  they  were  no  longer  of 
the  same  value.  Outstanding  instances  of  specialists  whose 
minds  were  stored  with  knowledge  both  accumulated  and 
secret,  and  who  knew  more  of  particular  and  exceptionally 
complex  situations  than  any  other  hviag  authority,  may  be 
found  in  Sir  John  Kirk  (East  Africa  and  Zanzibar  and  African 
treaties,  &c),  Lord  Cromer  (Egypt),  and  Sir  John  Jordan 
(China). 

These  suggestions  are  based  on  the  assumption  that  the 
Council  would  be  constituted  on  the  model  of  the  India 
Council  (but  without  its  very  limited  restrictive  powers) — 
viz.,  that  it  would  consist  of  men  of  weight  and  experience 

M 


178      THE   HOME   GOVERNMENT   AND   THE   DEPENDENCIES. 

to  assist  the  Secretary  of  State  with  their  advice.  I  have, 
however,  referred  to  the  suggestion  of  a  Council  of  a  purely 
departmental  type,  consisting  of  the  heads  of  different  branches 
in  the  Colonial  Ofllce,  on  the  War  Office  and  Admiralty  model. 
Such  a  Board  would  not  be  incompatible  with  the  larger 
Advisory  Council  which  I  have  discussed. 

My  third  suggestion  raises  the  question  whether  it  is  pos- 
sible for  the  Secretary  of  State  to  entrust  to  a  Governor  a 
larger  share  of  the  responsibility  which  they  divide  between 
them  for  the  administration  of  a  British  colony,  without 
divesting  himself  of  that  ministerial  responsibility  which,  as 
Sir  W.  Laurier,  speaking  of  the  Dominions,  so  emphatically 
insisted  that  it  is  necessary  to  maintain.^  The  Government 
of  India  Act  claims  to  have  set  a  precedent  in  this  direction, 
by  delegating  large  powers  to  the  Viceroy  and  his  Council 
which  had  hitherto  been  reserved  to  the  India  Office  and  the 
Secretary  of  State. 

We  have  already  seen  that  this  principle  was  carried 
further  by  Mr  Chamberlain  than  by  any  other  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, and  it  earned  for  him  a  devotion  which  no  other  has 
enjoyed  in  a  like  degree.  N"or  has  any  one  been  found  to 
deny  that  it  was  justified  in  its  results  by  the  progress  achieved 
during  his  tenure  of  office.  Lord  Milner  has  shown  the  same 
broad-minded  statesmanship  and  desire  to  grant  a  larger 
measure  of  self-government.  The  stronger  and  more  capable 
the  ruler,  whether  he  be  the  Secretary  of  State  at  home  or  the 
Governor  abroad,  the  more  ready  he  is  to  trust  his  subordi- 
nates, and  to  encourage  their  initiative,  when  he  has  satisfied 
himself  that  the  trust  will  not  be  misplaced.  "  The  tendency, 
however,  to-day,"  says  the  'Times,'  "is  to  increase  the 
numbers  and  the  powers  of  the  centralised  bureaucracies,  and 
to  decrease  the  staffs  and  the  independence  of  the  local  ad- 
ministrations." ^  Colonial  Governors  of  acknowledged  ability, 
such  as  Sir  P.  Swettenham  and  Sir  Charles  Eliot,  when  they 
had  left  the  service  and  were  free  to  speak,  have  urged  the 
desirability  of  greater  latitude  to  the  local  administrator.^ 

I  have  in  a  previous  paragraph  indicated  how  trivial  are 
many  of  the  matters  on  which  a  Governor  is  criticised,  or 
regarding  which  his  discretion  is  fettered.     IS'or  does  there 

1  Cd.  3795  of  1907,  pp.  5  and  6.  2  'Times,'  19th  June  1920. 

3  'East  African  Protecterate,'  Sir  C.  Eliot,  p.  204.  'Malaya,'  Sir  F. 
Swettenham,  p.  840. 


GEOUPING  OF  DEPENDENCIES.  179 

appear  to  be  any  discrimination  between  a  Governor  of  long 
standing  and  experience  administering  an  important  colony, 
and  one  newly  appointed  to  a  minor  post.  Both  alike  are 
controlled  by  rigid  regulations,  some  of  which  seem  very 
inappropriate  to  the  circumstances  of  a  "  first-class  "  colony.^ 
I  should  weary  my  reader  were  I  to  go  into  details  :  it  suffices 
to  refer  to  the  sanctions  required  for  writing  off  petty  losses 
— though  investigated  by  committees  and  by  the  Governor 
and  his  Council — and  for  incurring  petty  expenditure,  and 
the  inconvenience  caused  by  delay  in  approving  the  annual 
budget  while  Colonial  Office  clerks  elaborate  detailed  criti- 
cisms of  petty  items.2 

The  principle  of  graduated  responsibility  would  find  ap- 
propriate expression  if  the  colonies — or  some  of  them — ^were 
formed  into  groups  under  Governors  -  General,  and  wider 
powers  might,  it  is  suggested,  be  conferred  on  the  experienced 
and  trusted  officers,  who  would  be  selected  for  these  respon- 
sible posts.  The  burden  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  his 
advisers  would  be  proportionately  reduced.  ^ 

I  have  in  chapter  v.  discussed  the  advantage  of  amalgamat- 
ing contiguous  colonies,  from  the  point  of  view  of  iaternal 
administration  and  economic  development.  The  grouping  or 
federation  of  colonies  under  a  Governor-General  (which  was 
suggested  by  me  to  the  Secretary  of  State  in  1907)  is  an 
entirely  different  matter.  For  this  purpose  colonies  need  not 
have  co-terminous  frontiers,  or  forfeit  their  separate  identity. 
The  object  is  twofold :  to  promote  some  uniformity  of  policy 
among  colonies  with  common  economic  conditions,  and  more 
or  less  identical  problems  of  administration ;  and  to  relieve 
the  pressure  of  work  at  home  by  decreasing  the  number  of 
units,  and  increasing  the  powers  and  responsibilities  of  the 
high  official  selected  to  control  each  group.  Some  measure 
of  cohesion  is  advantageous,  as,  for  example,  the  interchange 

^  Sir  F.  Swettenham,  loe.  cit. 

'  The  voice  of  East  Africa,  as  expressed  by  the  report  of  the  Economic  Com- 
mission, 1919,  is  emphatic  that  there  should  be  no  Colonial  Office  interference 
except  where  Imperial  interests  are  affected.  They  stigmatise  Crown  Colony 
government  as  "an  autocracy  disguised  as  constitutional  government" — and 
hence  indefensible.  Their  very  sweeping  proposals  must  of  course  be  taken  to 
refer  to  a  colony  such  as  Kenya,  with  a  large  and  educated  British  unofficial 
population. 

*  Mr  Churchill,  speaking  in  Manchester  so  long  ago  as  December  1906,  expressed 
the  view  that  "  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  we  shall  be  forced  to  embark 
upon  a  great  scheme  of  amalgamating  all  our  West  African  Colonies  under  a 
common  organisation  and  control." 


180   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

of  officials — ^in  such  varying  degree  as  may  be  feasible,  looMng 
to  diversity  of  native  languages  and  conditions  in  the  com- 
ponent colonies, — the  training  of  native  subordinates,  a  com- 
mon penal  code,  a  uniform  coinage,  and  to  such  an  extent 
as  may  be  possible,  uniformity  in  tariffs,  mining  laws,  and 
other  legislation  affecting  economic  development.  Some 
uniformity  may  also  be  possible  in  conditions  of  service  and 
rates  of  pay  for  the  Civil  Service.  Each  unit  would  retain 
its  own  financial  independence  under  its  own  Governor, 
though  it  may,  as  in.  the  French  system,  be  desirable  that 
each  should  contribute,  proportionately  to  its  revenue,  to  a 
common  fund  for  large  works  whose  utility  is  shared  by  all. 
At  present  even  contiguous  colonies  have  no  means  of  know- 
ing what  is  being  done  by  their  neighbour. 

It  would  be  premature  to  enter  here  into  a  detailed  fore- 
cast of  the  functions  of  the  Governor-General,  and  the  powers 
he  might  exercise  without  invading  the  ministerial  responsi- 
bility of  the  Secretary  of  State,  or  unduly  curtaiHng  those  of 
the  Governors  administeriiig  each  unit.  It  would  largely 
depend  on  the  size  of  the  groups,  and  is  a  matter  which  would 
require  very  careful  consideration,  and  might  well  form  a 
subject  of  reference  to  such  a  Council  as  I  have  suggested. 
Generally  speaking,  the  more  important  legislation  in  each 
unit  would  be  approved  if  not  actually  initiated — subject,  of 
course,  to  disallowance  by  the  Crown  through  the  Secretary 
of  State — by  the  Governor-General,  with  a  view  to  preserving 
a  measure  of  uniformity,  and  of  identical  poUcy,  especially  in 
such  matters  as  native  administration  and  railway  con- 
struction. ^  The  budgets  of  each  would  be  scrutinised  and 
approved  by  him,  subject  (if  considered  necessary)  to  the 
covering  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  The  disposal  of 
the  common  fund  for  public  works  shared  by  all,  and  the 
equalising  of  the  incidence  of  the  cost  of  military  forces  for 
frontier  defence,  would  rest  in  his  hands.  The  imposition 
of  new  taxation,  and  the  inception  of  mUitary  operations, 
would  be  subject  to  his  concurrence — advised  in  aU  matters 
by  his  Council.  He  alone  would  address  the  Secretary  of 
State,    but   routine   correspondence,   as    I   have   suggested, 

'  The  High  Commisaioner  of  South  Africa  assents  to  all  legislation  in  the 
Chartered  Company's  territories  (Northern  and  Southern  Rhodesia),  and  in  the 
three  widely  separated  Protectorates  under  his  control, — Swazi,  Basuto,  and 
Beehuanaland. 


POWERS  OF  A  GOVERNOR-GENERAL.  181 

■would  be  conducted  between  the  Governors  and  the  Under- 
Secretary. 

The  "  spot  "  over  which  he  would  exercise  control  would 
be  so  large,  and  its  units  might  be  so  widely  separated,  that 
it  would  make  Uttle  difference  to  any  particular  one  whether 
he  was  within  or  beyond  the  ambit  of  his  territorial  jurisdic- 
tion, and  his  instructions  to  his  Governors  should  operate 
wherever  he  may  be.  He  would  probably  need  no  deputy 
to  act  in  his  absence  from  headquarters,  for  the  oflBcer  ad- 
ministering each  unit  would  have  ample  powers  to  take 
whatever  immediate  action  might  be  required.^ 

Governors  of  units,  with  a  few  other  high  officials,  would 
form  a  Council,  as  in  the  French  colonies,  meeting  once  a  year 
for  discussion,  and  at  other  times  if  summoned  by  the  Governor- 
General.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Council  should  con- 
sist of  "  Ministers  "  for  industries,  education,  communica- 
tions, &c.  Though  some  of  the  high  officials,  such  as  the 
Judge  of  the  Appeal  Court,  the  commandant  of  troops,  &c., 
would  no  doubt  reside  with  the  Governor-General  at  the  capital 
of  the  principal  colony,  and  be  available  as  a  subordinate 
Council  if  desired,  the  appointment  of  Ministers  controlling 
the  departments  of  the  different  colonies,  and  forming  an 
Administrative  Council,  would  probably  be  premature  in  the 
conditions  of  Africa,  and  would  interfere  with  the  functions 
of  the  Governors  and  the  independence  of  the  colonies,  and 
tend  rather  to  amalgamation  than  to  federation.  Sir  H. 
Johnston  suggests  that  each  group  should  have  its  own 
agency  in  London  to  look  after  its  own  material  requirements 
and  commerce.^  So  far,  however,  as  the  principle  of  federation 
is  concerned,  there  is  no  need  to  supersede  the  Crown  agents. 

Such  a  system  of  federation  of  contiguous  dependencies 
could  not,  I  think,  fail  to  advance  their  material  prosperity. 
It  would  also,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  enable  the  Secretary  of 
State  to  delegate  enlarged  powers  to  the  Governor-General, 
and  by  reducing  the  number  of  units  for  which  the  Colonial 
Office  is  responsible,  would  lighten  his  task.  The  proposal 
f  oUows  in  principle  the  analogy  of  the  existing  Appeal  Courts  in 

'  A  French  writer  (Mods.  P.  Millet)  suggests  that  the  British  and  French 
Governors  -  General  should  meet  regularly  and  discuss  problems  of  common 
interest — the  use  of  ports,  railways,  and  telegraphs,  &c. — with  a  view  to  closer 
co-operation.  This  would  tend  to  eliminate  causes  of  friction  and  difficulties 
which  are  often  due  to  exaggerated  or  false  native  reports. 

2  '  The  African  World,'  17th  August  1918. 


182      THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

the  Bast  and  West,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  received 
support  from  the  Under-Secretary,  when  moving  the  second 
reading  of  the  West  India  Appeal  Court  Bill  on  30th  July  1920.^ 

East  and  West  Africa  form  two  convenient  groups,  though 
if  the  Sudan  and  l^orthern  Ehodesia  be  included,  the  East 
African  group  might,  temporarily  at  least,  be  divided  into 
two. 2  Southern  Ehodesia  belongs  to  the  South  African 
group,  whether  included  in  the  Union  or  not.^ 

The  French  system  in  West  Africa  has  been  described,  says 
the  official  White  Book,  by  an  American  writer  as  the  best 
and  simplest  in  the  world,  and  by  French  writers  as  a  model 
of  efficiency.  It  is  claimed  that  in  actual  results  it  has  trans- 
formed the  French  colonies  from  a  costly  incubus  into  pros- 
perous and  self-supporting  possessions.  It  is  therefore  worth 
while  to  describe  the  system  very  briefly.* 

^  A  single  Appeal  Court  for  East  Africa,  Uganda,  and  Nyasaland  was  set  up  by 
Order  in  Council  of  ISth  February  1909.  The  "  FuU  "  Supreme  Courts  of  Nigeria 
and  the  Gold  Coast  constitute  a  Court  of  Appeal  for  those  colonies. 

^  The  question  of  federating  the  various  units  in  East  Africa  under  a  "  Viceroy  " 
has  of  late  (July  1920)  been  brought  into  prominence  by  a  motion  by  Lord 
Islington  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  in  letters  to  the  'Times'  from  Sir  T. 
Morison  (July  21,  1920)  and  others,  who  dwell  on  thejsimilarity  of  their  problems, 
and  the  dissimilarity  of  the  methods  at  present  employed  in  their  solution. 

In  round  figures  the  whole  of  British  West  Africa  would  aggregate  about 
490,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  some  21,900,000.  The  whole  of  East 
Africa  (including  the  Mandated  Tanganyika  Territory,  the  Sudan,  and  Northern 
Rhodesia)  would  cover  about  2,140,000  square  miles  (twice  the  size  of  British 
India),  with  a  population  of  16,000,000.  Were  this  divided  into  two,  the  southern 
group  might  include  the  Mandate  territory,  Nyasalaud,  and  Northern  Rhodesia, 
with  an  area  of  about  695,600  square  miles,  and  a  population  of  6,000,000.  The 
remaining  units,  with  an  area  of  about  1,444,200  square  miles  (including  the  great 
deserts  of  the  Sudan),  would  have  a  population  of  10,122,000.     (See  Table,  p.  45.) 

^  Since  these  pages  were  written,  an  apparently  authoritative  announcement 
has  appeared  in  the  'Times'  (14th  September  1921),  that  the  Secretary  of  State 
(Mr  Churchill)  "is  engaged  in  an  important  scheme  for  the  reorganisation  of  the 
administration  of  the  Crown  colonies  and  protectorates,  designed  to  give  them 
among  other  things  a  greater  amount  of  autonomy."  The  pronouncement  has 
received  no  official  confirmation,  and  cannot  therefore  be  treated  as  accurately 
indicating  Mr  Churchill's  intentions,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  statement 
that  "  the  main  proposals  are  the  grouping  of  the  various  colonies  according  to 
their  geographical  position  under  High  Commissioners,  to  whose  shoulders  will  be 
transferred  some  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities — especially  in  the  way  of 
public  appointments  and  concerning  financial  problems — which  now  devolve  on 
the  Secretary  of  State."  Each  High  Commissioner,  it  is  said,  will  be  assisted  by 
a  council,  partly  elected  and  partly  nominated,  and  will  have  control  of  Imperial 
forces,  naval  and  military,  within  his  jurisdiction. 

*  See  Foreign  Office  Handbook,  No.  100  of  1920,  and  I.D.W.O.  Memos,  of 
October  1902  and  October  1904.  The  trade  of  the  French  West  African  Colonies 
is  stated  to  have  increased  from  66,200,000  francs  in  1893  to  299,900,000  francs 
in  1913  (imports  calculated  on  value  in  Africa,  exports  on  value  at  destination). 
— '  What  every  Frenchman  ought  to  know  of  French  Occidental  Africa,'  by 
G.  Fran9ois.     See  'West  Africa,'  9/18/19. 


THE  PEENCH  SYSTEM.  183 

The  French  possessions  in  West  Africa  are  placed  under 
two  Governors-General.  One,  with  headquarters  at  Dakar, 
controls  those  which  comprise  "French  West  Africa  " — viz., 
Senegal,  Guinea,  the  Ivory  Coast,  Dahomey,  Upper  Senegal 
and  Niger,  Togo  and  Mauretania — an  area  of  over  1,822,000 
square  miles  and  a  population  of  nearly  12,000,000.  The 
other,  with  headquarters  at  Brazzaville,  controls  "  French 
Equatorial  Africa  " — viz.,  the  Gabun,  the  Congo,  Ubanghi- 
Shari,  and  Cameruns  (late  German). 

Taking  the  former  in  illustration  of  the  system,  we  find 
that  as  long  ago  as  1895  the  necessity  for  co-ordination  by 
a  Governor-General  was  recognised  ;  but  it  was  not  imtil 
the  Anglo-French  Convention  of  1898,  and  the  declaration  of 
1899  had  enabled  her  to  link  up  the  various  colonies,  that  M. 
Decrais  in  the  latter  year  was  able  to  procure  the  decree  which 
gave  effect  to  the  new  system.  It  was  elaborated  and  com- 
pleted by  later  decrees  of  1st  October  1902,  and  finally  that 
of  18th  October  1904.  The  powers  of  the  home  Government 
are  in  a  large  measure  entrusted  to  the  Governor-General, 
who  exercises  a  more  real  control  than  can  be  exerted  from 
France.  Subject  to  the  decrees  and  laws  made  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  Chamber,  he  exercises  wide  powers — often  tanta- 
mount to  legislation — ^by  means  of  "  arreUs."  He  appoints 
all  but  the  most  senior  officials,  and  those  of  the  Treasury — 
and  these  he  recommends.  All  correspondence  with  the  home 
Government  must  pass  through  him.  It  is  his  duty  to  survey 
French  policy  as  a  whole,  and  co-ordinate  the  activities  of 
the  different  colonies.  Himself  relieved  of  all  direct  adminis- 
trative functions,  "he  is  absolute  and  responsible  arbiter  in 
all  political  and  administrative  matters."  The  Secretary- 
General,  who  was  liable  to  encroach  on  his  powers,  was  in  1909 
replaced  by  departments  of  Finance  and  General  Business, 
working  solely  through  the  Governor-General,  with  inspectors 
of  the  different  departments  in  the  various  colonies.  He  has 
a  Council  consisting  of  the  Lieut. -Governors,  the  principal 
officials,  and  the  influential  natives  from  each  of  the  four 
important  colonies — in  all,  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  mem- 
bers. It  meets  yearly,  and  votes  the  general  and  colonial 
budgets,  and  the  Governor-General  must  consult  it  in  matters 
of  finance  and  taxation.  The  different  units,  separated  by 
intervening  British  colonies,  are  under  Lieut.-Governors,  who 
can  also  issue  arreUs  on  local  affairs,  and  have  their  own 


184   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

Councils,  wMch  they  must  consult  on  financial  matters. 
Each  raises  its  own  revenue,  but  all  Customs  dues  and  taxes 
on  shipping  are  paid  into  a  common  fund  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Governor-General  and  the  financial  experts  appointed 
by  the  home  Government,^  from  which  assignments  are 
made  for  railways  and  large  public  works.  ^ 

The  adoption  of  some  or  all  of  the  suggestions  I  have 
made  would  extend  the  principles  of  Decentralisation  and 
Continuity  from  the  circumference  overseas  to  the  centre  at 
Whitehall.  They  would,  it  is  hoped,  lighten  the  task  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  the  higher  officials,  and  remove  the 
chronic  complaint  that  juniors  usurp  their  powers,  and  would 
tend  to  the  more  rapid  despatch  of  important  business.  It  is 
of  no  use  adding  to  the  size  of  the  bladder  by  iucreastag  the 
junior  staff  while  the  neck  remains  too  narrow  to  cope  with 
the  discharge.  Merchants  and  others  interested  in  material 
development  would  obtain  in  the  Council — ^where  every  side 
of  a  question  could  obtain  a  hearing,  and  pertinent  papers 
would  be  presented — a  recognised  locus  standi  for  the  expres- 
sion of  their  views  more  appropriate  and  dignified  than  that 
they  now  enjoy. 

The  admission  of  administrative  officers  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  merchants  on  the  other,  to  share  in  the  coimsels  of 
Downing  Street,  would  be  in  accord  with  the  liberal  tendencies 
of  the  time,  and  remove  the  complaint  of  bureaucratic  rule 
and  secrecy.  Already  there  are  signs  that  persistence  in 
methods  of  exclusiveness  may  lead  to  a  reaction  under  a 
Labour  Ministry,  which  it  should  be  the  care  of  wise  and 
prescient  statesmanship  to  avert,  by  granting  to  the  citizens 
of  the  Empire,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  a  reasonable 
voice  in  its  development,  and  to  the  local  Governments  that 
larger  latitude  in  the  management  of  their  own  affairs  which 
their  growth  and  progress  justifies. 

The  methods  by  which  it  is  sought  to  give  effect  to  these 
principles   are  mainly   two.     First,   the   delegation  by  the 

1  Decree,  12th  December  1912. 

^  Mr  Morel,  who  considers  the  French  system  incomparably  superior  to  our 
own,  points  out  that  every  French  colony  which  is  not  directly  represented  in 
the  French  Chamber  (as  Senegal  has  been  since  1834)  is  represented  at  the 
Colonial  Office  by  a  delegate  elected  by  vote  of  the  white  inhabitants. — 'Affairs 
of  West  Africa,'  p.  24. 

The  system  has  lately  been  largely  reorganised  by  the  decree  of  4th  July  1920. 
For  the  General  Council  there  has  been  substituted  a  Colonial  Council  of  forty 
elected  members. 


THE  VALUE  OF  PERSONAL  TOUCH.  185 

Secretary  of  State  of  some  of  his  powers  and  duties  to  new 
and  responsible  ofiBcers  of  the  highest  rank  : — at  home  by  the 
creation  of  a  second  Under-Secretary,  and  the  delegation  to 
those  high  ofl&cials  who  now  exercise  power  in  his  name, 
of  a  measure  of  public  and  executive  responsibility  ;  abroad, 
by  the  creation  of  Governors-General  of  groups  of  colonies 
with  extended  powers,  who  may  relieve  the  Secretary  of 
State  of  functions  not  essential  to  his  ministerial  responsi- 
bility, decrease  the  number  of  units,  and  promote  continuity 
and  a  measure  of  uniformity  of  policy.  Secondly,  the  utilisa- 
tion ta  the  service  of  the  State  of  the  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence, on  the  one  hand  of  men  who  are  no  longer  on  the  active 
Ust,  and  on  the  other,  of  representatives  of  commerce,  in 
positions  of  public  and  responsible  participation  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Empire. 

Miss  Martineau,  when  describing  how  in  1825  it  had  become 
necessary  to  have  an  additional  Under-Secretary,  remarks  : 
"  We  are  beginning  to  learn  how  absurd  it  is  to  expect  the 
machinery  of  the  Colonial  Office  to  do  the  necessary  work," — 
the  lesson  has  ever  to  be  learnt  afresh.^ 

One  of  the  main  objects  in  view — ^the  promotion  of  closer 
touch  between  those  responsible  abroad  and  at  home  for  the 
guidance  and  control  of  the  dependencies — ^may  be  promoted 
in  other  ways,  by  far  the  most  important  of  which  is  that 
the  Secretary  of  State  should  be  on  terms  of  personal  and 
unofficial  intimacy  with  the  Governors,  of  at  any  rate  the 
more  important  colonies,  when  they  are  in  England.  They  are 
not  so  numerous  as  to  make  it  a  matter  of  difficulty,  and  the 
advantage  should  be  reciprocal.  The  Secretary  of  State 
would  be  enabled  to  form  a  personal  estimate  of  the  character 
and  abiUty  of  his  Governors,  while  they  would  enjoy  the 
greatly  valued  opportunity  of  hearing  from  him  any  criti- 
cisms of  their  policy  which  may  have  reached  his  ears,  and 
of  verbally  explaining  their  views  and  motives.  There  is  a 
limit  to  government  by  despatches,  and  it  is  personal  touch 
which  stimulates  the  best  efforts.  That  touch  is  lost  if  the 
Secretary  of  State  is  only  a  respected  chief,  accessible  by 
rare  interviews  in  his  room  at  the  Colonial  Office. 

Mr  Chamberlain's  success  and  popularity  as  Colonial 
Secretary  no  doubt  owed  much  to  the  pains  he  took  to  know 
his  Governors  personally.    Though  I  was  one  of  the  youngest 

»  'Thirty  Years'  Peace,'  vol.  ii.  p.  30, 


186   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

of  them,  he  spoke  with  such  entire  frankness  and  freedom 
from  ofiScial  reticence,  as  to  make  one  feel  how  entirely  he. 
trusted  one's  discretion ;  and  Mr  Lyttelton  adopted  the 
same  attitude.  In  his  official  relations  the  Governor,  as  I 
have  suggested,  should  be  given  every  possible  facility  for 
keeping  in  touch  with  the  affairs  of  his  Government,  and  be 
fully  consulted  in  every  important  matter  whUe  in  England, 
his  deputy's  powers  being  strictly  limited. 

But  if  it  be  desirable  for  the  Secretary  of  State  to  be  on 
terms  of  social  intimacy  with  his  Governors,  it  is  equally 
desirable  that  the  permanent  Under-Secretary  should  per- 
sonally know  the  senior  colonial  officials.  It  is  he  who  makes 
recommendations  for  the  filling  of  the  highest  posts,  and 
personal  knowledge  is  essential,  for  local  popularity  may  be 
the  worst  of  guides.  Governors  and  high  officials  who  know 
how  irksome  interruption  is  when  pressed  with  work,  hesitate 
to  intrude  in  office  hours,  or  to  stay  longer  than  the  business 
demands,  but  the  opportunities  afforded  by  successive  Under- 
Secretaries  for  meeting  them  on  terms  of  social  intercourse  have 
been  rare.  The  Colonial  Service  thus  feels  that  an  absence  of 
personal  knowledge  among  the  permanent  officials  in  Whitehall 
has  been  responsible  for  selections  for  promotion  which  in 
many  cases  have  been  considered  to  be  marvellously  ill-judged. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  it  would  be  of  great  advantage, 
both  to  the  Colonial  Office  and  to  the  colonies,  if  officers  were 
interchangeable  between  the  two  Services,  or  at  least  if  officers 
from  Whitehall  served  for  some  years  abroad,  and  so  gained 
personal  knowledge  of  the  colonies.  The  worst  possible  ex- 
pedient is  the  visit  of  a  junior  in  search  of  "  local  colour." 
There  is  already  some  misgiving  that  in  the  laudable  desire  "  to 
know  what  people  are  saying  in  the  colony,"  junior  officials  at 
home  are  led  to  discuss  questions  of  policy  with  juniors  on  leave 
from  the  colonies,  and  be  guided  by  their  irresponsible  and 
necessarily  ill-informed  views.  The  type  of  officer  who  lends 
himself  to  such  discussions  is  often  one  who  is  full  of  theories 
of  his  own,  and  is  rarely  the  best  qualified  to  voice  local 
opinion.  It  is  disheartening  to  the  responsible  officers  to 
discover  that  official  opinions  have  thus  been  formed  on  a  half- 
knowledge  of  the  facts.  It  is  to  obviate  such  fortuitous  and 
undesirable  means  of  acquiring  knowledge,  that  a  closer 
touch  between  responsible  officers  at  home  and  abroad  is  so 
much  needed.  - 


rXTEBCHANGE  OF  OPFICEES.  187 

Second  only  to  "  Padgett,  M.P.,"  are  the  ill  results  arising 
from  temporary  service  abroad  of  junior  Colonial  Office 
clerks.  As  a  junior  the  officer  has  little  opportunity  for 
learning  the  reasons  for  any  course  of  action  adopted  by  the 
Governor  and  his  Council,  and  may  probably  never  even  have 
heard  of  important  matters  outside  his  immediate  sphere  of 
work.  On  his  return  to  the  Colonial  Office,  the  junior  who 
has  served  temporarily  in  a  colony  is  apt  to  be  regarded  as 
"  the  man  who  knows  all  about  it,"  and  it  may  be  that  his 
dicta  may  influence  the  views  of  his  seniors,  and  be  accepted 
in  modification  of  those  of  the  Governor  and  his  Council. 
The  only  appointment  in  which  an  officer  can  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  instructions  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
with  the  views  of  the  Governor  and  his  Council,  and  with  the 
opinions  expressed  on  matters  of  administrative  poUcy  by 
Lieut. -Governors  and  Eesidents,  is  as  "  Political  Secretary  " 
to  the  Governor  (or  "  Secretary  for  Native  Affairs  ") — a  post 
which  should  not  be  held  by  too  junior  an  officer. 

Interchangeability  between  the  services,  as  distinct  from 
temporary  service  abroad,  has,  I  believe,  been  adopted  by 
the  Foreign  Office  in  aU  grades,  and  offers,  I  think,  many 
advantages.  Under  such  a  system  officers  of  the  home  service 
would  serve  for  alternate  periods  at  home  and  abroad,  at 
all  stages  of  their  careers,  interchanging  with  selected  officers 
of  the  colonial  service,  as  in  the  Navy  and  Army.  The  junior 
is  no  longer  a  specialist  if  his  seniors  have  also  served  abroad. 
The  exchange,  for  iastance,  of  junior  officers  of  the  home 
service  with  colonial  secretariat  officers,  for  substantial  periods 
of  service,  would  afford  to  the  former  a  considerable  insight 
into  the  affairs  of  a  colony,  and  to  the  latter  a  training  in  the 
excellent  office  methods  of  the  home  department.  These 
conditions  of  service  would,  of  course,  have  to  be  made  clear 
to  those  who  enter  for  the  competitive  Civil  Service  examina- 
tions. The  old  system  in  the  Eastern  colonies,  which  afforded 
a  period  of  training  at  the  Colonial  Office  to  cadets  before 
taking  up  their  appointments,  had  much  to  recommend  it. 

The  interchange  of  officers  in  the  highest  posts  should, 
above  all,  be  beneficial  to  both  services  :  Under-Secretaries 
with  Governors,  Assistant  Under-Secretaries  with  Lieut.- 
Governors,  and  heads  of  Departments  with  the  Secretaries  of 
Colonial  Governments. 

"  Evidence,"  says  Lord  Crewe's  Committee  on  the  relations 


188   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

of  the  India  Of&ce  and  the  Indian  Government,  "  has  indicated 
the  great  value  of  briaging  the  superior  oflftcers  of  the  Home 
and  Indian  Administrations  into  close  touch  with  each  other 
under  daily  working  conditions,  and  it  is  presumed  that  the 
system  of  deputiug  these  officers  on  special  duty  and  with 
definite  objects  from  one  country  to  the  other,  will  be  con- 
tinued and  possibly  expanded."  But  they  "  do  not  think 
it  desirable  or  possible  to  arrange  any  formal  system  of  inter- 
change between  members  of  the  IncHa  Office  and  the  Indian 
services."  ^ 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  Colonial  Office  organisation, 
a  word  may  perhaps  usefully  be  added  on  the  subject  of  com- 
mercial inteUigence.  Mr  Churchill,  when  Under-Secretary, 
said  that  while  the  business  of  the  Office  had  doubled  or 
trebled  in  the  last  twenty  years,  the  most  remarkable  increase 
was  in  the  commercial  branch,  which,  however,  had  not 
been  altogether  successful,  and  it  was  desirable  that  the 
Colonial  Office  should  get  more  in  touch  with  business  men.^ 

Each  colony  nominates  a  correspondent  with  the  Com- 
mercial Intelligence  Branch  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  in- 
quiries and  samples  can  be  transmitted  to  the  Imperial 
Institute  and  to  Kew.  There  are  also  the  CoUege  of  Science 
and  Technology,  and  the  Overseas  Trade  Department ;  ^  but 
sources  of  information  are  too  confused — or  diffused — ^whether 
for  the  colonies  (which  are  somewhat  out  of  touch  with  re- 
search and  progress  in  other  countries),  or  for  business  men 
who  desire  precise  information,  or  direction  as  to  where  it 
can  be  obtained. 

An  African  Council  on  which  commerce  was  represented 
would  no  doubt  go  far  to  meet  Mr  Churchill's  desires,  but 
it  should  be  reinforced  by  special  facilities  for  obtaining 
information.  The  Imperial  Institute  is  the  natural  Com- 
mercial Department  of  the  Colonial  Office.  It  does  not  require 
duplication,  but  the  great  possibiMties  of  usefulness  which 
it  might  afford  seem  to  be  hardly  sufficiently  utilised. 

I  suggest  that  the  simple  and  inexpensive  expedient  of  an 
expansion  of  the  library  and  reference-room  at  the  Colonial 
Office,  superintended  (as  now)  by  a  thoroughly  efficient 
librarian,  whose  services  would  be  at  the  disposal  of  aU  in- 

1  Report  of  9th  July  1918.  ^  Speech  of  7th  February  1907. 

"  See  Board  of  Trade  Memo,  on  '  Organiaation  of  Commercial  Intelligence.' 
Cd.  8715/1917. 


AN  INFORMATION  BUREAU.  189 

quirers,  would  serve  a  very  useM  pxirpose.  Here  the  legisla- 
tion of  each  colony  on  each  special  branch  of  material  de- 
velopment would  be  collated  for  comparative  study.  Ques- 
tions and  answers  and  debates  in  Parliament  on  colonial 
subjects  could  be  tabulated  for  reference,  with  all  command 
papers  and  other  Blue-books,  and  even  useful  and  pertinent 
magazine  articles.^  Governors'  despatches  explaining  the 
nature  and  object  of  new  legislation  affecting  trade  and 
industry,  and  the  latest  local  regulations.  Orders  in  Council 
and  departmental  reports,  received  mail  by  mail,  and  even 
Colonial  Ofl&ce  White-books,  might  be  made  available  for 
reference.  Memoranda  compiled  in  the  colony,  dealing  with 
the  soil,  climate,  and  labour-supply,  the  charges  and  conditions 
under  which  land  is  available,  transport  by  rail,  river,  and 
road,  customs  dues,  local  markets,  openings  in  agricidture, 
forestry,  or  mining,  shoidd  be  supplied  for  the  encouragement 
of  new  enterprise,  with  data  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the 
Colonial  Government  would  be  able  to  afford  special  encour- 
agement. These  and  all  other  pamphlets  and  monographs 
should  be  obtainable  from  the  librarian  without  the  formality 
and  delay  of  application  to  the  Office. 

A  small  staff  would  be  required,  whose  duty  it  would  be 
to  supply  information  needed  by  the  colonies,  and  keep  them 
posted  in  the  legislation  and  progress  in  other  tropical  countries 
(including  India)  on  economic  subjects.  A  room  might  be 
set  apart  where  merchants,  mine-managers,  and  others  could 
arrange  meetings  with  Governors  and  colonial  officials  when 
in  England,  explain  their  wishes,  and  learn  to  what  extent 
the  finances  would  permit  of  their  realisation.  Much  mis- 
understanding and  ill-informed  criticism  would  thus  be 
avoided.^ 

Some  of  the  suggestions  I  have  made  would  involve  addi- 
tional expense,  but  there  would  seem  to  be  no  objection  in 
principle  were  the  colonies  invited  to  bear  a  part  of  the  cost 
of  the  Colonial  Office,  as  well  as  of  an  African  Council,  just 
as  the  Indian  Government  has  hitherto  borne  the  cost  of  the 

'  Some  years  ago  a  very  useful  quarterly  periodical,  styled  '  The  Colonial  Office 
Journal,'  made  its  appearance,  with  Sir  W.  Mercer,  one  of  the  Crown  Agents,  as 
its  editor.  It  was  published  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  though 
he  was  not  responsible  for  the  opinions  expressed  in  it.  It  is  to  he  regretted 
that  this  excellent  publication  has  ceased  to  appear. 

^  If  for  lack  of  space  or  other  cause  this  suggestion  were  found  to  be  im- 
practicable, possibly  an  arrangement  could  be  made  with  the  Royal  Colonial 
Institute  on  the  same  lines. 


190   THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  DEPENDENCIES. 

India  Office.  England,  as  we  have  seen,  has  treated  her 
colonies  with  great  generosity :  at  first  by  free  grants  in 
aid ;  later,  by  the  use  of  Imperial  credit.  There  seems  no 
good  reason  why,  when  a  colony  has  grown  to  prosperity,  it 
should  not  pay  for  the  large  amount  of  administrative  busi- 
ness undertaken  on  its  behalf  by  the  Colonial  Office  (in  addi- 
tion to  contributing  towards  its  defence,  see  p.  275),  and 
so  relieve  the  Imperial  Exchequer  at  a  time  when  it  is  bur- 
dened with  such  heavy  liabilities  incurred  in  the  common 
interest.^  Such  contributions,  in  return  for  specific  benefits 
received,  appear  to  me  much  more  dignified  and  legitimate 
than  the  profit  of  50  per  cent  made  by  the  Mint  on  silver 
coin  supplied  to  West  Africa  prior  to  the  creation  of  a  local 
currency,  in  return  for  a  hypothetical  redemption  risk.^  It 
is  said  to  have  amounted  to  a  very  large  sum  per  annum. 

The  Crown  colonies  and  protectorates,  Uke  the  Dominions, 
have  in  the  last  decades  advanced  greatly  in  wealth  and 
importance.  Many  of  them  have  a  considerable  population 
of  British  merchants  and  others,  and  the  British  public  has 
invested  large  sums  of  money  in  their  development.  Under 
the  progressive  and  liberal  rale  of  Lord  Milner,  Malta,  Kenya, 
and  Ceylon  have  been  granted  wider  powers  of  self-govern- 
ment, and  Jamaica  may  perhaps  shortly  realise  her  ambitions 
in  this  direction.  Mr  (now  Lord)  Long,  moreover,  made  a 
notable  departure  in  asking  for  the  opinions  of  the  colonies 
on  questions  of  economic  policy  and  reconstruction  after  the 
war.  But  for  the  most  part  they  remain  as  they  were  fifty 
years  ago,  without  a  voice  which  can  be  heard  outside  the 
walls  of  the  Colonial  Office.  They  lack  touch  with  centres 
of  progress  in  this  country.  Organisations  have  been  formed 
in  England  to  meet  this  need — the  West  India  Committee, 
the  China  Association,  &c. — but  they  can  only  proceed  by 
way  of  deputation  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  by  periodical 
banquets,  and  by  press  agitation.  Philanthropic  bodies  inter- 
ested in  the  tropics  find  powerful  support — mission  societies, 
anti-liquor,  anti-opium,  the  Aborigines'  Protection,  &c. — ^but 
their  sources  of  information  are  often  very  defective,  and  they 
can  only  proceed  in  the  same  fashion.  It  is  becoming  more 
and  more  an  epoch  of  deputations,  which  waste  much  time, 
and  usually  give  little  satisfaction  to  those  interested. 

'  See  Sir  F.  Swettenham  in  the  'Empire  and  Century,'  p.  889. 
^  See  Mr  Harcourt's  speech  to  liquor  deputation,  August  1911. 


DEPENDENCIES  WITHOUT  A  MEANS   OF  EXPRESSION.      191 

It  may  pertinently  be  asked  whether  the  time  has  not 
come  when  the  Crown  colonies  and  protectorates  may  justly 
demand  some  representation  on  Imperial  Conferences.  They 
all  have  much  the  same  administrative  and  economic  condi- 
tions and  problems.  If  an  administrator  of  proved  experi- 
ence were  nominated  to  represent  them  (preferably  a  member 
of  the  African  Council  if  that  body  is  formed),  and  if  the 
nomination  were  publicly  announced  some  time  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Conference,  and  the  colonies  and  home  inter- 
ests alike  were  encouraged  to  communicate  with  him  as  to 
any  matter  of  sufficient  general  interest  to  be  placed,  with 
the  Secretary  of  State's  concurrence,  on  the  agenda  paper — 
a  representation  would  be  accorded  which  would  do  some- 
thing to  meet  the  present  complaints  of  bureaucracy  and  lack 
of  publicity  in  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  tropical  depend- 
encies. The  party  in  the  State  which  will  reaUse  the  immense 
and  growing  importance  of  the  tropics,^  and  the  influence  they 
will  exert  in  the  progress  of  this  century,  and  the  statesman 
who  will  take  seriously  in  hand  the  problems  of  their  adminis- 
tration and  material  development,  wiU  beyond  doubt  perform 
a  great  work  for  the  Empire. 

That  abler  men  than  myself  have  refraiaed  from  suggesting 
reforms  can,  I  suppose,  only  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that 
in  criticising  systems  they  must  needs  appear,  however  un- 
intentionally, to  criticise  and  offend  the  men  who  administer 
them. 

1  See  'The  Empire  and  the  Century,'  'The  Tropics  and  the  Empire,'  by- 
Lady  Lugard,  pp.  817-826. 


PAKT  II. 

SPECIAL   PROBLEMS. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

METHODS   OP  EUXING  NATIVE  EACES. 

The  principle  of  co-operation — Divergent  methods  of  self-government : 
(a)  Representative  government :  The  new  system  in  India ;  (6)  Com- 
plete independence  the  goal ;  (c)  Dependent  native  rule — The  Fulani 
of  Nigeria — Recognition  of  the  principle  of  rule  through  chiefs — 
Advanced  communities  in  Nigeria — Relations  with  British  staff — 
Revenues  of  native  administrations — Courts  and  jurisdiction — The 
village  unit — Essential  features  of  the  system — Application  to  non- 
Moslem  States — Limitations  to  independence :  (a)  Armed  forces  ; 
(6)  Taxation  ;  (c)  Legislation  ;  (d)  Land  ;  (e)  Control  of  aliens — 
Disposal  of  revenue — Alien  races  as  native  rulers — Education  of 
native  rulers — Misuse  of  the  system — System  must  vary  with  local 
traditions — Administrative  procedure — Siiccession — Extra-territorial 
allegiance. 

If  contimiity  and  decentralisation  are,  as  I  have  said,  the 
first  and  most  important  conditions  in  maintaining  an  effec- 
tive administration,  co-operation  is  the  key-note  of  success 
in  its  application — continuous  co-operation  between  every 
link  in  the  chain,  from  the  head  of  the  administration  to  its 
most  junior  member, — co-operation  between  the  Government 
and  the  commercial  community,  and,  above  all,  between  the 
provincial  staff  and  the  native  rulers.  Every  individual  adds 
his  share  not  only  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  ideal,  but  to 
the  ideal  itself.  Its  principles  are  fashioned  by  his  quota  of 
experience,  its  results  are  achieved  by  his  patient  and  loyal 
application  of  these  principles,  with  as  little  interference  as 
possible  with  native  customs  and  modes  of  thought. 

Principles  do  not  change,  but  their  mode  of  application 
may  and  should  vary  with  the  customs,  the  traditions,  and 

N 


194  METHODS   OF  KITLING  NATIVE  KACES. 

the  prejudices  of  each  unit.  The  task  of  the  administrative 
officer  is  to  clothe  his  principles  ia  the  garb  of  evolution,  not 
of  revolution ;  to  make  it  apparent  alike  to  the  educated  na- 
tive, the  conservative  Moslem,  and  the  primitive  pagan,  each 
in  his  own  degree,  that  the  policy  of  the  Government  is  not 
antagonistic  but  progressives-sympathetic  to  his  aspirations 
and  the  safeguard  of  his  natural  rights.  The  Governor  looks  to 
the  administrative  staff  to  keep  in  touch  with  native  thought 
and  feeling,  and  to  report  fully  to  himself,  in  order  that  he  in 
turn  may  be  able  to  support  them  and  recognise  their  work. 

When  describing  the  machinery  of  Government  in  an 
African  dependency  in  chapter  vi.,  I  spoke  of  the  super- 
vision and  guidance  exercised  by  the  Lieut. -Governor,  the 
Eesidents,  and  the  District  Officers  over  the  native  chiefs. 
In  this  chapter  I  propose  to  discuss  how  those  functions  should 
be  exercised. 

Lord  MiLner's  declaration  that  the  British  policy  is  to 
rule  subject  races  through  their  own  chiefs  is  generally  ap- 
plauded, but  the  manner  in  which  the  principle  should  be 
translated  into  practice  admits  of  wide  differences  of  opinion 
and  method.  Obviously  the  extent  to  which  native  races 
are  capable  of  controlling  their  own  affairs  must  vary  in 
proportion  to  their  degree  of  development  and  progress  in 
social  organisation,  but  this  is  a  question  of  adaptation  and 
not  of  principle.  Broadly  speaking,  the  divergent  opinions 
in  regard  to  the  application  of  the  principle  may  be  found  to 
originate  in  three  different  conceptions. 

The  first  is  that  the  ideal  of  self-government  can  only 
be  realised  by  the  methods  of  evolution  which  have  pro- 
duced the  democracies  of  Europe  and  America — viz.,  by  re- 
presentative institutions  in  which  a  comparatively  small 
educated  class  shall  be  recognised  as  the  natural  spokesmen 
for  the  many.  This  method  is  naturally  in  favour  with  the 
educated  African.  Whether  it  is  adapted  to  peoples  accus- 
tomed by  their  own  institutions  to  autocracy — albeit  modified 
by  a  substantial  expression  of  the  popular  wiU  and  circum- 
scribed by  custom — ^is  naturaUy  a  matter  on  which  opinions 
differ.  The  fundamental  essential,  however,  in  such  a  form 
of  Government  is  that  the  educated  few  shall  at  least  be 
representative  of  the  feelings  and  desires  of  the  many — well 
known  to  them,  speaking  their  language,  and  versed  in  their 
customs  and  prejudices. 


REPKESENTATIVE  GOVEENMENT  IN  INDIA.  195 

In  present  conditions  in  Africa  the  numerous  separate 
tribes,  speaking  different  languages,  and  in  different  stages 
of  evolution,  cannot  produce  representative  men  of  education. 
Even  were  they  available,  the  number  of  communities  which 
could  claim  separate  representation  would  make  any  central 
and  realty  representative  Council  very  unwieldy.  The  au- 
thority vested  in  the  representatives  would  be  antagonistic 
(as  the  Indian  Progressives  reaUse  ^)  to  that  of  the  native 
rulers  and  their  councils, — ^which  are  the  product  of  the  natu- 
ral tendencies  of  tribal  evolution, — and  would  run  counter  to 
the  customs  and  institutions  of  the  people.^ 

An  attempt  to  adapt  these  principles  of  Western  repre- 
sentative Government  to  tropical  races  is  now  being  made  in 
India.  It  is  at  present  an  Eastern  rather  than  an  African 
problem,  but  as  a  great  experiment  in  the  method  of  Govern- 
ment in  tropical  countries,  the  outcome  of  which  "  many 
other  native  races  in  other  parts  of  the  world  are  watching 
with  strained  attention,"  it  demands  at  least  a  passing  refer- 
ence here.  . 

Though  the  powers  entrusted  to  the  elected  representatives 
of  the  people  are  at  first  restricted  under  the  dyarchical 
system  (which  reserves  certaia  subjects  for  the  Central  Au- 
thority), the  principle  of  government  by  an  educated  minority, 
as  opposed  to  government  by  native  rulers,  is  fully  accepted. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  a  considerable  body  of 
well-informed  opinion  in  India  and  England — ^voiced  here 
by  the  India  Association,  Lord  Sydenham  (who  speaks  with 
the  authority  Of  an  ex-Govemor  of  Bombay),  and  others — 
which  expresses  much  misgiving  as  to  the  wisdom  of  placing 
aU  political  power  "  ia  the  hands  of  a  disaffected  minority 
unrepresentative  of  India,"  and  regards  it  as  "  an  attempt  to 
govern  India  by  the  narrowest  of  oligarchies,  whose  interests 
often  conflict  with  those  of  the  millions."  ^ 

The  experiment  has  so  far  shown  much  promise  of  success, 
but  the  real  test  is  not  merely  whether  the  native  coimcillors 

'  "The  extremist  Press,"  says  Sir  Valentine  Chirol,  " has  already  frequently 
denounced  ruling  princes  and  chiefs  as  intolerable  obstacles  to  the  democratic 
evolution  of  '  Swaraj '  "  (Home  Rule). — 'Times,'  10th  February  1921. 

^  See  the  assertion  of  Chief  Ofori  to  this  effect  quoted  on  p.  86.  "We  claim 
and  we  insist,"  say  the  spokesmen  of  tlie  educated  natives,  while  denouncing 
the  present  system,  and  advocating  a  new  policy,  "that  such  a  policy  can  be 
adequately  carried  out  only  by  giving  an  effective  position  in  the  legislatures  to 
ourselves." 

3  '  Times,'  22nd  December  1913.     See>lsoj' Spectator,'  5th  February  1921. 


196         METHODS  OP  RULING  NATIVE  RACES. 

show  moderation  and  restraint  as  against  extremists  of  their 
own  class,  but  whether,  when  legislation  has  to  be  enacted 
which  is  unpopular  with  the  illiterate  masses  and  the  martial 
races  of  India,  there  may  be  a  reluctance  to  accept  what  wiU 
be  called  "  Babu-made  law,"  though  it  would  have  been 
accepted  without  demur  as  the  order  of  "  the  Sirkar  " — the 
British  Eaj. 

It  is,  of  course,  now  too  late  to  adopt  to  any  large  extent 
the  alternative  of  gradually  transforming  the  greater  part 
of  British  India  into  native  States  governed  by  their  own 
hereditary  dynasties,  whose  representatives  in  many  cases 
still  exist,  and  extending  to  them  the  principles  which 
have  so  successfully  guided  our  relations  with  the  native 
States  in  India  itself,  and  in  Malaya  in  the  past.  It 
is  one  thiag  to  excite  an  ignorant  peasantry  against  an 
alien  usurper,  but  quite  another  thing  to  challenge  a  native 
ruler. 

Such  a  system  does  not  exclude  the  educated  native  from 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  State  to  which  he 
belongs,  as  a  councillor  to  the  native  ruler,  but  it  substitutes 
for  direct  British  rule,  not  an  elected  oUgarchy  but  a  form 
of  government  more  ia  accord  with  racial  instincts  and 
inherited  traditions.  It  may  be  that  while  dyarchy  and 
representative  government  may  prove  suitable  to  Bengal, 
and  perhaps  to  some  other  provinces,  the  alternative  system 
may  be  found  to  be  best  adapted  to  Mohamedan  States, 
and  to  other  of  the  warlike  races  of  India,  where  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ancient  dynasties  still  survive.  Time 
alone  wiU  show.  I  shall  recur  to  this  subject  in  the  next 
chapter. 

The  second  conception  is  that  every  advanced  community 
should  be  given  the  widest  possible  powers  of  self-government 
under  its  own  ruler,  and  that  these  powers  should  be  rapidly 
increased  with  the  object  of  complete  independence  at  the 
earliest  possible  date  in  the  not  distant  future.  Those  who 
hold  this  view  generally,  I  think,  also  consider  that  attempts 
to  train  primitive  tribes  in  any  form  of  self-government  are 
futile,  and  the  administration  must  be  wholly  conducted  by 
British  officials.  This  in  the  past  has  been  the  principle 
adopted  in  many  dependencies.  It  recognised  no  alternative 
between  a  status  of  independence,  like  the  Sultans  of  Malaya, 


INDEPENDBNT  AND  DEPENDENT  NATIVE  RULE.    197 

or  the  native  princes  of  India,  and  the  direct  rule  of  the 
district  commissioner. 

But  the  attempt  to  create  such  independent  States  in 
Africa  has  been  full  of  anomalies.  In  the  case  of  Egbaland, 
where  the  status  had  been  formally  recognised  by  treaty, 
the  extent  to  which  the  Crown  had  jurisdiction  was  uncertain, 
yet,  as  we  have  seen,  iaternational  conventions,  including 
even  that  relating  to  the  protection  of  wild  animals,  which 
was  wholly  opposed  to  native  customary  rights,  were  applied 
without  the  consent  of  the  "  Independent  "  State,  and  powers 
quite  incompatible  with  independence  were  exercised  by  the 
Suzerain.^ 

The  paramount  chief  might  receive  ceremonial  visits  from 
time  to  time  from  the  Governor,  and  even  perhaps  be  ad- 
dressed as  "  Your  Eoyal  Highness,"  and  vested  with  titular 
dignity  and  the  tinsel  insignia  of  office.  His  right  to  impose 
tolls  on  trade,  and  to  exact  whatever  oppressive  taxes  he 
chose  from  his  peasantry,  was  admitted,  but  his  authority 
was  subject  to  constant  interference.  The  last-joined  District 
Officer,  or  any  other  official,  might  issue  orders,  if  not  to 
him,  at  any  rate  to  any  of  his  subordinate  chiefs,  and  the 
native  ruler  had  no  legal  and  recognised  means  of  enforc- 
ing his  commands.  He  was  necessarily  forbidden  to  raise 
armed  forces — on  which  in  the  last  resort  the  authority  of  the 
law  must  depend — and  could  not  therefore  maintain  order. 

The  third  conception  is  that  of  rule  by  native  chiefs,  un- 
fettered in  their  control  of  their  people  as  regards  all  those 
matters  which  are  to  them  the  most  important  attributes  of 
rule,  with  scope  for  initiative  and  responsibility,  but  ad- 
mittedly— so  far  as  the  visible  horizon  is  concerned — sub- 
ordinate to  the  control  of  the  protecting  Power  in  certain 
weU-defmed  directions.  It  recognises,  in  the  words  of  the 
Versailles  Treaty,  that  the  subject  races  of  Africa  are  not  yet 
able  to  stand  alone,  and  that  it  would  not  conduce  to  the 
happiness  of  the  vast  bulk  of  the  people — ^for  whose  welfare 
the  controlling  Power  is  trustee — that  the  attempt  should 
be  made. 

The  verdict  of  students  Of  history  and  sociology  of  different 

'  That  one  of  the  stipulations  of  the  Egba  "Treaty  of  Commerce  and  Friend- 
ship "  of  1893  should  be  the  prohibition  of  human  sacrifice,  indicates  that  the 
community  was  hardly  ripe  for  self-government. 


198  METHODS   OF  RULING  NATIVE  RACES. 

nationalities,  such  as  Dr  Kidd,^  Dr  Stoddard,^  M.  Beaulieu,' 
Meredith  Townsend  *  and  others  is,  as  I  have  shown  (p.  82), 
unanimous  that  the  era  of  complete  independence  is  not  as 
yet  visible  on  the  horizon  of  time.  Practical  administrators 
(among  whom  I  may  include  my  succesbor.  Sir  P.  Girouard, 
in  Northern  Mgeria)  have  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion. 

The  danger  of  going  too  fast  with  native  races  is  even 
more  Hkely  to  lead  to  disappointment,  if  not  to  disaster, 
than  the  danger  of  not  going  fast  enough.  The  pace  can  best 
be  gauged  by  those  who  have  intimate  acquaintance  aUte  with 
the  strong  points  and  the  limitations  of  the  native  peoples 
and  rulers  with  whom  they  have  to  deal. 

The  Pulani  of  Northern  Mgeria  are,  as  I  have  said,  more 
capable  of  rule  than  the  indigenous  races,  but  in  proportion 
as  we  consider  them  an  alien  race,  we  are  denying  self-govern- 
ment to  the  people  over  whom  they  rule,  and  supporting  an 
alien  caste — albeit  closer  and  more  akin  to  the  native  races 
than  a  European  can  be.  Yet  capable  as  they  are,  it  requires 
the  ceaseless  vigilance  of  the  British  staff  to  maintain  a 
high  standard  of  administrative  integrity,  and  to  prevent 
oppression  of  the  peasantry.  We  are  dealing  with  the  same 
generation,  and  in  many  cases  with  the  identical  rulers,  who 
were  responsible  for  the  misrule  and  tyranny  which  we  found 
ia  1902.  The  subject  races  near  the  capital  were  then  serfs, 
and  the  victims  of  constant  extortion.  Those  dweUing  at  a 
distance  were  raided  for  slaves,  and  could  not  count  their 
women,  their  cattle,  or  their  crops  their  own.  Punishments 
were  most  barbarous,  and  included  impalement,  mutilation, 

'  Dr  Kidd  writes  :  "  There  never  has  been,  and  never  will  be  within  any  time 
with  which  we  are  practically  concerned,  such  a  thing  as  good  government  in 
the  European  sense  of  the  tropics  by  the  natives  of  these  regions. "  He  describes 
the  collapse  of  prosperity  in  the  West  Indies  and  Guiana  which  followed  the 
false  conception  that  the  British  tropics,  if  given  control  of  their  own  destinies, 
would  develop  into  modern  states — and  points  to  the  gloomy  picture  of  Hayti, 
&o. — '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  pp.  37,  51,  73,  &c. 

^  "Unless  every  lesson  of  history  is  to  be  disregarded,  we  must  conclude  that 
black  Africa  is  unable  to  stand  alone." — '  The  Rising  Tide  of  Colour,'  p.  102. 

'  "Les  noirs  d'Afrique  sont  au  milieu  de  I'humanit^  des  mineurs  qui  pour 
parvenir  k  un  certain  ^tat  de  civilisation  .  .  .  ont  beaoin  d'etre  diriges,  guides, 
gouvem^s  pendant  un  bon  nombre  de  dizaines  d'anndes  par  les  Europ&na.  II 
convient  que  ohaque  nation  qui  a  la  r&ponsibilite  d'une  Colonie  Africaine  puisae 
sur  son  territoire  d'une  absolue  souverainite. " — Beaulieu,  loc.  cit.,  vol.  i.  pp.  361, 
364.     See  note,  p.  82. 

*  "None  of  the  black  races  have  shown  within  historic  times  the  capacity  to 
develop  civilisation. " — 'Asia  in  Europe,' p.  92,  quoted  by  the  American  writer, 
Dr  Stoddart.     He  gives  hia  reasons  at  great  length  for  his  conclusions. 


DEPENDENT  ETILE  THEOUGH  NATIVE  CHIEFS.  199 

and  burying  alive.^  Many  generations  have  passed  since 
British  rule  was  established  among  the  more  intellectual 
people  of  India — ^the  inheritors  of  centuries  of  Eastern  civili- 
sation— yet  only  to-day  are  we  tentatively  seeking  to  confer 
on  them  a  measure  of  self-government.  "  Festina  lente  "  is  a 
motto  which  the  Colonial  Oflace  will  do  well  to  remember  in 
its  dealings  with  Africa. 

That  the  principle  of  ruling  through  the  native  chiefs  is 
adopted  by  the  different  governments  of  British  Tropical 
Africa  can  be  seen  from  recent  local  pronouncements.  The 
Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  in  his  address  to  the  Legislative 
Council  last  December  (1920),  remarks  that  "nine-tenths  of 
the  people  enjoy  autonomy  under  their  own  elected  chiefs 
.  .  .  European  officers  are  the  technical  advisers,  and  helpers 
of  the  tribal  authority."  The  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  on 
a  similar  occasion  observed:  "The  chiefs  are  keenly  appre- 
ciative of  our  policy  of  indirect  rule,  and  of  the  full  powers 
they  retain  under  their  native  institutions."  ^  The  powers 
retained  by  the  Kabaka  of  Uganda  and  his  Council  are  very 
wide  indeed.^ 

'  The  dungeon  at  Kano  is  thus  described  :  "  A  small  doorway  2  ft.  6  in.  by 
18  in.  gives  access  into  it ;  the  interior  is  divided  by  a  thick  mud  wall  (with  a 
similar  hole  in  it)  into  two  compartments,  each  17  ft.  by  7  ft.  and  11  ft.  high. 
This  wall  was  pierced  with  holes  at  its  base,  through  which  the  legs  of  those 
sentenced  to  death  were  thrust  up  to  the  thigh,  and  they  were  left  to  be  trodden 
on  by  the  mass  of  other  prisoners  till  they  died  of  thirst  and  starvation.  The 
place  is  entirely  air-tight  and  unventilated,  except  for  one  small  doorway  or 
rather  hole  in  the  wall  through  which  you  creep.  The  total  space  inside  is  2618 
cub.  ft.,  and  at  the  time  we  took  Kano  135  human  beings  were  confined  here  each 
night,  being  let  out  during  the  day  to  cook  their  food,  &c.,  in  a  small  adjoining 
area.  Recently  as  many  as  200  have  been  interned  at  one  time.  As  the  super- 
ficial ground  area  was  only  238  square  feet,  there  was  not,  of  course,  even  standing 
room.  Victims  were  crushed  to  death  every  night — their  corpses  were  hauled 
out  each  morning.  The  stench,  I  am  told,  inside  the  place  when  Col.  Morland 
visited  it  was  intolerable  though  it  was  empty,  and  when  I  myself  went  inside 
three  weeks  later  the  effluvium  was  unbearable  for  more  than  a  few  seconds.  A 
putrid  corpse  even  then  lay  near  the  doorway." — Northern  Nigeria  Annual 
Report,   1902,  p.  29. 

^  Captain  Armitage  says  of  the  northern  territories  :  "  The  powers  of  the  chiefs 
had  largely  lapsed,  and  it  was  the  custom  to  put,  one  might  almost  say,  the 
village  idiot  on  the  stool.  Our  policy  has  been  to  re-establish  the  powers  of 
several  big  chiefs,  and  it  has  been  a  remarkable  success. " 

'  Before  Uganda  had  been  declared  a  British  protectorate,  and  control  assumed 
by  the  British  Government,  I  wrote  (in  1898) :  "  The  object  to  be  aimed  at  in  the 
administration  of  this  country  is  to  rule  through  its  own  executive  government 
.  .  .  the  Resident  should  rule  through  and  by  the  chiefs." — 'The  Rise  of  our 
East  African  Empire,'  vol.  i.  pp.  649,  651. 

Uganda  proper  is  divided  into  Sazas,  each  of  which  has  a  ZuJciho,  which 
assembles  weekly  and  deals  with  minor  cases.  They  are  inspected  by  the  district 
officers,  and  report  to  the  Central  Lukiko  at  the  capital.    This  consists  of  some 


200  METHODS  OP  EtTLING  NATIVE  EAOES. 

The  system  adopted  in  Nigeria  is  therefore  only  a  par- 
ticular method  of  the  application  of  these  principles — more 
especially  as  regards  "  advanced  commimities," — and  since  I 
am  familiar  with  it  I  vidll  use  it  as  illustrative  of  the  methods 
which  in  my  opinion  should  characterise  the  dealings  of  the 
controlling  power  with  subject  races. 

The  object  in  view  is  to  make  each  "  Emir  "  or  paramoimt 
chief,  assisted  by  his  judicial  CouncU,  an  effective  ruler  over 
his  own  people.  He  presides  over  a  "  Native  Administration  " 
organised  throughout  as  a  unit  of  local  government.  The 
area  over  which  he  exercises  jurisdiction  is  divided  into 
districts  under  the  control  of  "  Headmen,"  who  collect  the 
taxes  in  the  name  of  the  ruler,  and  pay  them  into  the  "  Native 
Treasury,"  conducted  by  a  native  treasurer  and  staff  under 
the  supervision  of  the  chief  at  his  capital.  Here,  too,  is  the 
prison  for  native  court  prisoners,  and  probably  the  school, 
which  I  shaU  describe  more  fully  in  the  chapter  on  education. 
Large  cities  are  divided  into  wards  for  purposes  of  control 
and  taxation. 

The  district  headman,  usually  a  territorial  magnate  with 
local  connections,  is  the  chief  executive  officer  in  the  area 
under  his  charge.  He  controls  the  village  headmen,  and 
is  responsible  for  the  assessment  of  the  tax,  which  he  collects 
through  their  agency.  He  must  reside  in  his  district  and 
not  at  the  capital.  He  is  not  aKowed  to  pose  as  a  chief  with 
a  retinue  of  his  own  and  dupUcate  officials,  and  is  simamoned 
from  time  to  time  to  report  to  his  chief.  If,  as  is  the  case  with 
some  of  the  ancient  Emirates,  the  community  is  a  small 
one  but  independent  of  any  other  native  rule,  the  chief  may 
be  his  own  district  headman. 

A  province  under  a  Eesident  may  contain  several  separate 
"  Native  Administrations,"  whether  they  be  Moslem  Emirates 
or  pagan  communities.  A  "  division  "  under  a  British  District 
Officer  may  include  one  or  more  headmen's  districts,  or 
more  than  one  small  Emirate  or  independent  ^  pagan  tribe,  but 

forty  Saza  chiefs  presided  over  by  the  Kabaka  with  his  Katikiro  and  other 
ministers.  The  native  administration  has  20  per  cent  of  the  native  tax — about 
£16,000.  The  system,  says  the  Governor,  "is  an  excellent  example  of  the  beet 
results  of  indirect  rule." — '  United  Empire,'  June  1920,  p.  395. 

Sir  H.  Low  and  Sir  F.  Swettenham  testify  from  their  experience  in  Malaya 
that  "the  only  way  to  deal  with  the  people  is  through  their  recognised  chiefs  and 
headmen." 

'  By  the  term  "independent"  in  this  connection  is  meant  "independent  of 
other  native  control." 


RELATIONS  OF  NATIVE  EXJLEE  AND  BEITISH  STAFF.     201 

as  a  rale  no  Emirate  is  partly  in  one  division  and  partly 
in  another.  The  Eesident  acts  as  sympathetic  adviser  and 
counsellor  to  the  native  chief,  being  carefid  not  to  interfere 
so  as  to  lower  his  prestige,  or  cause  him  to  lose  interest  in 
his  work.  His  advice  on  matters  of  general  policy  must  be 
followed,  but  the  native  ruler  issues  his  own  instructions  to 
his  subordinate  chiefs  and  district  heads — ^not  as  the  orders 
of  the  Eesident  but  as  his  own, — and  he  is  encouraged  to  work 
through  them,  instead  of  centralising  everything  in  himself 
— a  system  which  in  the  past  had  produced  such  great  abuses. 
The  British  District  Officers  supervise  and  assist  the  native 
district  headmen,  through  whom  they  convey  any  instruc- 
tions to  village  heads,  and  make  any  arrangements  necessary 
for  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  Government  departments, 
but  all  important  orders  emanate  from  the  Emir,  whose 
messenger  usually  accompanies  and  acts  as  mouthpiece  of  a 
District  Officer. 

The  tax — ^which  supersedes  all  former  "  tribute,"  irregular 
imposts,  and  forced  labour — ^is,  in  a  sense,  the  basis  of  the 
whole  system,  since  it  supplies  the  means  to  pay  the  Emir 
and  all  his  officials.  The  district  and  village  heads  are  effec- 
tively supervised  and  assisted  in  its  assessment  by  the  British 
staff.  The  native  treasury  retains  the  proportion  assigned 
to  it  (in  advanced  communities  a  half),  and  pays  the  remainder 
into  Colonial  Eevenue. 

There  are  fifty  such  treasuries  in  the  northern  provinces 
of  Nigeria,  and  every  independent  chief,  however  small,  is 
encouraged  to  have  his  own.  The  appropriation  by  the  native 
administration  of  market  dues,  slaughter-house  fees,  forest 
licences,  &c.,  is  authorised  by  ordinance,  and  the  native 
administration  receives  also  the  fines  and  fees  of  native 
courts.  From  these  fimds  are  paid  the  salaries  of  the  Emir 
and  his  council,  the  native  court  judges,  the  district  and 
village  heads,  police,  prison  warders,  and  other  employees. 
The  surplus  is  devoted  to  the  construction  and  maintenance 
of  dispensaries,  leper  settlements,  schools,  roads,  court- 
houses, and  other  buildings.  Such  works  may  be  carried  out 
wholly  or  in  part  by  a  Government,  department,  if  the  native 
administration  requires  technical  assistance,  the  cost  being 
borne  by  the  native  treasury. 

The  native  treasurer  keeps  all  accounts  of  receipts  and 
expenditure,  and  the  Emir,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Eesident, 


202  METHODS  OF  KTJLING  NATIVE  KACES. 

annually  prepares  a  budget,  which  is  formally  approved  by 
the  Lieut.-Governor. 

In  these  advanced  communities  the  judges  of  the  native 
courts — ^which  I  shall  describe  in  a  later  chapter — administer 
native  law  and  custom,  and  exercise  their  jurisdiction  inde- 
pendently of  the  native  executive,  but  rmder  the  supervision 
of  the  British  staff,  and  subject  to  the  general  control  of  the 
Emir,  whose  "  Judicial  Council  "  consists  of  his  principal 
oflftcers  of  State,  and  is  vested  with  executive  as  well  as 
judicial  powers.  ISTo  punishment  may  be  inflicted  by  a  native 
authority,  except  through  a  regular  tribimal.  The  ordinances 
of  government  are  operative  everywhere,  but  the  native 
authority  may  make  by-laws  in  modification  of  native  cus- 
tom— e.g.,  on  matters  of  sanitation,  &c.,-^and  these,  when 
approved  by  the  Governor,  are  enforced  by  the  native  courts. 

The  authority  of  the  Emir  over  his  own  people  is  absolute, 
and  the  profession  of  an  aUen  creed  does  not  absolve  a  native 
from  the  obUgation  to  obey  his  lawful  orders  ;  but  aliens — 
other  than  natives  domiciled  in  the  Emirate  and  accepting 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  native  authority  and  courts — are  under 
the  direct  control  of  the  British  staff.  Townships  are  excluded 
from  the  native  jurisdiction. 

The  village  is  the  administrative  unit.  It  is  not  always 
easy  to  define,  since  the  security  to  life  and  property  which 
has  followed  the  British  administration  has  caused  an  exodus 
from  the  cities  and  large  villages,  and  the  creation  of  in- 
numerable hamlets,  sometimes  only  of  one  or  two  huts,  on 
the  agricultural  lands.  The  peasantry  of  the  advanced  com- 
munities, though  ignorant,  yet  differs  from  that  of  the  back- 
ward tribes  in  that  they  recognise  the  authority  of  the  Emir, 
and  are  more  ready  to  listen  to  the  village  head  and  the 
Council  of  Elders.  "The  development  of  self-government 
in  India,"  says  Lord  Sydenham,  "  should  begin  with  the 
Panchayet "  (Village  Council).^  This  is  the  base  and  unit 
of  the  Nigerian  system. 

Subject,  therefore,  to  the  limitations  which  I  shall  pres- 

'  '  Times,'  10th  August  1917.  The  Indian  Commission  of  1912  reported  in  favour 
of  re-establishing  the  Panchayet,  which  previous  reforms  had  tended  to  destroy. 
They  are  created  in  response  to  a  demand  for  greater  participation  in  the  control 
of  their  own  affairs,  and  are  supported  by  voluntary  taxation  alone. — ('Times,' 
19/12/1917.)  In  Egypt  the  "Omdehs"  of  the  villages  were  Government  officials 
wilose  qualification  was  ownership  of  ten  acres  of  land.  The  system  inevitably  led 
to  great  abuse  and  tyranny. — (Sir  V.  Chirol,  'Times,'  1/1/20. )J 


POWERS  EXERCISED   BY  NATIVE  RULER.  203 

ently  discuss,  the  native  authority  is  thus  de  facto  and  de  jure 
ruler  over  his  own  people.  He  appoints  and  dismisses  his 
subordinate  chiefs  and  officials.  He  exercises  the  power  of 
allocation  of  lands,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  native  courts,  of 
adjudication  ia  land  disputes  and  expropriation  for  offences 
against  the  community,  these  are  the  essential  functions  upon 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  West  African  Lands  Committee, 
the  prestige  of  the  native  authority  depends.  The  lawful 
orders  which  he  may  give  are  carefully  defined  by  ordinance, 
and  in  the  last  resort  are  enforced  by  Government. 

Since  native  authority,  especially  if  exercised  by  alien 
conquerors,  is  inevitably  weakened  by  the  first  impact  of 
civilised  rule,  it  is  made  clear  to  the  elements  of  disorder, 
who  regard  force  as  conferring  the  only  right  to  demand 
obedience,  that  government,  by  the  use  of  force  if  necessary, 
intends  to  support  the  native  chief.  To  enable  him  to  main- 
tain order  he  employs  a  body  of  unarmed  police,  and  if  the 
occasion  demands  the  display  of  superior  force  he  looks  to 
the  Government — as,  for  instance,  if  a  community  combines 
to  break  the  law  or  shield  criminals  from  justice, — a  rare 
event  in  the  advanced  communities. 

The  native  ruler  derives  his  power  from  the  Suzerain,  and 
is  responsible  that  it  is  not  misused.  He  is  equally  with 
British  officers  amenable  to  the  law,  but  his  authority  does 
not  depend  on  the  caprice  of  an  executive  officer.  To  iutrigue 
against  him  is  an  offence  punishable,  if  necessary,  in  a  Pro- 
Aoncial  Court.  Thus  both  British  and  native  courts  are  in- 
voked to  uphold  his  authority. 

The  essential  feature  of  the  system  (as  I  wrote  at  the  time 
of  its  inauguration)  is  that  the  native  chiefs  are  constituted 
"as  an  integral  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  administration. 
There  are  not  two  sets  of  rulers — ^British  and  native — ^working 
either  separately  or  in  co-operation,  but  a  single  Government 
in  which  the  native  chiefs  have  weU-defined  duties  and  an 
acknowledged  status  equally  with  British  officials.  Their 
duties  should  never  conflict,  and  should  overlap  as  Httle  as 
possible.  They  should  be  complementary  to  each  other,  and 
the  chief  himself  must  imderstand  that  he  has  no  right  to 
place  and  power  unless  he  renders  his  proper  services  to  the 
State." 

The  ruling  classes  are  no  longer  either  demi-gods,  or  para- 
sites preying  on  the  community.     They  must  work  for  the 


204  METHODS  OP  RULING  NATIVE  RACES. 

stipends  and  position  they  enjoy.  They  are  the  trusted 
delegates  of  the  Governor,  exercising  in  the  Moslem  States 
the  well-understood  powers  of  "  Wakils  "  in  conformity  with 
their  own  Islamic  system,  and  recognisiug  the  King's  repre- 
sentative as  their  acknowledged  Suzerain. 

There  is  here  no  need  of  "  Dyarchy,"  for  the  lines  of  de- 
velopment of  the  native  administration  run  parallel  to,  and 
do  not  intersect,  those  of  the  Central  Government.  It  is 
the  consistent  aim  of  the  British  staff  to  maintain  and  in- 
crease the  prestige  of  the  native  ruler,  to  encourage  his  in- 
itiative, and  to  support  his  authority.  That  the  chiefs  are 
satisfied  with  the  autonomy  they  enjoy  in  the  matters  which 
reaUy  interest  and  concern  them,  may  be  judged  by  their 
loyalty  and  the  prosperity  of  their  country. 

Comparatively  little  difficulty,  it  may  be  said,  would  be 
experienced  in  the  appUcation  of  such  a  system  to  Moslem 
States,  for  even  if  their  rulers  had  deteriorated,  they  stiU 
profess  the  standards  of  Islam,  with  its  system  of  taxation, 
and  they  possess  a  literate  class  capable  of  discharging  the 
duties  I  have  described.  No  doubt  the  alien  immigrants  in 
the  northern  tropical  belt  afford  better  material  for  social 
organisation,  both  racially  and  through  the  influence  of  their 
creed,  than  the  advanced  communities  of  negro  stock  which 
owe  nothing  to  Islam,  such  as  the  Baganda,  the  Ashantis, 
the  Yorubas,  the  Benis,  and  others.  But  the  self-evolved 
progress  in  social  organisation  of  these  latter  communities 
is  in  itself  evidence  that  they  possessed  exceptional  intelli- 
gence, probably  more  widely  diffused  among  the  peasantry 
than  would  be  foimd  among  those  over  whom  an  alien  race 
had  acquired  domination.  They  too  had  evolved  systems  of 
taxation  and  of  land  tenure,  and  had  learnt  to  delegate 
authority.  The  teaching  of  missions  through  many  decades 
had  in  most  cases  produced  a  class  who,  if  their  energies  were 
rightly  directed  to  the  service  of  their  communities  instead 
of  seeking  foreign  outlets,  would  form  a  very  valuable  aid  in 
the  building  up  of  a  "  Native  Administration."  That  these 
communities  are  fuUy  capable  of  adopting  such  a  system  has 
been  proved  in  recent  years  in  South  Mgeria. 

They  have  not  produced  so  definite  a  code  of  law,  or  such 
advanced  methods  of  dispensing  justice,  as  the  Koran  has 
introduced,  and  they  lack  the  indigenous  educational  advan- 
tages which  the  use  of  Arabic  and  the  rehgious  schools  have 


LIMITATIONS  TO  POWERS  OP  NATIVE  RTJLEES.  205 

conferred  on  the  Moslem.  On  the  other  hand,  many — 
especially  the  Baganda  —  have  benefited  greatly  by  the 
Christian  schools,  and  a  wider  range  of  knowledge,  including 
English.  Some  of  their  chiefs — ^notably  Khama  of  Bechnana, 
and  several  of  those  in  Uganda — ^have  been  remarkable  men. 
Among  many  of  these  commmiities  the  chiefs  exercise  an  influ- 
ence different  in  its  nature  from  that  accorded  to  an  alien 
ruler,  and  based  on  superstitious  veneration. 

The  limitations  to  independence  which  are  frankly  in- 
herent in  this  conception  of  native  rule — ^not  as  temporary 
restraints  to  be  removed  as  soon  as  may  be,  but  as  powers 
which  rightly  belong  to  the  controlling  Power  as  trustee  for 
the  welfare  of  the  masses,  and  as  being  responsible  for  the 
defence  of  the  country  and  the  cost  of  its  central  administra- 
tion— are  such  as  do  not  involve  interference  with  the  authority 
of  the  chiefs  or  the  social  organisation  of  the  people.  They 
have  been  accepted  by  the  Fulani  Emirs  as  natural  and 
proper  to  the  controUing  power,  and  their  reservation  in  the 
hands  of  the  Governor  has  never  interfered  with  the  loyalty 
of  the  ruling  chiefs,  or,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  been  resented 
by  them.    The  limitations  are  as  follows  : — 

(1)  Native  rulers  are  not  permitted  to  raise  and  control 
armed  forces,  or  to  grant  permission  to  carry  arms.  To  this 
tu  principle  Great  Britain  stands  pledged  under  the  Brussels 
Act.  The  evils  which  result  in  Africa  from  an  armed  popula- 
tion were  evident  in  Uganda  before  it  fell  under  British  control, 
and  are  very  evident  in  Abyssinia  to-day.  No  one  with  ex- 
perience will  deny  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  strictest 
military  discipline  over  armed  forces  or  police  in  Africa  if 
misuse  of  power  is  to  be  avoided,  and  they  are  not  to  become 
a  menace  and  a  terror  to  the  native  population  and  a  danger 
in  case  of  religious  excitement — a  discipline  which  an  African 
ruler  is  incapable  of  appreciating  or  applying.  For  this 
reason  native  levies  should  never  be  employed  in  substitution 
for  or  in  aid  of  troops.^    (See  p.  576.) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  armed  police  are  never 
quartered  in  native  towns,  where  their  presence  would  inter- 
fere with  the  authority  of  the  chiefs.    Like  the  regular  troops, 

'  This  rule  does  not  seem  to  have  been  enforced  in  Kenya.  "  Administrative 
chiefs,  in  order  to  assert  and  maintain  their  authority,  have  found  it  necessary  to 
form  bands  of  armed  retainers,  to  whom  they  accord  special  privileges  which  are 
found  to  be  oppressive." — Official  Handbook  1216,  p.  243. 


206  METHODS   OF  ETILrNG  NATIVE  RACES. 

they  are  employed  as  escorts  and  on  duty  in  the  townships. 
The  native  administration  maintain  a  police,  who  wear  a 
imiform  but  do  not  carry  firearms. 

(2)  The  sole  right  to  impose  taxation  in  any  form  is  reserved 
to  the  Suzerain,  power.  This  fulfils  ths  bUateral  understand- 
ing that  the  peasantry — ^provided  they  pay  the  authorised 
tax  (the  adjustment  of  which  to  all  classes  of  the  population 
is  a  responsibihty  which  rests  with  the  Central  Government) 
— should  be  free  of  aU  other  exactions  whatsoever  (including 
Tmpaid  labour),  while  a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  tax  is 
assigned  to  the  native  treasuries  to  meet  the  expenditure  of 
the  native  administration.  Special  sanction  by  ordinance — 
or  "rule"  approved  by  the  Governor — ^is  therefore  required 
to  enable  the  native  authority  to  levy  any  special  dues,  &c. 

(3)  The  right  to  legislate  is  reserved.  That  this  should  re- 
main in  the  hands  of  the  Central  Government — ^itself  limited 
by  the  control  of  the  Colonial  Office,  as  I  have  described — 
cannot  be  questioned.  The  native  authority,  however,  exer- 
cises very  considerable  power  in  this  regard.  A  native  ruler, 
and  the  native  courts,  are  empowered  to  enforce  native  law 
and  custom,  provided  it  is  not  repugnant  to  humanity,  or 
ia  opposition  to  any  ordinance.  This  practically  meets  all 
needs,  but  the  native  authority  may  also  make  rules  on 
any  subject,  provided  they  are  approved  by  the  Governor. 
(See  chapter  xxvui.) 

(4)  The  right  to  appropriate  land  on  equitable  terms  for 
public  purposes  and  for  commercial  requirements  is  vested  in 
the  Governor.  In  the  Northern  Provinces  of  Mgeria  (but  not 
in  the  South)  the  right  of  disposing  of  native  lands  is  reserved 
to  the  Governor  by  ordinance.  In  practice  this  does  not 
interfere  with  the  power  of  the  native  ruler  (as  the  delegate - 
of  the  Governor)  to  assign  lands  to  the  natives  under  his 
rule,  in  accordance  with  native  law  and  custom,  or  restrict 
him  or  the  native  courts  from  adjudicating  between  natives 
regarding  occupancy  rights  in  land.  No  rents  are  levied  on 
lands  in  occupation  by  indigenous  natives.  Leases  to  aliens 
are  granted  by  the  Central  Government.  (See  chapters  xiv. 
and  XV.) 

If  the  pressure  of  population  in  one  commimity  makes  it 
necessary  to  assign  to  it  a  portion  of  the  land  belonging  to 
a  neighbour  with  a  small  and  decreasing  population,  the 
Governor  (to  whom  appeal  may  be  made)  would  decide  the 


REVENUES  OF  A   "  NATIVE  ADMINISTEATION. "  207 

matter.    These  reservations  were  set  out  in  the  formal  letter 
of  appointment  given  to  each  chief  in  Northern  IsTigeria. 

(5)  In  order  to  maintaia  intact  the  control  of  the  Central 
Government  over  aU  aUens,  and  to  avoid  friction  and  diffi- 
culties, it  has  been  the  recognised  rule  that  the  employees 
of  the  native  administration  should  consist  entirely  of  natives 
subject  to  the  native  authority.  If  aliens  are  required  for 
any  skilled  work  by  the  native  administration,  Government 
servants  may  be  employed  and  their  salaries  reimbursed  by 
the  native  treasury.  For  a  like  reason,  whenever  possible, 
all  non-natives  and  natives  not  subject  to  the  local  native 
jurisdiction  live  in  the  "  township,"  from  which  natives  sub- 
ject to  the  native  administration  are  as  far  as  possible  ex- 
cluded. This  exclusive  control  of  aUens  by  the  Central  Gov- 
ernment partakes  rather  of  the  nature  of  "  extra-territorial 
jurisdiction  "  than  of  dualism. 

(6)  PiuaUy,  ia  the  interests  of  good  government,  the  right  of 
confirming  or  otherwise  the  choice  of  the  people  of  the  suc- 
cessor to  a  chiefship,  and  of  deposing  any  ruler  for  misrule 
or  other  adequate  cause,  is  reserved  to  the  Governor. 

The  revenue  of  a  native  administration  consists,  as  I  have 
said,  not  of  an  arbitrary  sum  assigned  to  it  by  the  Governor, 
but  of  a  fixed  proportion  of  the  statutory  tax  collected  by 
its  agency,  together  with  the  fines  and  fees  from  native  courts, 
market  dues,  and  similar  receipts  assigned  by  the  Governor. 
Thus,  though  the  Suzerain  power  imposes  the  taxes  (whether 
direct  in  the  form  of  an  income  tax  or  indirect  as  customs 
dues,  &c.),  and  the  general  rate  of  the  former  is  fixed  by  the 
Governor,  the  actual  assessment  is  in  the  hands  of  the  native 
ruler  and  his  representatives — the  district  and  village  heads 
— guided  and  assisted  by  the  British  staff.  It  therefore  ap- 
pears to  the  taxpayer  as  a  tax  imposed  by  his  own  native 
ruler,  though  he  knows  that  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  District 
Officer  wHl  see  that  no  unauthorised  exactions  are  made, 
and  that  any  injustice  will  be  remedied.  Since  the  salaries 
of  the  ruler  and  the  officials  of  the  "  ]l>)"ative  Administration  " 
are  paid  out  of  their  own  native  treasury  funds,  they  cannot 
be  regarded  by  him  as  officials  paid  by  Government. 

The  proportion  assigned  to  the  native  administration  in 
advanced  communities  is  a  half  of  the  general  income  and 
cattle  tax, — the  proportion  is  less  in  pagan  communities. 
On  the  inauguration  of  the  tax  in  Nigeria  the  proceeds  were 


208  METHODS  OF  EUXING  NATIVE  EACES. 

quite  insufi&cient  to  meet  even  the  necessary  salaries  of  chiefs  ; 
but  with  improved  assessment,  a  more  honest  collection,  and 
increased  prosperity,  the  sum,  without  additional  burden,  has 
become  so  large  that  in  the  more  wealthy  Emirates  there  is  a 
considerable  surplus,  when  all  the  salaries  of  the  very  largely- 
increased  establishments  of  native  oflBcials,  police  and  prison 
staff,  &c.,  have  been  paid.^  From  these  fimds  native  court- 
houses, treasuries,  schools,  and  prisons  for  native  court 
prisoners  have  been  built,  and  the  balance,  invested  in  a 
reserve  fimd,  totalled  in  1919  £486,654,  exclusive  of  the  large 
sums  voted  by  the  Emirs  towards  the  cost  of  the  war.  These 
reserve  funds — originally  created  to  meet  any  emergency, 
such  as  famine  or  cattle  disease,  when  Northern  Nigeria 
had  no  colonial  reserve,  and  was  dependent  on  a  grant-in-aid 
— are  now  available  for  public  works  of  benefit  to  the  people.* 

The  revenues  of  the  native  administrations  do  not  appear 
in  the  colonial  budget  of  revenue  and  expenditure,  and  are 
independent  of  colonial  treasury  or  audit  control.  The  proper 
expenditure  of  these  large  sums — obtained  by  taxes  imposed 
and  enforced  by  the  Suzerain  Power — ^must  obviously  depend 
in  part  on  the  ability  of  each  native  ruler,  and  in  part  on 
the  Eesident  who  advises  him.  "  Unfettered  control  "  may 
in  some  cases  mean  that  a  Eesident,  and  not  the  ruling  chief, 
disposes  of  large  revenues  independent  of  the  Lieut. -Governor  ; 
in  other  cases  it  may  mean  a  tendency  to  multiply  ofiBces 
and  pay  high  salaries,  which  either  overburden  the  finances 
of  other  less  wealthy  treasuries,  or  cause  discontent  among 
its  employees,  and  ultimately  enhance  the  cost  of  labour 
throughout  the  country — a  result  which  is  inimical  to  pro- 
duction and  progress,  unless  necessitated  by  economic  causes. 
It  is  a  tendency  which  a  Eesident,  however  much  he  has 
identified  himself  in  the  interests  of  the  native  administration, 
may  not  find  it  easy  to  resist,  though  he  sets  his  face  against 
nepotism  and  the  reckless  exercise  of  patronage  and  display 
— ^which  are  so  apt  to  be  regarded  as  the  symbol  of  power  by 
a  native  ruler. 

Pending  the  growth  of  a  fuller  sense  of  public  responsi- 
bility and  of  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  some  check  may 

1  The  aggregate  revenues  at  the  disposal  of  the  native  administrations  increased 
from  £28,500  in  1906-1907  to  £536,000  in  1919. 

^  A  piped  water-supply  from  a  distant  reservoir  to  Kano  city  was  projected, 
but  the  undertaking  was  delayed  by  the  war. 


ALIEN  NATIVE  RACES  AS  RULEES.  209 

be  afforded  by  the  preparation  of  animal  estimates  of  revenue 
and  expenditure  in  a  very  simple  form.  These  should  require 
the  approval  of  the  Governor  (or  of  the  Lieut.-Govemor),  as 
the  colonial  estimates  require  that  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
and  any  subsequent  alteration  should  require  the  like  sanction. 
While  refraining  as  far  as  possible  from  interference  in  detail, 
the  Lieut.-Govemor  can,  by  suggestion  and  comparison, 
effect  some  co-ordination  and  imiformity  where  desirable, 
and  can  best  discriminate  between  the  scope  which  may  be 
allowed  to  an  individual,  and  the  grant  of  extended  powers 
of  universal  application.^ 

The  habits  of  a  people  are  not  changed  in  a  decade,  and 
when  powerful  despots  are  deprived  of  the  pastime  of  war  and 
slave-raiding,  and  when  even  the  weak  begin  to  forget  their 
former  sufferings,  to  grow  weary  of  a  life  without  excitement, 
and  to  resent  the  petty  restrictions  which  have  replaced  the 
cruelties  of  the  old  despotism,  it  must  be  the  aim  of  Govern- 
ment to  provide  new  interests  and  rivalries  in  civilised  pro- 
gress, in  education,  in  material  prosperity  and  trade,  and 
even  in  sport. ^ 

There  were  indeed  many  who,  with  the  picture  of  Pulani 
misrule  fresh  in  their  memory,  regarded  this  system  when  it 
was  first  inaugurated  with  much  misgiving,  and  believed  that 
though  the  hostility  of  the  rulers  to  the  British  might  be 
concealed,  and  their  vices  disguised,  neither  could  be  eradi- 
cated, and  they  would  always  remain  hostile  at  heart.  They 
thought  that  the  Fulani  as  an  alien  race  of  conquerors,  who 
had  in  turn  been  conquered,  had  not  the  same  claims  for 
consideration  as  those  whom  they  had  displaced,  even  though 

'  Some  difference  between  the  Colonial  Office  and  local  opinion  arose  in  con- 
nection with  these  funds.  The  Secretary  of  State  directed  that  they  should  only 
be  used  for  works  which  the  Government  would  not  otherwise  have  undertaken, 
and  refused  contributions  made  to  the  cost  of  the  war — limitations  which  seemed 
to  hamper  the  utility  of  the  projects  undertaken,  and  to  fetter  the  discretion 
&nd  wound  the  susceptibilities  of  the  chiefs  and  their  councils.  Opinions  also 
differed  as  to  the  extent  of  the  control  over  these  large  sums  which  should  in  the 
present  stage  of  evolution  be  exercised  by  the  Governor,  and  as  to  the  desirability 
of  some  special  accounting  and  audit  staff,  without  unnecessary  interference 
or  time- wasting  "red-tape."  These,  however,  were  not  matters  of  vital  im- 
portance. The  principle  at  issue  was  that  of  dependent  rule  as  opposed  to 
independence,  and  perhaps  the  local  opinion,  in  its  insistence  on  the  advisability 
of  the  former,  was  betrayed  into  too  narrow  a  view  in  regard  to  financial 
control. 

^  As  Professor  Elliott-Smith  has  justly  observed,  a  people  becomes  decadent, 
and  population  decreases,  not  so  much  from  war  or  disease  as  from  lack  of 
interests  in  life. 


210  METHODS  OP  EULING  NATIVE  EACES. 

they  had  become  so  identified  with  the  people  that  they  could 
no  longer  be  called  ahens. 

But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  races  form  an  in- 
valuable medium  between  the  British  staff  and  the  native 
peasantry.  Nor  can  the  difficulty  of  finding  any  one  capable 
of  taking  their  place,  or  the  danger  they  would  constitute  to 
the  State  if  ousted  from  their  positions,  be  ignored.  Their 
traditions  of  rule,  their  monotheistic  reUgion,  and  their  in- 
telligence enable  them  to  appreciate  more  readily  than  the 
negro  population  the  wider  objects  of  British  pohcy  (see 
p.  220),  while  their  close  touch  with  the  masses — ^with  whom 
they  Hve  in  daily  intercourse — ^mark  them  out  as  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  future,  as  they  have  done 
in  the  past,  in  the  development  of  the  tropics. 

Both  the  Arabs  in  the  east  and  the  Fulani  in  the  west 
are  Mohamedans,  and  by  supporting  their  rule  we  unavoidably 
encourage  the  spread  of  Islam,  which  from  the  purely  ad- 
ministrative point  of  view  has  the  disadvantage  of  being 
subject  to  waves  of  fanaticism,  bounded  by  no  pohtical 
frontiers.  In  Mgeria  it  has  been  the  rule  that  their  power 
should  not  be  re-estabhshed  over  tribes  which  had  made 
good  their  independence,  or  imposed  upon  those  who  had 
successfully  resisted  domiuation. 

On  tbe  other  hand,  the  personal  interests  of  the  rulers 
must  rapidly  become  identified  with  those  of  the  controlling 
Power.  The  forces  of  disorder  do  not  distinguish  between 
them,  and  the  rulers  soon  recognise  that  any  upheaval  against 
the  British  would  equally  make  an  end  of  them.  Once  this 
community  of  interest  is  estabHshed,  the  Central  Govern- 
ment cannot  be  taken  by  surprise,  for  it  is  impossible  that 
the  native  rulers  should  not  be  aware  of  any  disaffection.^ 

This  identification  of  the  ruling  class  with  the  Govern- 
ment accentuates  the  corresponding  obUgation  to  check  mal- 
practices on  their  part.  The  task  of  educating  them  in  the 
duties  of  a  ruler  becomes  more  than  ever  insistent ;  of  in- 
culcating a  sense  of  responsibihty ;  of  convincing  their  in- 
teUigence  of  the  advantages  which  accrue  from  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  peasantry,  from  free  labour  and  initiative ; 

^  Soon  after  the  establishment  of  British  rule  in  Northern  Nigeria  more  than 
one  "Mahdi"  arose,  and  obtained  a  fanatical  following,  but  in  every  case  the 
Fulani  Emir  actively  assisted  in  suppressing  the  disturbance.  In  the  Sudan 
thirteen  Mahdis  arose  between  1901  and  1916.— F.O.  Handbook  98,  p.  43.  The 
Germans  in  East  Africa,  in  order  to  check  the  spread  of  Islam,  encouraged  pig- 
breeding.— Cmd.  1428/1921,  p.  30. 


SYSTEM  MUST  BE  ADAPTED  TO  LOCAL  TRADITIONS.      211 

of  the  necessity  of  delegating  powers  to  trusted  subordinates  ; 
of  the  evils  of  favouritism  and  bribery ;  of  the  importance 
of  education,  especially  for  the  ruling  class,  and  for  the  filling 
of  lucrative  posts  under  Government ;  of  the  benefits  of 
sanitation,  vaccination,  and  isolation  of  infection  in  checking 
mortality  ;  and  finally,  of  impressing  upon  them  how  greatly 
they  may  benefit  their  country  by  personal  interest  in  such 
matters,  and  by  the  application  of  labour-saving  devices  and 
of  scientific  methods  in  agriculture. 

Unintentional  misuse  of  the  system  of  native  administration 
must  also  be  guarded  against.  It  is  not,  for  instance,  the 
duty  of  a  native  administration  to  purchase  supplies  for 
native  troops,  or  to  enlist  and  pay  labour  for  public  works, 
though  its  agency  within  carefully  defined  limits  may  be 
useful  in  making  known  Government  requirements,  and  see- 
ing that  markets  are  well  supphed.  Nor  should  it  be  directed 
to  collect  licences,  fees,  and  rents  due  to  Government,  nor 
should  its  funds  be  used  for  any  purpose  not  solely  connected 
with  and  prompted  by  its  own  needs. 

I  have  throughout  these  pages  continually  emphasised 
the  necessity  of  recognising,  as  a  cardinal  principle  of  British 
pohcy  in  dealing  with  native  races,  that  institutions  and 
methods,  in  order  to  command  success  and  promote  the 
happiness  and  welfare  of  the  people,  must  be  deep-rooted  in 
their  traditions  and  prejudices.  Obviously  in  no  sphere  of 
administration  is  this  more  essential  than  in  that  under  dis- 
cussion, and  a  slavish  adherence  to  any  particular  type,  how- 
ever successful  it  may  have  proved  elsewhere,  may,  if  im- 
adapted  to  the  local  environment,  be  as  ill-suited  and  as 
foreign  to  its  conceptions  as  direct  British  rule  would  be. 

The  type  suited  to  a  community  which  has  long  grown 
accustomed  to  the  social  organisation  of  the  Moslem  State 
may  or  may  not  be  suitable  to  advanced  pagan  commimities, 
which  have  evolved  a  social  system  of  their  own,  such  as  the 
Yorubas,  the  Benis,  the  Egbas,  or  the  Ashantis  in  the  West, 
or  the  Waganda,  the  Wanyoro,  the  Watoro,  and  others  in 
the  East.  The  history,  the  traditions,  the  idiosyncracies,  and 
the  prejudices  of  each  must  be  studied  by  the  Eesident  and 
his  staff,  in  order  that  the  form  adopted  shall  accord  with 
natural  evolution,  and  shall  ensure  the  ready  co-operation 
of  the  chiefs  and  people.^ 

Before  passing  to  the  discussion  of  methods  applicable  to 

1  See  p.  82,  footnote  7. 


212  METHODS  OF  BTILING  NATIVE  EACES. 

primitiye  tribes,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  briefly  some 
of  the  details — as  apart  from  general  principles — adopted  in 
Nigeria  among  the  advanced  commmiities. 

Chiefs  who  are  executive  rulers  are  graded — those  of  the 
first  three  classes  are  installed  by  the  Governor  or  Lieut.- 
Governor,  and  carry  a  staff  of  office  surmounted  for  the  first 
class  by  a  silver,  and  for  the  others  by  a  brass  crown.  Lower 
grades  carry  a  baton,  and  are  installed  by  the  Resident,  or 
by  the  Emir,  if  the  chief  is  subordinate  to  him.  These  staves 
of  office,  which  are  greatly  prized,  symbolise  to  the  peasantry 
the  fact  that  the  Emir  derives  his  power  from  the  Govern- 
ment, and  will  be  supported  in  its  exercise.  The  installation 
of  an  Emir  is  a  ceremonial  witnessed  by  a  great  concourse 
of  his  people,  and  dignified  by  a  parade  of  troops.  The 
native  insignia  of  office,  and  a  parchment  scroll,  setting  out 
in  the  vernacular  the  conditions  of  his  appointment,  are 
presented  to  him.  The  alkali  (native  judge)  administers  the 
following  oath  on  the  Koran  :  "I  swear  in  the  name  of  God, 
well  and  truly  to  serve  His  Majesty  King  George  V.  and  his 
representative  the  Governor  of  Mgeria,  to  obey  the  laws  of 
Nigeria  and  the  lawful  commands  of  the  Governor,  and  of 
the  Lieut. -Governor,  provided  that  they  are  not  contrary  to 
my  religion,  and  if  they  are  so  contrary  I  will  at  once  inform 
the  Governor  through  the  Resident.  I  wiU  cherish  in  my  heart 
no  treachery  or  disloyalty,  and  I  will  rule  my  people  with 
justice  and  without  partiaUty.  And  as  I  carry  out  this  oath 
so  may  God  judge  me."  Pagan  chiefs  are  sworn  according 
to  their  own  customs  on  a  sword. 

Native  etiquette  and  ceremonial  must  be  carefully  studied 
and  observed  in  order  that  unintentional  offence  may  be 
avoided.  Great  importance  is  attached  to  them,  and  a  like 
observance  in  accordance  with  native  custom  is  demanded 
towards  British  officers.  Chiefs  are  treated  with  respect  and 
courtesy.  Native  races  aUke  in  India  and  Africa  are  quick 
to  discriminate  between  natural  dignity  and  assimied  superi- 
ority. Vulgar  famiharity  is  no  more  a  passport  to  their 
friendship  than  an  assimiption  of  self-importance  is  to  their 
respect.^    The  English  gentleman  needs  no  prompting  in  such 

'  " The  Master  said  :  The  nobler  sort  of  man  is  dignified  but  not  proud;  the 
inferior  man  proud  but  not  dignified.  The  nobler  sort  of  man  is  easy  to  serve 
yet  difiBcult  to  please.  In  exacting  service  from  others  he  takes  account  of 
aptitudes  and  limitations." — '  The  Sayings  of  Confucius,'  L.  Giles,  p.  65. 


SITCOESSION  TO   CHIEFTAINSHIPS.  213 

a  matter — his  instinct  is  never  wrong.  E'ative  titles  of  rank 
are  adopted,  and  only  native  dress  is  worn,  whether  by  chiefs 
or  by  schoolboys.  Principal  chiefs  accused  of  serious  crimes 
are  tried  by  a  British  court,  and  are  not  imprisoned  before 
trial,  unless  in  very  exceptional  circumstances.  Minor  chiefs 
and  native  officials  appointed  by  an  Emir  may  be  tried  by  his 
Judicial  Council.  If  the  offence  does  not  involve  deprivation 
of  ofBce,  the  offender  may  be  fined  without  public  trial,  if  he 
prefers  it,  in  order  to  avoid  humiliation  and  loss  of  influence. 

Succession  is  governed  by  native  law  and  custom,  subject 
in  the  case  of  important  chiefs  to  the  approval  of  the  Governor, 
in  order  that  the  most  capable  claimant  may  be  chosen.  It 
is  important  to  ascertain  the  customary  law  and  to  follow  it 
when  possible,  for  the  appointment  of  a  chief  who  is  not  the 
recognised  heir,  or  who  is  disliked  by  the  people,  may  give 
rise  to  trouble,  and  in  any  case  the  new  chief  would  have 
much  difficulty  in  asserting  his  authority,  and  would  fear  to 
check  abuses  lest  he  should  alienate  his  supporters.  In 
Moslem  countries  the  law  is  fairly  clearly  defined,  being  a 
useful  combination  of  the  hereditary  principle,  tempered  by 
selection,  and  in  many  cases  in  Mgeria  the  ingenious  device 
is  maintained  of  having  two  rival  dynasties,  from  each  of 
which  the  successor  is  selected  alternately. 

In  pagan  communities  the  method  varies ;  but  there  is  no 
rigid  rule,  and  a  margin  for  selection  is  allowed.  The  formal 
approval  of  the  Governor  after  a  short  period  of  probation 
is  a  useful  precaution,  so  that  if  the  designated  chief  proves 
himself  unsuitable,  the  selection  may  be  revised  without 
difficulty.  Minor  chiefs  are  usually  selected  by  popular  vote, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  paramount  chief.  It  is  a  rule 
in  Mgeria  that  no  slave  may  be  appointed  as  a  chief  or  dis- 
trict headman.  If  one  is  nominated  he  must  first  be  publicly 
freed. 

Small  and  isolated  communities,  living  within  the  juris- 
diction of  a  chief,  but  owing  allegiance  to  the  chief  of  their 
place  of  origin — a  common  source  of  trouble  in  Africa — 
should  gradually  be  absorbed  into  the  territorial  jurisdiction. 
Aliens  who  have  settled  in  a  district  for  their  own  purposes 
would  be  subject  to  the  local  jurisdiction. 


214 


CHAPTER  XI. 

METHODS  OF  EULiNG  NATIVE  RACES — {Continued). 

Arguments  againat  the  system  in  case  of  primitive  tribes— Eeasons  for 
its  adoption — Changed  conditions  in  Africa — Decay  of  tribal  authority 
— The  task  of  the  Suzerain  power — Effect  of  direct  taxation — Native 
opinion  of  the  system — Selection  of  chiefs — Study  of  primitive  insti- 
tutions— Summary  of  objects — Eesults  in  Nigeria— Loyalty  of  the 
chiefs — Criticisms  of  the  system  of  ruling  through  chiefs — Govern- 
ment responsibility  for  misrule — Inadequate  supervision — Not  appli- 
cable to  Europeanised  class — Interferes  with  departmental  officers — 
Lessons  from  Indian  policy — The  policy  in  Egypt — French  policy  in 
Africa. 

There  are  some  who  consider  that  however  desirable  it  may 
be  to  rule  through  the  native  chiefs  of  advanced  communities, 
such  a  pohcy  is  misplaced,  if  not  impossible,  among  the  back- 
ward tribes.  Here,  they  would  say,  the  Eesident  and  his 
staif  must  be  recognised  as  the  direct  rulers,  since  among 
the  most  primitive  peoples  there  are  no  recognised  chiefs 
capable  of  exercising  rule.  The  imposition  of  a  tax  is  in  their 
view  premature,  since  (they  say)  the  natives  derive  no  corre- 
sponding benefit,  and  learn  to  regard  the  District  Officer 
merely  as  a  tax-collector.  Moreover,  refusal  to  pay  necessi- 
tates coercive  expeditions — scarcely  distinguishable  from  the 
raids  of  old  times.  To  attempt  to  adapt  such  methods — 
however  suitable  to  the  Moslem  commimities — ^to  the  con- 
ditions of  primitive  tribes,  would  be  to  foist  upon  them  a 
system  foreign  to  their  conceptions.  In  the  criticisms  I  have 
read  no  via  media  is  indicated  between  those  who  are  ac- 
counted to  rank  as  advanced  communities,  entitled  before  long 
to  independence,  and  direct  rule  by  the  British  staff. 

Let  us  realise  that  the  advanced  communities  form  a  very 
minute  proportion  of  the  population  of  British  Tropical 
Africa.     The  vast  majority  are  in  the  primitive  or  early 


SELF-ETILE  AMONG  PEIMITIVE  TEIBES.  215 

tribal  stages  of  development.  To  abandon  the  policy  of 
ruling  them  through  their  own  chiefs,  and  to  substitute 
the  direct  rule  of  the  British  officer,  is  to  forgo  the  high 
ideal  of  leading  the  backward  races,  by  their  own  efforts, 
in  their  own  way,  to  raise  themselves  to  a  higher  plane  of 
social  organisation,  and  tends  to  perpetuate  and  stereotype 
existing  conditions. 

We  must  realise  also  two  other  important  facts.  First, 
that  the  British  staff,  exercising  direct  rule,  cannot  be  other- 
wise than  very  small  in  comparison  to  the  area  and  popula- 
tion of  which  they  are  in  charge.^  That  rule  cannot  generally 
mean  the  benevolent  autocracy  of  a  particular  District  Officer, 
well  versed  in  the  language  and  customs  of  the  people,  but 
rule  by  a  series  of  different  white  men,  conveying  their  orders 
by  police  and  couriers  and  aUen  native  subordinates,  and  the 
quartering  of  police  detachments  in  native  vilLages.  Experi- 
ence has  shown  the  difficulty  in  such  conditions  of  detecting 
and  checking  cases  of  abuse  of  office,  and  of  acquisition  of 
land  by  aUen  and  absentee  native  landlords.  There  is  a 
marked  tendency  to  litigation,  and  the  entire  decay  of  such 
tribal  authority  as  may  previously  have  existed. 

The  changed  conditions  of  AMcan  life  is  the  second  im- 
portant fact  for  consideration.  The  advent  of  Europeans 
cannot  faU  to  have  a  disintegrating  effect  on  tribal  authority 
and  institutions,  and  on  the  conditions  of  native  life.  This 
is  due  in  part  to  the  unavoidable  restrictions  imposed  on  the 
exercise  of  their  power  by  the  native  chiefs.  They  may  no 
longer  inflict  barbarous  and  inhuman  punishments  on  the 
individual,  or  take  reprisals  by  force  of  arms  on  aggressive 
neighbours  or  a  disobedient  section  of  the  community.  The 
concentration  of  force  in  the  hands  of  the  Suzerain  Power, 
and  the  amenability  of  the  chiefs  to  that  Power  for  acts  of 
oppression  and  misrule,  are  evidence  to  primitive  folk  that 
the  power  of  the  chiefs  has  gone.  This  decay  of  tribal  au- 
thority has  unfortunately  too  often  been  accentuated  by  the 
tendency  of  British  officers  to  deal  direct  with  petty  chiefs, 

'  What  a  thoroughly  efficient  system  of  direct  rule  means,  may  be  seen  in  the 
"new  territories"  of  Hong-Kong.  In  the  matter  of  land  alone,  40,000  acres  are 
divided  into  350,000  separate  lots,  classified  and  described  in  87  bulky  volumes, 
which  for  working  purposes  are  condensed  into  9.  24,000  receipts  for  rent  are 
issued  yearly,  the  average  value  being  Is.  The  preparation  of  the  annual  rent- 
roll,  and  the  collection  of  the  rents,  are  tasks  of  some  magnitude. — Hong-Kong 
Land  Reports. 


216  METHODS  OF  EIXLENG  NATIVE  RACES. 

and  to  ignore,  and  allow  their  subordinates  to  ignore,  the 
principal  chief.  It  has  been  iacreased  in  many  cases  by 
the  influx  of  alien  natives,  who,  when  it  suited  them,  set  at 
naught  the  native  authority,  and  refused  to  pay  the  tribute 
wMch  the  chiefs  were  given  no  means  of  enforcing,  or  acquired 
lands  which  they  held  in  defiance  of  native  customary  tenure. 

But  the  main  cause  of  the  great  change  which  is  taking 
place  in  the  social  conditions  of  African  life  is  to  be  foimd 
in  the  changed  outlook  of  the  African  himself.  There  is,  as 
a  writer  in  '  New  Europe '  says,  "  something  fantastically 
inconceivable  about  the  pohcy  of  keeping  the  forces  and  ideas 
of  the  modem  world  out  of  Africa,"  and  it  is  the  negation  of 
progress  "  to  fasten  down  upon  the  African  his  own  past. 
.  .  .  Over  most  of  tropical  Africa  the  old  order  of  tribal 
society  is  dead,  dying,  or  doomed."  He  is  apparently  speaking 
of  Bast  Africa.^  His  views  were  strongly  endorsed  by  the 
Governor,  Sir  P.  Girouard — than  whom  few  have  shown  a 
greater  insight  into  problems  of  native  administration.  In 
his  report  on  East  Africa  for  1909-10,  Sir  P.  Girouard  enumer- 
ates the  various  agencies  which  are  "  breaMng  down  the  tribal 
systems,  denationalising  the  native,  and  emancipating  him 
from  the  rule  of  his  chief."  "  There  are  not  lacking,"  he 
writes,  "  those  who  favour  direct  British  rule ;  but  if  we 
allow  the  tribal  authority  to  be  ignored  or  broken,  it  will 
mean  that  we,  who  numerically  form  a  small  minority  in 
the  country,  shall  be  obUged  to  deal  with  a  rabble,  with 
thousands  of  persons  in  a  savage  or  semi-savage  state,  all 
acting  on  their  own  impulses,  and  making  themselves  a 
danger  to  society  generally.  There  could  only  be  one  end  to 
such  a  poHcy,  and  that  would  be  eventual  conflict  with  the 
rabble."  ^ 

From  every  side  comes  the  same  story.  "  For  fifteen 
years,"  says  Mr  Wilson,  writing  of  Nyasaland,  "  I  have 
watched  the  tribal  system  breaking  up — ^nothing  could  infuse 
new  Ufe  iato  it."  And  with  the  rapid  changes  the  native 
character  has  deteriorated.  Stealing  and  burglary  are  rife, 
and  the  old  village  discipline  and  respect  for  chiefs  has  gone.' 

'  'The  African  MandateB,' by  Fulani  bin  Fulani.  'New  Europe,' 7th  and  14th 
July  1919.  See  also  "Afrioanus"  in  the  'African  Society's  Journal,' January  1921, 
p.  98. 

^  Cd.  5467  of  1911,  pp.  39  and  47.  For  a  description  of  the  system  adopted, 
see  Official  Handbook  1216,  p.  243. 

^  '  East  and  West,'  January  1921. 


DECAY  OF  TRIBAL  AXJTHOEITY.  217 

In  the  West  we  find  the  mine  manager  with  his  wife  and 
flower-garden  established  in  a  district  which  a  year  or  two 
ago  was  the  inaccessible  fastness  of  a  cannibal  tribe.  Ladies 
in  mission  schools  teach  nude  savage  children  the  elements 
of  geography  and  arithmetic.  The  smattering  of  knowledge 
and  caricature  of  the  white  man's  ways  acquired  by  these 
children  react  on  their  village,  and  upset  tribal  customs  and 
authority.  A  few  years  ago  one  would  find  communities  in 
which  no  individual  had  ever  been  twenty  nules  from  his 
home.  To-day  the  young  men  migrate  in  hundreds  to  offer 
their  labour  at  the  mines  or  elsewhere,  and  return  with  strange 
ideas.  Some  perhaps  have  even  been  overseas  from  West  to 
East  Africa  during  the  war. 

The  produce  of  the  village  loom,  or  dye-pit,  or  smithy, 
is  discounted  by  cheap  imported  goods,  and  the  craftsman's 
calling  is  not  what  it  was.  Traders,  white  and  black,  circulate 
under  the  pax  Britannica  among  tribes  but  recently  addicted 
to  head-hunting,  and  bring  to  them  new  and  strange  concep- 
tions. The  primitive  African  is  called  upon  to  cope  with 
ideas  a  thousand  years  in  advance  of  his  mental  and  social 
equipment.  "  He  cannot  proceed  leisurely  along  the  road 
to  progress.  He  must  be  hurried  along  it,  or  the  free  and 
independent  savage  will  sink  to  the  level  of  the  helot  and  the 
slave." 

Here,  then,  in  my  view,  Ues  our  present  task  in  Africa. 
It  becomes  impossible  to  maintain  the  old  order — ^the  urgent 
need  is  for  adaptation  to  the  new — to  build  up  a  tribal  au- 
thority with  a  recognised  and  legal  standing,  which  may 
avert  social  chaos.  It  cannot  be  accomplished  by  super- 
seding— ^by  the  direct  rule  of  the  white  man — such  ideas  of 
discipline  and  organisation  as  exist,  nor  yet  by  "  stereotyping 
customs  and  institutions  among  backward  races  which  are 
not  consistent  with  progress."  ^ 

The  first  step  is  to  hasten  the  transition  from  the  patri- 
archal to  the  tribal  stage,  and  induce  those  who  acknowledge 
no  other  authority  than  the  head  of  the  family  to  recognise 
a  common  chief.  Where  this  stage  has  already  been  reached, 
the  object  is  to  group  together  small  tribes,  or  sections  of  a 
tribe,  so  as  to  form  a  single  administrative  imit,  whose  chiefs 
severally,  or  in  Council  as  a  "  Kative  Court"  (see  chapter 
xxviii.),  may  be   constituted   a    "Native   Authority,"  with 

1  Debate  on  Coloaial  Offioe^vote,  26th  April  1920. 


218  METHODS  OF  ETJIING  KATIVE  RACES. 

defined  powers  over  native  aliens,  through  whom  the  district 
ofBcer  can  work  instead  of  through  alien  subordinates.  His 
task  is  to  strengthen  the  authority  of  the  chiefs,  and  encourage 
them  to  show  initiative ;  to  learn  their  difficulties  at  first 
hand,  and  to  assist  them  in  adapting  the  new  conditions  to 
the  old — maintaining  and  developing  what  is  best,  avoiding 
everything  that  has  a  tendency  to  denationalisation  and  ser- 
vile imitation.  He  can  guide  and  control  several  such  units, 
and  endeavour  gradually  to  bring  them  to  the  standard  of 
an  advanced  community.  In  brief,  tribal  cohesion,  and  the 
education  of  the  tribal  heads  in  the  duties  of  rulers,  are  the 
watchwords  of  the  poUcy  in  regard  to  these  backward  races. 
As  the  unit  shows  itself  more  and  more  capable  of  conducting 
its  own  afilairs,  the  direct  rule,  which  at  first  is  temporarily 
unavoidable  among  the  most  backward  of  all,  wiU  decrease, 
and  the  community  will  acquire  a  legal  status,  which  the 
European  and  the  native  agent  of  material  development  must 
recognise.  "  The  old  easy-going  days,  when  the  probity  of 
the  individual  was  sufficient  title  to  rule,  are  gone.  .  .  . 
Intelligent  interest,  imagination,  comprehension  of  alien  minds 
— these  are  the  demands  of  to-day." 

To  this  end  the  institution  of  the  tax  is  the  first  begin- 
ning. It  marks  the  recognition  by  the  commimity  of  the 
Suzerainty  of  the  protecting  Power,  and  the  corresponding 
obligation  to  refrain  from  lawless  acts.  Failure  to  impose 
it  is  regarded  as  a  sign  of  weakness  or  of  fear.  The  pay- 
ment of  "  tribute  "  to  a  chief  marks  the  transition  from  the 
patriarchal  to  the  tribal  stage.  It  forms  no  burden,  and  is 
only  refused  if  a  community  deliberately  desires  to  throw 
off  aU  restraint  and  revert  to  lawlessness,  in  which  case 
coercive  measures  become  inevitable  for  the  protection  of  the 
law-abiding.  The  most  experienced  Eesidents  declare  that 
it  is  not  resented,  and  is  a  definite  curb  on  the  impulse  to 
attack  traders. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  the  British  African  tropics  (except 
the  Gold  Coast)  the  sum  levied  on  the  pagan  tribes  is  a  sub- 
stantial one,  but  in  Northern  Mgeria  it  has  generally  been 
nominal  in  amount,^  and  there  at  any  rate  it  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  without  a  substantial  equivalent,  in  the  pro- 
motion of  trade  and  prosperity,  in  the  construction  of  roads, 

^  It  was  at  first  fixed  at  3d.  per  annum  per  adult — or  at  most  at  6d. — and 
later  somewhat  increased.    In  many  protectorates  it  ranges  up  to  10s.  or  £1. 


DIRECT  TAXATION  ASSISTS  PROGEESS.  219 

in  the  begiimings  of  education,  and  in  the  suppression  of 
slave-raiding.  "  Since  you  have  stopped  slave-raiding,"  said 
a  pagan  chief  to  a  Eesident,  "  we  are  wiUing  to  do  or  give 
what  you  hke." 

The  iaauguration  of  a  treasury,  in  like  manner,  though 
admittedly  beyond  the  grasp  of  such  peoples,  is  the  embryo 
conception  which  will  later  develop  with  education,  and  they 
are  quick  to  reaUse  that  the  salaried  chiefs  and  sub-chiefs 
are  not  merely  paid  officers  of  the  Government,  but  receive 
a  portion  of  the  funds  which  they  themselves  collect  from  the 
people.  They  do  not  exist  merely  to  collect  an  aUen  tax 
as  the  agents  of  Government,  but  are  selected  as  men  who 
will  be  trusted  and  followed  by  their  people,  and  capable  of 
expressing  their  opinions.  Among  the  primitive  communities 
it  suffices  that  the  share  of  the  tax  should  be  sufficient  to 
meet  their  salaries  only,  so  long  as  they  are  incapable  of 
understanding  or  exercising  any  judgment  regarding  other  ex- 
penditure. Without  a  tax  there  can  be  no  treasury,  and  with- 
out a  treasury  no  real  eventual  measure  of  self-rule.  The  impo- 
sition of  a  tax  at  a  later  stage  of  development  would  be  resented 
as  a  breach  of  faith,  and  would  generally  lead  to  trouble. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  these  embryo  administrations 
should  follow  closely  the  model  adopted  for  the  Moslem 
communities,  if  any  more  natural  line  presents  itself.  Ex- 
perience in  the  advanced  pagan  commtmities  will  suggest 
divergencies.  For,  as  I  have  said,  there  is  no  desire  to  impose 
on  the  people  any  theoretically  suitable  form  of  government, 
but  rather  to  evolve  from  their  own  institutions,  based  on 
their  own  habits  of  thought,  prejudices,  and  customs,  the 
form  of  rule  best  suited  to  them,  and  adapted  to  meet  the 
new  conditions. 

Direct  British  rule  among  primitive  tribes,  unaccompanied 
by  any  tax,  may  perhaps,  if  a  fully  adequate  staff  is  pro- 
vided, be  the  least  troublesome,  and  temporarily  at  any  rate 
the  most  efficient — albeit  the  most  costly — method.  But  it 
shirks  the  more  difficult  task  of  education,  and  when  the  time 
comes — as  it  inevitably  will  come — and  the  people  demand  a 
voice  in  the  control  of  their  own  affairs,  we  shaU  find — as  we 
find  in  India  to-day — ^that  we  have  destroyed  the  natural 
institutions  of  the  country,  that  we  have  sapped  the  founda- 
tions of  native  rule,  and  have  taught  them  only  the  duty  of 
obedience.    We  can  then  only  offer  an  ahen  system,  evolved 


220  METHODS  OP  RTJLIKG  NATIVE  RACES. 

by  Western  nations  to  suit  wholly  different  circumstances, 
moulded  on  European  and  not  on  native  habits  of  thought. 

The  Moslem  Emir  of  Yola  and  his  Council  showed,  I  think, 
a  better  appreciation  of  these  principles  than  the  critics  I 
have  quoted.  The  natural  instinct  of  a  Eulani,  they  said, 
when  he  has  got  over  his  fear  of  the  pagans,  is  to  treat  them 
as  slaves,  and  he  would  then  either  be  murdered  by  them  or 
convicted  of  oppression  by  Government.  "  If  they  think  you 
are  trying  to  make  them  Pulani  or  Moslems  they  resent  it. 
I  would  not  put  a  Pulani  headman  to  live  in  their  coimtry, 
but  he  should  constantly  tour  amongst  them,  and  advise  the 
pagan  chief,  and  tell  all  the  people  that  they  may  appeal  to 
him,  but  he  should  not  go  behind  his  back."  The  Waziri 
added :  "  As  the  British  govern  us  through  ourselves,  so  we 
must  govern  the  pagans  through  their  own  chiefs.  If  we 
think  we  can  deal  directly  with  the  pagan  peasantry,  we  are 
deceived.  We  should  know  nothing  of  what  is  going  on,  and 
we  should  do  no  good."  This  view  was  not  dictated  by  a 
desire  to  please,  for  it  was  apparently  opposed  to  the  policy 
of  the  Eesident  at  the  time.  How  striking  is  this  advance 
from  the  methods  of  the  Pulani  conquerors. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  that  the  chiefs  should  be  elected 
by  the  community  from  among  themselves,  and  be  men  of 
influence  and  strength  of  character,  neither  middleinen  traders 
selected  for  their  wealth  nor  Moslems.  It  is  preferable  also 
not  to  employ  the  latter  as  judges  of  the  courts,  or  teachers 
in  the  schools,  even  though  progress  be  slower.  If  the  selec- 
tion of  an  alien  is  inevitable  he  should  not  be  allowed  to 
retain  any  armed  following.  The  District  Officer  must  be 
tolerant  of  misrule  due  to  inexperience  in  a  chief  who  promises 
well,  and  avoid  damaging  his  prestige  and  influence. 

In  order  to  develop  a  system  suited  to  their  needs,  the 
District  Officer  must  study  their  customs  and  social  organisa- 
tions ;  for  without  a  knowledge  of  their  institutions  the  re- 
sult must  be  failure.  These  in  some  tribes  take  the  form 
of  a  classification  by  age,  the  youths  being  circumcised  in 
batches,  each  of  which  forms  a  class  with  special  duties 
and  standing.^    Most  tribes  develop  a  number  of  societies 

^  The  senior  class  among  the  Ibos  of  West  Africa — who  number  several  millions 
—form  the  ' '  Akang  "  club,  the  juniors  the  ' '  Ekpe  "  club.  The  clubs  give  enter- 
tainments, and  arrange  for  batches  of  labourers  when  required,  &c.  Compare 
Sir  C.  Eliot's  description  of  the  age-classes  of  the  Masai  in  East  Africa,  loc.  cit, , 
p.  136,  and  Handbook  1216,  p.  241. 


SECRET  SOCIETIES.  221 

with  secret  ritual,  whicli  -will  usually  be  found  to  have  their 
origin  in  some  sound  principle,  such  as  the  maintenance  of 
discipline  among  lawless  sections  or  the  promotion  of  tribal 
cohesion. 

In  some  cases  it  is  reported  that  a  society  which  formerly 
existed  for  purposes  of  extortion,  or  even  murder  and  human 
sacrifice,  has,  owing  to  the  native  court  system,  which  allows 
of  trial  in  open  court,  become  innocuous.  In  other  cases 
the  power  wielded  by  those  who  conduct  the  secret  ritual 
may  have  caused  the  society  to  degenerate  iato  a  cruel  Fetish 
cult,  destroying  its  value  as  a  social  organisation.  Or  its 
prestige  and  influence  may  have  been  misused  to  cover 
the  crimes  or  the  greed  of  individuals,  or  a  tribal  "  age-class  " 
may  have  adopted  a  ritual,  and  formed  a  society  inimical  to 
the  interest  of  the  community.  Careful  iavestigation  is  neces- 
sary to  distinguish  between  Fetish  cults,  which  exist  to  ter- 
rorise the  people  by  human  sacrifice  and  witchcraft  (such  as 
the  "  Chuku  Juju  "  of  the  Aros,  or  the  alleged  "  Human 
Leopard  Society  "  of  Sierra  Leone),  and  those  which  have 
their  origin  in  social  customs,  and  may  afford  a  framework 
which,  when  divested  of  its  harmful  accretions,  is  capable  of 
development  and  understood  by  the  people — ^to  which  class 
very  probably  the  "  Ogboni  "  may  belong. 

These  primitive  tribes — as  we  shall  see  when  disclissing  the 
courts — are  capable,  even  in  their  present  stage,  of  settling 
ordinary  social  disputes  in  a  tribunal  composed  of  chiefs — 
which,  in  default  of  rulers  of  sufficient  individual  importance 
and  prestige,  it  is  often  necessary  to  endow  with  executive 
powers  as  the  "  Native  Authority." 

Turning  now  from  the  detailed  discussion  of  the  applica- 
tion of  this  system  to  advanced  communities  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  primitive  tribes  on  the  other,  let  us  glance  at  its 
results  and  the  criticisms  it  has  evoked.  I  think  that  there 
a.re  very  hopefid  possibilities  for  the  future  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  "  Native  Administrations  "  of  Mgeria.  Already 
they  bear  a  large  share  in  the  cost  of  the  schools ;  they  are 
showing  an  increasing  interest  in  the  establishment  of  dis- 
pensaries, in  the  sanitation  of  the  great  cities,  and  in  leper 
settlements.  Some,  especially  Sokoto,  have  taken  a  keen 
interest  in  afforestation  and  artesian  weU-boring.  Kano,  in 
view  of  its  congested  population,  has  developed  a  scheme  of 
Tough-and-ready  delimitation  of  farm  lands  by  native  sur- 


222  METHODS  OF  EULING  NATIVE  EACES. 

veyors.  Special  classes  for  training  youths  in  agriculture, 
forestry,  veterinary  work,  and  survey  wiU  provide  young  men 
(drawn  from  the  provinces  which  need  them)  with  some 
technical  training  for  service  under  the  native  administra- 
tions. 

The  steady  increase  in  the  material  prosperity  of  the 
peasantry  of  the  Moslem  Emirates  is  the  frequent  theme  of 
the  Eesidents'  annual  reports,  and  though  this  cannot  be 
attributed  solely — or  even  primarily — to  the  system  of  native 
administration,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  system  has 
had  a  large  share  in  the  result.  The  growing  wealth  of  the 
people  renders  possible  a  steady  iQcrease  iu  the  tax,  with  a 
corresponding  addition  to  the  fimds  available  for  local  develop- 
ment. That  the  system  has  been  successful  is  proved  by  the 
contentment  of  the  people  and  the  loyalty  of  their  chiefs. 
The  Emirs  and  their  councillors  appreciate  the  liberality  of 
the  Government  policy  and  the  genuine  sympathy  of  the 
Eesidents,  and  any  breach  of  the  peace  has  come  to  be  looked 
on  as  an  almost  impossible  occurrence.  A  perusal  of  the  latest 
reports  (1917-18)  from  his  Eesidents  cannot  but  fiU  the  Lieut.- 
Governor  of  the  northern  provinces  with  satisf action. ^ 

The  war,  however,  put  the  system  to  the  crucial  test.  It 
was  well  known  that  Britain  was  fighting  agaiust  Turkey, 
a  Moslem  State  with  whom  the  Senussi,  whose  emissaries 
from  TripoU  find  easy  access  to  Nigeria,  was  in  active  alliance. 
A  great  rising  took  place  ra  the  vast  regions  under  French 
rule  bordering  Mgeria  to  the  north.    Eeports,  fully  credited 

1  I  make  a  few  extracts  at  random.  Kano  reports  an  increase  of  £32,000  in 
the  revenue,  and  1000  miles  of  unmetalled  or  partially  metalled  roads  fit  for  light 
motors.  Zaria,  Nassarawa,  lUorin,  and  other  provinces  state  that  the  pagans, 
who  for  generations  have  lived  ou  the  hill-tops  to  escape  the  raids  of  the  Fulani, 
and  from  their  inaccessible  eyries  have  been  a  menace  to  traders,  are  Increasingly 
coming  down  to  live  peacefully  in  the  plains  in  well-planned  villages.  In  Zaria 
the  revenue  has  quadrupled  in  four  years  ;  the  facilities  of  the  bank  are  used  for 
surplus  funds.  The  Mallamai  take  pride  in  their  work,  and  now  keep  registers 
of  births,  deaths,  and  migrations.  Sanitary  reform  includes  the  use  of  incinera- 
tors and  refuse-bins.  Sokoto  reports  a  like  progress  in  sanitation,  and  adds  that 
the  population  has  nearly  trebled  since  the  British  advent  in  1903,  due  largely  to 
immigration  over  the  frontier.  Village  heads  report  to  the  district  head  and  to 
the  native  courts  cases  of  cattle  disease,  breach  of  isolation  rules,  and  any 
robberies  in  their  vicinity.  The  prisons  are  admirably  kept,  the  prisoners  well 
cared  for,  and  the  discipline  good.  The  officials  of  the  native  administration 
work  cordially  with  those  of  the  Government,  both  executive  and  judicial,  and 
the  "  i)ojrarai  "  afford  all  assistance  to  the  police.  The  credit  of  inaugurating 
and  giving  practical  and  successful  effect  to  this  method  belongs  wholly  to  the 
Residents  and  their  staff — Messrs  Temple,  Goldsmith,  Gowers,  Amett,  Gall, 
Palmer,  among  others. 


EESXILTS  m  NOETHEEN  NIGEEIA.  223 

by  the  French  themselves,  reached  the  country  that  Agades 
— ^the  desert  capital — ^had  faUen  before  a  Moslem  army  well 
equipped  with  cannon.  Hostile  forces  were  said  to  be  rapidly 
advancing  towards  Sokoto.  The  French  asked  our  assistance. 
Half  our  own  forces,  and  most  of  the  oflBcers  well  known  to 
the  natives,  had  already  gone  to  East  Africa.  But  not  for  a 
moment  was  there  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  loyalty  of  the 
Emirs.  The  garrison  of  Kano  itself  was  withdrawn,  and  re- 
placed by  police.  Sokoto  and  Katsena,  the  border  States, 
were  eager  to  raise  native  levies  to  assist. 

Each  year  of  the  war  the  native  treasuries  offered  £50,000 
towards  its  cost.  The  last  year  they  subscribed  £11,000  to 
the  Eed  Cross  Fund — ^the  Sultan  of  Sokoto  preferring  that 
he  and  his  chiefs  should  subscribe  from  their  private  means 
for  such  a  purpose  rather  than  from  the  pubUc  treasury.  Daily 
prayers  in  aU  the  mosques  were  offered  for  the  victory  of  the 
King's  arms. 

Dr  Solf,  when  Minister  for  the  Colonies  ia  Berhn,  visited 
Nigeria.  He  expressed  to  Mr  Harcourt  his  appreciation  of 
our  methods,  and  wrote  to  me  (for  I  was  absent  at  the  time) 
that  he  intended  to  adopt  them  in  the  German  Cameruns. 

The  system  described  has,  of  course,  like  every  other 
possible  system,  found  its  critics  and  opponents.  The  edu- 
cated native  very  naturally  dislikes  it,  for  it  places  the  native 
chief,  who  has  no  schoolroom  education,  and  is  probably 
ignorant  even  of  the  English  language,  ia  a  position  of 
authority  over  his  people,  and  tends  to  make  him  independent 
of  the  educated  native  lawyer  or  adviser. 

The  criticism  of  Europeans  is,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  chiefly 
confined  to  those  who  have  not  had  personal  experience  of 
its  working,  or  adequate  opportunity  to  examine  for  them- 
selves the  truths  of  statements  they  have  read  in  the  native 
press.  Bishop  TugweU,  whose  long  and  faithful  service  in 
West  Africa  has  chiefly  laia  in  the  coast  area  and  its  imme- 
diate hiaterland,  writes  :  "  '  Indirect  rule  '  is  direct  rule  by 
indirect  means.  The  Emir's  position  and  salary  are  secure. 
His  sway,  backed  by  British  authority,  is  rendered  absolute, 
while  his  people  become  his  serfs,  or  those  of  the  British 
Government.  Their  life  is  thus  robbed  of  aU  initiative  or 
desire  for  progress — ^intellectual,  social,  moral,  reUgious,  or 
pohtical."  The  Emir,  he  adds,  who  is  appointed  by  the 
Government,  is  the  instrument  of  the  Eesident,  and  "  the 


224  METHODS  OF  RULLNG  NATIVE  EACES. 

name  of  Christ  must  not  be  proclaimed  lest  this  blighting 
system  should  be  overtiimed." 

The  statement  is  inaccurate,  lor  there  are  very  many  cases 
on  record  in  Mgeria,  extending  from  the  earliest  beginnings 
of  British  rule  in  the  north  up  to  the  present  day,  where  not 
only  the  highest  ofl&cials  of  the  native  administration  have 
been  deprived  of  their  positions  and  subjected  to  the  rigours 
of  the  law  for  misconduct,  but  even  Emirs  and  principal 
chiefs  have  been  deposed  for  misrule.  As  regards  the  peas- 
antry, it  is  incontestable  that  they  have  never  enjoyed  such 
liberty  and  material  prosperity  as  they  now  possess,  such 
security  of  land  tenure  and  immunity  from  oppression.  The 
new  Government  schools  are  opening  up  avenues  for  intel- 
lectual and  social  progress.  (See  chap,  xxii.)  With  the 
question  of  Christian  propaganda  in  Moslem  States  I  shall 
deal  in  a  later  chapter. 

But  Bishop  TugweU,  unconsciously  perhaps,  gives  imper- 
fect expression  to  an  aspect  of  the  matter  on  which  I  have 
already  touched.  It  was  naturally  a  cause  for  anxiety  and 
misgiving  that  the  British  Government,  by  supporting  native 
rule,  and  the  authority  of  the  native  courts,  should  accept 
some  measure  of  responsibility  for  evils  which  its  meagre 
staff  of  British  officials  was  unable  to  control  adequately, 
seeing  that  the  one  was  exercised  by  men  who  had  behind 
them  a  century's  tradition  of  such  tyranny  and  oppression 
as  I  have  described,  and  the  other  had  become  corrupt  and 
inflicted  barbarous  sentences.  To  overthrow  an  organisation, 
however  faulty,  which  has  the  sanction  of  long  usage,  and  is 
acquiesced  in  by  the  people,  before  any  system  could  be 
created  to  take  its  place — ^before,  indeed,  we  had  any  precise 
knowledge  of  Moslem  methods  or  of  native  law  and  custom 
— would  have  been  an  act  of  folly  which  no  sane  adminis- 
trator could  attempt.  The  very  necessity  for  avoiding  pre- 
cipitate action,  and  the  knowledge  that  reform  could  only 
be  effective,  and  enlist  native  co-operation,  if  it  was  gradual, 
made  the  responsibility  all  the  more  onerous.  To  infer  that 
it  was  not  realised,  or  was  lightly  regarded,  is  to  do  a  great 
injustice  to  the  administrative  staff  of  the  early  Government 
of  Northern  Mgeria,  who  struggled  to  cope  with  a  burden 
which  taxed  them  beyond  their  strength.  Some  died,  and 
some  left  with  health  impaired. 

That  the  supervision  exercised  was  insufficient,  in  spite 


CEITICISMS  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  225 

of  their  efforts,  is  a  reasonable  criticism,  for  the  staff  was 
quite  inadequate.  In  the  year  1903-4,  in  which  the  whole 
of  the  Moslem  States  first  came  under  British  control,  Northern 
Mgeria  provided  in  its  budget  for  forty-four  administrative 
officers.^  Of  these,  as  I  have  shown  (p.  141),  we  can  only 
assume  that  a  half  were  actually  at  work.  Thus  in  the  fourth 
year  after  the  administration  was  inaugurated  there  was  only 
about  one  officer  available  for  each  11,600  square  miles  and 
400,000  head  of  population — and  most  of  them  very  young 
and  new  to  the  work  ! 

On  amalgamation  with  Southern  Nigeria  in  1914  I  had 
hoped  that  the  finances  would  at  last  admit  of  an  adequate 
provision  of  staff,  and  of  decent  houses  for  them  to  Mve  in. 
But  the  Great  War  broke  out,  and  the  staff  was  again  depleted 
below  the  uttermost  safety  limit,  to  allow  every  possible 
officer  to  join  the  fighting  forces.  The  conditions  have  re- 
tarded progress  in  the  pagan  areas,  and  must  be  borne  in 
mind  by  those  who  criticise  the  inadequacy  of  supervision 
in  the  past. 

That  the  system  is  inapphcable  to  communities  of  Euro- 
peanised  natives  educated  on  Western  lines  is  admitted.  The 
method  of  their  progress  towards  self-government  lies,  as  I 
have  said,  along  the  same  path  as  that  of  Europeans — ^in- 
creased participation  in  municipal  affairs  untU  they  prove 
themselves  fitted  for  the  larger  responsibilities  of  Government 
of  their  own  commimities,  by  a  majority  vote  in  the  councils, 
by  popidar  election,  and  by  appointment  to  posts  of  respon- 
sibility in  the  Civil  Service. 

A  local  criticism  is  that  the  natives  are  taught  to  look  to 
the  District  Officer  only,  that  the  latter  is  intolerant  of  any 
departmental  officer  exercising  authority  in  his  district,  and 
that  it  is  impossible  for  a  departmental  officer  to  feel  a  keen 
interest  in  his  work,  and  achieve  the  best  results,  if  he  is 
practically  dependent  on  a  jimior  administrative  officer,  and 
can  get  nothing  done  without  reference  to  him. 

The  reply  is  that  orders  to  the  local  headman  emanate, 
not  from  the  District  Officer,  but  from  his  own  chief  (to  whom 
any  wishes  of  Goverimient  in  the  matter  are  communicated 
by  the  Eesident).  The  District  Officer,  who  knows  the  head- 
men personally  and  speaks  their  language,  is  the  natural  and 
best  means  that  the  departmental  officer  can  employ  for 

1  '  Gazette '  of  30th  April  1903. 
P 


226        METHODS  OF  EULING  NATIVE  RACES. 

making  his  demands  known,  and  obtaining  the  sendees  of  an 
agent  from  the  chief  to  procure  labour,  &c.  In  technical 
details  he  gives  his  orders  direct.  In  case  of  difficulty  it  is 
not  to  the  District  Officer  but  to  his  own  chief  that  the  head- 
man appeals  for  instructions.  The  chief  in  turn  only  invokes 
the  advice  or  intervention  of  the  Eesident  if  he  needs  it. 

Our  experience  in  India  (to  which  I  alluded  in  the  last 
chapter)  seems  to  me  to  afford  a  strildng  confirmation  of  the 
principles  which  underlie  the  policy  I  have  advocated.  "  Brit- 
ish India  "  (comprising  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  country  and 
over  three-quarters  of  its  population)  has  been  subjected  to 
direct  British  rule,  which  foreign  critics  have  praised  as  a 
model  of  efficiency.  But  when  the  inevitable  time  arrived, 
and  India  demanded  a  measure  of  self-government,  the  bases 
on  which  it  had  rested  for  centuries  are  found  to  have  been 
destroyed,  and  to-day  the  situation  in  British  India  is  described 
as  the  most  serious  with  which  England  has  ever  been  con- 
fronted, for  the  policy  of  the  past  rated  administrative  efficiency 
more  highly  than  education  in  self-government. 

In  the  remaining  part  of  India  we  have  ruled  indirectly 
through  the  native  princes.  The  limitations  to  their  inde- 
pendence were  less  onerous  than  those  which  are  necessary 
in  Africa,^  for  they  were  the  inheritors  of  an  ancient  civilisa- 
tion, and  their  relations  with  the  Suzerain  Power  were  estab- 
lished by  treaty,  and  not  by  conquest.  The  conditions  which 
obtain  in  their  territories  to-day  are  in  marked  contrast  with 
the  disorder  around  them.  Their  progress  has  been  fostered 
by  the  tactful  and  devoted  guidance  of  the  British  Eesidents 
at  their  courts.^  Their  loyalty  has  been  so  unquestioned  that 
of  late  years  they  have  been  encouraged  to  maintain  standing 
armies  of  their  own,  which  have  been  freely  placed  at  the 
service  of  Government,  and  we  have  ceded  to  them  fortresses 
such  as  GwaUor,  which  we  formerly  maintained  to  overawe 
them.  Their  institutions  and  enlightened  rule  rival  those  of 
British  India.  Their  peasantry  are  said  to  be  happier  and 
more  satisfied  under  the  rule  of  their  own  chiefs  than  under 
the  system  of  direct  rule. 

'  See  Ilbert,  loc.  dt.,  chap.  ii.  pp.  141-145,  and  chap.  vii. 

2  It  was  not  till  1909  that  Lord  Minto  directed  that  Residents  should  no  longer 
press  reforms  upon  the  native  rulers.  Their  policy  in  future  was  to  be  one  of 
non-interference  in  internal  affairs.  Direct  British  rule  continued,  however,  to 
be  exercised  when  the  heir  was  a  minor,  and  his  education  was  the  care  of  the 
Suzerain  Power. 


THE  SYSTEM  OP  EXILE  IN  EGYPT.  227 

In  Egypt  European  "  advisers  "  were  appointed  to  the 
various  Ministries  in  Cairo,  whose  tittdar  head  was  an  Egyp- 
tian, and  this  system  was  extended  to  the  provincial  "  Mndi- 
rates."  Even  under  the  watchful  eye  of  Lord  Cromer — ^tied 
as  he  was  to  headquarters  at  Cairo— the  tendency  for  these 
"inspectors,"  as  they  were  infelicitously  called,  to  assume 
the  rdle  of  de  facto  rulers,  had  already  become  marked.  The 
mudirs,  as  Lord  MUner  observed  ^  (writing  in  1892),  "  did 
not  so  much  miad  taking  orders  themselves,  if  it  was  clearly 
tmderstood  that  they  alone  were  entitled  to  give  orders  to 
their  subordinates.  '  TeU  us  what  you  want  done,'  they  say 
to  their  foreign  monitors,  '  and  we  wUl  take  care  that  your 
wishes  are  carried  out,  but  do  not  attempt  to  see  to  their 
execution  yourself.' "  This  is  the  whole  difference  between 
direct  rule  and  rule  through  the  native  rulers.  Until  it  has 
become  a  tradition,  enshrined  in  precise  written  instructions 
(necessarily  somewhat  detailed),  and  maintained  by  constant 
personal  touch  between  the  head  of  the  Government  and  his 
administrative  officers,  the  tendency  of  the  energetic,  capable 
British  officer  to  overstep  his  rdle  as  adviser  will  inevitably 
assert  itself.  "  Instances,  however,  were  not  wanting  (in 
Egypt)  in  which  Englishmen  have  got  on  thoroughly  weU 
with  provincial  Governors,  and  come  to  be  regarded  by  them 
as  friends  and  helpmates,  and  not  as  spies  and  intruders." 
Lord  Milner  emphasises  the  absolute  necessity  of  supervision 
and  control  over  native  officials.  "  The  whole  problem,"  he 
says,  "  is  how  to  exercise  this  control,  which  is  indispensable, 
without  destroying  the  prestige  of  the  permanent  officials, 
which  is  equally  indispensable."  The  problem  could  not 
have  been  better  or  more  concisely  stated.^ 

With  the  passing  of  Lord  Cromer,  the  tendency  to  direct 
rule  by  the  inspectors,  appointed  "  to  advise  the  Advisers," 
became  more  pronounced,  and  junior  inspectors  assumed  the 
right  to  dictate  to  the  mudirs,  on  whom  in  theory  the  respon- 
sibility rests.^ 

1  'England  in  Egypt,'  p.  110-111.  2  ib;<j^  p_  334, 

'  See  articles  on  "Egyptian  Unrest,"  'Times,'  9th  September  1919,jand7th 
January  1920.  The  writer  proposes  that  the  British  staff  should  become  executive 
officers,  responsible  to  their  Egyptian  official  superiors — the  mudirs — who  are 
again  controlled  by  the  Egyptian  Ministers  with  their  British  advisers.  I  have 
ventured  to  suggest  that,  however  anxious  both  might  be  to  fulfil  their  obliga- 
tions with  loyalty,  nothing  but  disharmony  and  friction  could  result  from  such  a 
system,  and  the  best  qualities  of  both  would  be  nullified. — (Letter  to  '  Times,' 
16th  September  1919,  with  which  Lord  Milner  expressed  to  me  his  general  con- 


228  METHODS  OF  RULING  NATIVE  EACES. 

Foreign  nations  have  never,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  adopted 
a  policy  similar  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  in  whose  colonies, 
even  where  direct  rule  by  British  officers  is  maintained,  the 
native  chiefs  retain  their  titular  positions,  and  are  allowed 
the  exercise  of  restricted  powers.  In  French  West  Africa 
chiefs  are  appointed  as  Government  officials,  but  there  is  no 
organisation  of  former  native  kingdoms  under  their  traditional 
rulers,  as  in  Nigeria  or  Uganda.  On  the  contrary,  the  sons  of 
former  native  chiefs  are  deprived  of  all  titles  of  sovereignty. 

As  native  officials  they  are  employed  in  matters  of  sanita- 
tion, the  levying  of  taxes,  road  construction,  engagement  of 
labour,  &c.,  and  in  subordinate  posts  under  the  Government. 
A  portion  of  Senegal  is  'governed  directly  and  exclusively  by 
white  officials.  Though  the  older  conception  of  the  assimila- 
tion of  the  native  races  appears  to  be  giving  place  to  one  of 
trusteeship,  the  quondam  native  rulers  remain  mere  subordi- 
nates of  the  Europeans,  who  conduct  the  native  affairs.^  The 
French  system  proceeds  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  colonies 
are  an  integral  part  of  France,  and  its  inhabitants  French- 
men, with  consequent  Uability  to  conscription,  &c.  We  learn, 
however,  that  the  secret  of  General  Lyautey's  success  in 
Morocco  is  that  he  introduced  collaboration  with  the  native 
chiefs,  and  the  principle  of  dual  administration  between  the 
protector  and  the  protected,  and  by  this  means  he  everywhere 
conciliated  the  populations  he  subdued.^ 

The  object  of  substituting  for  British  rule,  in  which  the 
chiefs  are  mere  agents  of  the  Government,  a  system  of  native 
rule  under  the  guidance  and  control  of  the  British  staff, 
whether  among  advanced  or  backward  communities,  is  pri- 
marily educative.^    Among  backward  tribes  the  chiefs  have 

currence).  The  mudir  should  take  his  orders  only  from  his  official  chief,  the 
Egyptian  Minister,  and  he  alone  should  give  orders  to  the  village  sheikhs.  The 
British  inspector  tenders  advice,  and  sees  that  abuses  do  not  exist,  and  should  be 
responsible  only  to  his  British  chief — the  adviser  to  the  Minister.  In  the  Sudan 
Egyptians  and  Sudanese  are  appointed  as  mamurs  (police  officers,  and  magistrates 
of  districts),  and  their  numbers  are  increasing.    Foreign  Office  Handbook  98,  p.  60. 

1  Foreign  Office  Handbook  No.  100,  1920,  pp.  6  and  10. 

2  '  La  France  au  Maroc,'  Berthe  Georges  Gaulis. 

'  Mr  Qilmour,  reviewing  in  the  '  African  Society's  Journal '  (April  1912)  two 
books  1  in  which  this  system  of  native  rule  was  described,  thus  summarises : 
"  Like  a  silver  thread  the  proposition  of  the  paramount  importance  of  helping 
the  African  to  become  a  better  African,  and  not  endeavouring  to  turn  him  into 
a  caricature  of  a  European,  runs  through  both  books,  and  is  obviously  regarded 

1  'Tlie  Making  of  Northern  Nigeria,"  Captain  Orr.  'Nigeria,  its  Peoples  and  Problems," 
B.  D.  Morel. 


THE  PBTTVTABY  OBJECT  IN  VIEW.  229 

to  learn  how  to  exert  and  maintain  authority,  and  establish 
a  chain  of  responsibility  reaching  down  to  the  village  head. 
Among  the  more  advanced  their  interest  is  directed  to  educa- 
tion, forestry,  sanitation,  prevention  of  disease,  and  public 
works.  In  aU  alike  the  endeavour  is  to  prevent  denationalisa- 
tion, to  develop  along  indigenous  hnes,  to  inculcate  the 
principle  that  the  function  of  the  ruler  is  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  his  people  and  not  to  exploit  them  for  his  own 
pleasure,  and  to  afford  both  to  rulers  and  people  the  stimulus 
of  progress  and  interest  in  life. 

by  both  authors  aa  the  fundamental  proposition  o{  the  Nigerian  policy."  "  The 
policy  of  the  administration,"  he  says  later,  "is  directed  to  developing  the 
resources  of  the  country,  through  the  agency  of  the  natives  rather  than  by 
concessions  to  Europeans." 


230 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TAXATION. 

Direct  tax — The  basis  of  native  administration — Tax  on  Pagans  accords 
with  native  custom — Tax  in  Moslem  districts^ — Tax  denotes  progress 
— Delay  in  imposition  inadvisable— On  primitive  people  should  be 
light — Taxation  as  an  incentive  to  work — Is  indirect  taxation  suffi- 
cient— The  tax  on  advanced  communities — Nature  of  the  tax — 
Income  and  "profits" — Tax  on  average  standard  of  production — 
Profits  on  trades  other  than  agriculture — Rate  of  tax — Abuses  of  the 
old  system  :  (o)  Absentee  landlords  ;  (b)  Tax-gatherers ;  (c)  Dis- 
connected areas  of  jurisdiction — Summary  of  reforms— Disposal  of 
tax — Definition  of  vQlage  and  town — Principles  of  assessment — Tax 
is  not  a  land  rent — Method  of  assessment :  (a)  Native  officials ; 
(J)  The  District  Officer's  task — Taxation  of  primitive  communities — 
Payment  in  cash,  kind,  or  labour — By  whom  payable  —  Drastic 
changes  to  be  avoided — Personation — The  hut-tax — Contrast  with 
the  tax  proposed — Summary  of  results  of  direct  taxation — Minor 
direct  taxes — Licences  and  market  dues. 

APPENDIX. 

The  hut-tax  'in  Africa — In  Sierra  Leone — Uganda — Nyasaland — East 
Africa — Northern  Bhodesia — South  Africa — Foreign  Nations. 

1^0  system  of  rule  can  be  effective — whether  gOTemmental 
or  mtuiicipal — ^unless  it  enjoys  some  measure  of  financial 
independence ;  and,  as  I  have  said,  the  fundamental  basis 
upon  which  the  policy  I  have  described  in  the  last  chapter 
rests,  is  the  assignment  to  the  native  rulers  of  a  definite 
revenue  with  which  to  pay  the  salaries  of  their  officials,  and 
to  inaugurate  schemes  of  development.  This  revenue  must 
obviously  be  found  by  taxation,  and  ta  Mgeria  (to  which  I 
again  refer  in  illustration,  because  it  is  the  dependency  which 
I  know  best)  it  is  derived  from  a  direct  tax — ^based  on  the 
principle  of  an  income-tax — collected  through  the  machinery 
of  the  native  administration,  in  accordance  with  native  law  and 
custom,  and  imder  the  close  supervision  of  the  British  staff. 


DIRECT  TAX  THE  BASIS  OP  NATIVE  KTJLE.  231 

The  native  rulers  who  share  it  are  not  therefore  salaried 
officials  of  Government,  but  derive  their  incomes  as  proper 
dues  from  their  own  people,  in  return  for  their  work  as  rulers, 
or  judges,  or  employees  of  the  native  administration.  They, 
and  even  the  more  intelligent  of  the  peasantry,  can  see  that 
a  substantial  portion  of  the  tax  is  spent  by  themselves  in 
their  own  immediate  interests,  and  can  appreciate  the  neces- 
sity of  devoting  the  remainder  to  the  central  Government. 
They  thus  have  an  interest  in  its  collection  in  fuU,  and  there 
is  no  perennial  complaint  of  an  insufficient  grant  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  native  administration,  disproportioned  to 
their  particular  claims. 

Moreover,  it  is  obvious  that  the  native  rulers  must  have 
some  means  of  livelihood,  and  of  maintaioing  their  position. 
If  there  be  no  legal  and  recognised  tax,  the  necessary  iucome 
must  be  obtained  by  arbitrary  levies  on  the  peasantry,  subject 
to  no  control  by  Government.  In  the  Moslem  States  the  tax 
is  the  corollary  of  the  abohtion  of  slavery. 

It  has  been  asserted  that,  with  the  exception  of  those 
communities  which  have  accepted  the  Koranic  system  of 
taxation,  the  natives  of  Africa  are  unaccustomed  to,  and 
radically  opposed  to,  direct  taxation,  and  that  it  is  therefore 
better  to  adopt  indirect  taxation,  the  incidence  of  which  they 
do  not  understand. 

The  African  is  not  peculiar  in  disliking  taxes,  but  as  soon 
as  any  degree  of  tribal  cohesion  is  reached,  the  obligation  to 
pay  tribute  to  the  head  chief — ^generally  iu  the  form  of  slaves, 
concubines,  food,  and  unpaid  labour — ^is  recognised.  As  the 
tribe  advances  in  organisation,  and  its  rulers  become  more 
powerful  and  luxurious — as  in  such  pagan  communities  as 
the  Baganda,  the  Yorubas,  Benis,  &c. — ^the  demands  become 
increasingly  heavy.  It  is  probable  that  the  Moslem  con- 
querors in  HsForthem  Nigeria  merely  superimposed  the  Koranic 
tithe  upon  the  pre-existiug  scheme  of  taxation  among  the 
Habes.  But  Mahomedan  rule  admitted  of  a  more  systematised 
method. 

Only  among  the  most  primitive  peoples,  where  the  authority 
of  a  paramount  chief  has  not  yet  emerged,  do  we  find  an 
entire  absence  of  taxation,  for  there  is  no  authority  to  demand 
or  enforce  it.  Such  communities  regard  the  payment  of 
tribute  as  the  token  of  acknowledgment  of  a  Suzerain,  with 
the  consequent  obligation  to  refrain  from  murders  and  rob- 


232  TAXATION. 

beries.  Provided  that  it  is  not  collected  by  alien  native  tax- 
gatherers,  and  is  not  unduly  onerous,  they  do  not  appear  to 
resent  its  imposition  ;  and,  as  I  have  said  in  the  last  chapter, 
refusal  to  pay  is  usually  a  formal  and  deliberate  prelude  to 
an  outbreak  of  lawlessness. 

A  direct  tax  is  not  therefore  contrary  to  native  custom 
or  prejudices  among  those  who  have  reached  the  tribal  stage,* 
and  the  disUke  of  it  is  not  due  to  any  objection  to  the  prin- 
ciple, but  to  the  imposition  of  a  tax  in  addition  to,  instead  of 
in  substitution  for,  the  tribute.  The  Yorubas,  who  at  first 
resented  it  strongly,  asked  for  its  imposition  when  they 
imderstood  the  system,  and  the  hostility  of  the  Pulani  was 
similarly  converted  to  a  whole-hearted  co-operation. 

The  tax  imposed  by  aUen  Moslem  conquerors  on  those  who 
adopted  the  Faith  was  the  Koranic  tithe,  with  a  much  more 
onerous  levy  on  conquered  pagans  (which  was  doubled  in 
case  of  rebellion),  while  imconquered  tribes  were  regarded  as 
slave  preserves.  With  the  growth  of  luxury  the  tendency  is 
for  the  rich  and  powerful  to  evade  it,  while  the  peasantry, 
even  though  nominally  Moslems,  are  subjected  to  increasing 
burdens.  The  rulers  no  longer  lead  in  war,  the  Jihad  de- 
generates into  the  slave-raid,  and  the  tax  is  collected  by 
deputy,  while  the  chiefs  live  in  luxury  at  the  capital,  sur- 
rounded by  slaves,  eunuchs,  and  concubines.  The  erstwhile 
leaders  of  the  armies  become  fief -holders  farming  the  taxes 
of  large  districts,  or  particular  cities,  and  appointing  then- 
relatives  and  favourites  as  their  deputies.* 

The  payment  of  direct  taxes  is  in  Africa,  as  elsewhere,  an 
unwelcome  concomitant  of  progress.  It  marks  the  recognition 
of  the  principle  that  each  individual  in  proportion  to  his 
means  has  an  obUgation  to  the  State,  to  which  he  owes  security 

"  Sir  W.  Macgregor,  who  expressed  this  view,  nevertheless  recognised  the 
obligation  to  pay  the  customary  direct  tribute  to  the  chiefs,  and  himself  under- 
took to  reassess  it  among  the  lUeshas,  when  it  had  lapsed  owing  to  the  decay  of 
tribal  authority  consequent  on  the  advent  of  the  British  ('Gazette,'  16/1/04). 
The  regular  tribute  among  the  Yorubas  and  Illeshas,  paid  by  both  men  and 
women,  is  said  to  have  varied  from  6s.  to  10s.  It  was  supplemented  by  obligatory 
personal  service,  and  there  were  special  taxes,  including  death-duties. 

2  These  were  the  characteristics  of  the  decadence  of  Fulani  domination  in 
Northern  Nigeria,  which  necessitated  its  overthrow  by  the  British  administration. 
The  Sultan  of  Sokoto  admitted  that  the  fall  of  the  Fulani  dynasty  was  a  just 
punishment  for  their  misrule.  All  kinds  of  additional  and  irregular  taxes — on 
special  classes  or  on  particular  crops  or  possessions—  had  been  introduced.  The 
ancient  kingdom  of  Bornu  appears  to  have  approached  to  something  like  an 
income-tax  and  death  duties. 


EESTILTS  OF  DIRECT  TAXATION.  233 

for  life  and  property,  and  his  increased  wealth, — due  to  fair 
wages  for  his  labour,  improved  transport,  and  a  large  com- 
petitive market  for  his  produce. 

By  its  means  the  upper  classes  can  be  paid  salaries  for 
public  work ;  slavery,  forced  labour,  and  all  other  forms  of 
exactions  from  the  peasantry  can  be  declared  Ulegal  without 
reducing  the  ruling  classes  to  poverty.  The  freed  slave,  on 
his  part,  renders  to  the  State  a  small  and  fixed  proportion 
of  the  profits  of  his  industry.  The  tax  may  thus  in  a  sense 
be  regarded  as  a  means  of  promoting  the  recognition  of  in- 
dividual responsibility,  which  is  inseparable  from  liberty,  but 
is  destroyed  by  the  system  of  slavery.  It  was  by  this  means 
that  in  Mgeria  we  sought  a  solution  of  the  difficulties  attendant 
on  the  aboHtion  of  the  legal  status  of  slavery,  and  to  support 
the  ruling  classes  while  protecting  the  peasantry. 

It  emancipates  justice  by  freeing  the  salaried  native  judge 
from  the  temptation  of  bribes  and  unjust  fines.  It  lightens 
the  heavy  burdens  on  trade,  both  by  rendering  possible  the 
abolition  of  the  tolls  levied  by  native  rulers,  by  decreasing 
the  amount  which  must  otherwise  be  raised  by  customs, 
and  by  promoting,  as  no  other  agency  can,  the  introduc- 
tion of  coin  currency.  The  task  of  assessment  promotes  an 
intimate  touch  between  the  British  staff  and  the  native 
officials  who  assist  in  it  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  remote  and  almost  inaccessible  villages  on  the  other  hand, 
who  but  for  this  assessment  might  have  remained  unknown. 
The  District  Officer  comes  as  the  herald  of  a  just  and  equitable 
tax  to  replace  extortion. 

Among  unorganised  communities,  not  previously  subject 
to  tax,  where  native  rulers  cannot  be  said  to  exist,  the  tax 
affords  a  means  of  creating  and  enforcing  native  authority, 
of  curbing  lawlessness,  and  assisting  ia  tribal  evolution,  and 
hence  it  becomes  a  moral  benefit,  and  is  justified  by  the 
immimity  from  slave-raids  which  the  people  now  enjoy. 

Though  the  project  of  instituting  a  tax  before  the  intro- 
duction of  a  coin  currency  should  have  afforded  a  means  of 
converting  it  into  revenue  seemed  at  first  impossible,  I  soon 
became  convinced  that  postponement  would  be  a  weak  and 
short-sighted  policy,  which  would  render  the  eventual  neces- 
sity all  the  harder  of  attainment.  For  the  time  must  come, 
as  it  has  come  to  every  community  in  the  world,  when  some 
form  of  direct  tax  for  revenue  purposes  must  be  imposed. 


234  TAXATION. 

That  necessity  has  been  recognised  (with,  I  believe,  the  sole 
exception  of  the  Gold  Coast)  by  every  administration  in  British 
and  foreign  tropical  Africa.  If  delayed,  its  imposition  is 
certain  to  be  resented,  and  to  lead  to  trouble  and  bloodshed. 
If  it  is  imposed  at  once  it  is  recognised  as  part  of  the  white 
man's  rule,  and  accepted  as  such.  The  inauguration  of  British 
rule  is  the  moment  at  which  to  lay  the  foundations,  not  merely 
in  view  of  subsequent  necessities  for  revenue,  but  in  order  to 
establish  the  principle  of  personal  contribution  to  the  State 
in  proportion  to  wealth,  to  which  I  have  referred. 

But  though  the  principle  in  my  view  should  be  asserted 
at  the  outset,  it  is  of  no  less  importance  that  the  tax  should 
in  primitive  communities  be  very  light  at  first,  since  it  is 
there  intended  to  be  educative  rather  than  a  source  of  revenue. 
If  it  is  in  principle  an  income  tax  (though  in  a  primitive  com- 
munal society  it  becomes  a  poll-tax)  it  will  automatically  be 
proportioned  to  the  ability  to  pay.  It  wiU  correspond  in  some 
degree  with  the  expenditure  incurred  in  the  district.  Now 
that  new  territories  are  falling  under  British  control  by  the 
Mandate  of  the  Powers,  it  is  worth  while  to  emphasise  the 
necessity  both  for  the  early  imposition  of  the  tax,  and  for 
making  it  a  Ught  one. 

There  are  those  who  advocate  direct  taxation  primarily  as 
a  means  of  compelling  the  natives  to  work.  This  was  the 
underlying  principle  of  a  clause  in  Mr  Ehodes'  "  Glen  Grey 
Act  "  (which,  however,  provided  that  the  proceeds  of  the 
tax  should  be  appUed  to  their  own  benefit).^  Mr  Chamberlain 
ridiculed  the  idea  that  the  South  African  method  was  akin 
to  slavery.  The  native,  he  considered,  should  be  made  to 
work,  because  he  had  for  so  long  forced  his  women  to  work 
in  order  that  he  might  live  in  idleness.  The  substitution 
of  labour  for  the  payment  of  a  tax,  or  the  imposition  of  a 
heavier  tax  if  the  native  cannot  prove  that  he  has  worked 
for  a  specified  time,  are  expedients  which  ia  the  past  have 
been  adopted  elsewhere. 

If,  as  has  been  alleged  regarding  natives  restricted  to 
Eeserves,  the  males  of  a  community  are  found  to  be  living 
in  habitual  idleness  and  drunkenness,  special  taxation  may 
perhaps  be  justified  in  their  own  best  interests  ;  but  in  that 
case  the  native  should  be  free  to  earn  the  money  by  working 

^  The  clause  remained  a  dead  letter  for  eleven  years,  and  was  then  formally 
repealed. — B.  Williams'  'Life  of  Cecil  Rhodes,'  p.  212. 


INDIEECT  TAXATION  mSXIFFICIENT.  235 

on  his  own  land,  or  by  offering  his  labour  to  whom  he  chooses. 
The  object  in  view  would  be  the  education  of  the  native, 
not  the  procuring  of  labour  for  Government  or  European 
employers,  or  the  increase  of  revenue.^  I  shaU  recur  to  this 
subject  in  the  chapter  on  labour. 

Under  normal  conditions  the  African  rarely  needs  com- 
pulsion to  work,  and  this  is  not  the  object  of  the  tax  I  have 
proposed,  but  in  so  far  as  the  tax  stimulates  productive 
industry,  and  compels  a  man,  as  in  England,  to  provide  an 
extra  margin  wherewith  to  meet  the  obligation,  or  if  it 
diminishes  the  large  surplus  of  the  grain  crops,  which  among 
many  pagan  tribes  is  set  aside  for  brewing  hquor  with 
which  to  indulge  in  frequent  drunken  orgies,  its  effect  can 
only  be  good  (pp.  603-4). 

It  was  reported  in  IsTorthem  Mgeria  that  in  districts  where 
taxes  had  formerly  been  paid  to  the  Pulani  but  had  lapsed, 
considerable  areas  had  gone  out  of  cultivation,  and  the  male 
population,  deprived,  as  in  South  Africa,  of  its  principal 
occupation  of  fighting,  had  taken  to  drinking  and  quarrelling. 
In  Southern  Mgeria  the  tribute  to  the  chiefs  had  in  many 
cases  been  discontinued  on  the  advent  of  the  British,  and 
tribal  aiuthority  had  consequently  been  weakened.  The  High 
Commissioner  of  Uganda  expressed  the  view  that  the  direct 
tax  "  will  prove  to  be  the  making  of  the  country,  not  only 
because  of  the  revenue  it  brings,  but  because  of  the  habits 
of  work  it  inculcates,  which  are  rapidly  altering  one  of  the 
natxiral  characteristics  of  the  people." 

It  may  be  asked  whether,  so  far  as  revenue  is  concerned, 
a  sufficient  sum  could  not  be  raised  both  for  Government 
requirements  and  to  support  the  native  administration,  by 
indirect  taxation  ?  The  only  substantial  source  of  revenue 
from  indirect  taxation  accrues  from  customs  duties.  It  is 
not  possible  that  such  duties  should  provide  a  revenue  ade- 
quate for  the  needs  of  the  Government,  and  none  at  all  could 
be  spared  for  native  administration.  In  Mgeria  the  customs 
duties  were  estimated  in  1919  to  provide  less  than  a  third 
(29|  per  cent)  of  the  total  revenue  (including  the  sums  re- 
tained by  the  native  administrations),  in  spite  of  the  fact 

'  See  chapter  xix.  Lord  Milner  in  the  Transvaal,  and  Sir  G.  Lagden  in 
Basutoland,  both  agreed  that  the  primary  object  of  the  tax  should  not  be  to 
compel  labour.  Lord  Milner's  later  pronouncements  as  Seci'etary  of  State,  both 
in  a  despatch  published  as  a  White-book  and  in  the  debate  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  are  quoted  in  the  chapter  referred  to. 


236  TAXATION. 

that  they  had  been  recently  increased  by  a  third,  by  special 
export  duties  which  were  not  iatended  to  be  permanent.^ 
In  East  Africa — ^taking  a  naean  between  the  years  1913-14 
(pre-war)  and  1917-18 — the  customs  provided  only  13|  per 
cent  of  the  revenue  ^ — ^in  the  Sudan  only  12  per  cent.* 

The  trade  of  the  tropics  consists  of  the  export  of  raw 
materials  in  exchange  for  manufactured  goods,  and  customs 
duties  offer  the  simplest  and  cheapest  form  of  taxation,  but 
they  have  their  limits.  Though  a  necessary  adjunct,  they 
retard  the  development  of  trade,  and  fall  very  unequally  on 
the  population.  Provinces  distant  from  the  sea  and  the 
railway  consume  the  minimum  of  customable  goods,  and 
hence  pay  but  little  indirect  tax,  though  they  are  the  most 
costly  to  administer  by  reason  of  the  heavy  transport  charges. 
Other  forms  of  indirect  taxation,  of  which  fines  and  fees  of 
court  are  probably  the  most  considerable,  are  not  easily 
expandable. 

Where  direct  taxes  already  exist,  the  object  in  view  is  to 
consohdate  them  into  a  single  annual  payment,  based  on 
native  law  and  custom  and  the  indigenous  institutions  of 
the  country,  while  ensuring  that  the  sum  demanded  is  just 
and  reasonable,  and  that  the  method  of  collection  is  such  as 
will  distribute  the  burden  equitably  in  proportion  to  the 
wealth  of  the  individual,  and  finally  to  see  that  it  is  clearly 
understood  by  chiefs  and  people  alike  that  any  demand  in 
excess  of  this  authorised  tax  is  illegal.  The  chiefs  must  be 
warned  that  any  attempt  to  make  a  larger  demand — even 
indirectly  as  compulsory  labour,  or  the  exaction  of  suppUes 
or  food  without  payment — ^will  lay  them  open  to  a  charge  of 
extortion,  and  the  peasantry  are  informed  that  in  such  a 
case  they  can  appeal  from  the  village  to  the  district  head,  or 
in  the  last  resort,  to  the  Emir  and  the  British  staff. 

In  the  Moslem  States  of  Northern  Nigeria  the  immediate 
task  was  to  consolidate  the  multipUcity  of  taxes  into  a  single 
"  general  "  tax,  payable  on  a  single  demand  after  the  harvest, 
and  whenever  possible  in  CTirrency  instead  of  in  Mnd.    The 

'  Prior  to  the  abolition  of  the  import  of  "  trade  spirits,"  an  abnormal  revenue 
was  raised  by  the  duties  imposed  on  these  imports,  which  in  1913  amounted  to 
about  two-thirds  (64  per  cent)  of  the  total  customs  receipts  (£1,138,000  out  of 
£1,760,400).  The  duty  was  about  250  per  cent  ad  valorem.  Customs  were 
51  per  cent  of  revenue. 

'  '  East  African  Economic  Commission's  Report,'  p.  7. 

3  Handbook  98,  p.  168. 


TAX  ON  INCOME  OE  PEOFITS  THE  BEST.  237 

task  of  the  District  Ofl&cer  was  to  assist  the  district  and 
village  headmen  to  assess  it,  year  by  year  improving  the 
graduation  in  proportion  to  wealth.  It  rests  with  the  head 
of  the  Government  to  see  that  as  far  as  possible  some  measure 
of  uniformity,  and  of  equaUty  of  incidence,  is  introduced  in 
the  different  provinces.^  Among  primitive  communities, 
where  no  recognised  tribute  exists,  the  communal  basis  of 
society  compels  a  capitation  tax,  but  this  is  susceptible  of 
gradual  modification  as  rights  in  individual  property  emerge 
with  the  growth  of  tribal  organisation,  and  of  individual 
enterprise  in  trade. 

The  tax  most  suitable  for  Africa  is,  in  my  judgment,  an 
income  or  property  tax — ^in  other  words,  a  contribution  to 
the  needs  of  the  State  by  each  individual  according  to  his 
means,  whether  he  be  an  argiculturist  or  a  craftsman,  a  trader 
or  a  collector  of  sylvan  produce,  a  nomad  herdsman  or  a 
dweller  in  cities,  a  chief  or  a  peasant,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
whether  he  be  a  Moslem,  a  Christian,  or  a  pagan. 

It  should  not  be  levied  on  a  man's  hut  or  cultivated  land, 
to  neither  of  which  has  the  State  any  right,  and  any  claims 
on  which  he  will  cordially  resent,  but  on  the  income  or  profits 
of  each  individual,  regardless  of  the  source  from  which  he 
derives  it.  This  is  the  basis  of  Mohamedan  taxation  accord- 
ing to  the  Koranic  law,  and  is  therefore  in  strict  accord  with 
native  law  and  custom  in  Moslem  States.  It  is  not  an 
"  economic  land  rent." 

The  vast  bulk  of  the  population  of  Africa  are  agriculturists, 
and  it  has  been  argued  that  if  a  community  consumed  all 

'  The  first  tentative  efltort  in  Northern  Nigeria,  before  the  country  was  fully 
brought  under  administrative  control,  was  "  to  secure  to  the  revenue  a  certain 
proportion  of  the  taxes  on  land  and  produce  levied  by  the  native  chiefs,  and  did 
not  in  any  way  touch  the  nature  of  those  taxes  or  restrict  the  power  of  the 
chiefs  as  to  the  extent  to  which  they  might  tyrannise  over  or  extort  from  the 
peasantry."  In  due  course,  when  adequate  information  had  been  collected,  this 
was  followed  by  an  enactment,  the  object  of  which  was  "to  lay  down  limits  to 
the  taxation  by  native  chiefs,  to  define  and  legalise  the  various  taxes,  and  to  place 
them  under  the  supervision  of  the  administration,  and  at  the  same  time  to  assign 
an  adequate  portion  of  the  revenue  so  collected  to  the  Government." — Governor's 
Despatch  of  26th  April  1905.  Even  if  the  Government  were  to  take  no  share  of 
the  proceeds,  the  task  of  assessment  and  the  supervision  of  the  payment  of  the 
tribute  is  a  duty  which  cannot  be  avoided,  so  long  as  the  system  of  ruling  through 
the  chiefs  is  maintained.  For  "if  Government  enforces  their  demands,  it  must 
see  to  it  that  they  are  reasonable  and  not  extortionate ;  otherwise,  not  only 
would  Government  be  the  instrument  of  misrule,  but  revolt  would  take  place  in 
every  province  "  ;  for  already,  owing  to  the  extortion  of  the  past,  the  peasantry 
were  declining  to  pay  any  dues  whatever. — Governor's  Despatch  of  23rd  August 
1905. 


238  TAXATION. 

its  com  and  stock  in  feeding  itself,  there  being  no  profits, 
no  tax  could  be  levied,  and  the  result  woidd  be  that  the 
industrious  who  produce  a  surplus  would  be  penalised,  and 
the  idle,  who  only  produce  enough  for  their  own  wants, 
would  escape  taxation.  Moreover,  it  would  be  exceedingly 
difficult  to  determine  what  proportion  of  produce  and  stock 
should  be  properly  assigned  to  the  actual  needs  of  the  culti- 
vator. 

The  argument  has  special  force  in  a  country  like  Africa, 
where  primitive  man  has  few  wants,  and  lacks  incentives  to 
accumulate  wealth,  where  even  among  the  advanced  communi- 
ties the  bulk  of  the  peasantry  would  seem  to  have  few  in- 
ducements to  increase  that  margin  of  profit  which  among 
civihsed  nations  becomes  a  necessity.  A  TniniTrmm  of  labour 
— ^largely  done  by  his  women-kind — ^is  required  to  build  his 
hut,  to  weave  his  cloth  from  his  own  cotton,  and  to  furnish 
his  needs  in  food.  But  the  African,  as  soon  as  he  has  ceased 
to  be  nomadic,  and  has  settled  down  on  the  land,^  is  not 
immune  from  the  natural  human  desire  to  make  profits.^  As 
soon  as  he  has  emerged  from  primeval  savagery — often  indeed 
before  he  has  done  so — ^he  becomes  a  keen  trader,  eager  in 
the  pursuit  of  gaia.  Even  the  least  progressive  are  anxious 
to  set  aside  some  margin  for  the  purchase  of  articles  outside 
their  bare  necessities, — whether  it  be  gaudy  cloths  and  beads 
for  ornament,  or  potent  spirits,  or  to  grow  a  surplus  of  com 
with  which  to  brew  the  beer  that  they  love. 

In  order,  however,  to  meet  the  case  of  the  idle  and  the 
least  progressive,  I  enacted  in  the  "  I^'ative  Eevenue  Proclama- 
tion "  of  Northern  Mgeria  (March  1906)  that  "the  principle 
on  which  the  estimate  or  valuation  of  lands  shall  be  made, 
shall  be  the  amount  of  produce  or  profit  which  can  be  annually 
obtained  from,  and  the  number  of  live-stock  that  can  be 
annually  raised  and  supported  on  such  land,  by  a  person 
cultivatiag  and  using  the  same,  in  the  manner  and  up  to  the 
average  standard  of  cultivation  and  use  prevailing  in  the 

1  The  nomadic  pastorals  have,  of  all  the  peoples  of  Africa,  the  least  use  for 
the  amenities  of  civilisation  and  the  least  desire  to  trade.  They  are  generally 
content  to  go  naked  or  clad  in  skins,  and  look  to  their  cattle  for  all  their 
requirements. 

2  See  Adam  Smith  on  profits,  loc.  ciL,  Bk.  II.,  chap.  iii.  "The  desire  of 
bettering  our  condition  .  .  .  comes  with  us  from  the  womb,  and  never  leaves  us 
till  we  go  into  the  grave "  ;  it  is  a  "  universal,  continual,  and  uninterrupted 
efifort"  (pp.  19  and  27). 


DEFINITION   OF   "PEOFITS."  239 

neiglibotirhood."  This  clause  introduces  the  important  prin- 
ciple that  the  tax  is  not  an  income  tax  pure  and  simple,  but 
a  tax  on  the  potential  proiits — ^viz.,  profits  realisable  by  the 
expenditure  of  ordinary  and  normal  industry  and  effort.  It 
is  described  by  the  "  Northern  Nigeria  Lands  Committee  " 
as  embodying  "  the  principles  of  a  regular  revenue  assess- 
ment," which,  however,  owing  to  lack  of  staff  and  other 
reasons,  had  not  in  1907  been  appUed  in  their  entirety. ^ 

To  assess  the  tax  due  on  the  potential  jdeld  of  a  given 
acreage  of  land  under  cultivation,  which  has  no  special  facili- 
ties of  transport,  or  proximity  to  a  good  market,  or  exceptional 
water  supply,  &c.,  is  not  an  insuperably  difficult  task.  The 
normal  yield  of  such  land  would  be  known,  and  would  have  a 
recognised  value,  varying  slightly  from  year  to  year,  and 
easily  estimated  by  the  village  headman.  This  forms  the 
basis  so  far  as  the  agriculturist  is  concerned.  It  remains  to 
ascertain  how  much  cultivable  land  and  stock  is  held  by 
each  farmer,  and  whether  its  value  is  augmented  by  special 
conditions.  The  cultivator  must  therefore  exert  himself  to 
cultivate  his  land  to  at  least  the  normal  standard,  so  as  to 
produce  sufficient  to  pay  his  tax  in  addition  to  his  own  con- 
sumption. Agricultural  "  profits  "  therefore  means  the  usu- 
fruct or  yield  of  the  land  if  cultivated  to  a  normal  standard, 
inclusive  of  the  consumption  of  the  owner. 

If  the  term  "  profits  "  be  appUed  to  sources  of  income 
other  than  land,  it  means  the  gross  revenue  derived.  Property 
from  which  revenue  is  derivable,  though  none  be  actually 
realised,  is  of  course  assessable  to  tax  as  in  England — e.g., 
a,  house  inhabited  by  its  owner.  In  the  rough-and-ready 
system  which  in  the  early  years  replaces  the  lack  of  any 
system  at  all  under  a  native  despotism,  the  tax  paid  by  the 
normal  agriculturist  forms  the  datum  of  assessment,  and  the 
peasant  who  lives  on  the  same  general  standard,  whether  he 
be  a  craftsman  or  a  fisherman,  &c.,  would  pay  the  same  tax. 
It  is  assessed  by  the  village  headman  and  his  council  of 
elders,  who  are  the  only  competent  judges  of  the  comparative 
wealth  of  individuals.  This  may  to  some  extent  be  gauged 
by  the  number  of  a  man's  wives,  his  Uve-stock,  and  the  style 
of  his  hut.  Nomad  cattle-owners  can  pay  a  fixed  sum  per 
head  of  stock. 

The  rate  of  the  tax  is  fixed  by  the  Governor,  and  in  Northern 

I  Cd.  5102  of  1910,  p.  XV. 


240  TAXATION. 

Nigeria  it  is  nominally  the  Koranic  tithe  (under  the  name  of 
Earaji) — ^vlz.,  a  tenth  of  the  gross  annual  income ;  but  there 
are  probably  few  who  pay  so  much,  and  the  poorer  classes 
may  be  rated  at  4  per  cent  to  8  per  cent  only.  In  the  case 
of  the  small  farmer  it  is  estimated  that  this  10  per  cent  of 
gross  profits  is  the  equivalent  of  25  per  cent  net  profits  (a 
ratio,  I  beUeve,  accepted  in  Burma).  It  may  be  more  con- 
venient to  take  the  net  income  as  the  basis  in  the  case  of 
those  who,  hke  traders,  Uve  on  the  profits  of  capital,  or  in 
localities  where  the  cost  of  living  is  unduly  high,  but  it  is 
difficult  to  define  the  term.  In  primitive  Africa,  necessary 
living  expenses,  other  than  food,  are  negligible. 

In  Northern  Mgeria  the  highest  average  for  a  district  is 
given  at  about  5s.  to  6s.  (probably  equal  to  9d.  per  cultivated 
acre)  per  annum,  and  in  some  pagan  districts  it  does  not 
exceed  6d.  Eemissions  are  freely  made  in  case  of  local 
failure  of  crops,  and  there  are  some  few  exemptions,  such 
as  the  salaries  of  native  officials  of  Government  and  of  the 
native  administration,  ex-soldiers  who  have  won  decorations, 
and  the  blind  and  infirm.  This  compares  favourably  with 
most  other  tropical  dependencies,  where  the  tax  is  fixed  at 
10s.  or  £1,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  a  great  relief  to  the  peas- 
antry. Yet  the  amount  reaUsed  (including  receipts  from  native 
courts,  &c.)  has  increased  in  fliteen  years  from  £20,861  ia 
1904-5  1  to  about  a  mUlion  in  1919. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  what  particular  ways  the  pre- 
existing system  in  Northern  Mgeria  had  become  an  instru- 
ment of  oppression,  since  the  only  hope  of  continued  success 
must  obviously  lie  in  avoiding  such  mistakes  in  future.^ 

Apart  from  the  multiplicity  of  taxes  and  their  undue 
severity,  absentee  landlordism  was  a  fruitful  source  of  evil. 
Alike  in  Uganda  and  in  Northern  Nigeria  it  was  customary 
for  a  territorial  chief  to  reside  principally  at  the  capital, 
leaving  his  district  to  be  misgoverned  by  a  deputy,  or  through 
agents  and  tax-gatherers,  whose  chief  aim  it  was  to  squeeze 
aU  they  could  out  of  the  people,  both  on  their  own  account, 
and  in  order  to  earn  favour  with  their  chief  and  retain  their 

'  'Colonial  Office  Annual  Reports,'  476  of  1905,  p.  21.  Lord  Cromer  writes 
that,  "  in  countries  such  as  Egypt  and  the  Sudan,  low  taxation  should  be  the 
keystone  of  the  arch."  Works,  however  desirable,  should  be  postponed  "rather 
than  that  the  principle  of  maintaining  taxes  at  a  low  figure  should  be  in  any 
degree  infringed." 

^  Compare  the  abuses  described  by  Lord  Cromer,  '  Modern  Egypt,'  vol.  i.  p.  169. 


ABUSES  OF  NATIVE  SYSTEM.  241 

posts.  The  teiritorial  chief  held  his  lands  at  the  will  of  the 
paramount  chief.  He  was  afraid  to  be  absent  from  the  capital 
lest  reports — true  or  false — to  his  disadvantage  should  reach 
the  ear  of  the  rvder,  or  some  other  favourite  should  replace 
him.  The  ruler  on  his  part  feared  to  let  these  powerful 
provincial  chiefs  out  of  his  sight,  lest  they  should  grow  inde- 
pendent and  defy  his  authority.  Both  employed  tax-gatherers, 
who  seem  to  have  generally  collected  their  demands  through 
local  headmen.^ 

These  tax-collectors  became  a  veritable  curse  to  the  country, 
and  were  the  most  hated  feature  of  the  system.  They  not 
only  collected,  but  assessed  the  demand.  Their  arbitrary 
powers,  and  the  fact  that  they  alone  had  the  ear  of  the  chief, 
enabled  them  to  practise  what  extortion  they  pleased.  Natur- 
ally they  made  as  much  as  they  could,  both  for  their  employers 
and  for  themselves.  They  acted  as  spies,  informers,  procurers, 
and  accredited  agents,  and  were  universally  detested  by  the 
people. 

The  lands  thus  arbitrarily  assigned  to  the  rapacious  rule  of 
the  Emir's  nominees  were  frequently  not  homologous.  A 
district  which  happened  to  be  available,  owing  to  the  death 
or  removal  of  its  feudal  chief,  would  be  granted  to  a  favourite, 
irrespective  of  whether  it  lay  near  his  territory  or  not.  More- 
over, in  the  confusion  of  war  it  might  happen  that  a  party 
of  fugitives  settled  down  on  a  spot  far  removed  from  the 
rest  of  the  community,  but  continued  to  recognise  the  ties 
of  clan  and  afllnity,  to  pay  allegiance  to  their  own  tribal 
chief,  and  to  ignore  the  authority  of  the  local  district 
head. 

Thus  a  chief  might  exercise  jurisdiction  over,  and  claim 
taxes  from  a  number  of  detached  areas,  situated  like  islands 
in  another  chief's  territory,  accentuating  the  evils  of  absentee- 
ism, and  inviting  a  conflict  of  authority.  It  is  clearly  necessary 
that  such  extra-territorial  allegiance  should  be  gradually 
abolished,  while  all  new  migrants  acknowledge  the  local 
authority  as  a  condition  of  settlement. 

The  urgent  reforms  which  would  seem  to  be  of  universal 
application  in  Africa,  wherever  a  system  of  indigenous  taxa- 
tion exists,  may  be  summarised  briefly,  nor  are  the  principles 

'  In  Southern  Nigeria  (Yoruba-land)  there  was  a  tendency  for  the  "  Bal&  "  of 
the  great  cities  (some  of  which  had  a  population  of  over  100,000)  to  settle  down 
and  create  a  court  of  their  own. 

Q 


242  TAXATION. 

they  cover  less  applicable  if  taxation  is  beiag  introduced  into 
a  district  de  novo  : — 

(a)  The  abolition  of  a  multiplicity  of  taxes,  and  their 
consolidation  into  a  single  tax,  due  at  a  fixed  time,  and 
limited  to  a  known  amount,  and  the  abolition  of  the  system 
of  farming  out  taxes. 

(6)  The  selection  of  competent  men  (whether  the  former 
territorial  chief  or  another),  and  their  appointment  as  salaried 
district  headmen,  directly  responsible  to  the  native  ruler, 
and  residing  in  the  districts  assigned  to  their  charge. 

(c)  The  collection  of  the  tax  from  the  individual  (in  cash 
if  possible)  by  the  village  headman  and  his  advisers,  super- 
vised by  the  district  head  and  the  British  staff ;  from  the 
village  by  the  district  head ;  with  the  abolition  of  the  tax- 
gatherer,  and  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  head  chief  and  to  the 
British  staff. 

(d)  The  recognition  of  the  imdivided  authority  of  the 
native  ruler  and  his  delegates,  and  the  payment  to  them  of 
the  taxes,  of  which  the  ruler  retains  the  portion  assigned  to 
him,  and  transfers  the  remainder — ^in  cash  if  possible — to  the 
Government. 

The  district  headman  can  and  should  have  a  house  at  the 
capital,  where  he  can  attend  to  receive  the  instructions  of 
the  native  ruler  and  answer  for  his  stewardship.  But  the 
former  fief -holders  who  prefer  to  reside  permanently  at  the 
capital  would  cease  to  be  recognised  as  part  of  the  native 
administration,  and  would  receive  no  salaries  unless  selected 
for  an  official  post  under  the  native  ruler.  ^  Some  would 
become  traders,  others  farmers  of  their  own  lands.  Un- 
authorised demands  on  the  peasantry  must  be  treated  as 
criminal  offences.  Accredited  messengers  of  the  chief  or 
native  coiirt  should  carry  symbols  of  oflQce  to  prevent  abuses. 

The  tax,  as  we  have  seen,  is  collected  in  the  name  of  the 
native  ruler,  who  in  the  advanced  communities  usually  re- 
tains a  half  for  the  native  administration  and  pays  half  to 
the  Government.  In  primitive  communities,  where  there  are 
no  highly  paid  officials,  and  the  whole  machinery  of  a  native 
administration  is  in  embryo,  a  quarter  of  the  total  may 
suffice,  whUe  in  districts  where  it  has  not  yet  been  possible 

1  It  waa  in  Uganda  obligatory  for  a  chief  to  reside  for  three  months  at  the 
capital  (Felkin,  'Notes  onWaganda,'  p.  46).  The  "Sazas"  when  absent  now 
appoint  a  deputy  to  represent  them  in  the  lutiko  (council). 


NATIVE  KXJLERS  SHAKE  THE  TAX.  243 

to  create  any  such  machinery,  5  per  cent  or  10  per  cent 
may  be  enough  for  the  remuneration  of  the  village  head- 
men. 

The  principle  of  participation  in  the  proceeds  of  the  tax, 
however  smaU  the  percentage  assigned  to  primitive  com- 
munities may  be,  should  be  introduced  simultaneously  with 
the  tax  to  promote  co-operation.  The  proportion  to  be 
credited  to  the  native  administration  is  fixed  by  the  Governor, 
and  may  not  be  altered  without  his  sanction.  Of  the  moiety 
retained  by  an  advanced  native  administration,  from  5  per 
cent  to  10  per  cent  is  paid  to  the  viUage  headmen.  This 
payment  may  take  the  form  either  of  a  percentage  of  the 
amount  actually  collected  by  him — ^which  ensures  his  interest 
in  the  collection — or,  when  his  integrity  has  been  fuUy  estab- 
lished, of  a  fixed  salary.  The  amount  would  vary  in  propor- 
tion to  the  work  he  is  called  upon  to  do.  In  smaU  farm 
villages  his  duties  may  hardly  encroach  at  aU  on  his  ordinary 
occupation  of  farming,  and  the  prestige  of  the  position,  with 
a  small  bonus,  will  suffice.  But  in  large  villages,  which  in- 
clude a  number  of  craftsmen  and  traders,  the  duties  of  the 
village  head  may  become  very  onerous,  and  may  probably 
occupy  his  whole  time.  In  such  cases  he  would  generally 
be  put  on  a  fixed  salary. 

The  district  headman,  who  will  probably  require  at  least 
one  scribe  and  several  messengers  to  assist  him,  must  receive 
a  liberal  salary,  to  enable  him  to  maintain  his  position  with- 
out resorting  to  illicit  practices.  The  ruUng  chief,  and  the 
principal  officers  who  form  his  council  and  transact  the 
business  of  the  treasxiry,  &c.,  must  also  be  liberally  paid.^ 
Probably  50  per  cent  of  the  native  share  of  the  tax  in  an 
advanced  community  may  be  devoted  to  these  purposes,  the 
remainder  being  available  for  the  pay  of  the  poUce,  the 
maintenance  of  the  prison,  the  salaries  of  the  native  staff  in 
the  schools,  and  other  administrative  expenditure,  leaving  a 
considerable  surplus  for  public  works,  such  as  court-houses, 
treasury  buildings,  roads,  &c.  The  incUnation  to  spend  an 
imdue  amount  on  the  capital  city  must  be  avoided.  A  for- 
ward step  in  decentraUsation  and  delegation  of  responsibihty 
would  be  taken  by  the  ruling  chief  assigning  a  portion  of  this 
surplus  to  each  of  his  district  headmen,  to  be  spent  in  de- 
velopment work  for  the   general  benefit  of  the  taxpayers. 

1  In  North  Nigeria  the  principal  Emirs  receire  £4800  per  annum. 


244  TAXATION. 

The  French,  I  believe,  recognised  this  principle  in  some 
districts.^ 

On  the  first  inauguration  of  the  tax  in  Northern  Nigeria,  the 
native  ruler  and  all  oflBcials  were  paid  in  percentages,  but  as 
on  the  one  hand  experience  was  gained  as  to  the  salaries  re- 
quisite, and  as  on  the  other  hand  the  revenue  iacreased,  fixed 
salaries  were,  as  I  have  said,  substituted  in  aU  cases  except 
the  small  village  head.  The  receipts  from  the  native  courts 
fuUy  balance  the  expenditure  on  the  salaries  of  the  judges, 
&c.  The  undesirable  parasites — ^favourite  slaves  and  eunuchs 
— ^who,  imder  a  native  despotism,  are  invariably  to  be  found 
surrounding  the  native  ruler  and  exercising  a  baleful  influence, 
soon  disappear  when  their  maintenance  becomes  a  charge  on 
the  chief's  personal  income,  but  he  is  reUeved  of  the  cost  of 
police  and  other  officials  charged  with  public  duties.  Un- 
fettered financial  independence  has  a  tendency  to  multiply 
superfluous  court  officials  and  parasites. 

I  referred  in  the  last  chapter  to  the  recognition  of  the 
village  as  the  imit  of  administration,  and  to  the  difficulty 
of  defining  it,  since  with  security  to  life  and  property  the 
tendency  of  the  peasantry  is  no  longer  to  congregate  in 
walled  towns,  but  to  build  their  huts  on  the  land  they  tUl. 
In  an  advanced  civilisation  Uke  that  of  England,  the  State 
has  a  personal  account  with  each  individual  citizen,  but  in 
tropical  Africa  (as  in  India)  the  village  must  be  the  imit  of 
taxation.  For  this  purpose  scattered  groups  of  tenements, 
which  cannot  even  be  dignified  with  the  name  of  "  hamlets," 
must  be  considered  as  forming  part  of  the  town  or  viflage 
from  which  they  emanated,  and  to  which  in  association  they 
belong. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  to  group  a  number  of 
contiguous  villages  under  a  single  head  must  in  my  opinion 
be  avoided,  for  it  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  principle  of  the 
village  unit.  That  principle  is  that  a  measure  of  responsi- 
bility in  the  assessment  for  taxation  (as  in  other  matters) 

'  Monsieur  Boberdean,  Governor  of  the  Ivory  Coast,  when  introducing  the 
direct  tax,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  necessity  for  its  imposition  "  makes  it 
equally  necessary  that  the  authority  of  the  chiefs  should  be  more  extended  and 
efficient.  For  it  is  the  chief  who  should  assess  the  tax,  should  distribute  it 
fairly,  and  should  be  charged  with  applying  the  necessary  proportion  to  the 
interests  of  the  village  taxed. "  It  was  to  supersede  all  direct  tributes,  and  was 
to  be  divided  as  to  one-third  to  the  chief,  one-third  to  public  works  in  the 
village,  and  one-third  for  the  local  administration. 


THE  PEmcrPLES  OP  ASSESSMENT.  245 

should  be  conEerred  on  the  chief  of  each  distinct  village, 
assisted  by  councillors  selected  by  the  villagers  themselves. 
Its  practical  eflficiency  depends  on  the  recognised  headman 
having  some  personal  knowledge  of  the  standing  and  wealth 
of  every  member  of  the  community,  and  a  personal  iofluence 
over  them,  and  being  able  to  collect  the  tax  himself  without 
employing  tax-gatherers,  whUe  he  in  turn  is  under  the  in- 
fluence of  their  opinion. 

When  the  size  of  the  community  and  the  diversity  of  its 
occupations  begin  to  render  this  impossible,  the  vfllage  may 
be  said  to  have  become  a  town  or  city.  For  purposes  of  taxa- 
tion (and  of  general  administration)  a  town  is  divided  into 
wards,  each  imder  a  ward  head,  who  occupies  a  status  similar 
to  that  of  a  village  head.  They  are  responsible  to  the  district 
head  either  directly  or  through  a  headman  of  the  town. 

The  tax  is  based  on  the  principles  which  characterise  the 
evolution  of  taxation  in  all  countries — viz.,  the  right  of  the 
ruler,  on  behalf  of  the  community,  to  a  share  of  the  usufruct 
of  the  land.  This  was  the  basis  of  the  Hebraic  as  of  the 
Islamic  system.  It  was  the  ancient  custom  in  India,  and  still 
obtains  in  some  of  the  smaller  States.  The  British  system 
in  India,  though  theoretically  founded  upon  it,  revolutionised 
its  fundamental  principles,  by  taking  immense  trouble  to 
ascertain  the  average  yield  of  each  field,  and  its  money  value, 
and  then  demanding  from  the  cultivator  the  Government 
share  in  cash.  Thus  in  a  bad  year  the  ryot  was  often  driven 
to  the  money-lender,  and  he  lost  also  by  the  conversion 
into  cash. 

This  ancient  method  of  dividing  the  produce  of  the  land 
between  the  overlord  and  the  cultivators  has  survived  in 
France  under  the  mMayage  system,  but  the  share  was  the  due 
of  the  landlord  and  not  of  the  State.  The  claim  of  the  State 
in  Mgeria  abolishes  that  of  the  landlord  until  he  emerges 
again  in  a  later  stage  of  evolution.    (See  chapter  on  land.) 

The  difificulty  in  giving  practical  effect  to  the  principle 
lies  in  the  necessary  inadequacy  of  the  British  supervising 
staff,  and  in  the  ignorance  of  the  native  subordinates,  their 
fear  of  assuming  responsibility,  and  their  liability  to  succumb 
to  temptation  and  to  adopt  irregular  practices.  An  ideal 
assessment  cannot  be  effected  without  a  trained  and  costly 
staff,  but  it  is  well  to  keep  the  ideal  in  view.  Assessment 
on  an  average  yield  need  not,  however,  necessarily  produce 


246  TAXATION. 

unfair  results,  provided  that  the  unit  of  area  is  not  too  large, 
that  the  Government  is  ready  to  make  remissions  in  excep- 
tional cases,  and  above  all  that  the  average  price  (as  distiact 
from  the  average  yield)  of  produce  is  not  fixed.  For  unless 
the  diminution  iu  a  bad  year  is  due  to  a  very  local  cause, 
the  output  md  probably  fetch  a  higher  than  the  average 
price,  and  as  the  tax  is  paid  in  cash  and  not  in  kind,  the 
peasant  should  not  suffer. 

We  have  seen  how  a  rough-and-ready  assessment  of  the 
amount  due  from  each  cultivator  may  be  arrived  at  by  the 
district  and  village  headmen,  as  a  percentage  of  the  potential 
yield  of  his  land — viz.,  a  tax  on  his  profits  or  wealth.  To 
caU  this  (as  the  Northern  Nigeria  Lands  Committee  do) 
a  "  land  rent "  is,  from  the  poiut  of  view  of  the  native 
occupier,  the  same  thing  as  asserting  that  the  land  belongs 
to  the  Governor,  who  is  to  him  the  embodiment  of  the  abstract 
idea  of  "  the  State."  If  he  can  only  obtain  the  right  to  use 
it  by  payment  of  a  rent,  he  considers  that  the  land  has  been 
taken  from  him,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  people  of 
Southern  Nigeria  and  the  Gold  Coast  have  evinced  such  a 
dread  of  the  application  of  the  Northern  Nigerian  system  to 
their  lands.     I  shaU  deal  with  this  subject  iu  chapter  xiv. 

Moreover,  if  the  tax  is  treated  as  a  land-rent  and  propor- 
tioned to  the  area  occupied,  each  cultivator  naturally  en- 
deavours to  reduce  his  acreage,  especially  if  he  has  a  risky 
crop,  which  may  fail  and  leave  him  nothing  with  which  to 
pay  his  rent.^  The  taxpayer  is  only  Uable  for  the  authorised 
percentage  of  the  harvest  which  his  land  should  yield  in  any 
particular  year  if  properly  cultivated,  whether  that  yield  be 
large,  or  whether,  in  consequence  of  drought,  or  locusts,  &c., 
it  be  small.  A  rough  survey  by  natives  to  assist  in  the  calcu- 
lation of  area  imder  cultivation,  total  yield,  and  individual 
holdings,  is  very  useful.    (See  p.  301.) 

The  District  Officer,  aided  by  the  native  district  and  village 
headmen,  assesses  in  a  rough-and-ready  manner  the  amount 

^  This  was  illustrated  in  Sokoto,  where  a  fixed  rental  resulted  in  3641  rice 
farms  (about  half  the  total  area  of  that  crop)  going  out  of  cultivation,  with  a 
corresponding  decrease  in  the  tax  collected.  Conversely,  Sir  H.  Fowler  (Secretary 
of  State),  in  the  Indian  Budget  debate  of  1906,  remarked  that  "the  land-tax  iu 
India  cannot  be  called  taxation  in  any  shape  or  form.  It  resembles  the  relation 
of  landlord  and  tenant  .  .  .  (since)  the  land  in  India  had  for  centuries  belonged 
to  the  Crown."  The  land-rent  was  Is.  8d.  in  the  £,  other  taxes  Is.  lOd.  per 
head  per  annum. 


THE  TASK  OP  THE  NATIVE  OFFICIALS.  247 

which  each  village  has  to  pay,  by  taking  a  census  of  the 
population  and  live-stock,  and  noting  the  amount  of  cultivated 
land,  the  proximity  of  markets,  water-supply,  &c.,  and  the 
number  of  craftsmen  and  traders  it  contains.  The  profit  on 
village  cattle  (as  on  those  owned  by  nomads)  is  for  con- 
venience calculated  at  an  average  rate  per  head  (Is.  6d.). 
Craftsmen  (blacksmiths,  tanners,  weavers,  dyers,  &o.)  may 
be  assessed  by  a  comparison  of  their  standard  of  liviag  with 
that  of  the  agriculturists,  or  grouped  in  classes  according  to 
their  visible  profits.^  Fees  for  special  services  or  privileges 
are,  of  course,  additional  to  the  tax,  such  as  market  dues 
(spent  on  the  control  and  improvement  of  the  market). 

This  assessment  is  obviously  not  an  easy  task,  but  when 
once  the  tax  of  a  normal  village,  enjoying  ordinary  facilities 
as  to  markets,  &c.,  has  with  much  pains  and  discussion  been 
arrived  at,  additions  and  deductions  can  be  made  with  suffi- 
cient accuracy  for  other  villages  in  the  district.  To  the 
ordiuary  value  of  the  usual  crops  must  be  added  that  of 
special  irrigation  crops,  and  of  live-stock,  together  with  the 
profits  of  the  non-agricultural  population,  including  traders. 
The  total  is  then  divided  among  the  adult  population  in  pro- 
portion to  their  wealth  by  the  village  headman.  K  an  indi- 
vidual earns  a  separate  income — as,  for  instance,  by  working 
as  a  casual  labourer  during  the  season  when  his  farm  does  not 
demand  his  attention — he  would  be  liable  for  the  percentage 
of  his  profits  in  the  place  where  they  are  earned,  and  no 
account  of  them  would  be  taken  in  the  village  assessment. 

The  district  headman  collects  the  tax  from  the  various 
villages,  and  takes  it  to  the  ruling  chief,  unless  (as  in  a  small 
community)  he  is  himself  the  chief.  The  Ust  of  villages  with 
their  assessments  is  carefully  checked  by  the  chief  and  his 
coimcU  each  year  just  before  the  harvest,  when  the  crop 
can  be  estimated  with  fair  accuracy,  in  order  that  any  small 
additions  due  to  increase  of  population  and  wealth,  or  de- 
creases due  to  migration  and  other  causes,  or  alterations  due 
to  seasonal  variation  may  be  effected.  As  time  permits  the 
District  Ofiflcer  would  check  these  revisions  on  the  spot.  The 
modifications,  and  the  reasons  for  them,  are  explaiaed  to  the 
villages  by  the  village  head,  who  is  thus  trained  and  encour- 
aged to  accept  responsibiUty.     The  final  assessment  is,  of 

'  In  Bornu  they  were  grouj-ed  in  four  classes — spaying  respectively  Ss,,  2s.,  Is., 
and  6d.  per  annum. 


248  TAXATION. 

course,  subject  to  remission  by  the  Governor  for  any  excep- 
tional canse.i 

The  District  Officer  on  his  part  compiles  a  statistical  register, 
showing  the  number  of  men,  women,  and  children,  of  live- 
stock and  huts,  with  notes  on  the  area  under  cultivation, 
the  special  conditions  affecting  each  village,  and  the  method 
by  which  he  arrived  at  the  amount  of  assessment.  The 
report,  illustrated  by  a  map,  contains  such  historical  and 
ethnological  information  as  he  has  been  able  to  coUect,  with 
notes  as  to  the  incidence  of  former  taxation,  the  existence  of 
any  communities  which  own  a  separate  allegiance,  the  pros- 
pects of  introducing  new  cultures,  and  any  other  matter  of 
interest.  In  Northern  Mgeria  these  assessment  reports  are 
admirably  compiled,  and  have  been  found  of  quite  extraor- 
dinary interest. 

The  task  is  obviously  a  laborious  one,  though  full  of  in- 

^  The  apportionment  of  the  tax  by  the  village  head  ia  adopted  in  India  (as 
indeed  it  must  be  in  any  tropical  dependency).  The  magistrate,  says  a  writer  in 
the  '  Asiatic  Quarterly,'  appoints  the  Panchayet  (Council  of  Five),  under  the  Act 
of  1856,  to  apportion  the  tax,  and  this  is  done  either  "  (o)  by  actual  valuation  of 
property,  which  is  rare,  or  (6)  by  their  general  knowledge  of  the  circumstances 
of  each  individual,  a  system  which  works  much  better. " 

The  method  followed  at  Sokoto  is  thus  described  by  the  Resident :  "  First  there 
is  a  discussion  with  the  district  headman  regarding  taxation  prospects  generally, 
condition  of  crops  and  trade ;  whether  an  increase  of  last  year's  tax  is  justifiable,  and 
what  changes  are  desirable  (whether  increase  or  decrease)  for  particular  villages. 
Then  the  village  headmen  are  called  in,  each  in  turn  ;  the  district  headman  makes 
his  recommendation,  the  village  headman  is  invited  to  express  an  opinion,  and  the 
tax  is  then  decided.  The  Political  Officer  records  the  tax  in  the  Tribute  Register, 
and  writes  the  name  of  the  village,  the  amount  of  its  tax,  with  initials  and  date, 
on  a  slip  of  paper.  He  hands  this  slip  to  a  native  scribe,  who  writes  the  name 
and  the  amount  of  tax  in  the  vernacular,  while  at  the  same  time  a  second  scribe 
enters  the  name  and  amount  in  the  vernacular  on  a  list.  When  the  district  is 
complete  the  vernacular  list  with  its  total  is  handed  to  the  district  headman 
together  with  the  separate  slips  which  he  will  distribute  to  the  village  headmen. 
The  village  head  has  this  documentary  record  of  the  amount  due,  to  show  to  the 
village  elders  when  they  assemble  with  him  to  distribute  the  tax  among  the 
people  and  draw  up  the  annual  list  of  taxpayers.  Many  villages  will  be  paying 
the  same  as  the  previous  year,  but  probably  75  per  cent  are  changed,  generally 
by  a  slight  increase. 

"  Not  every  district  is  summoned  to  Sokoto  every  year.  In  most  years  the 
European  stafif  admits  of  some  districts  being  revised  on  the  spot — viz.,  at  the 
headquarters  of  the  district.  This  has  the  advantage  that  in  cases  of  doubt  as 
to  the  capacity  of  the  village,  an  inspection  and  census  can  be  taken.  The 
object  of  this  annual  revision  is  to  adjust  inequalities  caused  by  inter-village 
migration,  between  the  five  or  six  years  that  elapse  between  one  assessment  by  a 
District  Officer  and  the  next.  .  .  .  The  Sarkin  Musulmi  (e.g. ,  Sultan  of  Sokoto) 
has  ordered  all  district  heads  to  prepare  a  census  annually,  on  which  their  tax 
revision  will  be  based.  .  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  periodical  visits  of  the 
headmen  to  Sokoto  has  done  much  to  strengthen  the  Sarkin  Musulmi's  control. " — 
Resident  Amett,  11th  October  1916. 


THE  TASK  OF  THE  DISTRICT  OFFICEE.  249 

terest.  The  result  is  called  an  "approved  assessment." 
Until  it  can  be  undertaken,  the  tax  imposed  must  neces- 
sarily be  a  mere  guess,  based  on  information  derived  from  the 
district  head  and  the  former  tax-gatherers,  which  in  aU  cases 
has  been  foimd  to  be  unreliable,  and  very  much  less  than 
the  proper  amount.  These  assessments  have  been  in  progress 
for  many  years  in  Northern  Mgeria,  and  though  interfered 
with  by  the  depletion  of  the  staff  during  the  war  they  are 
approaching  completion. 

The  education  of  the  district  and  village  headmen  in  the 
duties  of  assessment  and  apportionment  of  the  tax  is  a  very 
important  part  of  a  District  Officer's  work,  but  he  must  be 
content  to  find  that  the  results  of  his  efforts  will  only  be 
very  gradually  apparent,  and  be  satisfied  with  uniformity 
in  principles.^  He  is  responsible  to  the  Eesident,  as  the  dis- 
trict head  is  to  the  native  ruler.  He  hears  appeals  in  con- 
sultation with  the  district  head,  and  a  final  appeal  to  the 
Eesident  is  provided  by  law.  Defaulters  are  dealt  with  by 
the  provincial  or  native  court. 

Collection  by  natives  is  apt  to  give  rise  to  fears  of  mal- 
practices, but  the  replacement  of  the  tax-gatherer  by  respon- 
sible native  officials,  the  prior  notification  of  the  amount  due, 
the  check  exercised  by  the  native  ruler  and  his  cotmcil,  as 
well  as  by  the  British  staff,  and  the  right  of  appeal  to  both 
— all  these  are  efficient  checks.  It  is,  moreover,  most  de- 
sirable, on  the  one  hand,  to  train  the  native  administration, 
and  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  peasantry  should  regard  the 
British  officer  not  as  a  tax-gatherer,  but  as  a  friend  to  whom 
they  can  appeal  against  injustice ;  and  he  has  an  opportunity 
of  judging  of  the  capacity  and  the  integrity  of  native  head- 
men. 

Among  primitive  tribes  the  work  of  the  assessing  officer 
is  simplified,  for  in  the  communal  stage  the  tax  falls  equally 
upon  aU,  and  is  in  fact  a  levy  on  the  common  stock.  From 
that  stage  of  evolution  onwards  through  the  tribal  organisa- 

'  111  some  of  the  provinces  of  Northern  Nigeria,  ^however,  the  amount  at  which 
each  individual  has  been  assessed  is  entered  by  the  village  head  in  a  register,  and 
receipts  are  given  on  application.  Copies  of  this  register  are  kept  up  to  date  in 
the  Waziri's  office  at  the  capital.  Such  a  result  would  have  been  considered  a 
counsel  of  perfection  a  few  years  ago.  The  individual  account  is,  however, 
superfluous,  except  in  the  case  of  wealthy  traders.  Papers  of  different  colours, 
showing  the  amount  due  and  receipts  for  payment,  are  useful  as  being  easily 
distinguishable  by  illiterates. 


250  TAXATION. 

tion  to  the  "  advanced  community,"  the  bulk  of  the  people 
have — though  in  a  constantly  decreasing  ratio — an  identical 
standard  of  living,  and  of  "wealth."  The  tax  therefore 
develops  pari  passu  -with  the  progress  of  the  community  from 
a  poU  or  capitation  tax  to  a  graduated  income  tax. 

TJntU  efficient  district  heads  have  been  trained,  the  District 
Officer  will  have  to  collect  the  tax  himself  from  the  family 
or  village  heads.  The  important  point  is  to  ensure  that  the 
rate  is  widely  known,  otherwise  the  village  head,  if  a  strong 
man,  may  practise  extortion,  and  if  a  weak  man  will  fail  to 
exact  it  from  those  who  refuse  to  pay,  and  will  seize  an  excess 
amount  from  those  who  are  imable  to  resist.  Experience  in 
Northern  Mgeria  shows  that  independent  pagans  are  not 
unwilling  to  pay,  provided  they  can  do  so  direct  to  Govern- 
ment and  not  through  an  overlord  or  tax-gatherer.^  Police 
should  never  be  employed  in  the  collection  of  the  tax. 

When  discussing  native  administration  I  remarked  that 
among  such  folk  the  institution  of  a  treasury  seems  to  be  a 
farce,  for  they  are  incapable  of  understanding  it,  but  (as 
in  the  case  of  the  primitive  native  courts)  I  think  that  much 
value  attaches  to  these  early  beginnings,  for  they  are  steps 
towards  the  fulfilment  of  the  aim  of  the  Government,  to  push 
each  community  a  step  further  up  the  ladder  of  progress,  by 
the  reaUsation  of  the  conception  of  individual  and  civic 
responsibility. 

Though  the  collection  of  so  small  a  tax  from  primitive 
tribes  may  seem  to-day  to  give  more  trouble  than  it  is  worth, 
its  chief  value  does  not  lie  in  the  revenue  collected.  The 
most  useful  result — as  the  French  and  Belgians  have  also 
foimd — ^is  the  close  contact  between  officials  and  natives  which 
assessment  and  collection  necessitates,  and  the  consequent 
mutual  understanding  and  confidence  which  invariably  results. 
Moreover,  those  who  pay  the  tax  are  quick  to  resent  the 
immunity  of  others. 

The  tax  should  be  collected  simultaneously  in  all  provinces 
immediately  after  the  harvest.  Quick  collection  minimises 
opportunities  for  misappropriation,  and  obviates  the  necessity 

^  Yola  and  Bauchi  are  two  provinces  with  a  large  population  of  independent 
pagan  tribes.  The  Resident  of  the  former  writes  (September  1919) :  "I  do  not 
think  the  tax  is  resented  even  by  the  wilder  tribes — refusal  to  pay  is  generally 
rather  a  revolt  against  all  constituted  authority  than  objection  to  paying  the 
tax  itself."  The  latter  reports  that  "the  tax  is  brought  promptly  even  by 
the  most  backward  tribes,  and  there  is  no  trouble." 


PAYMENT  IN   CASH,  KIND,   OK  LABOTJK.  251 

of  large  workmg  balances  in  the  native  treasury.  The  single 
demand  is  popular.  The  cattle  tax  shoidd  be  collected  during 
the  raiQS,  when  the  flocks  and  herds  have  all  returned  from 
the  marsh-lands  to  their  own  districts. 

To  avoid  the  trouble  of  transporting  bulky  produce,  the 
native  quickly  appreciates  the  advantage  of  securing  suffi- 
cient cash  to  pay  his  tax,  thus  promoting  the  adoption  of 
currency,  which  facilitates  trade.^  If  payment  in  cash  is 
not  possible,  the  produce  most  easily  saleable  would  be  ac- 
cepted, and  its  sale  i£  possible  witnessed  by  the  payers ;  but 
as  Khama  pointed  out,  European  traders  should  be  urged  to 
pay  cash  for  the  produce  they  buy,  in  order  that  the  native 
may  get  cash  to  pay  his  tax.^ 

I  have  said  that  the  amount  of  the  tax  on  primitive  tribes 
should  be  very  small — the  equivalent  of  a  few  days'  labour. 
In  Uganda  a  month's  labour  is,  or  was,  I  beheve,  exacted  in 
lieu  of  the  tax — a  system  I  deprecate  as  being  liable  to  be 
misunderstood  for  forced  labour.  It  is,  I  think,  desirable  to 
avoid  the  acceptance  even  of  labour's  equivalent — e.g.,  wood 
fuel  for  steamers,  &c., — ^it  is  better  to  pay  for  such  things  in 
cash,  and  receive  the  cash  back  as  tax,  that  there  may  be  no 
possible  mistake  as  to  forced  labour.  Such  a  course,  more- 
over, lessens  the  chance  of  the  whole  tax  falling  on  the  poorer 
classes,  while  the  traders  and  well-to-do  escape.  Since  women 
are  at  least  equally  with  men  the  producers  of  wealth,  all 
adults  pay  the  tax,  but  women  usually  pay  one-third  less 
than  men. 

AU  persons  in  Northern  Nigeria  who  are  subject  to  the 
native  jurisdiction  pay  the  tax  through  the  machinery  of  the 
native  administration.  Native  traders  and  others  not  sub- 
ject to  the  native  jurisdiction,  but  "residing  or  being"  in  a 
province  to  which  the  ordinance  applies,  pay  to  the  British 
staff,  deducting  any  municipal  rate  to  which  they  may  be 

^  In  Uganda,  where  distance  from  a  seaport  renders  the  realisation  of  produce 
paid  in  kind  equally  difficult  as  in  Northern  Nigeria,  the  administration  was 
fortunately  able  to  form  a  "local  produce  scheme,"  by  which  the  natives  were 
encouraged  to  cultivate  or  collect  saleable  produce  and  bring  it  to  the  Govern- 
ment stations,  where  it  was  handed  over  to  merchants  for  cash.  The  feasi- 
bility of  such  a  scheme  depends  of  course  on  merchants  being  available  at  a 
sufficient  number  of  stations  throughout  the  country. 

2  "  The  white  men  who  trade  with  us  object  to  pay  money.  They  like  to  give 
us  the  goods  they  sell  in  exchange  for  such  things  as  we  have  a  desire  to  dispose 
of.  In  order  that  we  may  find  money  for  paying  our  taxes  .  .  .  the  white 
traders  must  pay  money  for  what  they  buy." — Letter  of  11th  November  1895, 
Blue-Book. 


252  TAXATION. 

liable  in  a  township.  Ifatives  not  resident  in  the  area  to 
which  the  ordinance  applies  remain  Uable  in  respect  of  any 
property  or  income  derived  from  that  area. 

The  lack  of  precision  in  the  original  scheme  of  taxation  in 
Mgeria,  which  the  Colonial  Office  was  disposed  to  criticise,  is 
not  in  my  view  a  defect.  For  the  object  is  to  evolve  reform 
by  organisation  and  adjustment,  without  dislocation  of  cus- 
toms and  traditions  to  which  the  people  are  accustomed,  so 
that  these  conservative  forces  may  be  auxiliary  and  not  an- 
tagonistic to  the  improved  methods — ^in  a  word,  the  develop- 
ment of  indigenous  institutions  rather  than  the  sudden  intro- 
duction of  alien  methods,  however  excellent.  "  There  has 
been  no  great  shock  and  no  convulsion,  only  into  the  veins 
of  a  decadent  civilisation  new  blood  has  been  introduced 
which  has  brought  with  it  the  promise  of  a  new  era  of  life."  '• 

The  most  serious  obstacle  experienced  iu  Mgeria  when  the 
tax  was  inaugurated  was  the  difficulty  of  suppressing  per- 
sonation. A  credulous  and  illiterate  people,  long  accustomed 
to  oppression,  were  easily  victimised  by  any  scoundrel  who, 
producing  an  old  envelope  picked  up  in  a  deserted  camp,  or 
even  a  piece  of  newspaper,  as  his  credentials,  would  declare 
himself  to  be  the  authorised  emissary  of  the  Government, 
and  demand  what  he  chose.  If  the  villagers  demurred  he 
would  threaten  their  extermination  by  Government,  or  bring 
lying  accusations  of  disaffection.  Patient  investigation,  the 
gradual  education  of  the  peasantry,  and  very  deterrent  sen- 
tences on  the  culprits  when  caught,  can  alone  deal  with  this 
offence,  which  causes  the  Government  to  be  misrepresented 
and  hated. 

In  most  parts  of  Africa  direct  taxation  has  taken  the  form 
of  a  hut  tax.  The  hut  was,  of  course,  intended  as  the 
symbol  of  population,  and  there  was  no  intention  of  claiming 
property  in  it,  or  of  charging  a  rent  for  it.  But  the  method 
was  unfortunate,  for  as  Miss  Kiagsley  justly  observed,  the 
African  assumes  that  "  the  thing  you  pay  any  one  a  fee  for 
is  a  thing  which  is  not  your  own,"  *  and  that  Government  has 
confiscated  his  hut. 

Apart  from  the  defects  in  form  and  operation  of  the  tax 
on  a  native  hut  which  experience  has  brought  to  light,  this 
tax  differs  from  the  one  proposed  in  this  chapter,  in  that  it 

'  'A  Tropical  Dependency,"  p.  500. 

'  Letter  to  'Spectator,'  19th  March  1898. 


GENERAL  EESULTS   OF  DIRECT  TAX.  253 

appears  to  be  superimposed  upon  any  system  of  taxation 
by  the  cMefs,  which  in  Uganda  at  any  rate  must,  I  presume, 
be  tolerably  substantial.  It  thus  becomes  a  purely  white 
man's  tax.  The  method  I  have  advocated  has  this  essential 
difference,  that  the  tax  is  imposed  in  the  name  of  the  para- 
mount chief,  is  shared  with  the  native  administration,  and 
is  substituted  for  aU  existing  forms  of  taxation. 

The  general  results  which  may  be  anticipated  to  accrue 
from  a  system  of  direct  taxation  shared  with  the  native 
administration  may  be  thus  summarised  : — 

(a)  In  the  case  of  advanced  communities  a  substantial 
revenue  should  be  secured  to  the  native  chiefs  and  oflftcials, 
to  replace  the  loss  of  slave-raiding  and  slave-trading,  the 
levies  on  traders  which  crushed  trade,  the  extortions  from 
the  peasantry,  and  the  fines  and  bribes  which  perverted  jus- 
tice. As  individuals  they  would  have  adequate  salaries,  which 
they  earn  by  discharging  responsible  duties  for  the  adminis- 
tration, and  as  rulers  they  would  have  revenue  for  the  pro- 
gress of  the  country.^ 

(6)  A  considerable  and  increasing  revenue  can  be  secured 
to  Government,  due  to  better  organisation  and  collection  of 
the  tax,  and  its  universality ;  while  coin  currency  with  its 
immense  influence  for  trade  and  progress  is  promoted. 

(c)  The  peasantry  is  emancipated  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word  to  an  even  greater  extent  than  woidd  be  the  case  by  the 
abolition  of  domestic  slavery.  The  tax  they  pay  should  be 
very  moderate,  and  they  are  freed  from  arbitrary  exactions. 
Industry  and  personal  initiative  are  encouraged  instead  of 
being  the  mark  for  spoliation. 

(d)  The  absentee  ruler  or  landlord  is  replaced  by  the  dis- 
trict headman,  who  has  responsible  executive  duties,  dele- 
gated by  the  ruHng  chief,  instead  of  being  an  idle  place- 
holder. Decentralisation  of  powers  relieves  the  ruler  of  work 
he  could  not  properly  perform,  limits  opportunities  for  mal- 
administration  by   him,   increases   the   Eesident's   effective 

^  The  revenue  of  the  native  administrations  in  the  northern  provinces  of 
Nigeria  amounted  in  1918  to  £492,663.  The  salaries  of  all  grades,  including 
native  courts,  police,  and  prisons,  amounted  to  £304,996,  being  about  OJd.  per 
head  of  population,  and  leaving  about  £188,000  for  other  expenditure  (public 
works,  education,  &c.)  In  1919  the  total  collected  was  over  £950,000,  of  which 
the  native  administration  share  was  £536,000.  In  the  Kauo  Emirate,  with  a 
population  of  2f  millions,  the  returns  have  increased  by  300  per  cent  in  ten 
years  and  by  46  per  cent  in  the  last  four  years,  but  the  tax  is  still  under  Is.  6d. 
per  head  of  population  (2s.  per  adult). 


254  TAXATION. 

supervision,  and  facilitates  the  delegation  of  powers  by- 
Government,  with  confidence  that  they  wUl  not  be  abused, 
and  so  enables  the  Government  to  rule  through  the  chiefs. 

(e)  The  former  territorial  chiefs,  who  invariably  deteriorate 
by  the  exercise  of  unchecked  licence,  have  either  to  accept 
responsible  duties  as  district  heads  or  officers  of  State,  or 
have  to  take  to  trade  or  agriculture,  and  lead  a  life  dignified 
by  personal  exertion. 

(/)  The  multiplication  of  titular  office-holders  and  others, 
including  the  tax-gatherers,  who  live  on  the  industry  of  the 
peasantry,  and  the  tendency  of  the  rulers  to  grant  such 
offices  to  relatives  or  favourite  slaves,  will  be  checked,  and 
only  such  officials  will  be  appointed  as  have  substantial  duties 
to  perform,  and  as  have  been  selected  for  their  ability. 

Among  primitive  communities  the  introduction  of  the  tax, 
simtdtaneously  with  the  assumption  of  control,  lays  the 
foundation  for  future  expansion  for  revenue  purposes,  whereby 
the  burdens  on  trade,  which  are  unequal  in  their  iacidence, 
may  be  reduced.  K  imposed  at  once  it  is  more  likely  to  be 
received  without  friction.  It  has  the  effect  of  curbing  law- 
lessness, of  accelerating  progress  to  a  higher  plane,  and  of 
stimulating  industry.  The  amount  in  the  early  stages  should 
be  small,  and  should  increase  with  the  evolution  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  benefits  it  receives. 

A  brief  note  as  to  the  form  and  amount  of  the  direct  tax 
in  various  British  and  foreign  dependencies  in  Africa  is 
appended. 

The  most  common  direct  taxes  which  it  is  the  object  of  the 
income  tax  to  supersede,  partake  either  of  the  nature  of  class 
taxation,  or  are  levies  on  trade  in  one  form  or  another. 

Caravan  tolls  are  immemorial  in  Africa — existing  in  Abys- 
sinia to-day  to  a  degree  which  almost  stifles  trade.^  As  peace 
and  security  of  property  are  introduced,  evasion  is  increas- 
ingly easy.  The  employment  of  police  offers  great  temptation 
for  bribery  direct  and  indirect.  The  examination  of  bales 
of  goods  is  a  grievance,  and  the  frequent  demands  for  payment 
as  the  caravan  proceeds  from  centre  to  centre  is  greatly  dis- 
liked. The  collection  of  the  taxes  involves  very  heavy  work 
on  the  district  staff,  and  evasion  adds  to  the  list  of  punishable 
offences.  Nevertheless,  from  long  usage  these  tolls  were 
not   unpopular  in  Northern  Mgeria,   and   had  the   strong 

'  See  footnote,  p.  46. 


TOLLS  AND  LICENCES.  255 

support  of  the  natiTe  rulers,  even  after  they  ceased  themselves 
to  benefit  by  them.  Canoe  Ucences  are  a  necessary  adjunct 
of  this  tax,  for  a  trader  who  conveys  his  goods  by  water  would 
otherwise  obtain  an  undue  advantage  over  the  merchant  who 
travels  by  land. 

Northern  Mgeria  was  compelled  by  lack  of  revenue  for 
essential  needs  to  adopt  these  taxes,  until  the  success  of  the 
direct  income  tax  was  proved.  In  1906,  however,  all  produce 
for  export  overseas,  and  goods  imported  by  those  who  held 
trading  licences,  were  exempted,  so  that  the  tax  fell  solely 
on  the  internal  native  trade — chiefly  soda  from  Lake  Chad 
to  the  great  cities — which  had  paid  no  customs  duties. 

As  a  temporary  expedient  these  tolls  were  not  whoUy 
without  merit,  for  they  fell  on  the  class  best  able  to  pay, 
which  otherwise  practically  escaped  taxation.  They  acted 
to  some  extent  as  a  deterrent  to  the  abandonment  of  agri- 
culture in  favour  of  petty  trade — a  tendency  especially  notice- 
able when  slavery  was  abolished,  and  the  roads  made  safe. 
The  collection,  moreover,  enabled  the  infant  administration 
to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  internal  trade  of  the  country, 
which  it  would  otherwise  have  taken  many  years  to  acquire. 
Trading  and  shopkeepers'  licences  fall  into  the  same  category, 
and  hamper  trade  and  development.  These  also  have  long 
ago  been  abandoned  in  Mgeria. 

Vehicle  licences — especially  on  private  motor-cars — are 
justified  as  a  contribution  to  the  maintenance  of  the  roads 
they  use.  If  used  only  in  a  city  or  township,  the  Mcence 
fees  form  a  useful  ad(Mtion  to  municipal  revenue.  Market 
dues,  if  in  excess  of  the  sums  required  for  the  supervision  and 
improvement  of  rural  markets,  are  a  restraint  on  trade  and 
objectionable,  but  a  township  is  justified  in  deriving  a  mode- 
rate revenue  from  them  for  municipal  purposes. 

Licences  for  the  most  part  are  not  imposed  with  the  object 
of  raising  revenue,  but  in  order  to  give  effect  to  some  special 
restriction — e.g.,  those  for  shooting  game  or  bearing  firearms 
— or  to  recoup  some  special  expenditure. 


256  TAXATION. 


APPENDIX   TO   CHAPTEE   XII, 

THE  HUT  TAX  IN  AFRICA. 

A  house-rate  is  a  form  of  levy  well  adapted  for  raising  municipal 
funds  in  a  city,  where  modern  amenities  require  a  special  outlay.  The 
native  householder  sees  that  it  is  paid  equally  by  Europeans,  and  can 
appreciate  the  necessity  for  providing  funds  for  water-supply,  street- 
lighting,  good  roads,  and  sanitation.  Mr  Chamberlain  himself  took 
exception  to  the  fact  that  the  hut  tax  in  Sierra  Leone  had  not  been 
made  applicable  to  the  Colony  and  its  capital  city  Freetown,  where 
much  of  its  proceeds  would  be  spent.  The  rate  was  53.  per  hut. 
The  very  serious  rising  in  Sierra  Leone  in  1897,  though  it  was 
popularly  known  as  the  "Hut -tax  Eebellion,"  was  probably  only 
partially  caused  by  that  tax,  and  had  its  deeper  origin  in  the  efforts  of 
the  local  Government  to  check  misrule  by  the  inland  chiefs,  and  in  the 
malpractices  of  its  own  police. 

In  Uganda  a  hut  tax  of  4s.  (or  alternatively  of  one  month's  labour) 
was  said  to  have  had  ill  effects  in  rendering  the  natives  unwilling  to 
occupy  separate  huts,  and  decreasing  marriages.  The  lukiko  (native 
council)  then  suggested  a  tax  of  2s.  8d.  on  those  who  did  not  occupy 
huts.  The  result,  said  the  High  Commissioner,  was  "to  lessen  the 
distinction  between  the  married  man  and  bachelor,  to  promote 
morality,  induce  the  bachelor  element  to  settle  down,  and  to 
encourage  married  life."  The  labour  equivalent  of  the  tax  seems 
to  have  been  very  high.  The  German  substitute  would  have  been 
eight  days'  labour  instead  of  a  month.    Vide  inf. 

In  Nyasaland  the  Ordinance  of  1901  ^  imposed  a  tax  of  12s.  on  the 
owner  or  occupier  of  each  hut  in  a  "  proclaimed  district "  (viz.,  95  per 
cent  of  the  population)  and  of  6s.  elsewhere,  with  a  rebate  of  half  the 
amount  if  the  occupier  could  prove  that  he  had  worked  for  a  European 
for  wages  for  a  month.  This  would  seem  to  partake  of  the  nature  of 
a  subsidy  payable  from  revenue  to  European  employers  of  labour, 
while  the  distinction  between  "proclaimed"  and  other  districts  seems 
to  penalise  the  natives  of  the  settled  districts,  for  presumably  the  un- 
proclaimed  districts  were  those  in  which  the  tax  could  not  easily  be 
collected,  unless  the  native  made  himself  liable  by  seeking  work  from 
Europeans. 

These  anomalies  have  been  removed  by  the  recent  Ordinance,^  which 
imposes  a  tax  of  Gs.  per  hut,  with  an  additional  6s.  for  every  wife  after 
the  first,  and  an  alternative  poll-tax  for  any  native  not  liable  to  hut 
tax.  The  penalties  are  severe.  Default  for  six  months  involves 
liability  to  a  fine  of  2s.  or  a  month's  imprisonment,  further  default  for 
two  months  involves  a  fine  of  4s.  or  three  months'  imprisonment,  and 

1  '  Gazette'  of  31st  December  1901.  ^  No.  4  of  Slst  March  1921. 


THE  HUT  TAX  IN  APMCA.  257 

forfeiture  of  his  hut.  The  tax  remains  recoverable  as  a  judgment 
debt. 

Taxation  in  Kenya  takes  the  form  of  a  poll-tax,  and  the  signatories 
of  the  Economic  Eeport  express  the  view  that  the  African  could  not 
conceivably  be  assessed  to  income  tax.^ 

In  Northern  Ehodesia  the  tax  may  not  exceed  £1,  and  is  fixed  at 
present  at  10s.,  with  an  additional  10s.  for  each  wife  after  the  first. 
Half  the  revenue  is  derived  from  this  source.^ 

The  South  African  Native  Affairs  Commission  recorded  their 
opinion — 

(1)  That  it  is  necessary  to  impose  direct  taxation  upon  the  natives. 

(2)  That  it  can  best  be  imposed  by  means  of  a  hut  tax  or  poll-tax. 

(3)  That  the  tax  should  not  be  less  than  £1  per  annum,  payable  by 
every  male  adult  native,  with  an  additional  £1  for  every  wife  after 
the  first. 

(4)  That  farm  servants  in  bona  fide  and  continuous  employment  and 
natives  domiciled  within  an  urban  area  who  pay  local  taxes  should  be 
exempt. 

In  addition,  the  Commission  favoured  the  extension  of  the  principle 
of  local  taxation  for  beneficial  purposes  on  the  lines  of  the  Glen 
Grey  Act.^ 

Dr  Unwin  reported  in  1911  on  the  system  of  taxation  in  force  in 
German  Togoland.  Every  male  over  sixteen  years  of  age  must  pay 
6s.  or  twelve  days'  labour  at  his  option.  Treasury  officials  preferred 
the  former,  district  officers  the  latter.  Headmen  of  villages  were 
called  upon  to  declare  the  number  of  adult  males  and  to  bring  them 
up  annually.  The  numbers  were  checked  by  the  district  officer.  The 
headman  was  given  a  German  field-cap  as  a  mark  of  office.  In  the 
Cameruns  the  tax  was,  I  believe,  3s.  per  adult  male,  with  2s. 
additional  for  each  wife  after  the  first. 

Mr  Migeod  writes :  "  In  French  territory  the  poll-tax  varies  from 
5  francs  in  some  districts  to  12.50  francs  in  others.  .  .  .  The  Belgians 
have  a  graded  tax,  variable  to  meet  the  earning  capacity  of  the  native. 
In  the  big  towns  near  the  coast  it  is  as  much  as  25  francs.  A  man 
who  has  four  children  by  the  same  wife  is  exempt — with  the  dual 
object  of  stimulating  monogamy  and  child-bearing.  All  wives  after 
the  first  have  to  be  paid  for.  The  tax  in  both  French  and  Belgian 
Congo  is  collected  by  the  European  officer."  *  In  India  the  tax  is 
stated  to  average  3s.  6d.  a  head.^ 

'  Economic  Commission's  Report,  1919,  p.  25. 

2  '  Gazette '  of  25th  February  1921 ;  Ordinance  2  of  1921.  In  Southern 
Bhodesia  there  is  a  poll-tax  of  £1. 

^  In  Basutoland  the  poll-tax  is  £1,  with  an  additional  £1  for  each  wife  up  to  £3. 
In  Bechuanaland  a  hut  tax  of  £1,  plus  3s.  for  a  native  fund  for  education  is 
levied.— Annual  Report  1057  for  1919-20. 

*  'West  Africa,'  25th  June  1921. 

s  'Times,'  19th  December  1913. 


R 


258 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

TAXATION  (eontinued)  and  methods  op  kaising  eevence. 

Taxation  of  corporate  bodies — Trading — Mining — Banking — Taxation  of 
individual  non-natives— Taxation  and  representation — Import  and 
export  duties— The  case  for  export  duties — Duty  on  salt — Adjust- 
ment of  duties  to  area  of  consumption  or  origin  of  articles — Rebates 
to  compensate  for  transport  —  Differential  export  duties  —  The 
economic  effects  of  the  war — The  Paris  economic  resolutions — 
Committee  on  oil-producing  seeds  and  nuts — Committee  on  com- 
mercial and  industrial  policy — The  action  taken  and  its  justification 
— The  case  of  cotton — Proposals  of  the  E.R.D.C. — Alternative  pro- 
posals— Contribution  for  defence — Imperial  preference — Retaliation 
by  foreign  Powers. 

In  the  two  chief  forms  of  European  enterprise  and  invest- 
ment in  the  tropics — trading  and  mining — ^we  find  that  local 
governments  have  imposed  two  principal  forms  of  indirect 
taxation — viz.,  customs  duties  for  the  one,  and  royalties  for 
the  other.  The  operation  of  these  two  methods  of  taxation 
differs  considerably.  In  the  case  of  the  merchant  the  amount 
of  the  import  duty  is  added  to  the  retail  sale  price,  and  is 
thus  passed  on  to  the  consumer.  In  like  manner  the  amount 
of  any  export  duty  is  deducted  from  the  price  paid  for  the 
produce,  and  is  thus  passed  on  to  the  producer.  In  neither 
case  is  it  paid  by  the  merchant,  whose  profits  are  neither 
increased  nor  diminished  by  such  duties,  provided  the  in- 
dustry can  bear  them — viz.,  that  the  consumer  will  continue 
to  buy  the  merchants'  goods,  when  the  duty,  plus  the  reason- 
able margin  of  profit  on  capital  invested,  has  been  added  to 
prime  cost,  inclusive  of  transport,  and  provided  that  the 
producer  wiU  continue  to  seU  for  the  price  offered,  including 
marketing  and  aU  other  charges. 

The  merchants'  profit  therefore  depends  primarily  on  the 
degree  of  competition  to  which  he  is  subjected  by  other 


TAXATION  OF  MERCHANTS  AND  MTNE-OWNEES.         259 

mercliants,  while  the  amount  of  the  customs  duty  which  the 
local  government  can  impose  is  limited  to  the  amount  which 
the  consumer  of  imports,  or  the  producer  of  exports,  can  pay. 
In  other  words,  customs  duties  are  an  indirect  tax  on  the 
native  consimier  or  producer,  and  not  on  the  importing  or 
exporting  merchant.  Competition  will  secm-e  to  the  native 
the  maximum  price  which  rival  traders  can  possibly  pay  for 
produce,  and  customs  duties  act  directly  in  diminution  of 
this  price  or  profit  to  the  native,  so  long  as  the  market  is  free. 
If  a  monopoly  is  introduced,  or  a  trading  combine  or  ring  is 
formed  to  control  the  market,  and  interfere  with  these  natural 
laws,  then  the  duties  wiU  operate  in  diminution  of  the  profits 
of  the  monopoly  or  combine. 

This  is  also  true  of  the  rents  and  premia  charged  by  the 
local  government  for  the  land  occupied  by  a  merchant  in  the 
pursuit  of  his  business.  They  are  not  added  directly  to  the 
selling — or  deducted  from  the  purchasing — price,  like  import 
or  export  duties,  but  if  there  is  tinrestricted  competition 
they  decrease  the  price  which  the  competitors  are  able  to  offer 
for  the  produce,  and  increase  pro  rata  the  price  asked  for 
imported  goods.  The  produce  exported  by  the  merchant, 
whether  animal  or  vegetable,  is  annually  renewed  by  the 
processes  of  nature  and  the  toil  of  man,  and  is  in  that  sense 
inexhaustible,  and  its  value  in  the  home  markets  depends  on 
the  demand  and  supply  of  the  world. 

The  case  of  the  miner  stands  on  a  different  basis.  The 
minerals  he  exports  are  not  perennially  renewed  by  N'atiu'e, 
and  when  exported  are  permanently  lost  to  the  coimtry. 
There  is  no  local  competition  (except  in  the  labour  market), 
for  whatever  quantity  he  may  win  from  his  particular  mine 
does  not  appreciably  affect  the  value  of  his  neighbour's  output. 
He  is  subject  only  to  the  fluctuations  of  the  world's  prices — 
equally  with  the  merchant.  His  local  efforts  are  confined  to 
the  endeavour  to  reduce  the  cost  of  winning  the  minerals,  and 
by  so  doing  he  does  not  decrease  the  exportable  output  of 
his  neighbour,  but  merely  increases  his  own  individual  profit. 
The  rents,  licences,  and  royalties  he  pays  to  Government  are 
in  direct  diminution  of  those  profits,  and  cannot  be  passed 
over  to  the  native,  except  in  the  form  of  a  reduction  of  wages, 
and  this  is  not  feasible  to  him,  since  the  wage-rate  is  fixed  by 
the  competition  of  all  industries  alike,  and  by  the  profits  of 
private  production.    Profits  in  the  mining  industry  are  regu- 


260        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OP  EAISING  EEVENXIE. 

lated,  therefore,  by  cost  of  production,  and  the  world's  prices 
for  the  product.  Eoyalties  must  be  proportioned  to  "  what 
the  industry  will  bear,"  and  should  therefore  be  fixed  on  a 
sliding  scale — ^increasing  or  decreasing  with  the  world's  prices. 

It  thus  appears  that  whereas  the  mining  companies  (whose 
exports  decrease  the  capital  assets  of  the  country)  contribute 
directly  to  the  local  revenue,  trading  companies  (though  in- 
creasing by  their  operations  the  productive  output)  do  not 
contribute  directly,  for  whatever  customs  duties  are  levied 
on  the  goods  they  import  or  export  are  transferred  to  the 
consumer  or  producer  as  the  case  may  be,  and  thus  become  a 
form  of  indirect  taxation,  which  chiefly  falls  on  the  natives, 
who  are  the  principal  producers  and  consumers. 

The  profits  of  both  industries  are  taxed  (whether  before 
or  after  distribution  to  the  shareholders)  in  the  country  where 
the  company  is  registered,  and  it  would  seem  reasonable  that 
companies  should  register  not  only  in  the  country  where  the 
profits  on  the  use  of  capital  are  distributed,  but  also  in  the 
country  in  which  the  profits  are  made,  and  that  a  certain 
proportion  of  those  profits  should  accrue  to  the  country  in 
which  they  are  earned.  With  the  phenomenal  increase  in  the 
material  prosperity  of  the  British  African  tropics,  and  the 
formation  of  innumerable  companies,  British  and  foreign, 
many  of  which  in  normal  circumstances  earn  large  profits,  the 
question  of  the  contribution  which  commercial  and  mining 
companies  formed  by  Europeans  should  rightly  make  towards 
the  administration,  and  development  by  railways,  &c.,  of  the 
countries  in  which  their  profits  accrue,  becomes  one  of  in- 
creasing importance  and  urgency.  It  has  already  received 
some  attention  in  Uganda,  Iforthem  Ehodesia,  the  Congo 
State,  and  the  Straits  Settlements.^ 

The  proper  proportion  of  profits  which  a  banking  corpora- 
tion should  pay  to  local  revenue  can  best  be  secured  by  special 

'  The  Straits  Qovernment  appears  to  contemplate  the  taxation  of  all  companies 
which  are  not  fully  taxed  in  England. — '  Gazette '  of  30th  January  1920.  It  is 
reported  that  a  tax  of  6  per  cent  is  now  imposed  on  the  profits  earned  by  all 
commercial  companies  in  the  Belgian  Congo.  All  persons  receiving  salaries  (in- 
cluding civil  servants)  are  taxed  on  a  graduated  scale. — Consular  Report.  The 
Northern  Rhodesia  Ordinance,  No.  4  of  1921,  imposes  an  income  tax  on  businesses 
which  extend  to  any  other  country.  "The  taxable  income  is  the  sum  which 
shall  bear  the  same  proportion  to  the  whole  net  profits  as  the  assets  in  the 
territory  bear  to  the  total  assets,"  or,  if  preferred  by  the  taxpayer,  "  an  assess- 
ment on  the  actual  profits  derived  from  sources  in  the  country,"  with  elaborate 
provisions  for  rebates,  &c.— '  Gazette,"  7/3/21. 


TAXATION  OP  INDIVIDT7AL  NON-NATIVES.  261 

licences.  Its  profits  are  limited  by  competition,  and  though 
they  may  be  considerable,  the  adyantages  conferred  by  a 
bank,  alike  on  commerce  and  on  the  administration,  merit 
every  encouragement. 

Turning  now  from  Joint  Stock  Companies,  and  the  taxa- 
tion of  profits  on  the  use  of  capital,  to  the  individual  non- 
native  in  Africa,  we  find  that  they  consist — ^with  the  excep- 
tion of  missionaries  and  the  settlers  in  the  East  African 
Highlands — almost  entirely  of  Government  ofllcials  and  the 
employees  of  companies.  Their  incomes  may  consist  of  a 
fixed  salary,  with  or  without  a  share  of  profits  or  a  prospec- 
tive pension,  or  contingent  easements,  such  as  free  housing, 
medical  attendance,  full-pay  leave,  &c.,  which  we  will  include 
in  the  term  "income."  The  incomes  earned  by  the  senior 
employees  of  companies,  whether  engaged  in  trade,  mining, 
or  banking,  are  believed  to  be  considerable,  but  whether  small 
or  large  they  are  free  from  any  form  of  local  income  tax  in 
Africa.  "  Why,"  it  has  been  asked,  "  are  the  natives  subjected 
to  an  income  tax  from  which  Em-opeans  are  exempt  ?  "  ^ 

It  is  manifest  that  commercial  firms  would  not  pay  to  their 
employees  salaries  in  excess  of  the  value  to  them  of  their 
services.  If,  therefore,  their  incomes  were  diminished  by  the 
imposition  of  an  income  tax,  it  may  be  assimied  that  they 
would  be  augmented  by  the  employers  to  the  previous  tax-free 
standard.  The  tax  would  therefore  (like  land  rents,  &c.) 
eventually  become  chargeable  on  the  profits  of  the  concern, 
and  would  either  be  passed  on  to  the  native  consumer  or 
producer,  or  would  operate  to  diminish  dividends.  In  the 
case  of  artificial  control  of  prices  by  monopoly  or  combine, 
it  would  directly  diminish  the  profits  of  the  ring. 

It  may,  with  equal  confidence,  be  assumed  that  the  income 
of  a  Government  official  does  not  exceed  the  amount  for 
which  efficient  men  can  be  obtained.  If  the  salary  were 
increased  by  the  amount  of  income  tax,  the  revenue  would 
lose  precisely  what  it  had  gained — unless  the  augmentation 
of  salary  were  in  some  few  cases  rendered  imnecessary  by 

^  The  Northern  Rhodesia  Ordinance  also  levies  an  income  tax  on  all  Euro- 
peans, graduated  from  Is.  to  2s.  6d.  in  the  £,  together  with  a  super-tax. 
Bachelors  whose  income  exceeds  £500,  and  married  men  with  incomes  over 
£1000,  are  liable.  Ordinance  13  of  August  1921  provides  a  scale  of  relief  on 
incomes  already  taxed  in  England.  Trinidad  has  recently  extended  its  Income- 
tax  Act  to  incomes  of  persons  who,  though  domiciled  abroad,  derive  money  from 
the  island.     Jamaica  is  following  this  example. 


262        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OF  EAISING  EEVENTIE. 

remission  of  income  tax  in  England — which  is  improbable. 
It  would  therefore  be  preferable  to  exempt  officials,  European 
and  native.  The  imposition  of  a  universal  tax  on  profits 
made  locally — with  the  necessary  exemptions — would  have 
much  to  recommend  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  abolishing 
racial  discrimination.  Missionaries  might  well  be  exempted 
from  the  tax. 

In  East  Africa  there  is  a  poll-tax  on  every  non-native 
of  £1  (E.  15)  per  head  per  annum,  and  an  Estate  Duty  Ordi- 
nance was  passed  in  1918.  Allowance  is  made  in  the  case 
of  small  incomes.^  The  Economic  Eeport  observes  :  "  The 
Europeans  consist  of  civil  servants,  tradesmen,  professional 
men,  and  settlers.  To  subject  the  first  to  direct  taxation  is 
obviously  economically  unsound.  A  tax  on  the  so-called 
profits  of  the  settler  would  yield  little  or  no  return,  if  assessed 
on  any  basis  which  would  not  endanger  positions  as  yet 
not  firmly  established.  The  only  section  of  the  community 
from  whom  income  tax  could  be  collected  comparatively 
cheaply  and  easily  appears  to  be  the  European  merchants 
and  professional  men,  who  form  too  smaU  a  proportion  of  the 
community  to  justify  the  imposition  of  a  general  income  tax, 
with  the  attendant  disabihties.  ...  A  score  or  two  of  Indian 
firms  in  the  towns  are  probably  the  only  Asiatic  sources  from 
which  any  appreciable  amount  of  income  tax  could  be  col- 
lected by  ordinary  methods."  ^ 

It  has  from  time  to  time  been  argued  that  the  bulk  of  the 
revenue  is  derived  from  customs  dues  paid  by  merchants,  who 
should  therefore  have  a  more  effective  voice  in  the  government 
of  the  country  (p.  116).  We  have  seen,  however  (pp.  235-6), 
that  customs  duties  provide  not  more  than  from  12  per  cent 
to  30  per  cent  in  the  countries  named,  and  that  they  are 
paid  by  the  producer  or  consumer  and  not  by  the  merchant, 
as  they  themselves  freely  admit.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
a  recognised  principle  that  the  Government  shovdd  be  con- 
ducted by  men  trained  to  the  work,  who  have  no  personal 
interests  to  serve,  and  whose  conduct  of  affairs  offers  a  target 
before  which  no  shield  of  self-interest  is  interposed  to  prevent 
the  critic  from  discharging  his  shaft.  The  merchant  who 
embarks  his  capital  in,  and  devotes  his  time  and  thought  to, 

1  '  General  Information  re  East  Africa,'  Overseas  Trade  Department,  1919,  and 
'  Handbook  of  Kenya  Colony,'  I.D.  1216  of  1920. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  p.  25. 


IMPORT  AND  EXPORT  DUTIES.  263 

overseas  trade  does  so  naturally  and  rightly  for  the  sake  of 
profit,  and  does  not  wish  to  be  bothered  with  administratiye 
problems.  But  in  my  experience,  while  seeking  for  profit, 
he  has  shown  a  laudable  desire  that  it  should  be  shared  with 
the  native  producer. 

The  educated  native  on  his  part  contributes,  in  Nigeria  at 
any  rate,  a  very  small  proportion  indeed  of  the  revenue.  At 
present  he  pays  no  income  tax,  and  even  the  institution  of 
a  small  rate  to  pay  a  part  of  the  cost  of  the  water-supply 
for  his  own  city  was  resented  in  Lagos.  The  highest  claim 
to  guide  the  State  is  based  on  service  to  the  State,  and 
•  those  who  claim  to  participate  in  its  control  must  bear  their 
full  share  of  the  burdens  and  the  work  of  citizens. 

Customs  duties  in  most  colonies  provide  the  bulk  of  the 
revenue  derived  from  indirect  taxation.  The  tradition  of 
the  Colonial  OflBce  —  based,  no  doubt,  on  their  accepted 
superiority  in  civilised  countries  —  has  been  in  favour  of 
import  as  against  export  duties,  while  the  Foreign  Office, 
when  in  control  of  African  protectorates,  maintained  that 
"  at  the  Berlin  Conference  the  Powers  had  deliberately  pro- 
nounced against  import  duties,  and  in  favour  of  export 
duties."  Such  duties  were  approved  as  regards  the  Congo 
State  to  meet  expenditure  on  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  and  were  enforced  in  the  territories  under  the  control 
of  the  Foreign  Office  in  both  East  and  West  Africa,  in 
spite  of  the  arguments  of  the  Liverpool  merchants  in  1893.^ 
The  merchants  preferred  import  duties  on  the  grounds  that 
"  whilst  on  the  one  hand  the  customs  houses  and  staff  re- 
quired to  deal  with  imports  may  entail  more  expense  than 
those  required  in  dealing  with  exports,  it  may  be  poiated  out 
that  in  the  case  of  exports  the  duty  has  to  be  paid  before  the 
produce  is  shipped  for  the  home  markets,  compelling  an  out- 
lay of  capital  restrictive  of  the  bulk  of  trade." 

British  Chambers  of  Commerce  have  always  opposed 
export  duties,  arguing  that  since  the  amount  of  the  duty  must 
be  deducted  from  the  price  offered  by  the  purchaser  of  pro- 
duce, the  native  suffers,  and  that  if  the  duty  were  removed 
his  purchasing  power  would  be  stimulated  (thus  increasing 

^  The  Sudan  Government  continues  to  levy  an  export  duty  of  1  per  cent  ad 
valorem  on  produce  exported ;  but  the  import  duty  is  8  per  cent  on  ordinary 
goods.— Handbook  98,  p.  155.  The  Seychelles,  Somaliiand,  and  Bechuana  all 
impose  an  export  duty. 


264        TAXATION  AND  METHODS   OF  RAISING  EEVENUE. 

the  demand  for  imported  goods).  "  To  tax  exports  in  an  un- 
developed country,"  says  the  Manchester  Chamber,  "  is  held 
to  be  wrong  in  principle,  and  calculated  actually  to  retard 
development."  ^  They  prefer,  in  case  of  necessity,  increased 
import  duties,  and  the  imposition  of  duties  on  articles  which 
enter  duty  free,  and  an  increased  duty  on  salt. 

It  is  argued,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  native  pays  the 
duty  equally  whether  it  is  levied  on  exports  or  imports.  If 
the  duties  on  the  latter  are  increased  to  a  point  which  would 
compensate  the  revenue  for  the  abolition  of  export  duties, 
the  cost  of  imported  goods  become  prohibitive,  and  as  recent 
experience  has  shown,  the  native  refuses  to  buy.  For,  as- 
I  have  pointed  out,  his  wants  are  not  at  present  absolutely 
essential  necessities,  and  if  Manchester  textiles  rise  above  a 
reasonable  price  he  turns  to  his  own  looms,  not  merely  de- 
priving Manchester  of  her  market,  but  absorbing  the  raw 
cotton  which  she  needs.  Since  the  bulk  of  the  exports  must 
be  paid  for  by  imports,  the  idtimate  set-back  to  trade,  it  is 
argued,  is  no  less,  even  if  the  native  be  tempted  at  first  by 
the  improved  prices  to  sell  his  produce  for  cash,  in  the  hope 
that  the  price  of  imports  will  decrease.  This  was  the  case 
after  the  war,  and  it  was  contended  that  the  hoarding  of  cash 
contributed  to  the  stringency  of  current  coin,  and  inflicted 
considerable  injury  on  trade. 

The  comparative  expediency  of  import  and  export  duties  ia 
an  industrial  country  has,  of  course,  no  bearing  whatever  on 
their  expediency  in  a  country  which  has  no  exportable  manu- 
factures, and  where  the  consimier  and  the  producer  are  the 
same  person,  who  pays  the  duty  whether  levied  on  imports 
or  exports.  The  Economic  Commission  in  East  Africa  shares 
the  view  that  the  duty  should  faU  on  the  consumer,  but  in 
that  country  the  European  settlers  form  a  large  section  of 
the  producers.  Even  in  a  country  Uke  West  Africa,  which 
exports  raw  materials  only,  the  weight  of  opinion  is  strongly 

1  Letter  to  Colonial  Office  of  6th  May  1921. 

The  International  Chamber  of  Commerce  lately  (1st  July  1921)  endorsed  this 
view.  "Considering,"  says  the  resolution,  "that  every  tax  on  export  of  raw 
materials  must  necessarily  increase  the  cost  of  production,  and  thereby  hinder 
economic  restoration,"  their  abolition  is  recommended.  If  necessarily  retained 
provisionally  for  revenue  purposes  "they  should  be  adopted  without  any  dis- 
crimination whatever  as  regards  countries."  See  also  Mr  J.  H.  Batty 's  reply  to 
question  1239  by  the  Edible  Nuts  Committee.— Cd.  8247  of  1916. 

Export  duties  if  imposed  should  be  proportioned  to  the  home  market  price,  on 
the  ad  valorem  principle,  and  not  a  fixed  sum  per  ton. 


THE  CASE  FOE  EXPORT  DUTIES.  265 

opposed  to  export  duties.  This  view  is  reinforced  by  the 
psychology  of  the  African,  who  will  continue  to  produce  so 
long  as  he  gets  a  good  price,  and  though  he  may  hoard  his 
receipts  for  a  time,  will  eventually  buy  what  he  requires 
regardless  of  its  price.  The  increased  cost  of  imported  goods 
must,  it  is  argued,  increase  the  volume  of  exports  with  which 
to  pay  for  them.  The  import  tariff  should  aim  at  placing 
on  the  free  list  all  articles  of  food,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
building  materials  and  the  like,  and  the  gradual  substitution 
of  speci&c  duties  for  an  ad  valorem  Ust. 

The  advocates  of  export  duties  in  Africa  have,  however, 
some  cogent  arguments  to  support  their  case.  Eaw  materials 
and  foodstuffs  are  easily  recognisable,  and  there  is  no  need 
for  the  duty  to  discriminate  as  to  value  arising  from  quality, 
since  the  equal  tax  has  the  effect  of  penalising  inferior  qualities, 
and  thus  promoting  a  higher  standard. 

Imports,  on  the  other  hand,  are  very  varied,  and  textiles 
in  particular  may  differ  by  every  shade  of  gradation  and 
price.  The  notable  and  practically  universal  integrity  of  the 
British  merchant,  and  the  shame  and  loss  of  standing  which 
a  conviction  for  fraudulent  declaration  would  involve,  are 
insufficient  grounds  to  justify  a  system  under  which  officers, 
charged  by  law  with  the  duty  of  exercising  a  close  super- 
vision, are  necessarily  unable  to  give  fuU  effect  to  it.  For 
though  a  particular  importer  might  be  justly  suspected  of  an 
endeavour  to  evade  his  fuU  liabilities,  the  customs  officers 
would  not  be  justified  in  exposing  his  goods  to  a  more  rigorous 
examination  than  those  of  others — the  more  so  that  the 
examination  of  the  majority  of  imports  involves  loss  to  the 
importer.  Bales  of  goods  for  the  African  market  have  often 
to  be  packed  at  considerable  cost  in  waterproof  material,  and 
in  hooped  and  sizeable  loads  for  transport  to  the  interior, 
and  if  opened  can  with  difficulty  be  repacked.  Goods  for 
export,  on  the  other  hand,  can  be  dealt  with  solely  by  weight 
— the  allowance  for  receptacles  being  uniform.  Under  a 
system  of  export  duties  it  is  easy  to  grant  exemption  or 
reduced  duties  on  any  particular  product,  the  culture  of  which 
it  is  desired  to  encourage — e.g.,  cotton,  or  newly -introduced 
products.  These  critics  do  not,  of  course,  suggest  the  entire 
abolition  of  import  duties,  but  in  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  African  trade,  they  maintain  that  the  prejudice  against 
export  duties  is  without  adequate  foundation. 


266        TAXATION  AND  METHODS   OF  RAISING  EEVENUE. 

There  is  one  article  of  native  food  which  is  largely  im- 
ported, and  often — as  I  think  -wrongly — ^heavily  taxed,  viz., 
salt.  The  tax  in  Mgeria  is  £1  per  ton — a  rate  which  appears 
to  be  much  less  than  the  tax  imposed  in  India.^  In  my  view 
the  taxation  of  this  article,  of  prime  necessity  to  the  native 
population,  is  to  be  deprecated. 

Commandant  Binger,  the  French  explorer,  states  that  the 
lack  of  salt  was  one  of  the  causes  which  promoted  the  internal 
slave  trade  in  the  region  of  the  Upper  Niger.  For  the  salt 
came  from  the  north,  and  in  the  absence  of  portable  produce 
the  vendors  took  slaves  in  payment.  "  When  Europe  [he 
says]  can  import  salt  at  a  reasonable  price  in  the  Mger  bend, 
she  wiU  have  rendered  a  true  service  to  the  native."  * 

It  is  obvious  that  when  imposing  import — and  more  especi- 
ally export — duties,  the  question  of  the  regions  in  which  such 
imports  are  chiefly  consumed,  or  in  which  such  exports 
originate,  is  a  matter  of  importance  in  regard  to  the  inci- 
dence of  taxation.  Thus  the  import  duty  on  "  trade  spirits  " 
in  West  Africa  fell  entirely  on  those  coastal  regions  in  which 
their  sale  was  not  prohibited.  By  their  recent  prohibition 
those  regions  in  Southern  Mgeria  pay  about  a  million  sterling 
less  in  indirect  taxes.  An  export  duty  on  palm  kernels,  and 
on  cocao,  falls  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  moist  equatorial 
regions,  from  which  alone  these  products  are  exported  (which 
are,  in  fact,  the  same  areas  as  those  in  which  spirits  are  con- 
sumed) ;  while  a  ground-nut  duty  falls  chiefly  on  the  people 
of  the  drier  uplands.  If,  therefore,  it  is  desired  to  impose  a 
larger  share  of  indirect  taxation  on  those  who  do  not  pay  a 
direct  tax,  or  to  reheve  those  whose  produce  has  to  bear 
enhanced  transport  charges,  a  careful  adjustment  of  customs 
duties  can  be  made  to  redress  the  balance  in  some  small 
degree.  Excessive  import  duties  will,  however,  result  in 
diminution  of  the  stimulus  to  production — temporarily,  at 
any  rate — since  the  wants  of  the  African  are  rarely  necessities, 
and  he  can  leave  them  ungratified. 

1  Prior  to  1903  the  tax  was  3s.  id.  per  maund  (82  lb.— viz.,  91s.  per  ton), 
amounting  to  over  200  per  cent  ad  valorem.  Locally-won  salt  was  taxed  at  1000 
per  cent.  A  reduction  of  25  per  cent  was  made  in  1 903.  Since  the  daily  wage 
rate  in  Nigeria  is  probably  three  or  four  times  that  of  India,  the  burden  on  the 
Indian  taxpayer  was  correspondingly  greater.  The  price  of  imported  salt  at 
Kano  (Nigeria),  with  700  miles  of  rail  freight,  fell  from  30s.  per  cwt.  in  1908  to 
lis.  in  1913. 

^  For  the  various  sources  of  supply  of  local  salt  see  Binger,  '  Du  Niger  au 
Golfe  de  Guinee,'  vol.  i.  p.  375. 


REBATES  AND   DIFFERENTIAL  DUTIES.  267 

The  keen  competition  between  merchants,  and  the  com- 
paratively heavy  and  bnlky  nature  of  African  produce  relative 
to  its  value,  impose,  of  course,  a  heavy  handicap  on  the 
merchant  who  essays  to  develop  regions  in  the  interior, 
especially  if  they  are  remote  from  railways  and  navigable 
waters,  in  comparison  with  the  trader  who  buys  the  same 
produce  in  easily  accessible  regions.  In  order  to  encourage  the 
development  of  these  remoter  regions,  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  consider  a  system  of  customs  rebates  on  a  sUding  scale, 
calcidated  in  proportion  to  the  distance  from  the  coast,  and 
from  rail  or  river,  supported  by  certificates  of  origin.  If  in 
the  most  remote  district  the  revenue  derived  no  benefit  by 
way  of  customs  duties  on  imported  goods,  or  on  produce  for 
export,  the  trader  on  the  one  hand  would  stiU  have  to  meet 
his  heavy  transport  charges,  while  the  administration  would 
benefit  by  the  increase  of  trade  and  wealth,  and  the  extension 
of  the  coin  currency,  which  would  facilitate  the  payment  of 
the  direct  tax. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  comparative  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  import  and  export  duties  as  a  normal  means 
of  raising  revenue,  there  is,  of  course,  no  question  that — 
unless  precluded  by  treaty — either  is  capable  of  being  used 
as  a  powerful  agency  to  restrict  imports  from,  or  exports  to, 
foreign  countries  in  favour  of  home  or  Empire  markets. 
Moreover,  if  a  country  produces  an  article  which  is  in  great 
demand,  and  the  supply  of  which  is  limited  and  regional,  the 
advocates  of  export  duties  point  out  that  revenue  may  un- 
doubtedly be  obtained  at  the  expense  of  the  foreign  consumer 
by  a  preferential  export  duty. 

After  the  war  a  preferential  export  duty  was  introduced 
in  the  West  African  dependencies,  admittedly  in  order  to 
secure  for  the  Empire  a  monopoly  of  palm  kernels.  It  has 
been  the  subject  of  much  controversy  in  both  Houses'  of 
Parliament,^  and  in  the  Press  ;  and,  since  its  imposition 
affects  fundamental  principles,  the  matter  merits  careful 
consideration. 

The  war  profoundly  changed  the  economic  conditions  of 
the  world.  Some  of  the  economic  results  affecting  the  rela- 
tions of  British  African  tropics  to  the  United  Kingdom  may 
perhaps  be  briefly  summarised  as  follows  : — 

(a)  Great  Britain  now  reahsed  that  it  had  been  the  de- 

1  'Debates'  of  17th  December  1919  and  13th  May  1920,  &c. 


268        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OP  RAISING  KEVENTIB. 

liberate  policy  of  Germany — ^taking  advantage  of  the  "  open 
door  " — ^to  monopolise  the  supply  from  the  British  depend- 
encies of  certain  raw  materials  which  were  essential  to  some 
of  our  principal  industries,  and  for  the  manufacture  of  muni- 
tions in  time  of  war.  Great  Britain  and  her  Allies  determined 
in  future  to  safeguard  these  supplies. 

(6)  The  financial  strain  residting  from  the  war  gave  rise 
to  various  proposals  for  rehabilitating  the  finances  of  the 
United  Eongdom,  opposed  to  the  accepted  principles  which 
had  hitherto  guided  the  policy  or  practice  of  England  towards 
her  tropical  dependencies.  Those  put  forward  by  the  Empire 
Eesources  Development  Committee  were  very  iofluentially 
supported. 

(c)  The  realisation  of  the  importance  of  drawiag  together 
all  parts  of  the  Empire,  and  making  it  self-supporting, 
strengthened  the  hands  of  those  who  had  long  advocated 
"  Imperial  Preference,"  and  it  became  the  accepted  policy 
in  regard  to  the  Crown  colonies. 

As  regards  the  first  of  these  three  heads,  representatives 
of  the  Allies  met  in  Paris  in  June  1916,  and  passed  a  series 
of  resolutions,^  which  were  accepted  by  Mr  Asquith's  Govern- 
ment, in  so  far  as  they  related  to  the  transitional  period  after 
the  war.^  By  Eesolution  B.  iii.,  "  the  Allies  declared  them- 
selves agreed  to  conserve  for  the  aUied  countries  before  aU 
others  their  material  resources  during  the  whole  period  of 
reconstruction."  The  Government  thereupon  appointed  an 
extremely  strong  Committee,  under  Lord  Balfour  of  Burleigh 
(which  included  the  chairmen  of  a  number  of  departmental 
committees  previously  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Trade), 
"  to  consider  the  commercial  and  industrial  policy  to  be 
adopted  after  the  war,  with  special  reference  to  the  conclu- 
sions reached  at  the  Paris  Conference." 

In  the  previous  year — 1915 — ^the  Colonial  Secretary  (Mr 
Bonar  Law)  had  appointed  a  Committee  to  study  the  trade 
in  palm  kernels  and  other  oil-producing  nuts  and  seeds,  and 
"  to  make  recommendations  for  the  promotion  in  the  United 
Kingdom  of  the  industries  dependent  thereon."  ^  The  Com- 
mittee reported  in  May  1916.  Germany,  they  said,  had 
before  the  war  monopolised  three  -  fourths  of  the  export  of 
kernels,  and  on  the  assumption  that  with  her  mUls  undamaged 

1  Cd.  8271  of  1916.  2  cd.  9035  of  1918,  paragraph  3 

3  Cd.  8247  of  1916. 


EECOMMENDATIONS  OP  THE  ECONOMIC   COMMITTEE.      269 

she  woxild  after  the  war  be  ready  to  offer  extravagant  prices 
to  regain  her  monopoly,  it  was  necessary,  in  order  to  induce 
British  crushers  to  erect  mills  at  heavy  outlay,  to  offer  them 
a  guarantee  for  a  limited  period  (five  years),  until  their  mills 
were  established,  so  that  they  should  be  able  to  obtain  kernels 
at  reasonable  prices.  The  Committee  recommended  legisla- 
tion in  the  colonies,  on  the  lines  eventually  adopted.  A 
precisely  similar  recommendation  was,  as  we  shaU  see,  made 
by  the  Textiles  Committee  (set  up  by  the  Board  of  Trade)  in 
regard  to  Indian  jute.^ 

Lord  Balfour's  Committee  reported  in  December  1916  that 
"  effect  cannot  be  given  to  these  (Paris)  Besolutions  unless 
export  restrictions  are  placed  during  the  transitory  period 
on  a  certain  number  of  important  articles,  .  .  .  and  any 
measures  taken  for  the  purpose  should  aim  at  assuring  to  the 
British  Empire  and  the  Allies  priority  for  their  requirements, 
and  at  preventing  the  present  enemy  countries  from  gaining 
by  the  use  of  such  materials  an  initial  advantage  in  the  com- 
petition to  recover  markets  which  will  follow  the  war."  ^ 
They  refer  to  the  proposals  made  in  regard  to  palm  kernels, 
and  suggest  that  India  should  be  asked  to  devise  measures 
with  a  similar  object  in  view,  and  add :  "  We  do  not  over- 
look the  fact  that  objection  may  be  taken  to  the  restricted 
policy  which  we  recommend,  on  the  groimd  that  the  burden 
may  fall  unduly  upon  the  individual  producer,  whose  price 
may  be  lowered  by  the  restriction  of  his  market.  In  our 
opinion  it  is  particularly  important  to  avoid  even  the  appear- 
ance of  any  such  penaUsation,  especially  in  cases  in  which 
the  interests  of  native  subjects  of  the  Empire  are  concerned. 
We  think,  however,  that  if  the  policy  is  limited,  as  we  have 
recommended,  to  materials  of  which  the  greater  part  of  the 
supply  can  be  absorbed  by  the  United  Kingdom  and  the 
Allies,  it  wiU  be  possible,  in  consultation  with  the  various 
Governments  concerned,  to  devise  satisfactory  safeguards  to 
meet  the  danger."  * 

Ordinances  to  give  effect  to  this  pohcy  and  restrict  the 
export  of  palm  kernels  to  Empire  markets  were  accordingly 
introduced  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Legisla- 
tures of  the  West  African  colonies.  The  unofficial  members 
of  the  Gold  Coast  voted  unanimously  against  it.    In  Nigeria 

1  Cd.  9070-73  of  1918.  =  Cd.  9034  of  1918,  paragraph  4. 

^  Ibid.,  paragraphs  21  and  22. 


270        TAXATION  ANB  METHODS  OF  RAISING  BEVENTJi:. 

the  matter  was  debated  both  in  the  Nigerian  Council  and 
in  the  Legislative  Council  of  the  colony.  There  was  no  dis- 
sentient opinion,  and  the  leading  native  speaker  cordially- 
endorsed  the  proposals. 

The  justification  of  these  measures  lay  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  designed  to  meet  special  conditions  arising  out  of 
the  war,  and  were  of  a  temporary  nature.  They  were  based 
on  the  recommendations  of  two  very  representative  Com- 
mittees, with  the  object  of  giving  effect  to  a  policy  which  had 
received  international  sanction,  and  to  transfer  to  the  United 
Kingdom  an  industry  essential  to  defence  in  a  future  war.^ 

This,  if  properly  explained  to  the  people  of  West  Africa, 
would  not  be  resented,  since  the  United  Kingdom  was  able 
to  take  the  whole  of  the  output,  and  the  unrestricted  market 
for  the  manufactured  article,  and  keen  competition  between 
merchants  assured  fair  prices  to  the  producer.  If,  however, 
the  position  of  the  British  mill-owners  is  already  assured, 
it  devolves  upon  them  voluntarily  to  forgo  the  benefit  of  an 
implied  assurance,  as  I  have  ventured  to  suggest.^ 

But  whatever  may  be  the  merits  of  the  controversy  which 
has  raged  so  fiercely  in  Parliament  and  the  Press,  it  has  one 
aspect  in  which  all  who  are  interested  in  the  Empire  can  only 
rejoice.  It  has  shown  that  oux  professed  concern  for  the 
rights  of  the  natives,  and  our  obUgations  as  trustee  on  their 

'  Id  a  striking  passage  that  ardent  free-trader,  Adam  Smith,  after  setting  out 
an  overwhelming  case  against  the  restrictive  principles  embodied  in  the  "  Act  of 
Navigation,"  says  that,  "since  defence  is  of  far  greater  importance  than  opu- 
lence," that  Act  "was  perhaps  the  wisest  of  all  the  commercial  regulations  of 
England." — 'Wealth  of  Nations,'  vol.  ii.  p.  195. 

^  'Times,'  Slst  December  1919.  While  some  maintain  that  the  duty  has 
enabled  the  crushers  in  England  to  control  the  kernel  market,  knowing  that 
importers  could  not  ship  their  kernels  abroad,  Mr  J.  H.  Batty  (head  of  the 
African  and  Eastern  Trade  Corporation),  than  whom  there  is  probably  no  higher 
authority,  observed  to  me  lately  that  this  tax  had  "  more  than  served  its  pur- 
pose "  in  West  Africa.  Though  no  less  opposed  to  it  in  principle  than  myself, 
he  held  that  it  had  been  amply  justified  in  the  special  circumstances  as  a  tem- 
porary measure.  Germany,  with  her  mills  intact,  with  special  facilities  for 
supplying  the  markets  of  Austria,  Russia,  and  Eastern  Europe  generally,  by  rail 
without  breaking  bulk,  desired  again  to  invade  West  Africa  and  capture  the 
kernel  trade.  She  had,  however,  been  prevented  by  the  duty,  and  had  therefore 
substituted  copra,  principally  from  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  thus  relieving  the 
palm-kernel  market  of  a  serious  competitor,  and  extending  the  demand  for 
kernels.  The  merchant,  he  added,  had  not  lost  a  penny  by  the  tax,  nor  had  the 
natives,  since  prices  had  been  steadily  maintained  by  competition.  The  proof  of 
this  could  be  seen  in  the  prices  ruling — both  previously  and  to-day — as  compared 
with  copra,  which  for  all  practical  purposes  supplies  the  same  needs. 

A  similar  duty  under  home  instructions  had  for  some  time  been  imposed  on 
tin.  Compare  also  the  Malayan  duty,  imposed  to  prevent  a  foreign  monopoly. — 
'Malaya,' p.  333. 


THE  CASE  OP  COTTON.  271 

behalf,  are  neither  camouflage  nor  "uncttious  righteousness," 
but  that  it  is  a  tradition  held  deep  in  the  hearts  of  the  British 
people,  for  any  infringement  of  which,  however  temporary 
and  exceptional,  an  explanation  and  justification  is  at  once 
demanded. 

The  vindication  of  the  principle  that  a  trustee  Power  is 
not  justifled  in  arbitrarily  restricting  the  markets  of  its 
ward  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  case  of  cotton.  The 
increasing  absorption  by  the  United  States  of  her  own  cotton 
for  her  own  industries,  and  the  consequently  decreasing 
quantity  available  for  export,  has  compelled  this  country  to 
adopt  a  programme  for  the  growing  of  cotton  within  the 
Empire,  on  the  assumption  that  the  cotton  so  grown  will  be 
available  for  the  looms  of  Lancashire.  In  so  far  as  the  cotton 
is  the  product  of  British-owned  plantations  (as  in  the  Sudan, 
Gezirah,  and  K'yasaland),  no  question  can  of  course  arise ; 
but  where  (as  in  Nigeria  and  other  protectorates)  it  is  a 
native  crop,  is  the  market  to  be  restricted  to  Great  Britain  ? 
That  colonial  revenues  have  been  spent  in  improving  the 
quality,  &c.,  gives  the  British  market  no  claim  to  a  monopoly, 
for  such  revenues  belong  to  the  colony,  and  are  rightly  spent 
in  developing  its  resources.  But  if  funds  belonging  to  the 
taxpayers  of  England,  or  if  private  capital  has  been  spent  ia 
promoting  the  industry  in  a  British  colony,  is  Germany  or 
Japan  to  have  the  right  to  underbid  the  British  merchant 
and  buy  the  crop  ? 

In  1916  the  Board  of  Trade  appointed  a  Committee  to 
report  {inter  alia)  regarding  the  textile  industry,  and  its 
report  was  issued  in  1918.^  Following  the  general  Unes  of 
Lord  BalEour  of  Burleigh's  Committee,  it  recommended  that 
the  Empire's  resources  in  raw  material  should  be  safeguarded, 
and  utilised  for  the  requirements  of  the  Empire,  and  for 
purposes  of  negotiation  with  other  countries,  and  that  an 
export  duty  (e.g.,  on  jute)  should  be  imposed  in  India,  with 
a  total  rebate  for  the  United  Kingdom,  i  But  the  Cotton 
Committee,  appointed  by  the  Government  of  India  in  Septem- 
ber 1917,  aflflrmed  that  the  interests  of  the  cultivator  must 
be  paramount — a  stipulation  to  which  the  Empire  Cotton 
Growing  Committee  "  heartily  agreed."  ^  Thus  any  restric- 
tion of  the  market  in  the  interests  of  the  United  Kingdom  is 

1  Cd.  9370  of  1918. 

^  Cmd.  523  of  1920,  p.  42.     See  also  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords  of 
12th  July  1920.    This  latter  "  Committee  "  has  now  been  constituted  under  Royal 


272        TAXATION  AND  METHODS   OF  EAISING  EEVENTTE. 

ruled  out,  and  if  the  growth  of  cotton  is  increased  in  India, 
the  surplus  may  go  to  the  country  which  offers  the  best  price 
instead  of  to  England,  whose  manufacturers  and  taxpayers 
have  spent  money  in  its  development.  Or  to  put  it  in  an- 
other way,  it  might  seem  equally  beneficial  to  promote  cotton- 
growing  in  China  as  in  the  Empire. 

The  figures  given  by  the  Board  of  Trade  ^  show  that  for 
the  quinquennial  period  1912-13  to  1916-17,  only  7  per  cent 
of  the  Indian  crop  was  received  by  Great  Britain,  while 
55  per  cent  went  to  Japan.  In  the  last  year  (with  the  elimina- 
tion of  Germany  and  other  countries)  the  proportion  was 
9'7  per  cent  to  the  United  Kingdom,  and  nearly  70  per  cent  ^ 
to  Japan.  Though  the  bulk  of  the  crop  is  stated  to  be  at 
present  of  too  short  a  staple  for  the  needs  of  Lancashire,  this 
is  only  a  temporary  condition,  and  our  efforts  to  increase  the 
length  of  staple  will  presently  begiu  to  show  results.  Japan, 
however,  will  also  require  a  longer  staple  as  the  standard  of 
her  manufactures  improves. 

The  Empire  Cotton  Growing  Committee  has,  of  course, 
carefully  considered  this  matter.  Its  view  is  that  the  grant 
of  public  money  is  principally  for  the  benefit  of  those  parts 
of  the  Empire  in  which  cotton  is  growa,^  and  where  it  would 
not  be  grown  unless  it  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  coimtry 
growing  it.  They  hold  to  the  great  principle  that  "  any 
specific  control  of  the  destination  of  the  crop  is  impracticable 
and  undesirable  " — ^but  they  think  it  certain  that  an  indefinite 
preference  wiU  be  indirectly  secured  for  spinners  in  the  British 
Empire ;  and  finally,  it  is  beyond  question  that  in  case  of 
war  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  suppUes  of  cotton  should 
be  available  in  the  Empire  itself,  so  that  we  should  not  have 
to  depend  solely  on  other  countries,  however  friendly  they 
may  be.  Thus  the  general  principle  is  afiOrmed  that  any 
restriction  forcibly  imposed  upon  the  markets  of  the  pro- 
Charter  as  a  permanent  "  Corporation  "  for  the  promotion  of  cotton -growing  in 
the  Empire,  and  must  not  be  confused  with  the  various  "  Committees  "  appointed 
to  report. 

1  'Board  of  Trade  Journal,'  2nd  May  1918.     See  also  Cmd.  51  of  1919,  p.  322. 

^  See  also  Indian  Progress  Report  for  1917-1918,  published  in  1919,  where  the 
percentage  is  given  as  71  per  cent  (p.  101). 

^  This  view  will  not,  I  think,  find  general  acceptance.  Parliament  agreed  to 
this  additional  burden  on  the  British  taxpayer,  not  as  a  subsidy  to  India, 
Nigeria,  or  Uganda,  but  in  the  interests  of  the  great  Lancashire  industry. 
It  may,  however,  be  regarded  as  a  form  of  Imperial  preference,  in  accordance 
with  the  suggestion  of  Lord  Balfour's  Committee,  referred  to  on  page  278,  in 
which  case  reciprocity  could  be  asked. 


THE   "  KMPIEE  EESOUECES  DEVELOPMENT  COMMITTEE."      273 

ducing  country  for  the  benefit  of  the  Controlling  Power  is 
contrary  to  the  theory  of  trusteeship.i 

I  come  now  to  the  second  of  the  headings,  imder  which 
I  summarised  some  of  the  economic  effects,  resulting  from 
the  war,  on  the  relations  of  the  African  dependencies  to  the 
United  Kingdom — viz.,  the  proposals  for  rehabilitating  the 
Imperial  finances  by  schemes  such  as  those  put  forward  by 
the  "  Empire  Eesources  Development  Committee." 

I  have,  I  think,  conclusively  shown  in  an  article  in  'The 
Nineteenth  Century'  *  that  such  of  these  proposals  as  relate 
to  the  African  dependencies,  and  aim  "at  promoting  the 
development  for  profit  under  State  auspices,  and  participa- 
tion of  selected  resources,"  cannot  be  adopted  except  at  the 
sacrifice  of  fundamental  principles.  These  particular  pro- 
posals have  not  been  pressed  of  late,  and  it  will  therefore 
suffice  to  refer  my  reader  to  the  article  aUuded  to,  in  which 
they  are  examined  in  detail.  They  appear  to  contemplate 
a  complete  or  partial  monopoly  by  the  controUing  Power, 
by  which  the  natives  would  be  compelled  to  seU  their  produce 
to  its  agents,  so  that  the  profits  may  be  acquired  not  by  the 
individual  merchant,  or  even  by  the  local  Government  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country,  but  in  liquidation  of  the  British 
war  debt,  under  a  system  which  must  necessarily  involve 
the  fixing  of  prices  for  labour  and  produce,  and  the  restric- 
tion of  markets.  The  patriotic  proposers  had  not,  I  venture 
to  think,  fully  realised  the  implications  of  their  scheme, 
which  in  essential  principles  appears  to  resemble  the  former 
regime  of  the  Congo  State,  on  the  abandonment  of  which 
the  British  Government  insisted  before  it  accorded  its  recog- 
nition of  the  reversion  of  the  State  to  Belgium.*  The  market 
is  at  present  weU  supplied  with  capital.* 

'  The  'Times'  (18th  December  1919)  gave  publicity  to  an  unpublished  letter 
from  thejBritiah  to  the  French  Government,  dated  28th  May  19i8,  which  stated 
that,  after  the  needs  of  this  country  had  been  met,  ' '  the  resources  in  raw  materials 
of  the  British  Empire  will  be  at  the  disposal  of  France  and  other  Allies.  Only 
after  the  Allies  have  obtained  what  they  require  for  their  economic  development 
will  the  resources  of  our  Empire  be  offered  to  neutral  Powers,  and  lastly  to  the 
countries  with  which  we  are  now  at  war."  This  would  seem  to  be  a  formal  and 
precise  pledge  of  a  very  sweeping  nature,  unrestricted  in  time,  or  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  raw  materials,  or  the  consent  of  the  colonies  concerned,  and  would 
seem  to  assume  the  right  of  the  British  Government  to  deal  as  it  may  think  fit 
with  the  produce  of  the  tropical  dependencies. 

2  "  The  Crown  Colonies  and  the  British  War-debt,"  August  1920. 

'  Prof.  Keith,  '  African  Society  Journal,'  July  1918,  p.  256,  citing  State  Paper 
107,  p.  352. 

*  The  chairman  of  the  Association  of  West  African  Merchants  wrote  to  the 

S 


274        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OF  RAISING  EEVBNUE. 

But  if  such  schemes  as  these  must  be  ruled  out  as  inad- 
missible, are  we  to  accept  the  conclusion  that  the  peoples 
of  the  tropical  dependencies  are  to  bear  no  share  in  the  finan- 
cial burden  of  the  war,  which  was  fought  no  less  for  their 
liberties  than  for  our  own  ?  National  liberty  in  these  days 
depends  largely  on  national  wealth,  for  only  the  wealthiest 
nations  can  afford  to  maintain  the  great  armies  and  navies 
and  aix  services  on  which  the  defence  of  those  liberties  de- 
pends. It  is  therefore  to  the  self-iaterest  of  the  subject  races 
that  Great  Britain  should  remain  wealthy  enough  to  support 
the  burden.  But  the  war  has  left  her  with  a  colossal  debt, 
and  a  scale  of  taxation  which  cripples  enterprise. 

From  these  financial  burdens  the  tropical  dependencies 
are  to  a  large  extent  exempt.  To  some  of  them  the  war  and 
the  period  succeeding  it  even  brought  added  prosperity,  and 
notwithstanding  any  temporary  set-back,  the  demand  for  their 
foodstuffs  and  raw  materials  is  assured,  and  promises  a  pros- 
perous future.  They  helped  to  win  the  war  ;  are  they  incap- 
able of  some  voluntary  self-sacrifice  in  order  to  help  "  to  win 
the  peace  "  ?  State  monopoUes,  fixed  prices  for  produce  and 
labour,  confiscation  of  lands,  compulsory  service — none  of 
these  things  should  we  ask  of  them.  But  is  it  too  much  to 
ask  of  the  native  producer  that  he  should  voluntarily  give  a 
preference  to  British  requirements  for  a  definitely  limited 
period,  and  acquiesce  in  the  limitation  of  his  market,  pro- 
vided that  the  whole  of  his  output  is  absorbed  at  remunerative 
prices,  and  that  the  particular  product  is  one  of  essential 
importance  to  British  industry  ?  In  the  case  of  cotton,  for 
instance,  he  would  not  thereby  be  contributing  to  "  capitalistic 
profits,"  for  the  Empire  Cotton  Corporation  is  pledged  to  make 
no  profits,  and  the  British  consumers  have  imposed  upon  them- 
selves a  tax  of  6d.  per  bale  to  provide  funds  for  its  activities. 
Competition  by  merchants  on  the  spot  will  assure  fair  prices. 

Voluntary  acquiescence,  if  genuine — ^that  is  to  say,  if  it 
can  be  obtained  by  a  widespread  knowledge  of  the  facts — is 

Press  (10th  November  1916)  that  "British  merchants  have  been  and  are 
prepared  to  find  all  the  capital  required  for  its  (Nigeria's)  development,  and  have 
at  present  invested  there  probably  two  million  more  than  before  the  war." 
Much  capital  has  been  invested  since  that  date,  and  in  addition  we  have  Lever 
Bros.,  Jurgens  &  Co.,  and  other  large  capitalists  outside  the  Liverpool  group. 
Moreover,  the  credit  of  West  African  dependencies  is  good  enough  to  enable 
them  to  raise  whatever  loans  they  may  need. 


CONTEIBtrTIONS  FOE  DEFENCE.  275 

the  better  way.  But  the  trustee  Power  is  also  entitled  to 
consider,  if  need  be,  what  definite  obUgations  are  being  in- 
curred by  its  ward  for  which  an  adequate  return  is  due.  I 
do  not  refer  to  financial  assistance  in  the  early  years,  nor 
am  I  oblivious  to  the  indirect  advantages  which  accrue  to  a 
trustee,  however  freely  "  equal  opportunity  "  is  accorded  to 
the  commerce  of  all  nations. 

But  can  it  be  said  that  there  is  any  violation  of  funda- 
mental principles  if  a  colony,  when  it  has  reached  a  stage  of 
prosperity,  should  be  asked  to  make  some  contribution  to  the 
Navy  on  which  it  is  dependent  for  its  defence  from  its  sur- 
plus revenue — ^viz.,  from  the  balance  remaining  when  ordi- 
nary administrative  expenditure  has  been  met — ^which  is  a 
measure  of  its  prosperity,  and  is  normally  devoted  to  develop- 
ment ?  The  principle  has  long  been  in  application  in  our 
Eastern  colonies,  where  a  military  contribution  is  levied — 
not  with  their  consent,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  maintain- 
ing troops  for  the  preservation  of  law  and  order  in  the  colonies 
themselves.  The  Empire  is  based  on  the  relations  of  the  family, 
and  not  on  those  of  the  syndicate.  The  African,  who  shares 
with  us  its  benefits,  must  learn  that  it  is  his  duty  and  his 
privilege  to  share  its  burdens.  This  ideal  should  be  more 
adequately  explained  to  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  alleged,  both  in  East  ^  and 
West  Africa,  that  the  local  forces  maintained  by  the  African 
dependencies  are  in  excess  of  the  needs  of  the  colonies  for 
local  defence  and  police  purposes.  Many  of  these  dependencies 
— ^Nigeria,  the  Gold  Coast,  Kenya,  Uganda,  and  IS'yasaland 
— had  frontiers  coterminous  with  German  colonies,  and  the 
events  of  the  war  have  shown  that  so  long  at  least  as  that 
aggressive  Power  remained  a  menace  to  the  world,  the  colonial 
forces  were  necessarily  maintained  at  a  high  strength.  Whether 
they  can  now  be  reduced  is  a  matter  for  consideration. 

I  come  to  my  last  heading — Imperial  Preference.  This 
stands  on  a  different  footing,  for  it  has  no  necessary  relation 
to  war  legislation  or  post-bellum  economic  conditions,  and  is 
in  principle  wholly  voluntary.  The  case  for  the  imposition 
of  a  tariff  was  put  by  Colonel  Amery — than  whom  no  one  is 

^  Mr  Wallie,  late  Chief  Secretary  of  Uganda,  asserts  that  the  King's  African 
Rifles  are  not  required  by  Kenya  or  Uganda,  and  should  be  disbanded  or  paid  for 
by  the  War  Office,— 'Times,'  23rd  August  1921. 


276        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OF  RAISING  EEVBNXJE. 

better  qualified  to  state  it, — writing  from  East  Africa  so  long 
ago  as  January  1908  : — 

"  What  inducement  is  there,"  he  asks,  "  for  the  British 
taxpayer  to  undertake  all  this  increased  expenditure — or, 
at  least,  increased  financial  responsibility  ?  .  .  .  Under  the 
fiscal  system  at  present  prevailing  both  in  England  and  in 
the  territories  under  Colonial  Office  control,  there  is  no  guar- 
antee whatever  that  the  market,  when  developed,  wiU  be  a 
market  for  English  rather  than  for  foreign  goods,  or  that  the 
raw  materials  will  go  to  British  factories  rather  than  to  the 
factories  of  our  rivals.  Why  should  not  British  industry 
have  that  guarantee  in  return  for  the  expenditure  and  risk 
incurred  by  the  British  taxpayer  ?  Why  should  not  the 
producer  in  these  new  territories  give  that  guarantee  in 
return  for  the  estabUshment  of  the  settled  conditions  which 
make  this  industry  possible  ?  "  Colonel  Amery  even  goes  so 
far  as  to  say  that  "  Ifo  one  can  suggest  that  a  preference  in 
favour  of  British  imports  into  East  Africa,  or — what  is  more 
desirable — a  differential  export  tax  on  raw  materials  exported 
from  East  Africa  to  foreign  countries,  is  likely  to  inflict  hard- 
ship upon  either  native  or  settler,  or  to  retard  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country."  ^ 

It  is  worth  while  to  examine  these  proposals  carefully, 
for  they  appear  at  iirst  sight  to  enshroud  the  principles  of 
the  pahn-kemel  export  duty  under  the  comfortkig  title  of 
Imperial  preference.  A  preferential  export  duty  may,  as  we 
have  seen,  inflict  considerable  loss  on  the  producers,  by  de- 
priving them  of  the  high  prices  which  foreign  nations  are  will- 
ing to  pay  for  their  raw  materials.  The  controlling  Power 
woiild  benefit,  as  in  the  old  plantation  system,  by  a  monopoly. 
Nor  does  the  export  tax  even  benefit  the  local  revenue,  for 
in  effect  it  is  rarely  levied.  It  is  intentionally  made  pro- 
hibitive, so  as  to  ensure  the  monopoly. 

What,  then,  has  the  controlling  power  to  offer  in  return, 
so  that  it  may  properly  come  under  the  designation  of  a  re- 
ciprocal preference  ?  There  are  duties  (for  revenue  purposes) 
on  tea,  sugar,  coffee,  cocoa,  and  tobacco,  and  these  could  be 
remitted,  as  proposed  by  Lord  BaLEoux  of  Burleigh's  Com- 
mittee, "  as  a  first  measure  of  colonial  preference,"  ^  but  they 

1  'Union  and  Strength,'  L.  S.  Amery,  pp.  290,  291. 

2  Cd.  9035,  p.  48,  paragraph  237.  The  East  African  "  Economic  Commission," 
while  expressing  readiness  to  give  a  preference  to  the  United  Kingdom,  apparently 


mPERIAl  PEEFEEENCE.  277 

do  not  touch  the  bulk  of  the  exports  from  tropical  Africa, 
which  are  imported  duty-free  into  the  United  Kingdom.  To 
give  a  preference  to  these,  it  would  be  necessary  to  impose 
duties  on  all  such  articles  imported  from  foreign  countries, 
and  to  remit  them  for  Empire-grown  produce. 

But  African  products  do  not  suffer  appreciably  from  foreign 
competition.  Already  they  have  a  duty-free  market  in  the 
United  "Kingdom,  and  the  object  in  view  is  not  to  exclude 
foreign  competition,  but  to  attract  to  England  produce  which 
otherwise  woidd  find  a  more  remunerative  market  abroad. 
Such  a  differential  export  duty,  if  forced  on  a  reluctant  colony 
for  the  benefit  of  home  trade,  is,  as  Lord  Emmot  says,  the 
absolute  negation  of  the  voluntary  principle.^  But  if  the 
principle  of  equal  opporininity  be  applied  absolutely  without 
reservation,  what  advantage,  asks  Colonel  Amery,  does  the 
controlling  power  gain  to  compensate  for  the  burden  it  sus- 
tains ?    I  shall  deal  with  this  question  in  my  last  chapter. 

But  Colonel  Amery  does  not  contemplate  compulsion.  He 
assumes  the  export  tax  to  be  self-imposed  voluntarily,  with 
the  object  of  inducing  the  British  Exchequer  to  incur  further 
expenditure  in  the  development  of  the  country,  and  to  guar- 
antee to  the  British  taxpayer  the  benefit  of  the  money  so 
expended.  In  my  view,  private  capital,  attracted  by  the 
prospects  of  the  country,  or  raised  by  way  of  loans  on  the 
security  of  the  revenues — ^it  need  be  with  the  assistance  of  an 
Imperial  guarantee — ^is  preferable  to  grants  from  the  Ex- 
chequer. But  the  principle  of  voluntary  assistance  to  the 
Mother  Coimtry  by  African  dependencies — even  though  it 
may  involve  sacrifice — ^is  a  separate  issue,  with  which  I  have 
already  dealt. 

Colonel  Amery's  alternative,  which  he  regards  with  less 
favour,  is  a  preference  on  British  imported  goods.  Since 
the  local  revenue  (which  in  some  dependencies  is  largely 
derived  from  customs)  could  not  afford  a  reduction  in  exist- 
ing customs  duties  (for  the  loss  would  have  to  be  made  good  by 
some  equivalent  tax),  the  preference  would  no  doubt  take  the 
form  of  additional  duties  on  goods  of  foreign  origin.  Leaving 
out  of  account  the  question  of  commercial  and  other  treaties 
(viz.,  the  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts  and  the  Conventions  of 

asks  in  return  for  a  subsidy  to  shipping  lines  for  special,  freights  for  certain 
products  for  a  limited  time.    Loo.  cit.,  p.  26. 
'  House  of  Lords  debate  of  17th  May  1920. 


278        TAXATION  AND  METHODS  OF  RAISING  EEVENUE. 

June  1898  and  of  September  1919),  and  that  of  retaliation 
by  foreign  Powers — both  very  important  considerations — 
how  would  such  action  affect  the  purely  Imperial  preference 
point  of  view  ? 

It  would  be  a  genuine  preference,  and  it  would  probably 
not  be  opposed  by  the  dependencies,  for  the  bulk  of  their 
imports  are  already  from  the  United  Kingdom,  and  would 
remain  unaffected.  The  colonial  consumer  would  suffer  in 
some  degree,  no  doubt,  by  the  loss  of  cheap  foreign  goods, 
but  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  such  a  preference  if  the 
Mother  Country  can  offer  some  equivalent.  There  may  be 
some  articles  iu  which  the  Empire  output  is  insufficient  to 
supply  the  home  market  and  foreign  competition  makes  itself 
felt.  In  such  a  case  duties  could  be  imposed,  and  in  the  words 
of  Lord  Balfour's  Committee,  "  preferential  treatment  should 
be  accorded  in  respect  of  any  customs  duties  now  or  hereafter 
to  be  imposed  in  the  United  Kingdom."  ^  The  Committee 
suggests  also  "  the  expediency  of  considering  measures  of 
Imperial  preference  other  than  the  imposition  of  differential 
customs  duties — as,  for  example,  Government  contracts  to 
purchase  for  a  term  of  years,  at  guaranteed  minimum  prices, 
part  or  the  whole  of  the  output  of  materials  of  great  industrial 
importance  ...  or  financial  assistance  from  the  home  Gov- 
ernment towards  the  development  of  Imperial  resources."  " 

Following  these  pronouncements,  a  notice  appeared  in  the 
'  Board  of  Trade  Journal '  announcing  that  reduced  rates  as 
specified  therein  would  be  charged  on  certain  goods  "  con- 
signed from,  grown,  produced,  or  manufactured  in  the  British 
Empire."  ^ 

It  is,  of  course,  more  than  probable  that  if  Great  Britain 
restricted  the  produce  of  her  colonies  to  her  own  markets, 
she  would  provoke  foreign  countries  to  a  poUcy  of  retaUation. 
It  was  pointed  out  in  the  palm-kernels  debate  that  the  United 
States  and  Belgium  (Congo)  were  bound  by  treaties  to  exact 
no  preferential  duties  against  Great  Britain,  on  the  grounds 
that  they  have  free  access  to  her  colonial  markets.  France 
has  deprived  herseff  of  the  weapon  of  retaliation  by  her  own 
exclusive  policy,  and  in  the  letter  quoted  by  Lord  Mayo  in 

1  Cd.  9035  of  1918,  paragraph  254. 

^  Ibid.,  paragraph  239.     For  the  application  of  this  principle  to  Empire-grown 
cotton,  see  p.  272. 

'  '  Board  of  Trade  Journal,'  9th  September  1920. 


RETALIATION,  279 

that  debate,  the  French  Government  formally  notifted  to  our 
Foreign  Office  her  intention  to  retain  for  her  own  sole  use 
the  raw  materials  of  her  colonies.^ 

Thus  the  fear  of  jeopardising  our  commercial  relations 
with  foreign  Powers,  no  less  than  the  extreme  reluctance  we 
should  feel  in  forgoing  the  proud  boast  that  Britain  alone 
holds  her  colonies  open  to  all  the  world,  would  add  to  the 
regret  with  which  we  should  adopt  such  a  policy  otherwise 
than  as  a  temporary  measure  arising  out  of  the  war,  afEecting 
one  group  of  colonies,  and  one  or  two  products  only.  Exclusive 
tariffs  are  dangerous  weapons,  apt  to  injure  the  hand  which 
uses  them,  opposed  to  the  traditions  of  British  trade,  and 
contrary  to  the  agreement  of  the  Economic  Conference,  which 
pledged  the  Allies  "  to  adopt  measures  for  faciUtating  their 
mutual  trade  relations." 

Let  us  hope  that  the  nations  whose  destinies  the  war  has 
shown  to  be  closely  interdependent  may  learn  that  recipro- 
city is  a  better  word  than  restriction,  and  carry  its  operation 
even  beyond  the  sphere  of  tariffs.  Nigeria,  for  instance,  has 
assisted  France  by  allowing  French  goods  to  pass  over  her 
railways  to  Zinder.  Mutual  reciprocity  would  guarantee  like 
facilities  over  any  railway  which  France  may  build  thence  to 
the  Mediterranean. 

'  "After  the  war,"  says  a  French  writer,  "France  must  as  far  as  possible  live 
on  the  products  of  her  colonial  lands  ...  by  reserving  for  French  commerce  her 
colonial  market,  so  that  neither  enemy,  nor  neutral,  nor  ally  shall  profit  unduly 
from  the  colonies  of  France. " 


280 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LAND   TENURE   AND   TEANSFEE. 

The  natural  evolution  of  conceptions  of  land  tenure — The  problem  in 
West  Africa — Committees  on  West  African  lands — West  African 
land  tenure :  (a)  Tribal  and  family ;  (6)  Individual  ownership ;  (c) 
Absence  of  tenure — Summary  re  land  tenure — Eights  of  conquest — 
Recognition  of  private  rights — Necessity  for  declaration  of  policy — 
View  of  the  Committee — Nationalisation — The  economic  doctrine — 
Criticism  and  fears — Actual  practice  in  Northern  Nigeria — Summary 
of  criticism  of  Northern  Nigeria  land  law — Encouragement  of  small 
holdings — Large  estates — Transfers  between  natives — Acquisition  of 
land  by  Government  and  aliens  in  conquered  countries — Shifting 
cultivation — Curtailment  or  increase  of  tribal  or  village  lands — 
Summary  of  Government  and  native  rights  in  controlled  lands — 
Freehold   and  communal  tenure. 

I  PEOPOSB  in  this  and  the  following  chapter  to  discuss  the 
question  of  land  in  the  British  African  tropics,  only  in  so 
far  as  it  presents  itself  as  an  administrative  problem.  Speak- 
ing generally,  it  may,  I  think,  be  said  that  conceptions  as 
to  the  tenure  of  land  are  subject  to  a  steady  evolution,  side 
by  side  with  the  evolution  of  social  progress,  from  the  most 
primitive  stages  to  the  organisation  of  the  modern  State. 
In  the  earliest  stage  the  land  and  its  produce  is  shared  by 
the  commimity  as  a  whole  ;  later  the  produce  is  the  property 
of  the  family  or  individuals  by  whose  toil  it  is  won,  and  the 
control  of  the  land  becomes  vested  iu  the  head  of  the  family. 
When  the  tribal  stage  is  reached,  the  control  passes  to  the 
chief,  who  allots  unoccupied  lands  at  wUl,  but  is  not  justi- 
fied in  dispossessiug  any  family  or  person  who  is  using  the 
land.  Later  still,  especially  when  the  pressure  of  popu- 
lation has  given  to  the  land  an  exchange  value,  the 
conception  of  proprietary   rights   ia  it  emerges,  and   sale, 


THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LAND  TENTJEE.  281 

mortgage,  and  lease  of  the  land,  apart  from  its  user,  is 
recognised.^ 

Conquest  vests  the  control  of  the  land  in  the  conqueror, 
who  in  savage  warfare  also  disposes  of  the  lives  and  chattels 
of  the  conquered,  but  he  usually  finds  it  necessary  to  con- 
form largely  to  the  existing  law  and  custom.  In  civilised 
countries  conquest  does  not  justify  confiscation  of  private 
rights  in  land. 

These  processes  of  natural  evolution,  leading  up  to  individ- 
ual ownership,  may,  I  believe,  be  traced  in  every  civilisation 
known  to  history.  Ahab,  900  years  B.C.,  was  unable  to  dis- 
possess Ifaboth  of  the  private  ownership  of  his  vineyard 
without  violation  of  accepted  principles  ;  China  for  centuries 
has  recognised  individual  property  in  land,  as  did  Babylon 
5000  years  ago,^  and  as  the  nations  of  Europe  do  to-day.^ 

In  Africa  every  stage  of  this  process  of  evolution  may  be 
encountered.     The  problem  with  which  a  Government  has 

'  There  are,  says  Professor  Berriedale  Keith  ('African  Society's  Journal,'  April 
1912),  two  opposing  theories  as  to  the  evolution  of  the  ownership  of  land.  Some, 
following  Sir  H.  Maine,  hold  that  the  land  is  first  owned  by  the  tribe,  then  by  the 
village  community,  and  finally  by  the  individual.  Others  maintain  that  the 
individual  was  the  original  owner,  and  that  ownership  by  the  community  or  tribe, 
so  far  as  it  is  real  and  not  a  matter  of  territorial  sovereignty,  is  a  later  conception. 

I  venture  to  think  that  neither  theory  is  exclusive.  When  a  swarming  horde  of 
invaders  enters  an  inhabited  country  the  earlier  possessors  are  ousted.  Each  unit 
seizes  the  land  it  requires,  and  eventually  village  boundaries  are  recognised.  If 
the  invaders  had  already  attained  to  a  tribal  organisation,  vacant  lands  are  at  the 
disposal  of  the  tribal  head  ;  if  not,  they  remain  indeterminate,  until  that  stage  is 
reached.  They  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  territorial  chief,  not  as  owner,  but  in  his 
capacity  as  sovereign  of  the  tribe.  On  the  other  hand,  where  possession  has  been 
acquired  by  the  occupation  of  uninhabited  and  unclaimed  lands — a  condition 
which  applies  to  areas  left  derelict  by  pestilence,  slave-raids,  or  famine — or  by 
gradual  encroachment  on  grazing  lands,  which  the  tribe  in  possession  is  no  longer 
able  to  defend,  individual  settlement  and  ownership  probably  preceded  that  of  the 
family  or  tribe.  These  academic  theories  are,  however,  immaterial  to  the  indis- 
putable fact  that,  whatever  the  origins  of  land  tenure,  the  inevitable  tendency 
has  been  towards  the  recognition  of  individual  proprietary  rights  in  land  pari  passu 
with  social  evolution. 

M.  Delaf osse —  a  translation  of  whose  admirable  memorandum  on  land  tenure 
in  French  West  Africa  may  be  found  in  the  '  African  Society's  Journal,'  1910,  pp. 
259-273 — asserts  that  this  difierence  in  the  original  method  of  acquisition  afiects 
the  existing  tenure  of  land.  "  Depending,"  he  says,  "upon  whether  the  conquest 
or  original  occupation  was  the  work  of  a  single  chief  or  of  a  community  acting 
without  any  one  directing  force,  so  will  ownership  of  land  be  found  to  be  vested 
either  in  the  chief  or  in  the  community."  In  the  former  case,  he  says,  the  chief 
has  the  rights  of  proprietor,  and  "real  owner,"  and  can  alienate  at  will — in  the 
latter  he  has  no  such  rights,  and  acts  only  as  trustee. 

^  '  Ownership,  Tenure,  and  Taxation  of  Land,'  Whittaker,  p.  40. 

'  "  Nobody  is  at  liberty  to  attack  several  property  and  to  say  at  the  same  time 
that  he  values  civilisation.  The  history  of  the  two  cannot  be  disentangled." — 
Maine,  'Village  Communities,'  p.  230. 


282  LAND  TENURE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

to  deal  consists,  on  the  one  hand,  in  adjusting  land  ques- 
tions between  natives,  which  otherwise  would  lead  to  quarrels 
and  bloodshed — questions  often  complicated  by  the  dis- 
integration of  tribal  authority  and  native  custom,  due  to 
extraneous  influences.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Government 
must  control  generally  the  acquisition  of  land  by  non-natives. 

As  regards  the  second  of  these  two  tasks,  it  is  manifest 
that  there  exists  a  fundamental  difference  between  those 
countries  in  which  there  is  a  dense  native  population,  and 
Europeans  and  others  enter  for  a  more  or  less  temporary 
residence,  and  those  in  which  the  climate  attracts  European 
settlers,  and  the  sparsity  of  the  native  population  admits 
of  the  settlement  of  non-natives — European  and  Asiatic. 
The  group  of  West  African  colonies  and  protectorates  are 
typical  of  the  former,  and  since  their  population  and  the 
volume  of  their  trade  with  the  outside  world  is  much  greater 
than  that  of  aU  the  remainder  i  put  together,  I  propose  to 
deal  with  them  at  some  length. 

In  1908  Lord  Crewe,  then  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Colonies,  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  the  subject 
of  land  tenure  in  Northern  Nigeria,  and  to  advise  as  to  the 
system  which  should  be  adopted  by  Government.^  In  1912 
Mr  (now  Lord)  Harcourt  (Lord  Crewe's  successor)  appointed 
another  committee  under  the  same  chairman,  with  similar 
instructions  as  regards  the  remaining  dependencies  in  West 
Africa.  They  were  to  report  "  whether  any,  and  if  so  what, 
amendment  of  the  laws  is  required,  either  on  the  lines  of  the 
Northern  Nigeria  Lands  Proclamation  or  otherwise."  War 
broke  out  before  they  had  completed  their  report,  which 
was  never  made  pubUc.^  Earlier  in  1912  Mr  Harcourt  had 
already  sent  Mr  (now  Sir  Henry)  Belfield  to  make  inquiries 

'  The  population  of  British  West  Africa  is  estimated  at  21,823,000,  and  its 
trade  is  valued  at  £49,820,000.  The  aggregate  population  of  the  whole  of  the 
remaining  British  dependencies  in  tropical  Africa  (excluding  Mauritius,  the 
Seychelles,  St  Helena,  and  Ascension)  is  put  at  16,149,600,  and  the  value  of  their 
trade  at  £26,759,000  (see  Table,  p.  45). 

-  Cd.  5102  and  5108  of  1910.  The  committee  sat  for  two  months  and 
examined  eight  witnesses,  two  of  whom  were  members  of  the  committee,  two 
were  Englishmen  connected  with  commerce,  and  the  remainder  were  officials. 
They  also  had  at  their  disposal  memoranda  on  the  subject  issued  by  the  Governor 
and  his  predecessor  to  Residents  in  Nigeria. 

'  The  second  committee  was  appointed  in  June  1912  and  finally  dissolved  in 
1915.  They  examined  a  very  great  number  of  witnesses,  including  natives,  and 
a  great  mass  of  correspondence  was  laid  before  them,  in  addition  to  the  volumin- 
ous evidence  taken  in  West  Africa,  and  Sir  H.  Belfield's  report. 


SYSTEM  OP  LAND  TENXIRE,  WEST  AFRICA.  283 

into  the  system  of  administration  of  land  in  the  Gold  Coast, 
and  his  report  was  published  in  July  of  that  year.^ 

An  immense  mass  of  evidence  was  taken  on  commission  in 
Africa  for  the  "  West  African  Lands  Committee."  That  from 
Nigeria  passed  through  my  hands,  and  from  it  and  Sir  H. 
Belfleld's  report  on  the  Gold  Coast  it  is  possible  to  arrive 
at  some  broad  conclusions  as  to  the  conceptions  regarding 
the  ownership  and  transfer  of  lands  held  by  the  people  of 
West  Africa,  the  more  so  that  the  system  of  land  tenure  is 
known  to  be  very  similar  in  aU  these  dependencies. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  Africa  was  densely  populated  long 
before  the  tribes  which  now  hold  sway  settled  on  their  respec- 
tive lands.*  Title  to  land  accrued  to  the  latest  conquerors, 
and  where  land  had  become  derelict  as  a  result  of  extermina- 
tion, slave-raids,  migration,  or  pestilence,  the  individual  who 
first  reclaimed  it  claimed  ownership  of  it  for  himself  and  his 
descendants.  The  title  to  such  land  was  vested  in  the  head 
of  the  family,  and  further  areas  reclaimed  by  its  members 
were  added  to  the  family  lands.  Intervening  unoccupied 
areas  were  later  included.  The  tribal  chief  allotted  the  con- 
quered lands  to  families,  and  the  disposal  of  any  vacant  lands 
not  iQcluded  in  those  claimed  by  any  family  was  vested  in 
him.  In  some  tribes  the  family  remained  the  important 
unit,  as  in  the  Gold  Coast  and  Torubaland,  in  others  it 
became  merged  in  the  tribe.  In  the  former  case  there  would 
be  two  classes  of  unoccupied  land — ^family  and  tribal.^  Pri- 
meval forests,  unoccupied  by  man  for  centuries,  the  natural 
barriers  between  warring  tribes,  became  gradually  included 

'  Cd.  6278  of  1912.  The  report  is  dated  18th  June  1912,  aud  13  accompanied 
by  notes  of  evidence,  addresses,  &c. ,  by  fifty-seven  persons.  His  instructions  are 
not  quoted,  but  in  an  address  to  the  chiefs  and  others  Mr  Belfield  stated  that 
"the  principal  object  of  my  mission  is  to  make  inquiry  into  the  system  of 
administration  of  land  in  the  Gold  Coast  Colony "  (p.  4). 

^  Many,  especially  of  the  native  vfitnesses,  appear  to  ignore  this  fact,  and  speak 
as  if  the  earliest  founders  of  the  existing  tribes  came,  like  the  sons  of  Noah,  into  a 
wholly  uninhabited  land,  and  pegged  out  claims  which  developed  by  a  symmetri- 
cal process  from  the  original  founder,  through  the  family  and  the  tribe,  to  the 
kingship — though  nothing,  I  imagine,  is  more  certain  than  that  the  populations 
of  this  continent  have  been  subject  to  constant  displacement  by  more  powerful 
neighbours.  The  Yoruba  and  other  native  legends  (like  the  Hebrew  myths)  are 
apt  to  attribute  the  foundation  of  the  tribe  to  a  single  semi-divine  ancestor,  who 
settled  in  a  waste  land  and  gradually  populated  it.  These  witnesses  testify  that 
the  idea  of  unoccupied  and  unappropriated  land  is  contrary  to  all  native  concep- 
tions, but  fail  to  see  that  this  strong  assertion  is  incompatible  with  the  thesis  on 
which  they  found  the  claims  of  existing  tribes. 

^  Belfleld's  Report,  paragraphs  19-26  and  48.     See  note  1,  next  page. 


284  LAND  TENUEE  AND  TEANSPEE. 

in  one  or  the  other  class,  and  were  recognised  as  the  inalien- 
able property  of  the  neighbouring  community. 

Starting  from  these  hypotheses,  the  evidence  appears  to 
show  that  the  following  general  principles — ^with  local  varia- 
tions— ^became  consolidated.  The  tribal  land  at  the  disposal 
of  the  chief  might  be  allotted  either  to  families  which  had 
outgrown  their  family  lands,  or  to  strangers  who  desired  to 
settle  among  the  tribe,  provided  that  they  paid  the  customary 
tribute  and  dues.  Family  lands  are  at  the  disposal  of  the 
head  of  the  family,  and  every  member  of  the  family  has  a 
right  to  a  share  in  the  land — a  right  which  is  not  forfeited 
even  by  prolonged  absence.  The  holder  and  his  descendants 
have  undisturbed  possession  in  perpetuity,  and  all  rights  of 
ownership,  except  that  they  cannot  alienate  the  land  so  as 
to  deprive  the  chief  of  his  ultimate  control  over  it.  The 
occupier's  title  is  held  by  virtue  of  his  membership  of  the 
family,  and  perpetuates  in  the  name  of  its  head. 

The  produce  of  the  land  is  the  property  of  the  occupier, 
and  he  may  own  trees  planted  by  himself,  either  on  unoccupied 
land  or  on  land  occupied  by  another.  He  may  sell  or  pawn 
the  crops  on  his  land,  or  trees  owned  by  him,  but  not  the 
land  itself.  He  may  be  ousted  from  his  holding  for  offences 
against  the  commimity,  including  failure  to  pay  customary 
tribute  ;  and  upon  the  general  acknowledgment  of  their  right 
to  allocate  land,  and  to  enforce  punishment  in  respect  of  it, 
depends  the  prestige  of  the  chiefs.  Hence  the  system  of 
ruling  through  the  chiefs  depends  on  the  recognition  by 
Government  of  these  powers.  A  chief  acts  as  trustee  for  the 
tribe  in  regard  to  land.  "  He  is  joint  owner  with  his  people, 
and  he  cannot  exercise  any  proprietary  rights  without  the 
co-operation  of  his  people,"  said  the  deputation  on  the  Gold 
Coast  Forest  BiU.^  Consequent  on  these  assumptions,  it  is 
maintained  that  "  every  acre  of  land  is  the  property  of  some 
tribe,  family,  or  individual,"  including  forest  and  swamp.^ 

1  Native  deputation  to  Secretary  of  State,  July  1912.  Monsieur  Delafosse 
notes  that  among  the  northern  tribes,  as  contrasted  with  "the  tribes  of  the 
forest  zone,"  control  of  the  land  is  more  often  exercised  by  an  individual  chief, 
there  is  usually  less  tribal  land,  and  absolute  alienation  of  land  to  a  stranger  is 
less  difficult  than  among  the  forest  tribes.     Loc.  cit. 

2  Belfield,  paragraph  22.  See  Maine,  loc.  cit.,  p.  121.  "The  so-called  waste 
lands  (in  India)  are  part  of  the  domain  of  the  various  communities  which  the 
villagers  theoretically  are  only  waiting  opportunity  to  bring  under  cultivation. " 
Some  witnesses  before  the  Committee  made  the  same  assertion  as  regards  Northern 
Nigeria,  but  in  my  opinion  it  is  unquestionable  that  in  that  country  there  are 


THE  CONCEPTION   OF  DTDIVrDUAL  OWNERSHIP.  285 

It  is  clear  from  this  description  that  African  land  tenure 
is  not  "  communal  "  in  the  sense  of  tenure  in  common.  ^  Its 
fundamental  characteristic  seems  rather  to  be  an  individual 
tenure  of  land  derived  from  the  common  stock  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  tribe  or  family.  ^  Such  a  tenure  woxdd  tend  to 
develop  very  rapidly  into  individual  ownership,  and  evidence 
that  this  was  the  case  was  given  by  several  witnesses — and 
much  more  is  available. 

Side  by  side  with  these  primitive  conceptions  of  land 
tenure,  we  find  a  growing  recognition  of  the  conception  of 
individual  ownership.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the  natural 
evolution  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  in  part  to  the  intro- 
duction of  European  conceptions  of  land  tenure.  The  spread 
of  these  European  ideas  may  be  attributed  in  the  first  place 
to  ignorance  of  the  native  system.  We  find  the  Supreme 
Courts  issuing  writs  of  execution  for  the  seizure  of  land  from 
a  judgment  debtor,  though  by  native  customary  law — of 
which  the  court  was  bound  to  take  cognisance — ^he  had  no 
individual  property  in  it.  This  was  much  aggravated  by  the 
tendency  to  charge  the  Supreme  Court  with  the  duty  of 
deciding  all  land  cases  to  the  exclusion  of  the  executive 
officers. 

large  tracts  of  land  which  have  become  derelict  and  ownerless  as  the  result  of 
the  slave-raids  of  the  past.  They  are  known  as  "  Jagin  Allah "  (God's  jungle), 
and  villages  of  ex-slaves  have  been  formed  on  such  areas  without  protest  or  any 
opposing  claim.  Even  the  evidence  from  Southern  Nigeria  did  not  appear  to  be 
very  consistent  on  this  point,  for  more  than  one  witness  referred  to  vacant  lands, 
and  one  Lagos  witness  spoke  of  "No-man's  land,"  which  he  said  was  called 
"  Tedo."  When,  however,  the  right  to  collect  sylvan  produce  on  vacant  lands  is 
regularly  exercised  they  cannot  properly  be  regarded  as  waste  lands. 

'■  Mr  Gower's  evidence.     Cmd.  5103,  1910,  p.  94.     Questions  866,  867. 

^  Professor  Keith,  in  the  very  interesting  article  already  quoted,  doubts 
whether  there  was  "any  conception  of  the  community  as  a  whole  as  a  land- 
owner." It  is  impossible,  he  remarks,  to  say  from  the  evidence  before  the 
Northern  Nigerian  Lands  Committee  ' '  that  there  is  any  clear  recognition  of  a 
legal  entity,  namely  the  tribe  or  village,  as  owning  the  land  .  .  .  the  Hausa  customs 
as  to  the  inheritance  and  division  of  property  on  death  are  quite  contrary  to 
any  such  conception." 

The  power  of  expropriation  by  the  head  of  the  tribe  is,  he  argues,  a  political 
control,  which  does  not  necessarily  connote  tribal  ownership,  nor  does  the  moral 
control  exercised  by  the  family  head  denote  family  ownership.  He  appears  to 
consider  that  the  land  is  individually  owned  by  the  head  of  the  family,  and  is 
divided  among  the  members  at  his  death,  "None  of  the  evidence  adduced 
shows  that  the  property  ascribed  to  the  tribe  or  community  amounts  to  more 
than  the  fact  that  the  village  has  recognised  boundaries,"  within  which  the  land 
required  by  any  member  is  assigned  to  him  by  the  head.  Compare  Baden- 
Powell  :  "  It  seems  to  me  quite  clear  that  a  sense  of  individual  '  property '  in 
land  may  arise  eoincidently  with  a  sense  of  a  certain  right  in  others  to  have  a 
share  of  the  produce." — 'Indian  Village  Communities,'  p.  131. 


286  LAND  TENURE  AND  TEANSFBK. 

Secondly,  the  English  conception  of  land  tenure  was  carried 
far  and  wide  throughout  the  country,  by  the  desire  of  every 
European  trader  or  miner  to  obtain  a  freehold  right  to  the 
land  occupied  by  his  residence.  And  thirdly,  especially  in 
the  large  coast  towns,  by  the  influence  of  the  Europeanised 
native  lawyers.  To  these  may  perhaps  be  added  ia  some  dis- 
tricts the  influence  of  Mohamedans.  In  the  larger  cities  of 
the  coast  the  conception  of  individual  ownership  in  land, 
with  the  right  to  sell,  mortgage,  and  bequeath  it,  has  thus 
become  fully  recognised,  while  in  the  interior  the  idea  has 
become  more  and  more  prevalent.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  conception  has  no  doubt  also  arisen 
from  natural  processes,  where  the  density  of  the  population 
in  and  around  the  native  cities  gave  to  the  land  an  economic 
value  for  residence  or  for  its  produce.^  Even  among  some 
very  primitive  tribes  the  principle  of  private  ownership  seems 
to  be  recognised,  for  there  is  evidence  of  land  having  been 
sold  or  rent  charged  for  its  use,  even  where  pressure  of  popu- 
lation was  not  the  cause.  ^ 

The  conception  of  individual  ownership  is  promoted  by 
the  cultivation  of  permanent  crops  which  take  long  to  mature, 
such  as  cocoa,  rubber,  &c.*  It  is  remarkable  with  what 
tenacity  the  native  miud  holds  to  the  idea  of  private  owner- 
ship, or  at  least  of  the  absolute  right  to  tenure  in  perpetuity. 
It  was  difiicult  in  Lagos  to  dispose  of  Crown  land  to  natives 
on  any  terminable  lease,  however  favourable  its  terms. 

There  are  considerable  areas  in  Africa  under  the  domina- 
tion of  nomadic  tribes — such  as  the  Masai  of  British  East 

1  Mr  Dennett  states  that  to  alienate  land  by  sale,  formerly  held  to  be  a  crime 
among  the  Egbas,  is  now  becoming  a  custom.  A  deputation  of  natives  urged  on 
the  Alake  the  view  that  land  is  not  inalienable,  but  the  private  property  of  the 
occupier. — 'African  Society's  Journal,'  and  'Morning  Post,'  14th  March  1910. 

^  There  is  evidence  in  the  Blue-book  (5103)  that  this  stage  had  been  reached  in 
various  parts  of  Northern  Nigeria — especially  in  and  around  the  cities  of  Sokoto, 
Eano,  and  Zaria. 

'  Mr  Cardinal  tells  us  that  in  the  Northern  Territories  of  the  Gold  Coast  the 
"Tindana" — the  priest  of  the  earth-god — and  not  the  secular  chief,  owns  and 
disposes  of  the  land.  The  person  who  first  reclaimed  a  piece  of  land  ' '  becomes 
the  owner  for  all  time.  ...  It  is  private  property,  much  as  we  know  it  in  our 
own  country,"  and  he  derives  his  title  from  "the  caretaker  or  agent  of  the  earth- 
god the  Tindana." — '  The  Natives  of  the  Northern  Territories  of  the  Gold  Coast.' 

*  Speaking  of  the  spread  of  the  cocoa  industry  in  Ashanti,  Sir  H.  Belfield 
writes  :  "  The  necessity  for  creating  a  form  of  land  tenure  in  the  nature  of 
individual  ownership  is  therefore  becoming  apparent.  .  .  .  The  people  will  have 
to  admit  into  their  system  of  land  tenure  an  exclusive  right  to  land,  which  has 
only  been  recognised  up  to  the  present  time  in  the  case  of  concessions  to  Euro- 
peans."— Report,  para.  51. 


GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  AFRICAN  LAND  TENURE.       287 

Africa — ^who  have  established  grazing  rights  for  their  cattle, 
but  otherwise  claim  no  rights  of  user  in  the  land.  The  desire 
of  the  agricultural  tribes  for  land  is  replaced  among  these 
nomadic  pastorals  by  the  desire  for  ownership  of  cattle.  In 
other  regions — such  as  Bornu  in  Nigeria — ^the  poverty  of  the 
soil,  and  the  migratory  habits  of  the  people,  lead  to  the 
frequent  transfer  of  villages  from  one  site  to  another,  and 
consequently  to  a  similar  absence  of  any  rigid  system  of  land 
tenure.  Elsewhere  we  find  wandering  tribes  of  pastorals 
traversing  the  lands  occupied  by  the  settled  tribes,  who 
accord  to  them  rights  of  grazing  for  their  cattle — as  the 
Fulani  and  Shuwas  in  Nigeria.  Some  of  these  tribes  do  possess 
a  small  amount  of  cultivated  land — ^witness  the  Ol-moruo  of 
the  Masai.  These  are  usually  cultivated  by  a  helot  race  of 
serfs,  who  have  no  rights  in  the  usufruct. 

It  is  not  easy  to  focus  into  a  paragraph  a  general  con- 
ception of  African  land  tenure.  The  general  principles  would 
seem  to  be  that  the  assignment  of  land  to  the  individual  is 
entrusted  to  tribal  or  famUy  authorities,  who,  however,  have 
no  claim  to  ownership  in  it  themselves  ;  that  every  individual 
has  a  right  to  a  share  of  the  use  of  the  land,  and  holds  it  in 
perpetuity,  subject  to  the  performance  of  tribal  obligations, 
but  may  not  alienate  it ;  that  these  principles  are  held  more 
tenaciously  by  the  forest  tribes  than  by  those  farther  north, 
where,  in  some  cases,  it  is  the  representative  of  the  earth- 
god  who  assigns  the  land,  in  others  an  individual  chief,  while 
pastoral  nomads  are  indifferent  to  questions  of  land  ownership 
and  value  grazing  rights  only.  The  forest  tribes  jealously 
maintain  that  all  unoccupied  land  belongs  to  some  community 
or  other,  while  the  northern  tribes  are  less  insistent  on  such 
claims.  All  aUke  recognise  the  right  of  the  conqueror  to  dis- 
pose of  the  land.  The  inevitable  tendency  to  individual  owner- 
ship is  meanwhile  constantly  asserting  itself,  with  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  tribe,  and  is  fostered  by  pressure  of  population, 
by  foreign  example,  and  by  the  replacement  of  annual  by 
permanent  crops. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence  among  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  African  continent,  the  land — 
upon  the  possession  of  which  survival  depended — feU  to  the 
conqueror.  The  earlier  Committee,  deahng  with  Northern 
Nigeria,  based  its  conclusions  on  the  assumption  that  the 
whole  of  the  protectorate  was  either  conquered  by  British 


288  LAND  TENTJKE  AND   TEANSFEE. 

arms,  or  had  submitted  to  a  threat  of  force,  and  that  African 
peoples — whether  Moslem  or  pagan — ^recognised  that  aU  land 
is  at  the  disposal  of  the  conqueror.  They  accordingly  assert 
that  "  the  whole  of  the  land,  whether  occupied  or  unoccupied, 
is  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Government,  and  that  no  title 
to  the  occupation,  use,  or  enjoyment  of  any  land  is  valid 
without  the  consent  of  the  Government."  ^  A  word  of  com- 
ment on  this  general  assumption,  which  as  they  say  forms  the 
basis  of  the  report,  is  desirable. 

It  has  been  laid  down  as  "a  principle  from  which  no 
civilised  Government  would  think  of  departing,  that  in 
countries  acquired  by  conquest  or  cession,  private  property, 
whether  of  individuals  or  commimities,  existing  at  the  time 
of  the  cession  or  conquest,  is  respected."  A  large  part  of 
Northern  Nigeria  had  never  been  conquered  by  the  Fxilani, 
and  was  unconquered  until  it  submitted  to  the  British.  In 
that  portion  therefore — even  though  the  people  admitted  our 
right  to  deal  with  their  lands  and  their  lives  as  we  should 
see  fit — ^we  are,  as  a  civilised  nation,  precluded  from  assuniing 
such  "  dominion  and  control "  over  the  land  as  would  inter- 
fere with  the  communal  or  private  rights  of  the  conquered 
people." 

In  the  other  portion  the  British  conquered  the  dominant 
race,  which  was  Moslem,  and  as  such  recognised  the  Mahki 
law  of  Islam.^    But  these  conquerors,  as  the  Committee  re- 

1  Cd.  5102,  paragraphs  20,  32,  and  72. 

^  See  also  judgment  of  Privy  Council  in  the  Oluwa  land  case,  July  1921. 

^  A  very  interesting  document,  called  the  Ta'Umu'  Radthi  (land  law)  of  the 
Sokoto  Empire,  by  Mallam  Abdulahi,  brother  of  Dan  Fodio,  whose  Jihad  led  to 
the  Fulani  conquest,  has  recently  been  discovered.  It  probably  describee  what, 
in  the  view  of  the  writer,  the  land  tenure  should  be  under  Moslem  rule,  rather 
than  what  it  ultimately  became,  owing  to  the  influence  of  existing  customs. 
Land  assigned  by  the  Imam  (he  says)  is  private  property,  and  can  be  given  away 
or  bequeathed,  but  the  Imam  cannot  assign  ownership  of  cultivated  land  cap- 
tured in  war,  or  ceded  by  treaty,  even  though  held  by  unbelievers.  Such  lands 
are  Wakf  or  public  lands,  and  only  the  user  of  them  can  be  granted.  He  can 
assign  ownership  of  deserted  lands,  but  lands  still  in  cultivation  by  the  ancient 
inhabitants  "  belong  to  them  and  to  no  one  else." 

The  Maliki  law  lays  down  that  all  conquered  lands  under  cultivation  become 
Wakf,  and  cannot  be  sold  or  inherited.  They  are  assigned  to  Moslems  or  con- 
verted owners.  Neither  the  ruler  nor  the  occupier  has  the  power  to  dispose  of 
the  land  itself.  Rents  are  paid  to  public  revenue.  Land  not  under  cultivation, 
including  cities,  may  be  assigned  by  the  ruler  to  whom  he  pleases.  A  part  may 
be  set  aside  as  "  public  lands"  for  the  public  good,  if  there  is  a  clear  need  of 
them,  if  their  area  is  small,  and  if  they  are  absolutely  waste.  — Guxton's  '  Maliki 
Law,'  pp.  78,  79,  and  254. 

In  the  Mohamedan  Protectorate  of  Zanzibar,  lands  are  either  Wakf  or  freehold. 
Most  of  the  latter  are  mortgaged  to  Indian  traders,  and  the  Arab  owners  are 


CLAIMS  BY  EIGHT  OP  CONQTJEST.  289 

cords,^  are  believed  to  have  adopted  to  a  large  extent  the 
pre-existing  system  of  native  law,  including  that  of  land 
tenure,  "which  we  may  assume  was  based  on  the  general  prin- 
ciples I  have  described  as  being  common  to  this  part  of  Africa. 
Thus  the  rents  receivable  under  Koranic  law  from  Wakf 
(cultivated)  lands  were  not  demanded,  being  contrary  to  native 
custom,  and  a  tribute  tax  based  on  the  usufruct  was  sub- 
stituted. The  occupiers — ^who  professed  Islam — ^were  con- 
firmed in  their  holdings. 

There  is  one  other  principle  in  deahng  with  conquered  lands 
to  which  there  can  be  no  dissent.  It  is  that,  whatever  may  be 
the  intention  of  the  conqueror  in  regard  to  the  land,  it  must 
be  declared  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  conquest  is  com- 
pleted. ^  The  Government  of  Northern  Nigeria  recognised 
this  obligation.*  Each  Emir  on  appointment  or  reinstatement, 
received  a  letter  which  was  publicly  read,  stating  clearly  that 
whatever  rights  in  the  land  had  belonged  to  the  Fulani  would 
now  inuxe  to  the  Government — ^rights  which  may  be  said  to 
follow  as  a  matter  of  course  on  the  right  to  depose  or  appoint 
chiefs.  No  attempt  at  that  time  was  made  to  define  those 
rights,  for  we  had  not  the  necessary  information,  and  it 
requires  careful  study  to  discriminate  between  the  rights 
claimed  by  native  conquerors  over  the  inhabitants,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  rights  over  land.  This  was  followed  as  soon 
as  possible  by  an  Ordinance,  under  which  the  Government 
claimed  the  right  to  dispose  of  tmoccupied  lands,  and  lands 
which  were  the  property  of  conquered  or  deposed  rulers, 
which  were  called  "  public  lands."  For  these  the  Govern- 
ment became  trustee.  The  immediate  control  of  occupied 
lands  was  not  interfered  with,  and  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  native  rulers,  and  no  rent  was  demanded  from  the  owners 
or  occupiers. 

The  Government  at  the  same  time  claimed  ownership  of 
certain  lands,  which  had  been  acquired  in  perpetuity  for 
specified  public  purposes  (administrative  sites,  &c.),  iaclud- 
ing  lands  leased  to  non-natives,  or  obtained  on  payment 
through  the  Niger  Company.  Acquisition  by  Government 
had  been  effected  by  voluntary  cession,  any  occupier  being 

in  a  dependent  position. — Report  for  1914,  Cd.  7622,  1915.  The  Government 
claims  ownership  of  all  waste  lands. — Government  Notice,  '  Gazette,'  15th  June 
1907. 

1  Cd.  5102,  paragraphs  3  and  4.  ^  Belfield's  Report,  paragraph  47. 

'  Cd.  5102,  paragraph  17. 


290  LAND  TENURE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

free  to  take  up  land  elsewhere  (of  which  there  was  abund- 
ance), but  for  the  most  part  the  sites  occupied  were  on  waste 
lands.  It  was  recognised  that  compensation  in  the  form  of 
alternative  land  should  be  made.  These  were  called  "  Crown 
lands."  The  assumption  of  the  right  to  dispose  of  waste 
land  and  unoccupied  lands  was  not  in  conflict  with  the  theory 
that  all  land  has  an  owner,  since,  as  I  have  shown,  there  were 
derelict  lands  in  JSTorthern  Nigeria. 

It  would  perhaps  have  hardly  been  worth  while  to  devote 
so  much  space  to  the  rights  (and  the  limitations  to  them) 
resulting  from  conquest,  and  the  course  adopted  in  Mgeria, 
were  it  not  that  the  question  may  again  come  into  view  in 
regard  to  the  Mandated  territories  acquired  by  conquest 
from  Germany.  The  facts  seem  to  have  been  misunderstood, 
and  acting  on  these  two  hypotheses — viz.,  that  they  were 
dealing  with  conquered  lands,  and  that  the  control  and  dis- 
posal of  such  lands  passes  to  the  conqueror — the  Committee 
recorded  its  conclusion  that  "  the  fundamental  basis  on  which 
the  law  should  rest  are  (1)  that  the  whole  of  the  land  is 
subject  to  Government,  and  (2)  that  that  control  must  be 
exercised  as  far  as  possible  in  accordance  with  native  cus- 
toms." ^  The  adoption  of  these  priaciples,  they  add,  "  seems 
to  exclude  the  EngUsh  conception  of  private  ownership  of 
land,  or  of  any  fixity  of  annual  payment  on  account  of  the 
occupation  of  land."  The  Committee  would  impose  a  "  special 
contribution  on  the  occupiers  of  land,  which  would  rather  be 
in  the  nature  of  a  rent  than  a  tax  on  agricultural  profits," 
and  this  rent  should  increase  automatically  in  order  to  secure 
to  the  Government  the  expanding  values  of  land  due  to  the 
increase  of  wealth.^  "  It  would,  in  fact,  be  the  economic 
rent."  ^ 

1  Cd.  5102,  paragraphs  16,  20,  32.  2  ib;j^  paragraphs  45,  46. 

'  Ibid. ,  paragraph  45.  What  Sir  T.  Morison  calls  the  ' '  economic  doctrine  "  is, 
I  understand,  "  the  claim  of  the  State  to  the  unearned  increase  in  the  rent  of 
laud,  or  a  great  part  of  that  increase,"  due  to  improvements  made  by  the  State 
or  by  the  community,  as  apart  from  those  made  by  the  occupier.  "  Since  land  is 
the  free  gift  of  nature  .  .  .  the  economic  doctrine  would  seem  to  require  that  all 
lands  should  become  the  property  of  the  State." — (Morison, '  Industrial  Organiza- 
tion of  an  Indian  Village,'  p.  19.)  See  also  Whittaker,  'Ownership,  Tenure,  and 
Taxation  of  Land,'  p.  xxi. 

Sir  P.  Girouard  (my  successor,  and  at  that  time  Governor  of  Northern 
Nigeria)  declared  himself  whole-heartedly  in  accord  with  the  principles  laid 
down  by  the  Committee,  which  he  construed  as  a  declaration  of  the  nationalisa- 
tion of  the  land  (Cd.  5102,  p.  xxvii.)  In  printed  instructions  to  his  staflE  he 
subsequently  explained  that  land  is  "nationalised"  when  the  economic  rent 


IS  GOVERNMENT  TRUSTEE  OR  OWNER  ?  291 

The  Committee  suggest  that  if  it  is  impracticable  to  charge 
this  rent  by  legislative  methods,  it  should  be  imposed  "  ad- 
ministratively " — a  course  which  the  Attorney-General  re- 
ported as  contrary  to  the  native  revenue  ordinance.^  The 
Conmiittee,  however,  admits  that  "  an  economic  rent  has  not 
yet  emerged,  and  forms  no  part  of  the  indigenous  system  of 
taxation."  *  Its  imposition  would  therefore  be  contrary  to 
native  customary  law,  and  would  thus  violate  one  of  the 
"  fundamental  bases."  It  had  never  been  introduced  by  the 
Moslem  conquerors,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  when  an  attempt 
was  made  to  apportion  the  general  tax  in  relation  to  the 
land  in  occupation,  the  result  was  that  about  half  the  valu- 
able rice  land  in  Sokoto  went  out  of  cultivation.  The  existing 
tax  on  the  produce  of  land  is  in  accordance  with  native  law, 
but  to  exact  a  rental  is  to  create  "  the  new  and  strange 
idea  of  property  in  the  land  itseU  " — which  the  Committee 
condemns, — ^for  the  native  not  unnaturally  considers  that  the 
person  who  claims  the  right  to  receive  rentals  is  the  owner 
of  the  land,  and  Government  becomes  the  owner  and  not  the 
trustee.  Colour  was  lent  to  this  view  by  the  opinion  of  the 
Committee  that  any  distinction  between  "  Crown  lands," 
in  which  the  Government  claimed  ownership  by  purchase,  &c., 
and  the  rest  of  the  land  over  which  it  claimed  control,  was 
"  unnecessary  and  may  be  misleading,"  and  "  superfluous."  ^ 
The  Ordinance,  which  was  drafted  in  England  in  accord- 
is  paid  to  the  State,  and  not  to  an  individual.  "  Proprietary  rights  will  be 
created  whenever  an  individual  pays  for  the  use  of  land  to  another  individual,  and 
not  to  the  State. "  "  There  is  therefore  a  necessity  of  separating  the  agriculturist 
and  his  land-revenue  from  taxes  on  all  other  walks  in  life. "  "  Where  economic 
rent  has  emerged  it  should  be  added  to  the  amount  assessed  as  an  income  tax." 
Lord  Elgin  defined  the  share  of  Government  "  in  the  unearned  increment  in  the 
value  of  land  "  as  being  "  that  portion  of  its  value  which  is  due  to  the  growth 
around  it  of  an  organised  economic  and  political  system." — Cd.  4117/1908,  p.  30. 
These  extracts  appear  to  embody  the  theory  of  ' '  Economic  Rent. " 

The  school  of  political  economists  who  hold  the  view  that  the  State  alone 
should  have  any  rights  in  land,  appear  to  be  ready  to  admit  the  indefeasible  title 
conferred  by  conquest  and  spoliation,  while  denying  the  rights  acquired  by  user, 
improvement  and  reclamation,  or  by  purchase  as  the  result  of  success  in  other 
forms  of  industry. 

1  Report,  Cd.  5102,  paragraphs  28,  29. 

^  Ibid. ,  paragraph  46.  Sir  P.  Girouard  observes  that  "  to  attempt  to  assess 
an  economic  rent  for  lands  that  have  not  yet  acquired  a  market  value  is  impos- 
sible. This  course  would  not  be  practicable  in  the  case  of  natives,  and  would  be 
opposed  to  their  native  law  and  custom  in  the  Mohamedan  States  at  any  rate." 
"The  native  system  is  based  on  profits  made  out  of  the  land." — Ibid.,  p.  xxix. 
and  48. 

'  Ibid. ,  paragraphs  23  and  27. 


292  LAND  TENURE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

ance  with  the  Committee's  recommendations,  evoked  some 
criticism.  The  people  of  Southern  Nigeria  and  the  Gold 
Coast,  as  I  said  in  the  last  chapter,  were  much  perturbed  at 
the  inference  in  the  terms  of  reference  of  the  second  Com- 
mittee lest  it  should  be  applied  to  them,  and  they  organised 
deputations  to  England  to  protest.  It  is  worth  while,  there- 
fore, to  recapitulate  briefly  the  grounds  of  this  criticism  and 
apprehension. 

The  law  enacted  that  no  title  to  occupation  should  be 
valid  without  the  Governor's  consent,  and  he  was  precluded 
from  granting  a  right  of  occupancy  except  on  rental,  revisable 
septennially.  This  gave  rise  to  the  criticism  that  to  turn 
an  occupier  who  under  native  law  holds  his  land  rent-free  in 
perpetuity  "  into  a  rent-paying,  short-term  lessee  on  a  pre- 
carious tenure  is  bluntly  confiscation,"  and  both  inexpedient 
and  unjust.^  Since,  however,  it  was  obviously  impossible 
to  issue  certificates  to  millions  of  native  occupiers,  with  no 
adequate  staff  or  survey,  the  Colonial  Office  explained  that 
native  holders  might  continue  to  be  dealt  with  by  their 
rulers,  acting  in  theory  as  delegates  of  the  Governor.  In  the 
result,  therefore,  no  certiflcates  (without  which  rent  is  not 
chargeable)  were  issued,  and  the  law  remained  a  dead  letter 
so  far  as  native  occupiers  are  concerned.  They  were  im- 
aware  that  it  had  declared  their  titles  to  be  invalid,  unless 
granted  under  a  certificate  by  the  Governor. 

The  native  apprehension  in  the  coast  colonies  was  centred 
on  the  question  of  ownership.  They  could  not  understand 
how  the  lands  could  be  described  as  "  native  lands,"  of  which 
the  Governor  was  trustee,  if  no  occupier  had  a  valid  title 
without  his  consent,  or  that  of  his  delegate,  for  a  limited 
time,  on  a  rental.  Ownership  they  considered  was  transferred 
to  Government  by  such  an  assertion.  The  Crown  could  no 
doubt  claim  ownership  by  right  of  conquest — as  appears  from 
the  judgment  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
in  the  Ehodesian  Lands  case  (see  pp.  343-4) — ^in  respect  of  ter- 
ritory actually  conquered,  but  since  the  preamble  of  the 
Ordinance  appeared  to  repudiate  this  claim,  and  recited  that 
its  object  was  to  assure  to  the  natives  their  customary  rights 
in  the  land,  and  since  the  terms  of  reference  suggested  similar 
legislation  in  the  south,  the  people  there  feared  lest  the  Govern- 
ment should  claim  the  same  powers  in  respect  of  their  lands. 

1  Sir  W.  Geary,  '  African  Society  Journal,'  April  1913,  p.  245. 


ACTUAL  PRACTICE  IN  NOETHEEN  NIGERIA.  293 

The  Ordinance  has  been  amended  in  some  respects,  and  in 
practice  at  any  rate  no  interference  with  native  occupation 
or  title,  or  the  right  of  the  chiefs  to  dispose  of  the  land  to 
persons  under  their  rule,  and  no  attempt  to  impose  a  rent, 
has  been  made.  An  occupier  if  expropriated  (unless  for  fault) 
is  compensated.  On  the  other  hand,  the  original  claim  of 
Government  to  dispose  of  waste  lands  has  been  maintained, 
and  the  alienation  of  land  by  the  chiefs  to  non-natives  has 
been  prevented.  This  right  I  imagine  woidd  not  be  disputed 
by  the  advocates  of  native  rights.  The  native  of  the  Gold 
Coast  or  Southern  Nigeria  would  however  assert,  first,  that 
his  land  was  not  conquered  territory,  and  secondly,  that 
there  were  no  waste  lands.  The  Aborigines'  Protection 
Society  contends  that  "  where  lands  are  beneficially  occupied 
by  natives  they  should  not  be  dispossessed."  ^  "  We  want," 
says  Colonel  Wedgwood,  "  an  independent  people  on  their 
own  land,  whether  held  individually  or  communally."  *  Up 
to  the  time  when  I  left  Northern  Nigeria  in  1906,  the  ques- 
tion of  land  tenure  was  not  so  pressing  as  other  urgent  matters, 
and  I  had  myself  been  inclined  to  favour  a  land-rent,  but  I 
speedily  changed  my  opinion,  on  grounds  both  of  equity  and 
expediency,  when  on  my  return  to  Nigeria  in  1912  I  made  a 
closer  study  of  the  subject. 

The  object  in  view — ^namely,  that  the  system  of  taxation 
shall  be  such  that  "  the  Government  revenues  will  partake 
automatically  in  any  increase  in  the  general  wealth  "  ' — is 
equally  ensured  by  the  income  tax  described  in  the  last 
chapter,  in  a  manner,  as  it  appears  to  me,, the  most  effective 
possible,  without  violating  one  of  the  most  fundamental  of 
native  prejudices.  For  the  native  pays  in  proportion  to  his 
wealth,  whether  it  arises  from  the  expanding  values  of  land 
or  otherwise.  The  cardinal  principles  of  native  law  are  not 
infringed,  for  the  occupiers'  tenure  is  a  holding  in  perpetuity, 
subject  to  the  payment  of  a  portion  of  the  usufruct,  but  not 
of  rent  for  the  land  itself.  The  vahdity  of  his  right  is  not 
dependent  on  the  issue  of  a  licence  to  occupy.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  right  of  the  ruler  to  revoke  it  for  good  cause,  or  to 
appropriate  it  if  need  be  in  exchange  for  land  elsewhere,  is 
not  questioned. 

1  Sir  S.  Olivier,  May  1920. 

2  Debate  on  Colonial  Office  vote,  August  1919. 
^  Report,  loc.  cit,,  paragraph  45. 


294  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  examination  of  the  land  law  of 
Northern  Nigeria,  which  has  been  claimed  by  some  as  a  model 
ordinance,  should  be  somewhat  technical  and  detailed.  I 
make  no  apology,  therefore,  for  a  brief  summary  of  the  points 
of  criticism.  The  Committee  assumed  that  the  whole  of  the 
lands  of  Northern  Nigeria  were  conquered  lands,  and  appa- 
rently ignoring  rights  which  conquest  does  not  annul,  enacted 
that  no  title  (including  those  of  existing  occupiers)  was  valid 
without  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  whose  consent  was  to 
be  granted  in  the  form  of  a  "  certificate  of  occupation," 
which  imposed  a  rent,  revisable  septennially.  This  naturally 
gave  rise  to  fears  in  Southern  Nigeria  that  the  Government 
claimed  ownership  of  aU  lands.  Subsequent  alteration  of  the 
law  and  practice  has  maintained  the  right  of  native  occupiers 
to  the  lands  they  occupy,  and  the  right  of  native  rulers  to 
assign  lands  to  natives  in  their  jurisdiction,  without  any 
certificate  of  occupation.  Compensation  for  eviction  by 
Government  (save  for  "  good  cause ")  is  given,  and  not 
merely  for  unexhausted  improvements.  No  land-rent  is 
demanded,  as  being  contrary  to  native  custom. 

As  land  acquires  an  economic  value,  there  is  no  doubt  a 
natural  tendency  towards  its  accumulation  in  the  hands  of 
the  wealthier  classes,  with  the  consequent  creation  of  a  land- 
less peasantry.  It  has  been  the  beneficent  policy  of  British 
Governments  in  India  and  other  dependencies  to  counteract 
this  tendency  to  the  best  of  their  power,  and  to  encourage 
the  class  of  peasant  proprietors.  In  conquered  countries, 
where  Government  has  claimed  the  control  of  the  land,  it 
would  seem  that  that  control  cannot  be  better  justified,  or 
exerted  with  greater  benefit  to  the  people,  than  by  imposing 
such  restrictions  on  the  transfer  of  lands  as  may  preserve 
an  ignorant  peasantry  from  the  consequences  of  its  own 
improvidence.  Mr  Ehodes  shared  this  view,  and  was  an 
ardent  believer  in  the  efficacy  of  individual  small  holdings 
as  an  aid  to  self-respect.  I  shall  discuss  his  scheme  in  the 
next  chapter. 

The  restriction  on  alienation  matters  Uttle,  I  think,  to 
the  African  cultivator,  provided  he  enjoys  fixity  of  tenure 
in  perpetuity.  This  indeed  is  "  ownership  "  in  the  native 
sense  of  the  term.  I  believe  that  there  is  nothing  which 
can  so  effectively  tend  to  eradicate  the  servile  habit  of  mind 
in  a  people  who  have  for  generations  been  accustomed  to 


ADVANTAGE  OF  PEASANT  HOLDINGS.  295 

regard  themselves  as  slaves  or  serfs,  as  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility of  the  free  occupier  of  the  land.  Emancipation  of 
the  body  is  a  lesser  benefit  than  emancipation  of  the  spirit. 
It  is  not  enough  to  set  a  man  free  from  his  legal  status  as  a 
slave  unless  he  learns  his  responsibilities  as  a  citizen.  That 
has  been  our  aim  in  Mgeria.^ 

The  labourer  who  works  on  land  which  is  not  his  own, 
whether  as  the  serf,  or  even  as  the  paid  servant  of  an  estate 
owner,  or  as  a  imit  in  a  communal  estate,  has  little  interest 
in  its  improvement  during,  and  none  beyond  his  own  life- 
time. And  so  we  find  in  Africa,  "  the  oldest  of  the  con- 
tinents," no  permanent  irrigation  works,  such  as  those  which 
terrace  every  hillside  in  Afghanistan,  India,  and  China.^ 
The  African  plants  few  trees,  and  is  careless  of  the  produc- 
tivity of  the  soil.  Individual  proprietorship  is  no  doubt 
inimical  to  the  supply  of  wage  labour  for  large  estates,  but 
it  makes  for  individual  progress,  thrift,  and  character.  It 
is  the  strongest  inducement  to  good  farming,  and  politically 
an  asset  to  the  Government,  to  which  the  peasant  owes  the 
security  of  his  holding.  The  French  verdict  is  the  same. 
"  The  system  of  individual  ownership  is  incontestably  the 
one  which  is  most  favourable  to  production."  ^ 

A  policy  of  encouraging  small  peasant  proprietors  is  not 
inconsistent  with  the  recognition  of  the  value  of  a  limited 
number  of  larger  estates  employing  paid  labour.  These,  if 
held  by  local  natives,  as  is  still  the  case  in  the  Sokoto  and 
Yola  provinces  of  Nigeria,  add  to  the  prestige  and  influence 
of  the  ruling  classes,  and  promote  their  desire  for  peaceful 
progress,  since  they  have  "  a  stake  in  the  country,"  and 
they  bring  these  classes  into  closer  touch  with  the  peasantry. 
Paid  labour  is,  however,  difficult  to  procure  as  long  as  there 
is  abundant  land  for  the  asking.    (See  chapter  on  labour.) 

Plantations  of  limited  area,  owned  by  Europeans,  are  use- 
ful as  object-lessons  in  improved  methods.     On  the  other 

1  A  Senior  Resident  writes :  "  At  the  present  time  (1917)  the  whole  Hausa 
country  is  covered  with  holdings  ranging  from  one  to  four  acres,  cultivated  by 
one  man  and  his  children  and  servants  or  slaves.  That  man  may  be  an  Emir,  a 
Hausa,  or  a  Fulani."  Very  many  others  bear  similar  witness  to  the  result  of 
British  policy.  "The  country  is  covered  with  small  holders — there  are  no 
estates  now." 

2  In  West  Africa  water  is  led  on  to  small  plots  where  intensive  cultivation 
is  practised,  but  there  is  no  extensive  system.  In  East  Africa  irrigation  is 
practised  to  a  small  extent.     See  note  2,  p.  .518. 

»  Colonial  Budget  Report,  1910,  No.  375,  p.  91. 


296  LAND  TENXJEE  AND  TRANSFER. 

hand,  the  native  land  speculator,  who  is  a  trader  or  money- 
lender, and  acquires  an  estate  of  which  he  is  an  absentee 
landlord,  is  an  evil  to  the  country.  The  late  Mr  Farquharson 
(of  the  Nigerian  Agricultural  Department)  denounced  him  as 
"  a  land-hog,  whose  aim  it  was  to  make  rapid  profits  by 
sweating  native  labour,  and  by  grievous  exploitation  of  the 
soU, ' '  leaving  the  land  exhausted  and  useless.  Mr  Farquharson 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  the  alien  native  landholder 
should  be  compelled,  like  the  small  crofter  in  Scotland,  to 
apply  a  certain  minimum  of  tillage  and  manure  to  his  holding. 

The  first  and  most  important  step  to  preserve  the  peasant 
proprietor  is  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  or  transfer  of  land, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  to  any  person,  European 
or  other,  who  is  not  subject  to  the  local  native  jurisdiction. 
The  sale  of  permanent  improvements  appurtenant  to  the 
land,  and  iavolving  a  transfer  of  the  user — ^which  is  for  prac- 
tical purposes  indisttaguishable  from  a  transfer  of  the  land 
itself — ^would  have  the  same  effect  in  converting  the  free 
peasant  proprietor  into  a  wage-earner  on  the  estate  of  another. 
Wherever  possible,  it  should,  I  think,  be  the  duty  of  Govern- 
ment to  withhold  from  the  native  chiefs  the  power  of  allow- 
ing such  sales  to  persons  not  subject  to  their  jurisdiction, 
and  to  enact  that  mortgages  and  sales  of  permanent  improve- 
ments to  such  persons  should  have  no  legal  recognition.  The 
recovery  of  advances  on  crops  would  be  limited  to  the  result 
of  the  harvest,  and  no  claim  to  the  trees  or  to  the  land  would 
be  recognised.  Eecovery  of  debt  should,  moreover,  be  re- 
stricted, so  as  to  leave  sufficient  for  the  bare  necessities  of 
life  and  seed  for  the  comtug  year.  I  shall  presently  discuss 
the  question  further  in  cases  where  Government  cannot  exert 
these  restrictions. 

In  brief,  while  peasant  occupation  is  the  best  as  a  general 
rule,  the  ownership,  even  in  regions  where  white  settlement 
is  not  possible,  of  estates  of  limited  area  by  Europeans  for 
the  cultivation  of  new  or  improved  products  is  most  valuable, 
but  estates  owned  by  absentee  native  landlords  engaged  in 
trade  or  usury  is  inimical  to  the  interests  and  productivity 
of  the  country. 

Transfers  of  land  between  natives  subject  to  the  local 
native  jurisdiction  can  best  be  controlled  by  the  native 
authority,  which  is  the  natural  guardian  of  native  custom, 
under  the  watchful  scrutiny  of  the  Eesident.     In  Northern 


ACQUISITION   OF  LAND  IN  CONTROLLED  COTJNTEIES.      297 

Nigeria  the  regulations  are  that  there  is  no  restriction  on  sale, 
transfer,  or  bequest  to  a  blood  relation.  The  consent  of  the 
district  headman  is  necessary  for  transfer  to  a  non-related 
native  of  the  same  district,  and  the  additional  approval  of 
the  Eesident  is  required  for  transfer  to  a  native  non-resident 
in  the  district.  An  appeal  is  allowed,  and  transfers  must  be 
registered  by  the  native  court.  In  order  to  add  to  the 
security  of  the  peasant  holder,  all  transfers  should  be  so 
registered ;  and  as  native  administrations  become  more  efiBL- 
cient,  and  a  rough  survey  by  native  ofilcials  becomes  possible, 
the  head  chief  should  be  encouraged  to  keep  a  Domesday 
Book  with  a  record  of  all  holdings. 

The  right  of  the  State  to  acquire  land  for  necessary  public 
purposes — e.g.,  administrative  sites,  railways,  &c. — ^is  recog- 
nised by  all  Governments.  In  conquered  countries  where 
Government  controls  the  land — ^viz.,  acts  as  trustee  for  its 
use — ^it  seems  reasonable  that  this  power  should  include  the 
acquisition  and  disposal  of  all  land  over  which  the  Govern- 
ment considers  it  necessary  iu  the  interests  of  the  people 
that  it  should  exercise  direct  control — ^namely,  over  aU  lands 
occupied  by  persons  not  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
native  rulers.  The  Government  would  assume  the  responsi- 
bility of  deciding  whether,  and  to  what  extent,  an  applica- 
tion for  land  by  an  aUen,  engaged  in  the  development  of 
the  country  or  in  mission  work,  was  reasonable  and  justified 
iu  the  public  interest.  In  any  important  decision  of  this 
nature  the  Secretary  of  State  exercises  a  controlling  decision. 

The  land  required  might,  for  iastance,  have  been  used  for 
generations  by  a  family  for  low-grade  cultivation  or  as  grazing 
land,  and  have  become  valuable  because  of  its  proximity  to 
a  railway  station  built  at  the  cost  of  public  funds.  Its  appro- 
priation by  Government,  with  a  view  to  securing  a  good 
rental  from  a  non-native — ^to  be  applied  in  diminution  of 
taxation  or  for  development  works — ^is  imdoubtedly  in  the 
general  interest  of  the  natives.  In  the  case  cited  the  native 
occupier  would,  under  the  Northern  Mgeria  Lands  Com- 
mittee's proposals,  receive  no  compensation,  siace  there  were 
no  improvements ;  but  it  seems  equitable  that  he  should  be 
compensated  for  disturbance,  and  provided  with  equivalent 
land  elsewhere. 

Thus  in  regions  where  the  Government  exercises  control 
over  the  land,  it  would  become  the  landlord  of  all  aliens. 


298  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

and  the  conception  of  landlord  and  tenant  would  not  be 
prematurely  introduced  into  the  native  system  of  land  tenure. 
Moreover,  where  land  is  rapidly  increasing  in  value,  and  it 
is  considered  advisable  to  institute  periodical  revisions  of 
rent,  these  can  best  be  fixed  by  Government,  and  should 
accrue  to  the  State,  to  whose  action  the  increasing  value 
is  generally  due. 

The  maximum  acreage  for  the  various  types  of  lease — 
residential,  agricultural,  grazing,  &o. — are  laid  down  by 
ordinance  or  regulation,  and  wiU  be  discussed  in  the  next 
chapter.  No  freehold  grants  are  made.  Leases  to  Europeans 
inside  a  native  city  are  to  be  deprecated,  and  the  grant  of 
large  blocks  of  land  to  "  concessionaires,"  unless  uninhabited, 
is  altogether  opposed  to  the  principle  of  trusteeship.  The 
peasantry  on  their  part,  by  the  advent  of  the  railway  and  the 
traders  who  follow  it  (and  require  sites),  obtain  prices  hitherto 
undreamt  of  for  their  produce,  and  they  can  buy  European 
goods  at  cheap  rates. ^  They  derive  a  direct  advantage, 
while  the  Government,  by  leasing  sites  to  traders,  puts  the 
land  to  its  most  remunerative  use,  and  adds  to  the  funds 
which  make  further  railway  extension  possible. 

Before  passing  to  the  consideration  of  the  conditions  apply- 
ing to  land  in  countries  in  which  the  Government  does  not 
claim  the  rights  of  conquest,  a  few  remarks  regarding  the 
native  method  of  using  the  land  will,  I  think,  not  be  out  of 
place.  The  general  characteristics  of  the  low-lying  equatorial 
zone  (though  there  are  curious  exceptions)  are  heavy  rainfall, 
luxuriant  vegetation  (including  belts  of  forest),  a  soil  enriched 
by  decayed  vegetable  matter,  and  a  climate  unsuited  to 
live-stock.  North  of  this  zone  the  rainfall  is  often  very 
meagre,  the  soU  light  and  devoid  of  humus.  Annual  fires 
sweep  over  the  prairie  grass  ia  the  dry  season,  and  cattle 
and  other  live-stock  are  plentiful. 

Where  the  density  of  the  population  had  limited  the  land 
available  for  each  cultivator,  the  agriculturist  in  the  dry 
zone  has  learnt  that  it  can  be  rendered  more  productive  by 
manure  from  his  live-stock  ;  but  even  with  this  resource  he 
must  leave  a  certain  portion  fallow,  in  order  that  the  exhausted 
soil  may  recover.  In  the  equatorial  zone  the  cultivator  finds 
that  the  soU,  at  first  most  productive,  rapidly  deteriorates, 

1  When  the  railway  reached  Kano  (in  Nigeria)  ground  nuta  were  sold  at 
£3,   10a.  a  ton.     They  later  fetched  £40  to  £45. 


SHIFTING  CULTIVATION."  299 

and  he  too  has  recourse  to  the  expedient  of  leaving  it  fallow 
for  varying  periods.  But  lying  close  to  hand  are  areas  of 
virgin  soil  covered  with  forest.  This  he  reclaims  by  ring- 
barking  the  trees — which  remain  like  gaunt  skeletons — and 
clearing  and  burning  the  undergrowth  on  the  spot.  Thus 
each  year  the  valuable  evergreen  forest  disappears,  never  to 
reappear,  and  is  replaced  by  secondary  deciduous  forest,  and 
if  the  process  is  repeated  the  forest  is  eventually  replaced 
by  grass,  liable  to  frequent  fires.  Forests  serve  as  a  reservoir 
which  feeds  the  head- waters  of  streams,  and  with  their  destruc- 
tion the  torrential  rains  carry  away  the  surface  soil,  and 
deposit  sand  and  debris  on  the  plains,  thus  rendering  them 
unfit  for  cultivation,  while  the  rivers  cease  to  be  navigable. 
The  rainfall  decreases.^ 

Mr  Thompson,  Director  of  Forests  in  Mgeria,  and  a  very 
high  authority,  estimates  that  by  this  process — ^known  as 
"  shifting  cultivation  " — ^the  acreage  of  land  taken  up  for 
cultivation  is  from  five  to  nine  times  in  excess  of  the  require- 
ments of  the  cultivator  under  a  less  wasteful  system.  Shift- 
ing cultivation,  he  says,  is  not  tolerated  in  any  but  the  wildest 
and  most  uncivilised  parts  of  the  world,  and  even  there  it  is 
restricted.  In  India  it  is  not  recognised  as  a  right.  The 
checks  on  the  increase  of  population  under  savage  conditions 
— war,  pestilence,  and  famine — are  alone  responsible  for  pre- 
serving such  forests  as  remain  in  large  areas  of  tropical 
Africa. 

The  essential  necessity  of  conserving  the  forest  wealth  of 
the  country  compels  the  iatroduction  of  better  methods,  but 
these  are  not  learnt  in  a  day.  Where  Government  controls 
the  land,  it  may  be  argued  that  the  imposition  of  rentals 
would  operate  to  restrict  the  wasteful  use  of  land.  But 
restriction  can  be  equally  well  secured  and  forests  protected 
by  the  agency  of  the  native  rulers,  and  by  the  operation  of 
the  tax  levied  on  the  produce  of  the  land  if  cultivated  to  an 
average  standard,  without  incurring  the  additional  opposi- 
tion which  land  rentals  would  cause.  The  problem  as  it 
affects  uncontrolled  lands  belongs  to  a  later  paragraph. 

The  question  of  the  assignment  to  the  village  of  its  proper 
proportion  of  uncultivated  land — ^for  grazing,  fuel,  &c. — is 
one  which  in  many  localities  requires  constant  supervision, 

'  See  Mr  Thompson's  report  on  Forest  questions  in  the  Gold  Coast,  Cd.  4993, 
1908,  and  pp.  526-9  infra. 


300  LAND  TENUB.B  AND  TRANSFER. 

owing  to  the  migratory  habits  of  the  people,  and  the  rapid 
increase  or  decrease  in  the  population  of  the  villages.  This 
is  a  matter  for  adjustment  by  the  niUng  chief,  subject  to  the 
supervision  of  the  executive  staff.  The  larger  question  of 
the  augmentation  of  the  area  held  by  a  tribe,  or  by  an  ad- 
vanced community,  whose  increasing  population  has  caused 
acute  land  hunger,  while  perhaps  a  neighbouring  tribe  has 
so  decreased  in  nimibers  that  its  lands  are  in  excess  of  its 
needs,  is  one  for  the  Government  to  deal  with.  Several  such 
cases  have  occurred  in  my  own  experience.  K  the  facts  are 
established  a  transfer  of  land  must  be  made,  but  in  my 
opinion,  in  no  case — ^whether  the  country  is  conquered  territory 
or  not — should  a  rental  be  demanded  from  the  community 
which  receives  the  additional  land.  In  days  not  distant  it 
would  have  seized  the  land,  and  would  probably  have  exter- 
minated its  owners  as  well.  The  peaceful  adjustment  of  such 
economic  claims,  when  proved  to  be  well  founded,  is  the 
function  of  the  suzerain  Government. 

The  conclusions  which  it  seems  reasonable  to  deduce  from 
these  considerations  may  be  briefly  summarised.  When  a 
European  Power  succeeds  to  the  domination  hitherto  wielded 
by  a  native  conquering  race,  the  control  of  the  land,  in  so 
far  as  it  was  exercised  by  the  latter,  passes,  if  publicly  claimed, 
to  the  new  suzerain,  and  should  be  exercised  in  accordance 
with  native  law  and  custom.  If  the  dominion  was  not  vested 
in  a  conquering  race,  the  controlling  Power  should  interfere 
still  less  with  customary  law.  Private  and  communal  rights 
must  be  respected. 

In  practice,  therefore,  the  Government  should  not  intervene 
between  the  native  rulers  and  the  people  under  their  juris- 
diction as  to  the  disposal  of  lands  or  the  tenure  upon  which 
they  are  held,  except  to  advise,  and  to  maintain  justice. 
Land  rents  should  not  be  charged  to  natives,  since  Govern- 
ment is  the  trustee  for  and  not  the  owner  of  the  land,  and 
rentals  are  opposed  to  native  law.  But  the  Government 
should  prohibit  the  transfer  of  lands  to  aliens,  and  reserve 
to  itself  the  right  to  grant  leases  to  them,  and  to  appropriate 
the  rentals  to  public  revenue,  paying  full  compensation.  The 
Goverimient  may  also  develop,  for  the  public  good,  lands 
which  are  not  in  beneficial  occupation,  and  not  likely  to  be 
required  for  such  purpose.  Lands  which  are  beneficially 
occupied  may  be  appropriated  for  any  public  purpose,  or  for 


GOVEENMENT  RIGHTS  m  CONQUERED  LANDS.     301 

lease  to  aliens,  if  justifled  for  the  encouragement  of  trade  or 
mining,  and  in  the  interests  of  the  pubUc  revenue.  Such 
alienated  land  should  be  strictly  limited  in  extent,  and  sub- 
ject to  provisos  (which  wiU  be  described  in  the  next  chapter) 
to  ensure  its  proper  use  and  development.  In  such  cases 
the  occupier  must  be  fully  compensated.  Any  such  expro- 
priation should  be  efEected  through  the  native  administration, 
and  imder  the  immediate  authority  of  the  native  ruler. 

The  exercise  by  the  native  authority  of  his  control  of  the 
land  should  be  supervised  and  guided,  equally  with  his  other 
executive  acts,  by  the  British  staff,  and  there  should  be  an 
appeal  to  the  Resident.  The  guidance  of  the  British  staff 
should  be  directed  towards  the  encouragement  of  small  hold- 
ings, and  their  preservation  against  absorption  in  large  estates, 
or  alienation  for  debt ;  to  the  utilisation  of  the  land  to  the 
best  advantage  by  permanent  improvements  ;  and  to  the 
curtailing  of  shifting  cultivation.  It  is  their  duty  to  see 
that  the  revocation  of  any  holder's  right  of  occupation  is 
justified  by  native  law,  and  they  report  to  the  Governor 
whether  any  application  for  land  by  a  non-native  can  be 
granted  without  injury  to  the  rights  of  the  natives. 

When  the  pressure  of  population  in  any  district  has  resulted 
in  enhancing  the  value  of  land,  it  is  expedient  that  holdings 
should  be  roughly  surveyed  by  natives  trained,  paid,  and 
controlled  by  the  native  administration,  and  records  kept 
by  it. 

These  principles  appear  to  me  to  be  in  accord  with  the 
system  of  ruHng  through  the  native  chiefs  on  the  one  hand, 
and  with  those  general  bases  of  taxation  which  are  not  re- 
pugnant to  native  custom  on  the  other  hand.  A  system  of 
land  rentals,  leases,  and  licences  to  native  occupiers,  and  of 
the  expropriation  of  holders  without  compensation  except  for 
their  own  improvements,  appears  to  me  not  only  incompatible 
with  the  principle  of  ruling  through  the  chiefs,  and  the  system 
of  taxation  recognised  by  the  people,  but  also  to  violate  the 
cardinal  tenets  of  native  customary  law. 

It  seems  preferable  that  the  natural  evolution  of  land 
tenure  should  not  be  arbitrarily  interfered  with,  either  on 
the  one  hand  by  introducing  foreign  principles  and  theories 
not  understood  by  the  people,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  by 
stereotyping  by  legislation  primitive  systems  which  are  in 
a  transitional  state.    Each  advance  should  be  duly  sanctioned 


302  LAND  TENtJKE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

by  native  law  and  custom,  and  prompted  by  the  necessities 
of  changing  circumstances.  Such  a  policy  of  patient  progress 
is  best  adapted  to  the  country.  Tribal  tenure  at  one  end  of 
the  scale  has  its  defects,  in  that  it  provides  no  check  on  the 
wasteful  use  of  land,  by  allowiug  large  areas  to  Lie  fallow, 
while  valuable  forests  are  destroyed  in  the  search  for  virgin 
soil,  and  in  that  it  checks  individual  enterprise  and  industryg 
Unrestricted  freehold  tenure  at  the  opposite  extreme  has  its 
failing,  in  that  there  is  no  check  on  the  mortgage  or  sale  of 
his  land  by  the  peasant  holder  who  is  likely  to  become  a 
tenant  or  serf  on  the  lands  he  once  owned.  The  owner  of 
freehold  land,  moreover,  obtains  without  any  effort  on  his 
part,  any  increase  in  the  value  of  the  land  due  to  the  ex- 
penditure of  public  funds,  or  the  industry  of  the  community. 
It  is  reasonable  and  just  that  the  community  as  a  whole — 
viz.,  the  State — should  participate  in  these  iucreased  values 
by  periodical  revision  of  rentals,  or  preferably  by  a  graduated 
iacome  tax. 


303 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LAND  TENURE  AND  TKANSFEE — {Continued). 

Countries  in  whicli  rights  of  conquest  have  not  been  claimed — Ignorance 
of  native  law — Conditions  in  the  Gold  Coast — Definition  of  areas 
under  English  law — The  law  applicable  to  remaining  lands — Transfers 
of  land  to  non-natives  —  The  executive,  not  the  judiciary,  should 
deal  with  land  cases — Duties  of  Government  as  trustee — Disposal  of 
rents  of  tribal  lands  —Government  as  landlord  of  aliens  in  im- 
conquered  countries  —  Need  for  fixity  of  tenure  —  Land  held  by 
"strangers"  —  Modification  of  native  law — Grants  relating  to  the 
produce  of  the  land — Forest  licences  and  leases — Communal  planta- 
tions— Leases  of  Crown  lands  to  natives — Difierences  in  meaning  of 
terms — The  problem  in  Eastern  Africa — Acquisition  of  land  by,  and 
status  of  British  Indians — The  Indian  case — Obligations  to  native 
races — The  case  of  the  British  settler — Suggestions — Native  reserves 
— Divergent  views  as  to  policy — The  interpenetration  policy — 
Management  of  reserves — The  Glen  Grey  Act— Mr  Rhodes'  views — 
Land  tenure  in  East  Africa — Conditions  for  settlers  in  Kenya — 
Uganda  —  Nyasaland  —  Summary  of  conditions  in  East  Africa — 
Population  in  relation  to  land  areas — Conclusions. 

There  remains  to  discuss  the  attitude  of  Government  towards 
the  land  in  those  territories  where  rights  of  conquest  cannot 
be  claimed,  or  where  the  claim,  though  valid,  was  not  set 
up,  and  no  declaration  of  policy  was  made.  The  latter  seems 
to  have  been  the  case  after  the  conquests  of  Ashanti  ^  and 
Benin — ^the  only  two  cases  in  West  Africa  (apart  from  Northern 
Mgeria)  in  which  native  dynasties  were  overthrown ;  "   and 

^  "  In  Ashanti  .  .  .  had  the  lands  of  the  country  been  proclaimed  at  the  time 
of  conquest  to  be  the  property  of  the  Crown,  they  would  unquestionably  have  so 
vested.  .  .  .  The  claim  to  ownership  was  waived,  and  cannot  now  be  asserted. " 
— Belfield  Report,  paragraph  47.  The  Chief  Commissioner  is  empowered  to 
take  any  lands  required  by  Government,  but  only  on  payment  of  compensation 
for  improvements  and  disturbance.  In  the  "Northern  Territories"  of  the 
Gold  Coast  the  control  of  all  lands  by  Government  appears  to  be  as  absolute  as 
in  Northern  Nigeria. — (Cardinal,  loo.  cit). 

^  In  Benin,  consequent  on  the  massacre  of  1896,  the  Oba  was  deported  and 
Government  assumed  direct  control.  A  few  Crown  leases  were  then  issued,  thus 
showing  that  the  Government  of  the  day  had  adopted  the  view  that  Benin  lands 


304  LAND   TENXJEE  ANB  TRANSFER. 

the  same  may  be  said  as  regards  the  various  military  expedi- 
tions, such  as  that  arising  from  the  "  hut-tax  rebellion  "  in 
Sierra  Leone,  the  Jebu,  and  the  Aro  expeditions  in  Southern 
Mgeria,  and  the  many  minor  operations  brought  about  by 
murders  and  outrages,  which  the  Government  was  compelled 
to  suppress  by  force  of  arms.  In  these,  and  in  other  cases  in 
which  tribes  submitted  to  a  threat  of  force,  no  definite  claim 
to  control  the  land  was  asserted.  If  there  be  any  districts 
in  which  a  Government  has  by  usage,  sufferance,  or  otherwise 
established  a  claim  to  control  the  land,  or  special  privileges 
in  regard  to  the  acquisition  of  land,  its  claim  should  be 
publicly  notified. 

The  absence  of  any  definite  and  consistent  policy  in  regard 
to  land  in  these  dependencies  seems  to  have  arisen  from 
the  failure  to  investigate  the  system  of  native  tenure.  The 
legislatures,  though  desirous  of  giving  due  weight  to  native 
custom,  were  not  apparently  familiar  with  it,  and  we  find 
that  the  various  Ordinances  relating  to  land  are  couched  in 
terms  often  quite  inapplicable  to  native  tenure,  and  the 
leases  and  other  instruments  are  often  drawn  on  an  EngUsh 
model.  The  Chief  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Courts  have  in 
many  judgments  where  particular  issues  of  importance  had 
to  be  decided,  shown  much  knowledge  of  the  principles  of 
native  land  law — of  which  they  were  bound  to  take  cognisance 
— ^but  as  I  have  described  in  speaking  of  individual  tenure, 
the  issues  have  become  confused  by  the  permeation  of  Eng- 
lish conceptions  of  land  tenure  among  the  natives  themselves, 
so  that  it  was  often  difficult  to  decide  to  what  degree  these 
conceptions  had  influenced  the  grantors,  and  further  difficulty 
arose  from  the  terms  of  the  law  which  the  judges  had  to 
administer. 

Thus  during  Mr  Chamberlain's  tenure  of  office,  when  the 
first  attempts  to  deal  comprehensively  with  this  question 
of  land  tenure  in  the  Crown  colonies  appear  to  have  been 
made,  the  Government  of  the  Gold  Coast  introduced   (in 

(except  of  course  those  held  in  private  ownership)  had  by  right  of  conquest 
become  Crown  lands.  The  restoration  of  the  Oba  in  1916  was  made  conditional 
on  the  recognition  of  Government  control  over  the  land.  In  1917  an  agree- 
ment was  substituted,  under  which  the  Oba  was  left  free  to  deal  with  the 
land  occupied  by  Benis,  while  rentals  received  for  land  leased  to  aliens  and 
"strangers"  might,  at  the  discretion  of  the  Governor,  be  shared  between  the 
protectorate  and  the  native  treasuries.  Only  one  area,  already  leased  as  Crown 
laud,  was  retained  as  such. 


CONDITIONS  IN  THE  GOLD   COAST.  306 

1897)  a  Bill  based  on  individiial  ownership.  It  "  aimed  at 
encouraging  the  native  to  settle  permanently  on  cultivated 
land  by  assuring  to  him  the  right  of  proprietorship  therein, 
if  occupation  is  continuous.  ...  He  may  by  occupation 
secure  a  good  title  against  any  chief  or  any  one  else  .  .  . 
though  forfeiture  results  from  abandonment ;  .  .  .  a  perma- 
nent, hereditable,  transferable  right  of  proprietorship  which 
the  Supreme  Court  will  enforce."  ^  The  Bill  was  opposed  on 
the  ground  that  it  vested  in  the  Crown  powers  over  the  land 
which  belonged  to  communities  or  individuals,  and  it  was 
not  pressed.  The  alienation  for  ninety-nine  years  of  tribal 
lands,  by  chiefs  and  families,  to  Europeans  for  money  pay- 
ments, which  had  grown  to  be  a  scandal,'^  continued  to  be 
recognised  by  the  courts. 

The  object  of  the  Gold  Coast  Ordinance  as  finally  passed 
in  1900  was  to  induce  the  vendors  to  bring  the  transaction 
before  the  Court,  that  it  might  see  that  it  was  fair,  and  that 
the  rights  of  the  natives  to  cultivation,  &c.,  were  protected. 
It  left  the  chiefs  free  to  make  their  own  bargains  with  the 
purchasers,  though  the  Court  had  power  to  modify  the  terms. 
I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  this  much-debated  measure,  which 
was  the  subject  of  an  exhaustive  inquiry  by  Sir  H.  Belfield. 
But  it  raises  many  important  issues  which  are  pertinent  to 
the  subject  under  discussion.  Sale  of  tribal  lands  had  also 
taken  place  in  the  Lagos  hinterland,  though  not  to  the  same 
extent. 

To  the  native  mind,  uninfluenced  by  foreign  ideas,  land 
is  an  unsaleable  thing.  "  We  have  power  to  dispose  of  the 
land ;  we  cannot  sell  the  land ;  no  chief  can  sell  the  land," 
said  a  Lagos  chief  in  evidence  before  the  Supreme  Court.  ^ 
If  an  alien  requires  land,  whether  he  be  a  native  stranger 
who  desires  to  cidtivate,  or  a  European  who  desires  to  trade 
or  mine,  the  question  to  the  native  mind  would  be,  whether 
or  not  the  stranger's  presence  is  desirable  and  to  the  benefit 
of  the  community.    If  it  is,  he  is  given  land  rent-free.    He 

J  Cd.  5103,  p.  23. 

"  Belfield  Report,  paragraph  35.  It  has  been  freely  stated  that  the  chiefs 
had  alienated  an  area  in  excess  of  the  total  area  of  the  Colony — the  inference 
being  that  the  whole  was  alienated,  and  many  concessions  overlapped.  Sir  H. 
Belfield  states  that  the  total  alienated  was  899  sq.  miles  out  of  24,300.  There 
were  some  3000  sq.  miles  additional  "under  notice,"  but  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases  no  further  action  was  contemplated  (paragraphs  39-40). 

'  Cd.  5103,  p.  32. 

TJ 


306  LAND  TENUEE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

may  or  may  not  give  a  part  of  his  profits  or  produce  in  return 
for  the  favour  conferred  upon  him.  If  he  does,  it  has  no 
connection  with  the  land,  and  is  not  in  proportion  to  its  area. 
Similarly  if  the  Government  takes  land  for  a  recognised  public 
purpose,  no  payment  would  be  demanded,  but  any  person 
dispossessed  would  obtain  land  elsewhere  through  the  chiefs. 

In  all  these  dependencies,  however,  English  law  is  largely 
if  not  exclusively  applied  iq  the  big  coast  cities,  and  to  a 
varying  degree  beyond  them.  Ko  doubt  European  conces- 
sionaires, holding  land  devised  to  them  in  deeds  drawn  by 
native  barristers  in  English  legal  terms,  understand  that  they 
hold  title  under  English  law.  Moslems  and  other  native  aliens 
probably  have  their  own  ideas  as  to  the  tenure  of  their  hold- 
ings. And  it  seems  clear  that  the  grantors  themselves  have 
only  the  vaguest  conceptions  as  to  the  conditions  of  the 
grants.  How  the  courts — Abound  by  Ordinance  to  take  cog- 
nisance of  native  custom — can  in  these  circumstances  deter- 
mine suits  is  to  the  layman  a  mystery. 

The  first  and  most  urgent  step  woidd  seem,  therefore,  to 
be  the  determination  by  Ordinance  of  the  area  ia  which 
EngUsh  land  law  applies.  This  might  be  limited  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  iirban  and  suburban  districts  on  the  coast, 
and  fixed  by  the  legislative  councils  of  the  respective  colonies, 
to  be  extended  if  need  be  by  resolution  of  the  council.  Within 
that  area  aU  land  titles  would,  of  course,  be  registered. 

Outside  these  districts  it  would  seem  to  be  desirable  to 
enforce  registration  (within  a  prescribed  period)  of  aU  hold- 
ings not  already  registered,  in  which  individual  ownership  is 
claimed,  whether  by  aliens  or  by  natives.  The  remainder  of 
the  land  should  be  declared  to  be  subject  to  native  tribal 
tenure  and  (except  to  Government  for  public  purposes)  alien- 
able only  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  native  law — 
e.g.,  the  freehold  could  not  be  granted.  If  at  any  time  it  were 
desired  to  extend  the  application  of  English  law  to  any  trans- 
fer of  land  in  such  areas,  the  consent  of  the  Governor  would 
be  required,  in  order  to  ensure  that  the  grantor  fully  under- 
stood the  transaction.  The  conditions  applicable  to  individual 
ownership  might  be  laid  down  by  Ordinance  in  simple  lan- 
guage— viz.,  that  the  land  can  be  sold  or  taken  in  execution, 
&c. — with  a  correspondingly  simple  form  of  lease.  A  similar 
form  for  tribal  land  alienated  on  leasehold  might  be  added.^ 

'  See  the  forms  suggested  by  Sir  H.  Belfield,  Report,  paragraph  103. 


LAND  TRANSFERS  BY  CHIEFS  TO  NON-NATIVES.  307 

This  procedure  would  not  arrest  natural  evolution,  or  per- 
petuate by  legislation  a  system  which  is  in  course  of  develop- 
ment, but  it  would  ensure  that  native  tenure  could  only  be 
modified  to  accord  with  changing  circumstances,  after  due 
consideration,  and  with  the  assent  of  the  Government.  It 
would  in  no  way  interfere  with  the  right  of  native  owners 
(subject  to  the  conditions  I  am  about  to  suggest)  to  dispose 
of  their  lands,  and  to  make  their  own  bargains,  and  if  so 
desired,  to  include  special  terms  in  the  lease.^  It  would 
ensure  to  the  grantee  the  clean  title  he  desires,  and  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  law  to  which  it  is  subject.  It  would, 
I  presume,  considerably  simplify  the  work  of  the  courts. 

Although  in  territories  where  no  claim  to  the  control  of 
the  land  has  been  set  up.  Government  thus  explicitly  recog- 
nises the  right  of  the  native  owners  to  dispose  of  their  lands 
as  they  like ;  no  interference  with  native  rights  or  customs 
can  be  alleged  if  Government  asserts  its  unquestioned  juris- 
diction over  non-natives,  and  directs  that  they  must  obtain 
its  consent  before  acquiring  land  from  a  native,  and  its  final 
approval  of  the  lease.  It  would  seem  desirable,  in  the  interests 
alike  of  the  grantors  and  of  the  grantees,  that  this  rule  should 
be  enforced,  and  that  registration  should  be  obligatory  within 
a  prescribed  period.  A  notification  to  this  efEect  was  issued 
by  the  Gold  Coast  Goverimaent  on  10th  October  1895,  and 
appeared  in  the  '  London  Gazette  '  and  five  leading  London 
papers.^  It  has  also  been  the  law  in  Lagos  since  1908,  and 
in  Southern  Mgeria  since  1900.  At  the  present  time  in 
Mgeria  an  alien  may  be  called  upon  by  the  court  to  prove 
that  he  is  in  legal  occupation,  and  may  be  evicted  and  fined 
if  he  fails  to  do  so.  Not  may  he  occupy  land  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  native  owner  without  acquiring  it. 

The  Governor,  before  giving  his  consent,  would  see  that 
the  lease  was  not  in  any  way  manifestly  opposed  to  native 
interests,  and  he  could  insert  a  clause  making  the  possession 
of  the  land  dependent  on  its  efficient  development. 

If  a  native  cultivator  sells  or  mortgages  his  permanent 

'  The  term  "  concession  "  is  one  of  evil  association.  All  grants  should  be 
in  the  form  of  leases  not  exceeding  ninety-nine  years. 

^  It  read  as  follows  :  "  No  document  hereafter  made,  purporting  to  grant  or 
convey  any  rights  over  or  interest  in  land,  forests,  or  minerals,  or  monopoly 
in  economic  products,  save  and  except  the  right  to  occupy  building  land  for  the 
erection  of  a  native  house,  vrill  be  recognised  in  any  way  by  the  Government, 
unless  it  shall  bear  the  signature  of  the  Qovemor,  &c." 


308  LAND  TENURE  ANB  TEANSFEE. 

improvements — e.g.,  a  plantation  of  cocoa-trees — to  an  alien 
(which  for  practical  purposes  involves  the  transfer  of  the 
land),  the  transaction  should,  as  I  have  said,  require  the 
assent  of  the  Governor  equally  with  a  sale  of  the  land,  and 
a  definite  period  for  the  duration  of  the  transaction  shoidd 
be  fixed.  If  the  purchaser  or  mortgager  has  the  sole  use  of 
the  land,  the  right  of  the  native  ruler  to  demand  a  ground 
rent  should  be  recognised. 

Having  established  this  principle,  the  Government  would 
be  able  to  assist  the  native  chiefs  in  their  dealings  with 
Europeans,  by  the  advice  of  the  District  Officer.  He  would 
see  that  there  was  no  overlapping  of  leases,  that  the  terms 
proposed  were  understood,  and  that  the  bargain  was  equit- 
able to  the  native  owners.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  able  to  transfer  to  the  executive  the  onus  of 
protecting  the  rights  of  the  people  against  any  improper 
transactions  by  the  chiefs  or  others  in  regard  to  land. 

This  task  is  by  the  Gold  Coast  Concessions  Ordinance 
thrown  upon  the  judiciary.  Sir  H.  Belfleld  writes  in  this 
connection :  "  It  is  undesirable  that  the  work  should  be 
entrusted  to  the  judges,  because  they  do  not  possess  any 
first-hand  knowledge  of  the  land  with  which  they  are  dealing, 
and  because  their  decisions  are  not  open  to  revision  except  ia 
contested  cases.  I  believe  the  work  can  be  performed  more 
efficiently,  more  expeditiously,  and  more  economically  if 
entrusted  to  executive  officers."  ^ 

Disputes  regarding  land  boundaries,  not  only  of  lands  sold 
or  leased,  but  the  ever-recurring  inter-tribal  quarrels  regarding 
land,  can  be  dealt  with  more  effectively  by  inquiry  on  the 
spot  by  the  District  Officer  than  by  the  courts,  and  costly 
litigation  avoided.  Boundaries  once  decided  should  be  re- 
corded by  the  native  courts.  In  the  southern  provinces  of 
Nigeria  these  principles  have  long  been  in  force,  and  recent 
legislation  has  placed  further  restrictions  on  the  intervention 
of  the  Supreme  Court  in  land  cases.  They  are  strongly  advo- 
cated by  Sir  H.  Belfield,  who  describes  the  procedure  at 
great  length.^ 

'  Report,  paragraph  86.     See  also  paragraphs  67,  68,  and  85. 

^  Report,  paragraphs  84-106,  &g.  Application  should,  in  the  first  instance,  be 
made  to  the  District  Officer,  who  makes  all  inquiries  and  advises  the  natives  in 
their  interest.  When  the  lease  has  received  the  Governor's  approval,  conditional 
occupation  may  be  allowed,  pending  survey.  In  order  to  avoid  any  conflict  as  to 
title,  the  proposed  grant  should  be  notified  in  the  '  Gazette.'  Registration  may 
then  be  accepted  as  a  guarantee  of  title. 


EESPONSIBILITT  OF  THE  SUZERAIN  POWER.  309 

If  recourse  to  the  courts  is  necessary  the  case  is  heard  in 
the  Provincial  Court  (in  which  legal  practitioners  are  not 
heard).  Its  judgments  are  reviewed  and  confirmed  by  the 
Chief  Justice,  acting  as  the  delegate  of  the  head  of  the  execu- 
tive— ^the  Governor — and  not  iu  his  judicial  capacity.  There 
are  also  other  safeguards,  for  the  Chief  Justice  can  order  a 
transfer  to  the  Supreme  Court,  either  on  the  application  of 
the  parties  or  of  his  own  motion,  and  there  is  an  appeal 
if  the  claim,  debt,  damage,  or  default  exceeds  £50  in 
value. 

The  importance  of  excluding  native  lawyers  in  these  cases 
cannot  be  over-estimated,  for  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  long  experience  have  stated  that  by  the  action  of  these 
native  lawyers  ignorant  chiefs  are  involved  in  costly  and 
needless  litigation,  and  often  plunged  into  debt.^ 

It  is  the  first  duty  of  a  Government  to  watch  over  the  in- 
terests of  the  governed,  and  if  there  is  one  section  of  these 
which  claims  a  special  share  of  consideration  and  thought, 
it  is  the  one  which,  by  reason  of  poverty  and  of  ignorance, 
is  least  able  to  take  care  of  itself.  It  follows  that  a  civilised 
Power  in  Africa,  while  fully  recognising  the  rights  of  the 
native  chiefs  to  dispose  of  tribal  lands  on  behalf  of  their 
people,  cannot  escape  responsibility  for  seeing  that  those 
powers  are  rightly  exercised.  To  do  otherwise  is  the  nega- 
tion of  the  functions  of  a  Suzerain.  Claims  to  the  individual 
ownership  of  land  must  be  scrutinised  in  the  interest  of 
the  communities  ;  aUenation  must  not  deprive  the  people 
of  sufftcient  land  for  their  needs,  and  their  rights  of  cultiva- 
tion, grazing,  &c.,  must  be  safeguarded  ;  the  consideration 
received  from  aliens  for  the  use  of  land  must  be  adequate, 
and  the  money  received  must  be  paid  to  and  expended  on 
behalf  of  the  owners — the  community.  Have  the  several 
Governments  in  West  Africa  discharged  their  obligations  fully 
in  this  latter  respect  ? 

By  universal  consent  the  land  belongs  to  the  people,  for 
whom  the  chiefs  act  as  trustees  or  agents,  and  it  is  the 

^  Of  this  there  is  abundant  evidence.  As  to  the  Gold  Coast,  see  Belfield's 
Report,  paragraph  33,  &c.  So  great  have  been  the  evils  of  this  land  litigation 
that  a  high  official  expressed  a  doubt  whether  its  economic  results  were  not  as 
bad  as  the  former  inter-tribal  wars.  As  to  Nigeria,  see  Cmd.  468,  1920, 
appendix  iii. 

Sir  E.  Speed,  Chief  Justice,  pointed  out  that  these  land  cases  very  rarely- 
referred  to  individual  rights  or  disputes,  but  were  generally  concerned  with 
tribal  boundaries  long  ago  settled  by  the  district  officer. 


310  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

function  of  Government  to  see  that  that  trust  or  agency  is 
carried  out  honestly.  Sir  H.  Belfield  informs  us  that  the 
custom  in  the  Gold  Coast  is  that  the  consideration  money  is 
divided  into  three  parts,  of  which  the  chief,  the  elders,  and 
the  chieftainship  fund  each  take  one.  This  practice,  he 
writes,  "is  at  variance  with  the  traditional  conditions  which 
underlie  the  authority  vested  in  the  headman.  They  are 
supposed  to  exercise  their  authority  for  the  common  benefit 
of  the  tribe  as  a  body,  but  they  actually  spend  this  money 
for  purposes  from  which  the  ordinary  members  of  the  com- 
munity can  derive  no  advantage,  therefore  the  tribe  finds 
itself  despoiled  of  a  substantial  area  of  its  land  for  a  period 
which  leaves  it  dispossessed  for  two  or  three  generations, 
and  receives  no  sort  of  compensation  for  the  diminution  of 
its  property."  ^ 

He  recommends  that  a  quarter  of  the  money  should  be 
retained  in  a  fund  for  the  general  benefit  of  the  people,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  com- 
munal lands  belongs  entirely  to  the  community,  and  should 
be  spent  in  their  behalf,  and  I  so  instructed  the  district  staff 
in  Southern  Nigeria. 

I  was  at  that  time  engaged  in  setting  up  in  the  districts 
most  affected — Yoruba,  Egba,  and  Benin — native  treasuries 
such  as  I  have  described  in  chapter  x.  Eentals  for  com- 
munal land  are  properly  paid  into  such  treasuries,  which 
constitute  the  common  fund  of  the  commimity.  Since  it  is 
from  them  that  the  chiefs,  under  the  system  of  "  native 
administration,"  receive  their  salaries,  and  the  expenses  and 
dignities  of  the  chieftainship  are  defrayed,  they  have  an 
interest  in  the  augmentation  of  the  funds.  Where  native 
treasuries  are  not  established,  a  communal  fund  can  still  be 
created,  and  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  district  staff  to  see 
that  it  was  not  misspent,  and  to  hold  the  chiefs  accountable. 
Sir  H.  Belfleld's  statement  is  a  very  serious  indictment  both 
against  the  native  chiefs — though  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
report  shows  that  he  did  not  lack  sympathy  with  them — 
and  against  the  control  and  supervision  exercised  by  the 
Goverimaent  on  behalf  of  the  lesser  people. 

I  have  expressed  the  view  that  in  territories  where  the 
control  of  the  land  is  vested  in  the  Government,  it  is  in  the 
public  interest  that  Government  should  become  the  landlord 

'  Report,  paragraph  35. 


GOVERNMENT  AS  LANDLORD  OP  ALIENS.       311 

of  all  aUens,  since,  inter  alia,  it  can  by  periodical  revision  of 
rentals,  or  by  appropriate  taxation,  secure  for  the  public  revenue 
the  expanding  value  of  land,  which  arises  directly  or  indirectly 
from  the  expenditure  of  the  taxpayers'  money.  Unless  there 
is  an  income  tax  on  Europeans  and  other  aliens,  these  values 
would  not  even  partially  be  shared  by  the  taxpayer. 

It  is  worth  a  moment's  consideration  how  far  this  general 
principle  is  possible  of  application  in  territories  where  Govern- 
ment does  not  claim  the  disposal  of  the  land — other,  of 
course,  than  those  districts  declared  to  be  under  English 
land  law. 

Before  constructing  a  railway  in  such  territories  a  colonial 
Government  acquires  the  land  "for  a  public  purpose,"  in- 
cluding a  sufficient  area  on  either  side  of  the  track,  on  terms 
which  are  equitable  to  both  parties.  The  method  of  doing 
so  is  usually  laid  down  by  law.  Or  it  may  be  that  in  antici- 
pation of  the  benefits  which  will  accrue  to  their  trade,  the 
native  commxmities  are  wiUing  to  cede  the  land  in  perpetuity, 
in  order  to  induce  the  Government  to  construct  the  line.  In 
such  cases,  and  also  in  the  case  of  building  plots  in  a  pro- 
jected township,  where  Government  has  acquired  the  land 
in  anticipation,  the  object  in  view  is  attained. 

But  when  the  land  is  not  required  for  a  public  purpose, 
but  by  a  non-native  for  commercial  or  other  purposes,  it 
may  be  a  matter  for  consideration  whether  Government 
should  acquire  the  land  from  the  native  owners,  and  lease  it 
to  the  non-native  applicant,  in  order  to  carry  out  the  prin- 
ciple which  I  have  advocated  of  Government  being  the  land- 
lord of  all  aliens.^  It  might  be  argued  that  the  native  owner 
would  not  in  that  case  obtain  so  good  a  bargain.  To  obviate 
this  the  terms  might  be  fixed  by  a  Land  Court  on  which 
natives  would  sit  as  assessors.  The  acquisition,  however,  of 
land  nominally  for  a  public  purpose,  and  its  subsequent  dis- 
posal on  lease  to  non-natives,  is  clearly  irregular,  and  unjust 
to  the  native  owners,  unless  the  phrase  "  acquisition  for  a 
public  purpose "  has  been  specifically  defined  to  include 
acquisition  for  sublease  to  non-natives. 

In  these  southern  dependencies  in  West  Africa  the  intro- 
duction of  cocoa  and  other  permanent  crops,  which  take 
several  years  to  come  to  maturity,  has  accentuated  the  desir- 

'  This  was  formerly  the  system  in  Uganda,  but  is  now  abandoned, — Annual 
Report  1918-19,  No.  1054,  p.  10. 


312  LAND  TENtniE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

ability  of  affording  to  the  cultivator  some  guarantee  of  his 
right  to  continued  occupation.  I  have  quoted  Sir  H.  Bel- 
field's  view  that  native  land  tenure  will  require  some  modifica- 
tion. Moreover,  the  density  of  the  population  (in  Southern 
STigeria  though  not  in  the  Gold  Coast),  and  the  long  im- 
munity of  the  people  from  slave-raids,  together  with  the 
prevalence  of  shifting  cultivation,  has  resulted  in  there  being 
no  superabimdance  of  land  in  considerable  regions. 

Interference  with  native  customary  law,  which  may  be 
relied  on  to  adapt  itself  to  changing  circumstances,  is  much 
to  be  deprecated  ;  but  if  intervention  is  found  to  be  necessary 
ia  the  interests  of  the  people,  the  first  step  might  usefully 
be  to  abrogate  the  rule  that  the  claim  of  a  member  of  the 
family  to  land  does  not  lapse,  however  prolonged  his  absence.^ 
This  means  that,  an  individual  who  left  his  village  in  boyhood 
may  return  after  many  decades — ^perhaps  as  a  wealthy  lawyer 
— and  claim  land.  If  the  undeveloped  land  at  the  disposal 
of  the  family  is  exhausted  some  peasant  must  be  ousted,  a 
course  which  militates  agaiust  fixity  of  tenure,  without  which 
it  is  hopeless  to  expect  any  permanent  improvement  of  the 
land.  Abandonment  for  two  years,  except  for  the  recupera- 
tion of  the  soU,  should,  I  suggest,  involve  forfeiture  of  the 
claim  to  land. 

The  cultivator  who  has  the  greatest  need  of  protection  is 
the  "  stranger  "  who,  owiug  to  deficiency  of  land  in  his  own 
district,  has  been  driven  to  seek  it  elsewhere,  and  has  been 
allowed  to  settle  in  another  commimity  where  land  is  abundant. 
Such  "  strangers  "  may  be  welcomed  by  a  tribe  whose  num- 
bers are  decreasing,  as  adding  to  its  strength.  But  so  jealously 
guarded  is  the  ownership  of  land  in  the  west  equatorial  belt 
that  the  stranger  may  probably  only  be  admitted  on  con- 
dition that  he  shaU  plant  no  trees  (cocoa,  &c.),  the  owner- 
ship of  which  would  give  him  a  claim  to  dispose  of  the  land 
beyond  the  term  of  his  own  life.^ 

This  is  so  manifestly  disadvantageous  to  the  progress  and 

1  Evidence  from  Nigeria  was  to  the  effect  that  an  educated  native  vpho  had 
spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  Lagos  could,  if  he  desired,  return  to  his 
village  and  claim  land  as  of  right. 

2  The  Resident  of  a  province  in  Southern  Nigeria  remarks  that "  there  have  been 
several  instances  where  the  owners  of  the  land,  so  soon  aa  they  see  the  valuable 
crops  maturing,  have  made  attempts  to  regain  possession  of  the  land,  including 
the  cocoa ;  and  many  farmers,  who  in  the  ordinary  course  would  probably  be 
allowed  to  occupy  land  in  perpetuity,  hesitate  to  embark  on  cocoa-planting  for 
want  of  sufficient  security  against  their  landlords. " 


THE  POSITION   OF  NATIVE   "  STEANGEES."  313 

permanent  good  of  the  country,  that  I  essayed  to  modify 
native  customary  law  by  securing  the  adhesion  of  all  the  native 
authorities  (after  fuU  discussion  with  them)  to  a  native  court 
rule,  which  aimed  at  securing  continuous  occupation  to 
"  strangers  "  under  specified  conditions,  while  placing  a  check 
on  the  irregular  acquisition  of  tribal  lands  by  undesirable 
strangers.  These  immigrants  are  of  three  types — (a)  those 
who  intend  to  identify  themselves  with  the  tribe,  and  by 
intermarriage  become  merged  into  it  in  the  second  genera- 
tion (these  require  no  special  protection)  ;  (b)  those  who 
settle  on  the  land,  but  remain  aliens  to  the  tribe ;  and  (c) 
land  speculators,  who  are  generally  absentee  landlords,  and 
may  perhaps  have  acquired  title  to  land  from  a  chief  who 
had  no  right  under  native  law  to  grant  it,  but  did  not  under- 
stand the  effect  of  the  deed — ^probably  drawn  by  a  native 
lawyer — conferring  individual  ownership. 

In  some  cases  the  stranger  may  have  sold  his  title  to  an- 
other native,  or  may  have  assigned  its  use  to  a  European 
(thus  evading  the  law),  or  may  assert  his  independence  of  the 
local  native  authority.  Or  he  may  have  acquired  the  land 
purely  as  a  speculation  on  its  expanding  value,  and  prove 
an  obstacle  to  development.  In  this  case  it  is  the  native 
authority,  and  not  the  stranger,  who  requires  protection — 
and,  indeed,  in  some  cases  the  community  has  been  disin- 
tegrated by  the  acquisition  of  land  by  such  "  strangers." ' 

The  new  rule  recites  that  by  native  law  no  stranger  can 
acquire  an  interest  in  tribal  land  except  by  consent  of  the 
native  authority,  nor  can  he  permanently  deprive  the  com- 
munity of  the  use  of  the  land.  It  then  lays  down  that  the 
grant  must  be  approved  by  the  native  court,  and  recorded 
by  it  in  writing,  with  the  signature  of  the  parties.  The 
Eesident's  approval  is  also  required,  and  he  wiU  see  that  the 

'  Mr  E.  E.  Dennett — a  high  authority — bears  witness  to  the  disintegration  of 
tribal  authority  caused  by  ' '  the  creation  of  a  class  of  irresponsible  landowners  who 
pay  no  tribute." — 'African  Society's  Journal,'  and  '  Morning  Post,'  14/3/1910. 

Natives  of  the  colony  of  Sierra  Leone  residing  in  the  protectorate,  where 
the  land  is  regarded  as  belonging  entirely  and  unreservedly  to  the  natives,  pay  to 
the  local  chief  a  rent  of  £1  for  the  right  to  occupy,  or  £1,  10s.  if  adjacent  to  an 
improved  road.  Land  leased  for  permanent  buildings  must  be  transferred  by 
deed  and  attested  by  the  District  Commissioner.  A  lease  of  agricultural  land  of 
under  50  acres  must  be  approved  by  him.  If  over  50  acres  and  under  5000  the 
Governor's  approval  is  required,  and  if  over  5000  that  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
A  chief  cannot  be  compelled  to  alienate  land,  nor  may  he  do  so  for  his  own 
benefit.— Sierra  Leone  Eeport,  1908,  p.  51 ;  Cd.  4448  of  1909. 


314  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

record  is  properly  made,  and  that  it  assures  to  the  stranger 
the  right  to  plant  permanent  crops,  or  erect  buildings,  and 
to  receive  compensation  if  dispossessed  otherwise  than  for 
misconduct  or  breach  of  the  conditions.  Eents  (if  demanded) 
must  be  paid  to  the  communal  fund.  The  grant  would 
usually  be  for  an  indefinite  time  (except  in  a  native  city), 
and  the  occupier  may  assign  his  rights  to  another  with  the 
consent  of  the  grantor  and  court. 

On  the  other  hand,  every  stranger  already  in  occupation 
of  communal  land  must  attend,  if  summoned,  and  satisfy  the 
court  as  to  his  right  of  occupation,  and  its  conditions  Failure 
to  attend  may,  with  the  consent  of  the  Besident,  involve 
forfeiture.  The  court,  if  satisfied,  makes  the  necessary  record. 
Any  member  of  the  community  may  appeal  to  the  court  if 
the  chief  has  exceeded  his  powers.  Conditions  of  occupation 
may  include  any  special  reservations. 

If  a  native  stranger  desires  to  acquire  the  full  rights  of 
individual  ownership,  he  should  only  be  able  to  do  so  by  the 
same  process  as  a  non-native.  Native  court  registration  may 
perhaps  be  usefully  extended  to  native  occupiers  of  land 
under  permanent  plantations,  who  are  not  "  strangers."  In 
territories  where  the  land  is  under  Government  control, 
strangers  who  desire  to  settle  in  a  native  city  or  elsewhere 
must  obtain  permission  from  the  native  authority,  and  un- 
reservedly accept  its  jurisdiction.  They  are  treated  as  regards 
taxation,  «fec.,  in  all  respects  as  local  natives,  otherwise  they 
must  reside  in  the  native  reservation  of  a  township,  or  acquire 
land  under  the  same  conditions  as  apply  to  non-natives. 

As  a  general  rule  it  is  undesirable  that  leases  or  licences 
should  be  granted  to  non-natives  for  the  collection  of  sylvan 
produce  which  the  natives  are  capable  of  exploiting  them- 
selves— such  as  palm-fruit,  wild  rubber,  gum  copra,  &c.  ; 
but  where  the  exploitation  involves  the  use  of  capital,  and  of 
appliances  beyond  the  resources  of  the  natives  (as  in  the 
case  of  heavy  timber  for  export),  licences  to  non-natives  are 
fully  justified.  Exceptions  may  also  be  made  of  small  areas 
held  in  conjunction  with  experimental  plantations,  or  to 
encourage  the  introduction  of  machinery  for  producing  a 
better  or  a  partially-manufactured  product,  or  for  saving 
labour.  Such  exceptions  would  be  justified  by  their  economic 
and  educative  value. 

In  a  former  paragraph  I  alluded  to  the  important  rdle 


FOEEST  CONSERVATION.  315 

which  the  evergreen  forest  of  the  equatorial  zone  plays  in 
the  climate  and  the  conservation  of  rainfall,  apart  from  the 
great  value  of  its  products,  which  are  rapidly  being  destroyed 
by  shitting  cultivation.  No  less  damage  is  done  by  indis- 
criminate felling  for  mining  purposes.  Until  education  in 
forestry  and  agricultuxe  has  made  much  greater  progress,  it 
is  manifestly  the  duty  of  Government,  as  trustee  for  posterity 
against  the  reckless  destruction  of  the  present  generation,  to 
safeguard  what  remains  of  these  forests,  while  not  disputing 
the  claims  of  native  ownership. 

"  The  keystone  of  aU  forestry  conservation,"  says  Mr 
Thompson,  "  is  reservation,  by  which  a  sustained  and  in- 
creasing yield  of  produce  can  be  assured."  ^  It  is  therefore 
essential  that  reserves  should  be  created  and  kept  inviolate 
from  depredation.  Licences  to  fell  timber  in  them  may  only 
be  granted  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor.  They  are 
limited  as  to  time  and  area,  and  as  to  the  classes  and  girth 
of  trees  which  may  be  felled,  and  they  impose  conditions  as 
to  replanting.  The  revenue  goes  in  part  to  the  native  owners, 
and  in  part  to  the  public  funds.*  Natives  in  adjoining  vil- 
lages may  take  timber  and  other  produce  for  their  own  needs, 
but  not  for  sale.  Outside  the  reserves  "  protected  trees  " 
may  only  be  felled  for  sale  by  licences,  issued  for  short 
periods. 

In  Southern  Nigeria  an  ordinance  to  give  effect  to  these 
principles  has  long  been  in  force,  but  in  the  Lagos  hinterland 
its  acceptance  was  formerly  made  contingent  on  the  assent 
of  the  native  councils,  and  it  was  practically  inoperative. 
It  has  lately  been  revised  and  re-enacted  for  all  Nigeria.  In 
the  Gold  Coast  a  similar  measure  was  opposed  in  1910,  and 
though  passed  with  amendments  later  on,  was  not  brought 
into  operation.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Concessions  BiU,  depu- 
tations visited  England  to  protest  against  its  iaterference 
with  native  rights.  In  Nigeria  steps  have  been  taken  to 
associate  the  native  authorities  with  the  Government  in  the 
control  of  the  reserves,  with  excellent  results. 

'  Cd.  4993,  p.  197. 

^  The  Government,  it  will  be  noted,  shares  the  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale 
of  forest  produce  with  the  native  owners.  This  share,  whether  small  or  large, 
passes  into  general  revenue  and  is  expended  for  the  benefit  of  the  country.  Its 
appropriation  therefore  differs  essentially  from  the  former  "domain  privfe"  of 
the  Congo  State,  where  the  profits  went  into  the  private  pocket  of  the 
concessionaire. 


316  LANB  TENURE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

We  have  seen  that  land  held  in  commimal  tenure  is  culti- 
vated by  the  family  or  individual,  but  that  its  products  as 
a  rule  belong  solely  to  the  cultivators.  The  attempt  to  form 
communal  plantations  of  rubber  under  Government  auspices 
has  not  been  a  marked  success  in  the  southern  provinces  of 
Mgeria.  In  a  loosely-organised  community  they  must  be 
tended  by  forced  labour,  for  no  individual  has  any  interest 
in  them,  and  their  general  supervision,  tapping,  &c.,  falls 
on  the  Forestry  or  Agricultural  Departments.  Even  in  a 
more  highly-organised  native  administration,  when  the  labour 
is  performed  by  paid  employees,  it  would  seem  to  be  more 
advantageous  to  promote  individual  initiative  and  ownership 
in  the  crop.  Communal  fuel  plantations  in  timberless  districts 
for  the  benefit  of  large  cities  are,  however,  very  desirable,  and 
they  require  Uttle  or  no  care  once  they  are  established. 

In  the  southern  provinces  of  Mgeria,  Crown  lands  are 
leased  to  natives  either  for  an  indefinite  or  for  a  specified 
term,  and  for  any  specific  purpose.  The  leases  are  only 
terminable  by  voluntary  surrender,  breach  of  covenant,  or 
i£  the  land  is  required  for  a  public  purpose.  In  the  latter 
case  fuU  compensation  is,  of  course,  given,  and  in  the  two 
former  the  value  of  all  unexhausted  improvements  would 
usually  be  paid.  Such  leases  would  be  under  English  law, 
or  under  the  rules  applying  to  individual  ownership,  according 
as  they  were  in  or  beyond  the  area  declared  subject  to  English 
law,  but  they  can  only  be  transferred  to  natives,  and  with 
Government  consent. 

Before  leaving  this  branch  of  my  subject,  it  will  be  useful 
to  point  out  that  the  difference  of  meaning  attached  to  words 
or  phrases,  familiar  to  us  in  their  English  sense,  when  applied 
to  African  conceptions  may  be  a  fruitful  source  of  misunder- 
standing, and  of  apparently  contradictory  assertions  by  ex- 
perts ;  for,  as  M.  Delafosse  observes,  "  there  are  certain  ideas 
in  native  law  which  correspond  to  nothing  analogous  in  our 
own  laws."  The  term  "  ownership,"  for  instance,  as  applied 
to  land,  is  relative  even  in  England,  and  is  qualified  by  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  expropriate  the  owner  if  his  land  is 
essential  for  railway  construction,  &c.  In  Africa  it  is  stiU 
more  qualified,  and  the  owner  of  land  possesses  it  subject 
to  certain  weU-understood  limitations  and  obligations  towards 
the  community  to  which  he  belongs.  Thus,  on  the  one  hand, 
when  it  is  asserted  that  "  all  rights  in  land  are  vested  in  the 


THE  LAND  PEOBLEM  IN  EAST  AITOCCA.  317 

chief,"  or  that  he  is  the  ultimate  "  owner,"  the  assertion  is 
accurate  only  if  the  term  is  used  in  its  native  sense,  for  his 
"  ownership  "  is  subject  to  most  important  limitations.  It 
is  equally  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  peasant  proprietor 
of  a  farm  does  not  "  own  "  it  in  the  full  sense  of  the  English 
term,  and  if  he  sells  it  to  a  non-native  he  does  so  with  the 
well-imderstood  limitations  and  obligations  imposed  by  native 
law.  To  assert  that  property  in  land  is  unknown  in  West 
Africa  is,  in  my  view,  as  inaccurate  as  the  assertion  that 
"  individual  ownership  "  in  the  English  sense  is  recognised 
because  the  land  may  be  sold,  or  bequeathed,  and  descends 
from  father  to  son.  African  individual  ownership  is  none  the 
less  real  because  it  is  qualified  by  concurrent  rights  and 
obligations,  in  the  north  more  especially  to  the  chief,  and  in 
the  south  by  still  further  restrictions  and  obUgations  to  the 
family. 

From  a  perusal  of  this  chapter  it  will,  I  think,  be  evident 
that  the  same  discrimination  must  be  exercised  in  referring 
to  such  terms  as  "  waste  lands,"  "  sale,"  &c. 

Considerations  of  space,  and  the  lack  of  personal  experience 
in  the  evolution  of  the  land  question  in  Bast  Africa,  combine 
to  place  a  limitation  on  the  remarks  which  I  have  to  make 
on  the  problems  that  present  themselves  in  this  group  of 
dependencies.  Much  of  what  has  been  said  regarding  African 
conceptions  of  land  tenure,  and  the  rights  exercised  by  Govern- 
ments, will  apply,  equally  with  West  Africa,  to  those  areas 
which  lie  at  low  altitudes,  but  in  the  regions  which  have 
been  found  possible  for  European  settlement  an  entirely 
separate  problem  arises,  to  which  the  proximity  of  India, 
and  the  immigration  of  its  people,  adds  complexity. 

These  conditions  are  peculiar  to  a  comparatively  small 
portion — about  50,000  square  miles,  or  one-fifth  of  the  Colony 
of  Kenya, — which  lies  at  altitudes  between  4000  ft.  and  over 
9000  ft.,  possibly  also  to  small  areas  in  the  Shir6  highlands  of 
Nyasaland.^  The  aspects  of  the  problem  which  have  given 
rise  to  controversy  are  (a)  that  of  Asiatic  colonisation,  and 
(b)  that  of  native  reserves. 

The  first  problem  may  be  broadly  stated  as  dealing  with 
the  right  of  British  Indian  subjects  to  acquire  land  without 

^  Mr  Harcourt  estimated  the  area  already  alienated  at  4000  eq.  miles  with 
only  a  like  amount  fit  for  European  settlement  remaining — viz.,  a  total  colonisable 
area  of  8000  sq.  miles.— Despatch,  3/2/11 ;  '  Gazette,'  1/3/11. 


318  LAND   TENURE  AND   TRANSFER. 

restriction  anywhere  in  the  colony,  and,  in  fact,  "  to  stand 
on  a  footing  of  unquestioned  equality  with  other  settlers  of 
whatever  nationality,"  with  no  segregation,  and  with  a 
common  franchise  and  electoral  roll  on  a  reasonable  property 
basis,  plus  an  educational  test  without  racial  discrimination.* 
The  question  was  discussed  by  the  recent  Imperial  Conference 
(1921),  and  on  this  point  alone  its  report  was  not  unanimous. 
The  resolution  passed  "  reaflBrmed  that  of  the  Imperial  War 
Conference  of  1918,  that  each  community  of  the  British 
Commonwealth  should  enjoy  complete  control  of  the  com- 
position of  its  population,  by  means  of  restriction  on  immi- 
gration from  any  of  the  other  commimities,"  but  it  added  the 
following  rider  :  "  The  Conference  recognises  that  there  is  an 
incongruity  between  the  position  of  India  as  an  equal  member 
of  the  British  Empire,  and  the  existence  of  disabilities  upon 
British  Indians  lawfully  domiciled  in  some  other  parts  of  the 
Empire.  The  Conference  accordingly  is  of  the  opinion  that 
in  the  interests  of  the  sohdarity  of  the  British  Common- 
wealth it  is  desirable  that  the  rights  of  such  Indians  to 
citizenship  should  be  recognised."  The  representatives  of 
South  Africa  could  not  accept  this  resolution,  and  the  matter 
was  relegated  for  direct  negotiation  between  India  and  South 
Africa. 

The  resolution — ^to  which  the  Colonial  Secretary  subscribed 
— ^refers  only  to  Indians  "  lawfully  domiciled  in  other  parts 
of  the  Empire,"  and  aflBrms  the  right  of  "  each  community 
of  the  British  Commonwealth  " — presumably  including  Kenya, 
which  enjoys  an  advanced  form  of  Crown  Colony  Goverimient 
— to  exclude  new  immigrants.  All  the  Dominions,  except 
South  Africa,  having  already  excluded  Indians,  were  thus 
able  to  subscribe  to  it. 

Lord  Sydenham  and  two  other  members  of  the  Joint 
Select  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs  express  in  a  letter  to  the 
'  Times  '  great  apprehension  as  to  the  future  of  the  colony 
of  Kenya  if  the  proposal  to  grant  an  equal  status  to  Indians 
is  carried  iuto  effect.*  "  It  might  lead,"  they  say,  "  to  the 
absorption  by  Indians  ia  due  course  of  the  whole  government 
of  the  colony,  and,  in  fact,  this  was  quite  definitely  suggested 
as  being  their  ultimate  aim  by  witnesses  claiming  to  speak 
on  behalf  of  Indian  opinion."    An  equal  franchise  with  the 

'  Lord  Chelmsford's  despatch  of  21st  October  1920,  later  endorsed  by  the 
Government  of  India,  and  supported  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
2  '  Times,'  lat  August  1921. 


THE  INDIAN   CASE.  319 

white  man  would,  in  the  view  of  the  writers,  convert  a  British 
colony  into  "  an  Indian  independency."  This  view,  Sir 
Valentine  Chirol  remarks,  means  that  "  the  measure  of  the 
rights  enjoyed  by  subjects  of  the  Crown  is  to  be  determined 
by  the  colour  of  their  skin,  and  the  civUisation  for  which 
the  British  Empire  stands  is  not  an  ethical,  but  a  pujely 
racial  civilisation."  ^ 

Professor  Keith  considers  that  "  nothing  can  be  more  un- 
fortunate than  the  attempt  to  use  the  protection  of  the 
natives  as  a  ground  for  refusing  equal  justice  to  Indians."  ^ 
But  the  responsibility  which  we  have  assumed  towards  the 
native  races  is  "  clearly  a  major  and  imperative  duty,"  to 
which  we  have  pledged  ourselves,  in  the  Tanganyika  territory 
in  particular,  under  the  Mandate.  It  is  not  an  obligation  to 
be  "  used  "  with  an  ulterior  motive,  but  any  course  of  action 
which  is  in  alleged  opposition  to  it  merits  careful  consideration. 

PubUc  opinion  in  this  country  will  without  doubt  agree 
with  Sir  V.  Chirol  that  no  difference  in  status  can  be  based 
on  colour,  and  will  desire  to  satisfy  the  legitimate  aspirations 
of  India,  to  afford  her  room  for  expansion,  and  to  make  no 
avoidable  reservations  in  her  charter  of  equahty  among  the 
united  nations  of  the  Empire.  Indians,  it  may  be  said,  in  the 
early  days  formed  the  backbone  of  the  police  and  military 
forces  both  in  Bast  Africa  and  Nyasaland,  and  to  them  Bast 
Africa  owes  much  of  its  progress,  for  they  man  the  railways 
and  workshops,  and  Jill  the  subordinate  clerical  posts.^  "  The 
Government  welcomed  their  entry  into  the  country,"  said 
Mr  ChurchiU,  on  his  return  from  his  visit  to  East  Africa  as 
Under-Secretary.  It  was  hoped  by  the  Colonial  Office  "  that 
Equatorial  Africa  might  offer  a  compensating  field  for  the 
colonising  enterprise  of  our  fellow-subjects  in  India  "  to  ease 
the  Transvaal  difficulty.  What,  then,  are  the  grounds  on 
which  it  has  been  alleged  that  we  should  f  aU  in  our  obligation 
to  the  native  races  by  permitting  free  immigration  and  ac- 
cording an  equal  status  to  British  Indians  1 

The  first  question  is,  are  we  justified  in  opening  the  flood- 
gates of  Asiatic  immigration  which  the  indigenous  races,  had 
they  not  been  disarmed  and  controlled  by  us,  would  have 

1  '  Times,'  5th  August.  ^  Ibid.,  3rd  August. 

^  In  the  Memo,  signed  by  Lord  Delamere  on  behalf  of  the  unofficial  councillors, 
and  by  Mr  C.  K.  Archer,  Chairman  of  the  Convention  of  Associations,  this  claim 
is  discounted  by  the  statement  that  in  the  war  only  376  Indians  out  of  some 
20,000  in  East  Africa  were  combatants,  of  whom  none  were  killed  or  wounded, 
while  five  were  executed  for  treachery,  and  three  others  sentenced  to  death  were 
reprieved. 


320  LAND   TENXIBE   AND   TRANSFER. 

resisted  by  force  ?  Africa  has  a  virUe  and  potent  racial  type 
of  her  own,  which  under  civilised  government  should  multiply. 
American  writers,^  who  may  be  presumed  to  regard  the  ques- 
tion dispassionately,  maintain  that  miscegenation — ^Uke  an 
inferior  currency  according  to  Gresham's  law — perpetuates 
the  lower  type,  and  as  Mendel  proves,  the  best  qualities  of 
each  race  are  gradually  eUmiaated.  "  Universal  experience," 
says  Mr  M'Clure,  "  has  shown  that  if  two  races  occupy  the 
same  territory  and  are  not  intermarriageable  naturally,  great 
hostilities  are  inevitable."  ^  Are  we  then,  by  admitting 
Asiatics,  sowing  dragon's  teeth  which  will  inevitably  lead 
to  a  racial  war  in  the  future  ?  Though  it  may  already  be  too 
late  to  raise  this  issue  as  regards  the  Indians  already  law- 
fully domiciled  in  East  Africa,  its  great  importance  as  regards 
future  immigration  cannot  be  denied. 

The  second  question  is  whether  the  type  of  immigrant — 
apart  from  racial  divergence — ^is  such  as  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  country.  The  "  East  African  Economic  Com- 
mission," appointed  in  March  1917,  was  presided  over  by  a 
Government  official,  and  its  signatories  are  men  of  the  highest 
standing  and  position  in  the  colony,  some  of  them  members 
of  Council.  They  formulate  a  charge  against  the  Indian 
colonists  of  so  grave  a  nature  that  it  is  essential  that  it  should 
be  thoroughly  investigated,  and  it  not  fully  substantiated 
should  be  withdrawn.^  I  do  not  quote  it  in  full,  for  it  is  calcu- 
lated to  embitter  racial  feehng,  and  is  iadignantly  repudiated 
by  the  Indians.  They  accuse  the  Indian  of  moral  depravity 
debasing  to  the  Africans,  and  of  being  an  inciter  to  crime  as 
well  as  vice.  They  add  that  the  Indian  quarters  are  almost 
invariably  the  foci  of  each  successive  outbreak  of  plague, 
owing  to  disregard  of  sanitation.  In  this  last  charge  they  are 
supported  by  the  official  handbook,  which  records  the  view 
that  "  Indian  immigration  must  be  regarded  as  disastrous."  * 

'  Madison  Grant,  'The  Passing  of  a  Great  Race.'  L.  Stoddard,  'The  Rising 
Tide  of  Colour.'  This  book  is  full  of  statistics  to  prove  that  "  true  amalgama- 
tion is  possible  only  between  members  of  the  same  race  stock"  (p.  251),  and  the 
disastrous  efltects  of  miscegenation  between  opposite  types.  He  points  to  Cuba, 
Mexico,  and  Brazil  (pp.  259  and  301). 

An  American  writer,  'Times,'  15th  January  1921:  "Cross-breeding  from 
distinctive  races  (he  says)  results  in  a  progency  inferior  to  the  original  race." 

'  Report,  p.  21,  published  in  1919  by  the  Swift  Press,  Nairobi.  See  Memo,  cited 
on  p.  321,  where  the  charge  is  repeated  on  the  authority  of  Dr  Burkitt,  senior 
unofficial  medical  officer. 

*  '  Admiralty  Handbook,'  p.  326.  Sir  R.  Coryndon,  Governor  of  Uganda,  says 
that  the  better-class  Indians  own  40  per  cent  of  the  cotton-ginning  business  and 


THE   claim:  of  the  BRITISH   SETTLER.  321 

As  regards  the  better-educated  immigrants,  it  is  urged 
that  the  "  advanced  thought,"  which  has  found  expression 
in  India  in  seditious  propaganda,  and  in  "non-co-operation" 
and  "  civil  disobedience "  movements,  constitutes  a  grave 
danger  among  ignorant  races  in  Africa,  and  that  both  in 
South  and  East  Africa  harm  has  already  been  done.  These 
are  matters  which  demand  impartial  investigation  ia  the 
interests  of  the  natives  for  whom  we  are  responsible. 

The  American  writers  to  whom  I  have  referred  are  emphatic 
that  if  Asiatic  immigrants  are  admitted  to  a  country  they 
will  "tmderlive,"  and  so  at  first  lower  the  standard  of  the 
European,  and  eventually  squeeze  him  out.^  The  claims  of 
the  British  cannot  be  ignored.  They  discovered  the  country, 
and  the  British  exchequer  bore  the  financial  burden.  It  is 
undeniable  that  the  British  settlers  have  been  encouraged  and 
invited  by  Government.^  It  is  chiefly  by  their  iaitiative, 
technical  knowledge,  and  capital  that  the  colony  has  been 
developed,  and  without  their  continued  presence  it  would 
relapse  into  barbarism,  nor,  as  General  Smuts  says,  could 
the  Indians  alone  control  the  natives.  It  can  hardly  be  denied 
that  the  British  are  the  better  fitted  to  be  the  governing 
race.  In  these  circumstances  it  would  be  preferable  if  Indian 
emigration  could  be  directed  to  those  vacant  places  in  the 
Empire  where  these  difficulties  do  not  arise,  or  are  less  acute, 
such  as  British  Guiana,  Honduras,^  North  Borneo,  and 
Mesopotamia. 

But  whether  this  be  feasible  or  not  there  remains  the 
question  of  the  Indians  already  domiciled  in  the  country.* 

are  of  a  good  moral  standard,  but  the  great  majority  of  Indians  are  petty  traders 
who  consider  moral  scruples  in  trade  to  be  futile.  They  are  demoralising  to 
the  Baganda. — 'United  Empire,'  June  1920. 

^  Stoddard  (quoting  Nearne)  points  to  Natal,  where  the  Asiatics  now  largely 
outnumber  and  are  displacing  the  whites.  The  country,  he  says,  tends  to  the 
type  of  Trinidad  or  Cuba  rather  than  to  that  of  Canada  or  Australia.  Wages 
are  out  to  the  Asiatic  level,  and  the  working-class  European  has  to  go.  He 
quotes  also  Mauritius  and  Hawaii. — Loc.  cit.,  pp.  278-280. 

^  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was  the  publicly  announced  policy  of  H.M.'s 
Government  that,  without  imposing  any  legal  restrictions,  "grants  of  land  in 
the  uplands  should  not  be  made  tp  Indians,"  while  grants  in  the  lowlands  should 
be  restricted  to  agriculturists.  A  proviso  in  the  ordinance  enables  the  governor 
to  exercise  this  discrimination  (see  p.  329),  since  the  Land  Board  "  agreed  as  a 
general  fact  that  the  intrusion  of  the  Indian  agriculturists  meant  the  expulsion 
of  the  European  element.  "—Lord  Elgin  in  Cd.  4117  of  1908,  pp.  27  and  33. 

'  In  Guiana  the  density  is  3'5  to  the  square  mile,  and  in  British  Honduras  5. — 
'Statesman's  Year-book,"  1921,  pp.  330  and  332. 

*  The  census  of  June  1921  gives  the  figures  as  9651  Europeans  and  22,822 
Indians. — Memo,  cited  on  p.  319. 

X 


322  LAND   TENXJUE  AND   TRANSFEB. 

They  claim  absolute  equality,  and  the  delegates  at  the  Im- 
perial Conference  (except  those  from  South  Africa)  considered 
that  their  rights  to  citizenship  should  be  recognised.  To  this 
the  British  settlers  are  bitterly  opposed,  and  there  is  ample 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  acute  racial  antagonism.^ 

In  these  circumstances  it  may  be  worthy  of  consideration 
whether  some  kind  of  solution,  however  imperfect,  may  be 
found  by  means  of  a  territorial  delimitation  of  the  areas  avail- 
able for  occupation  by  each  of  the  two  alien  races.  Outside 
the  area  allotted  to  the  British  and  Indians  respectively  no 
new  settlement  would  be  allowed.  To  each  would  be  assigned 
an  equal  unofficial  representation  on  the  Government  councils, 
subject  to  a  strict  educational  and  property  qualification, 
identical  for  all,  and  by  simUar  methods  of  election.^  The 
more  extensive  employment  of  Indians  in  the  Civil  Service 
would  render  possible  the  nomination  of  some  of  them  to 
official  seats  on  the  CouncU,  wMle  the  Municipal  Councils  of 
each  section  would  be  composed  entirely  of  its  own  race. 
It  would,  of  course,  be  unavoidable  that  estates  already  owned 
by  individuals  of  one  race  should  in  some  cases  be  included 
in  the  territory  assigned  to  the  general  occupation  of  the 
other,  but  no  individual  of  either  race  would  be  allowed  in 
future  to  acquire  land  within  the  area  assigned  to  the  other 
without  its  consent  and  that  of  the  local  Government,  while 
to  each  race  would  be  given  the  largest  latitude  to  manage 
its  own  affairs.  It  would  be  clearly  understood  that  the 
areas  allotted  to  each  were  final,  and  that  no  further  en- 
croachment on  the  lands  of  the  natives  would  be  allowed 
unless  a  new  arrangement  were  made  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  ^ 

Indians  could  not  complain  of  segregation  involving  a 
racial  discrimination,  for  the  arrangement  would  be  tri-lateral, 
equally  binding  and  restrictive  on  the  European,  the  Indian, 
and  the  African  (see  p.  149).  The  acquisition  of  trading  sites 
outside  the  areas  allotted  for  colonisation  must  necessarily 

'  Mr  Wallis,  late  Chief  Secretary,  Uganda,  states  that  this  racial  feeling  was 
unknown  in  that  country,  and  ascribes  it  to  the  South  African  element  in  Kenya. 

'  At  present  the  British  elect  eleven  and  the  Indians  two  members. 

^  Something  of  this  nature  appears  to  have  been  in  Mr  Churchill's  mind,  in 
the  speech  referred  to,  when  he  said  that  there  was  room  for  all ;  but  since  the 
Europeans  and  Indians  did  not  mix  well,  it  would  be  necessary  to  reserve  certain 
areas  for  the  former,  while  "the  rights  of  the  aboriginal  natives,  the  moral 
possessors  of  the  soil,"  must  also  be  considered. 


SUGGESTED  DELIMITATION  OP  AJREAS.  333 

be  at  the  discretion  of  the  local  Government,  without  racial 
distinction,  but  subject  to  uniform  laws  regarding  sanitation 
and  fair  dealing  with  the  natives. 

E'o  one  would  pretend  that  such  an  arrangement  would  be 
an  ideal  one,  but  the  question  has  been  allowed  to  drift  so 
long  without  a  definite  policy  that  an  entirely  satisfactory 
solution  is  no  longer  possible.  The  assignment  of  definite 
areas  for  immigrants,  by  a  high  authority,  or  by  mutual 
agreement,  would  at  least  safeguard  the  claims  of  the  natives, 
and  render  possible  a  clear  policy  ia  regard  to  the  limitation 
of  immigration,  both  in  Kenya,  Tanganyika,  and  Nyasaland 
— a  matter  which  in  any  case  demands  an  immediate  decision. 
Though  it  is  stated  that  by  a  recent  agricultural  census  there 
were  only  1300  British  settlers  outside  the  township  of  Nairobi, 
the  labour  shortage  is  already  causing  serious  difficulty,  and  in 
the  interests  aUke  of  the  settlers  themselves  and  of  the  natives, 
some  limitation  of  British  immigration  appears  to  be  called 
for  until  a  solution  is  found.  I  shall  discuss  this  aspect  of 
the  question  more  fully  in  the  chapter  on  Labour  (see  p.  391 
et  seg.).  Indian  immigration  should  be  limited  to  iona  fide 
agriculturists,  with  only  such  a  proportion  of  others  as  are 
needed  in  the  country. 

Were  a  solution  on  such  Unes  as  these  found  to  be  feasible 
after  full  investigation  on  the  spot,  the  special  claims  of  each 
race  would  be  considered  in  assigning  the  area  for  its  colonisa- 
tion. In  the  case  of  the  British,  scientific  knowledge,  com- 
mand of  capital,  ability  to  handle  the  larger  operations  of 
agriculture,  and  inability  to  live  at  the  lower  altitudes  ;  in 
the  case  of  the  Indians,  the  fact  that  vacant  lands  at  lower 
altitudes  would  ia  aU  probabUity  require  the  expenditure  of 
capital  in  irrigation,  &c.,  might  justify  some  special  financial 
assistance,  though  the  Indians  would  not,  of  course,  be  con- 
fined exclusively  to  lands  requiring  large  capital  outlay. 

The  second  problem  peculiar  to  those  limited  regions  in 
the  tropics  in  which  European  settlement  is  possible,  is  that 
of  "  native  reserves."  On  the  high  plateau  lands  the  native 
population  is  not  dense,  the  most  popidous  tribes  being  the 
Wa-Kikuyu  and  the  Wakamba,  in  the  provinces  of  Kenya 
and  Ukamba,  who  are  agriculturists,  and  the  Masai,  and  other 
pastorals  ia  the  lifaivasha  province  who  are  nomads.  The 
areas  inhabited  by  the  settled  tribes  are  reserved  for  their 
occupation,  but  do  not  appear  to  have  been  accurately  de- 


324  LAND   TENURE   AND   TEANSFEE. 

limited,  and  are  not  "  reserves  "  in  the  usual  acceptation  of 
the  term.  "  The  Masai  alone,"  says  Sir  P.  Gtrouard,  "  have 
had  their  reserves  assigned  to  them  by  treaty."  ^  Formerly 
this  tribe  roamed  with  its  herds  over  a  great  expanse  of 
country,  but  it  was  greatly  reduced  in  mmabers  by  the  out- 
break of  rinderpest,  which  destroyed  the  cattle  in  1890. 
With  the  advent  of  European  settlers  the  segregation  of  the 
Masai  into  reseryes  appeared  to  be  a  necessity,  the  more  so 
on  account  of  their  lawless  and  predatory  habits  and  dis- 
regard of  human  life. 

The  policy  of  native  reserves  had  long  been  accepted  in 
South  Africa,  where  Europeans  form  27  per  cent  of  the 
population.^  Its  adoption  in  East  Airica,  where  the  natives 
outnumber  the  Europeans  by  about  280  to  1,*  was  based  on 
the  assumption  that  the  European  settlers  would  rapidly 
multiply  and  take  up  the  vacant  lands ;  for  as  Sir  C.  Eliot, 
the  first  Commissioner,  wrote,  "  the  interior  of  the  Protec- 
torate is  a  white  man's  country,  and  it  is  mere  hypocrisy 
not  to  admit  that  white  interests  must  be  paramount,  and 
the  main  object  of  our  poUcy  and  legislation  should  be  to 
found  a  white  colony."  *  Provided  that  the  area  assigned 
to  the  natives  was  fully  adequate  for  their  needs,  and  for 
future  expansion,  and  that  proper  steps  were  taken  for  their 
material  and  moral  welfare,  few  will  be  found  to  dispute  the 
advisabUity  or  justice  of  the  formation  of  native  reserves  in 
the  circimistances. 

Sir  C.  EUot,  however,  dissents  from  this  view.  "As  a 
general  principle,"  he  writes,  "  I  am  opposed  to  the  creation 
in  this  protectorate  of  native  reserves,  meaning  by  that  name 
not  plots  of  land  kept  here  and  there  to  meet  the  needs  of 
natives,  but  territories  in  which  natives  are  segregated  and 
left  to  themselves  ;  .  .  .  reserves  by  isolating  natives  tend  to 
perpetuate  bad  customs,  and  to  retard  civilisation  and  mis- 
sionary work."  Where,  however,  it  is  not  possible  for  natives 
to  be  restricted,  "  they  should  be  allowed  to  immigrate  to 
lands  reserved  for  their  use  " — a  qualification  which  deprives 
his  objection  of  much  of  its  point.    Eeserves  may,  he  thinks, 

1  'Annual  Report,  1909-10,'  Cd.  5467  of  1911,  p.  38. 

'^  Census  of  1911,  'Statesman's  Year-book,  1921,'  p.  212. 

'  The  native  population  of  three  highland  provinces  of  Naivasha,  Kenya,  and 
Ukamba  is  given  as  1,268,000  and  the  Europeans  as  4571  in  1917-18. — 
'Admiralty  Handbook,'  Appendix  "A.,"  p.  581. 

^  '  East  African  Protectorate,'  pp.  105  and  310. 


INTEEPENETBATION   V.   NATIVE   RESEEVES.  325 

"  sometimes  be  advisable  in  dealing  with  very  strong  native 
races,  or  where  it  is  desired  to  prevent  the  desteniction  of  a 
vanishing  race,  but  they  tend  to  isolate  a  tribe  and  prevent 
their  fusion  with  other  stocks,  and  so  forming  the  hybrids 
to  which  virility  and  improvement  are  due." 

Sir  P.  Girouard  when  Governor  expressed  a  similar  view. 
The  creation  of  reserves,  he  writes,  "  amounts  to  the  dedica- 
tion of  lands  for  the  perpetuation  of  barbarism.  It  would 
appear  to  me  desirable  to  place  aU  native  reserves  in  the 
hands  of  trustees,  who  might  conceivably  be  drawn  from  the 
judiciary  or  mission  bodies,"  since  they  would  protect  the 
natives  and  favour  Government  proposals  for  their  benefit.^ 
But  Government  is  itself  the  trustee,  and  should  be  com- 
petent to  take  its  own  measures  for  the  good  of  the  natives. 

Sir  C.  Eliot's  alternative  to  the  system  of  reserves  is  that 
"  native  villages  should  remain  on  the  estates  of  Europeans 
in  order  to  supply  workmen,  the  villages  and  a  sufficient 
amoimt  of  land  round  them  being  the  property  of  the  natives, 
and  excluded  from  the  area  of  the  European's  property." 

The  Economic  Commission  strongly  supported  this  "  inter- 
penetration  policy,"  as  being  more  favourable  to  the  natural 
development  of  the  country,  which  they  frankly  place  in  the 
foreground,  since  "  every  one,  including  the  civil  servant, 
is  concentrated  on  producing  wealth,"  and  secondly,  as  more 
conducive  to  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  natives.  The 
policy  of  reserves  is,  they  say,  more  suited  to  South  Africa 
as  an  industrial  country  than  to  an  agricultural  country  like 
East  Africa. 

By  strictly  limiting  the  extent  of  the  reserves  to  areas 
already  in  beneficial  use  by  the  natives,  and  allowing  no 
margin  for  increase  of  population,  they  propose  to  force  the 
surplus  to  settle  in  villages  interspersed  among  the  European 
settlers,  and  to  encourage  them  to  become  "  labour  tenants 
on  European  farms."  The  areas  in  which  the  natives  are 
concentrated  are  to  be  distributed  as  widely  as  possible 
throughout  the  reserves,  with  tracts  between  them  for  white 
settlements.  The  labour  available  for  European  scientific 
production  will  thus  be  largely  increased.  "  Exploitation," 
they  consider,  is  not  possible  where  no  economic  pressure 
exists,  and  the  demand  for  labour  exceeds  the  supply.  They 
are  opposed  to  small  holdings.     "  The  natives   (they  say) 

1  'Annual  Report,  1909-10,'  Cd.  5467  of  1911,  p.  38. 


326  LAND   TENURE   AND   TEANSFEE. 

can  only  stagnate  under  a  system  of  peasant  proprietorship." 
They  condemn  the  existing  reserves,  which  are  "  practically 
identical "  with  the  game  reserves,  and  (they  infer)  are  with- 
out medical  and  veterinary  faculties,  or  adequate  education. 
They  consider  them  strongholds  of  savagery,  ignorance,  and 
superstition.  The  chiefs,  they  say,  are  not  tribal  chiefs,  but 
the  nominees  of  Government,  without  authority  and  engaged 
in  enriching  themselves. 

But  these  are  not  the  conditions  which  ought  to  exist  ia 
a  native  reserve,  and  if  they  do  exist  in  East  Africa  there 
can  be  no  question  of  their  contiQuance.  With  adequate 
medical  supervision  the  population  will  increase,  for  the 
Africans  are  a  prolific  race ;  and  though  the  ratio  of  natives 
to  whites  may  decrease,  the  time  must  eventually  come  when 
the  original,  and  numerically  greater,  population  will  learn 
to  resent  the  status  of  labour  tenants  to  Europeans. 

The  results  of  "  iaterpenetration  "  would,  it  is  only  too 
probable,  reproduce  some  of  the  worst  features  of  the  old 
slave  plantations — ^immorality  and  irresponsibility.  The 
policy  is  one  which  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  compatible  with 
the  principles  which  this  country  has  advocated,  through 
its  statesmen,  at  Brussels  and  at  Paris,  as  those  which  should 
guide  our  action  towards  subject  races.  And  looking  to  the 
future,  I  am  conviaced  that  it  would  be  fraught  with  danger 
and  disaster.  This  criticism  of  "  the  iaterpenetration  policy  " 
does  not,  of  course,  mean  that  employees  who  of  their  own 
free-wiU  prefer  the  conditions  of  permanent  wage-earning 
labourers  on  an  alien  estate  should  not  live  with  their  famUies 
upon  it,  cultivating  their  own  allotments  in  their  spare  time, 
or  as  herdsmen  ia  charge  of  stock  on  a  European  ranch. 
This  is  a  different  proposition  to  that  of  breaking  up  tribal 
organisations  and  distributing  the  people  among  European 
estates,  and  suppressiag  reserves  with  the  same  object. 

Mr  Ehodes'  opioions  on  this  subject  were  embodied  in  the 
Glen-Grey  Act,'-  which  was  a  carefully- considered  scheme  for 
the  organisation  of  a  model  reserve.  It  provided  for  the 
division  of  land — not  already  hypothecated — ^into  locations, 
each  of  which  would  be  subdivided  into  allotments  of  about 
four  morgen  (eight  and  a  half  acres),  with  sufficient  common- 
ages for  general  use.  Each  location  is  controlled  by  a  Board 
of  three  resident  landholders,  and  a  certain  number  of  the 

1  Act  No.  25  of  1904,  enacted  15th  August  1904. 


THE       GLBN-GEET  "  ACT.  327 

members  of  these  Boards  are  appointed  to  a  District  Council, 
presided  over  by  the  Eesident  Magistrate.  The  Coimcil  is 
empowered  to  raise  and  expend  rates,  and  generally  to  manage 
the  location.  A  land  rental  of  15s.  must  be  paid  by  each 
holder,  with  an  additional  3s.  for  each  morgen  over  four. 
Defaxdt  involves  distraint  and  eventual  cancellation  of  title. 
The  allotment  passes  by  primogeniture  to  male  descendants. 
It  thus  creates  a  system  of  freehold,  hereditable  holdings  in 
a  reserve,  controlled  by  native  Boards  and  Councils,  super- 
vised by  a  European  officer. 

The  motives  which  prompted  this  legislation  are  explained 
in  the  numerous  works  on  Mr  Ehodes'  life  and  poUcy.^  His 
conception  was,  I  think,  a  finer  one  than  those  I  have  dis- 
cussed. He  firmly  held  to  the  view  that  social  progress  and 
development  among  the  natives  coidd  best  be  promoted  by 
individual  holdings  in  land.  "  I  find,"  he  said,  when  moving 
the  second  reading  of  the  BUI,  "  that  there  are  certain  loca- 
tions for  natives  where,  without  any  right  or  title  to  the  land, 
they  are  herded  together.  ...  I  hold  that  natives  should 
be  apart  from  the  white  men  and  not  mixed  up  with  them. 
.  .  .  We  will  put  them  on  the  land,  we  wiU  let  them  manage 
their  own  affairs."  ^  In  conversation  he  frequently  asserted 
his  beUef  that  individual  possession  of  land  was  the  key  to 
the  social  elevation  of  the  natives,  and  created  seK-respect. 
He  considered  segregation  necessary  to  preserve  them  from 
liquor  and  European  vices,  and  desired  that  they  should 
enjoy  self-government  in  their  own  locations,  but  should  not 
interfere  in  colonial  politics  which  did  not  interest  them. 
He  believed  ia  taxation  as  a  means  of  compelliag  natives  to 
work.  The  four  principles  of  the  Glen-Grey  Act  are  described 
as,  "  Work,  segregation  in  the  reserves,  individual  property 
in  land,  and  local  self-government." 

The  adequacy  of  the  area  assigned  for  reserves,  so  as  to 
allow  for  increase  of  population,  is  a  difficult  matter,  especially 
when  it  is  complicated  by  the  possession  of  large  and  rapidly 

^  See  especially  the  '  Life '  by  Basil  Williams. 

2  'Cecil  Rhodes,'  by  Vindex,  pp.  361-390.  Nine  years  later  (1903)  a  select 
committee  of  the  Cape  Assembly  reported  the  result  as  having  been  most 
beneficial  to  the  natives.  "  Individual  land  tenure  and  self-government  have 
done  much."  Mr  Williams  tells  us  that  in  thirteen  years  the  rates  reached  the 
sum  of  £46,750,  half  of  which  was  devoted  to  education,  in  which  great  progress 
was  made,  and  £12,700  to  roads.  New  reserves  were  added,  the  natives  were 
eager  to  take  up  plots,  and  in  three  years  numbered  6576.  With  the  prohibition 
of  all  liquor,  and  the  increase  of  education,  the  inclination  to  work  increased. 


328  LAND   TENTOB   AND   TRANSFER. 

increasing  flocks  and  herds,  for  which  extensive  grazing  is 
required.  It  must  necessarily  be  controlled  by  the  Secretary 
of  State.  In  Rhodesia  the  Commission  appointed  by  Mr 
Harcourt  reserved  "  twenty-four  acres  for  each  man,  woman, 
and  child  for  exclusive  and  permanent  native  occupation."  ^ 
The  area  cannot  be  decreased  without  the  consent  of  the 
Secretary  of  State. 

The  East  African  settlement  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
so  generous,  judging  from  the  evidence  of  the  Colonial  Secre- 
tary (Mr  HoUis)  and  the  medical  officer,  Nairobi.^ 

With  regard  to  land  tenure  generally  in  East  Africa  a  very 
interesting  paper  was  presented  to  Parliament  in  1912,^  from 
which  we  learn,  on  the  authority  of  the  different  Governors, 
what  are  the  principles  which  have  been  accepted,  and  the 
conditions  regarding  land  in  each  of  the  African  dependencies. 
Within  the  ten-mile  coast  strip  in  East  Africa — now  the 
Kenya  Protectorate — individual  tenure  is  recognised,  but  a 
native  must  substantiate  his  claim  to  the  land  he  occupies 
before  he  can  obtain  a  certificate  of  title  from  Government. 
No  restriction  is  placed  on  alienation.  In  Kenya  Colony 
Government  claims  the  right  to  dispose  of  aU  land,  but  the 
settled  tribes  have  not  been  disturbed  where  they  are  in 
actual  occupation  of  land.  "  Native  chiefs,"  says  the  report, 
"  are  tenants  under  Government  of  the  areas  occupied  by 
their  people."  These  areas,  as  we  have  seen,  are  called  native 
reserves,  but  only  the  pastoral  Masai  have  been  coniined  ia 
properly  delimited  reserves  assigned  by  treaty.*  The  land 
in  the  reserves  "  is  supposed  to  be  held  in  communal  tenure, 

^  Letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Chartered  Company  to  the  '  Times,'  3rd  July 
1920,  and  Cmd.  507  of  1920.  The  cattle  are  stated  to  have  increased  from 
55,155  to  652,776  in  eighteen  years.  The  chairman  states,  moreover,  that 
there  is  no  legal  restriction  against  natives  purchasing  land  outside  the 
reserves,  and  they  do  in  fact  do  so  for  very  large  sums  of  money. — Report, 
28th  October  1920. 

^  Mr  Hollis  states  that  all  the  most  fertile  land  in  the  Rift  Valley  and 
Leikipia  grazing  grounds  was  taken  from  the  Masai  and  sold  to  white  settlers, 
"solely  in  the  interests  of  the  settlers." — Cd.  5584,  1911.  The  medical  officer  of 
Nairobi  on  the  Government  Commission  of  1912-13  states  that  "the  inadequacy 
of  the  reserves  in  Fort  Hall  and  Nyeri  districts  for  future  development  is 
patent." 

'  Command  Paper  68  of  1912-13. 

*  In  1913  the  Masai  tribe  brought  an  action  against  the  Attorney-General, 
e.g.,  the  Colonial  Government,  for  breach  of  pledges  in  regard  to  their  reserves. 
The  Judge  of  the  High  Court  ruled  that  the  acts  of  the  defendants  were  acts  of 
State,  not  cognisable  by  a  Municipal  Court.  "If  a  wrong  has  been  done,  it  is 
a  wrong  for  which  no  Municipal  Court  can  afiford  a  remedy."  The  matter  was 
allowed  to  drop,  with  this  very  inconclusive  judgment. — Cd.  6939  of  1913. 


LAND   TENURE   IN   EAST  AEEICA.  329 

and  is  alienable."  Vacant  lands  were  disposed  of  by  Govern- 
ment, and  very  large  blocks  were  sold  to  syndicates  or  indi- 
viduals. It  is  estimated  that  nearly  5  J  million  acres  (8132  sq. 
mUes)  was  disposed  of  in  this  way — much  of  it  as  freehold.^ 

The  conditions  on  which  settlers  may  obtain  land  in  East 
Africa  has  been  the  subject  of  much  controversy  and  many 
changes.  In  1906  Lord  Elgin  raised  the  question  of  specu- 
lation in  land,  and  laid  down  the  principles  of  periodical 
revision  and  a  graduated  land-tax.^  The  present  position 
seems  to  be  that  leases  for  agricultural  land  are  for  999  years, 
the  rent  for  the  first  33  being  10  cts.  an  acre,  for  the  second 
33  at  1  per  cent,  for  the  third  at  2  per  cent,  and  for  every 
subsequent  period  of  33  years  at  3  per  cent  of  the  unim- 
proved value.  Preliminary  occupation  licences  and  the  land- 
tax  (to  prevent  accumulation  of  land  by  any  one  person) 
have  been  dropped.  Not  less  than  certain  specified  minima 
must  be  spent  on  improvements — classified  as  "  permanent  " 
and  "  temporary."  An  important  clause  empowers  the 
Governor  to  veto  an  assignment  of  land  when  the  assignee 
is  of  a  different  race  to  the  assignor. 

In  Uganda  proper,  by  the  terms  of  the  1900  treaty,  "  natives 
own  large  areas  as  freehold,  they  can  dispose  of  it  as  they 
Kke  among  themselves,  but  no  individual  can  hold  more 
than  thirty  square  miles  as  private  property  without  the 
consent  of  the  Governor."    The  return  shows  that  under  the 

^  The  East  African  Syndicate  obtained  320,000  acres  (500  square  miles)  on 
a  nominal  rental  with  option  to  purchase  (under  conditions)  as  freehold.  Three 
other  blocks  of  100  square  miles  each  are  referred  to  in  the  return,  which  states 
that  the  total  area  held  from  the  Crown  on  terminable  leases  was  estimated  (in 
1911)  at  4,550,065  acres,  "  with  an  additional  654,765  acres  of  freehold."  East 
Africa  was  under  the  Foreign  Office  at  the  time  these  large  concessions  were 
granted.  Correspondence  relating  to  them  was  published  in  two  Blue-books. — 
Cmd.  2099  and  2100  of  1904.  See  also  Cmd.  2163,  and  Sir  Charles  Eliot's 
book,   'The  East  African  Protectorate,'  p.   309. 

^  The  earlier  conditions  of  unrestricted  freehold  were  embodied  in  Ordinance 
21  of  1902  ('Gazette,'  31st  July).  When  the  control  of  the  protectorate  passed 
to  the  Colonial  Office,  Lord  Elgin  insisted  on  the  dangers  of  accumulations  of 
enormous  areas  of  land  in  the  hands  of  individuals  through  the  operation  of  free 
transfer,  instancing  Australia.  He  proposed  a  graduated  land-tax,  and  a 
maximum  limit  for  holdings,  together  with  periodical  revision  of  rentals,  in  order 
that  Government  should  obtain  its  share  of  the  unearned  increment  in  the  value 
of  the  land.— -Despatch,  19th  March  1908.  Cd.  4117  of  1908,  p.  30.  These 
proposals  met  with  much  local  opposition,  but  Mr  Harcourt  supported  his 
predecessor's  policy  (Despatch,  3rd  February  1911).  The  area  of  grants  was 
limited  according  to  the  quality  of  the  land,  with  a  corresponding  scale  of  rentals. 
Leases  were  to  be  for  ninety-nine  years  only,  and  revisable  at  the  thirty-third 
and  sixty  -  sixth  year  (5  per  cent  of  the  unimproved  value,  with  fixed 
maxima). 


330  LAND   TENURE   AND   TRANSFEE. 

Baganda,  Busoga,  Bnayoro,  Toro,  and  Ankole  agreements 
6,156,570  acres  were  assigned  as  freehold  to  the  chiefs,  72,477 
as  freehold  to  missions,  and  12,650  acres  to  other  non-natives, 
while  99,143  were  imder  lease.  The  remaining  59  mUUon 
odd  acres  were  apparently  at  the  disposal  of  Government, 
no  chief  or  other  person  being  recognised  as  having  "  either 
a  freehold  or  leasehold  interest  in  them."  There  is  no  allusion 
to  the  nature  of  the  pre-existing  native  tenure.^ 

"  No  chief  or  tribe  is  now  considered  as  being  the  owner  of 
any  land  in  Nyasaland,"  says  the  Governor.  Prior  to  British 
rule,  "  many  chiefs  had  sold  large  tracts  of  country  to  private 
individuals  without  conditions.  Many  of  these  were  con- 
firmed later,  subject,  inter  alia,  to  the  condition  "that  existing 
villages  be  not  disturbed.  The  balance  of  land,  originally 
owned  by  chiefs  and  tribes,  was  handed  over  to  the  Crown 
by  tribes  before  and  after  the  protectorate  was  proclaimed." 
6000  square  miles  are  shown  as  alienated,  all  but  63  square 
miles  being  freehold.  The  remaining  land  is  classed  as  "  held 
by  the  Crown."  *    Leased  land  may  not  be  assigned  or  sub- 

^  Sir  H.  Johnston's  large  work  on  Uganda  deals  very  briefly  indeed  with 
the  land  question.  The  agreement  (of  1900),  he  says,  "transferred  a  little  less 
than  half  of  Uganda  as  the  private  property  of  the  king,  princes,  princesses,  and 
chiefs,  and  a  large  number  (some  2000)  of  native  land-owners,"  viz.,  all  that 
they  occupied,  cultivated,  or  used  for  grazing,  and  "they  were  pledged  to  a 
proper  treatment  of  their  native  tenants."  The  remainder,  including  the  forests, 
"  was  handed  over  to  the  British  Government  to  be  dealt  with  on  the  same  lines 
as  Crown  lands  in  a  Crown  colony.  .  .  .  Any  landless  native  of  Uganda  can 
acquire  cultivable  land  from  the  Administration  at  an  almost  nominal  rental." 
Agreements  were  made  with  Ankole,  Toro,  &c.,  on  similar  lines. — 'Uganda 
Protectorate,'  vol.  i.  p.  250.  Mr  (now  Sir  F.)  Jackson  writes  that  "the  land 
occupied  by  the  natives  belongs  to  them,  and  only  unoccupied  land  belongs  to 
the  Government."  The  onus  of  proof  that  the  laud  is  not  waste  (and  therefore 
Crown  land)  lies  on  the  claimant. — Handbook  98,  p.  128. 

^  A  full  description  of  his  original  settlement  is  given  by  Sir  H.  Johnston  in 
his  book  on  Nyasaland.  Villages  were  as  a  rule  excluded  from  the  alienated 
lands,  and  ' '  the  natives  were  informed  that  the  sale  of  the  surrounding  land 
did  not  include  the  alienation  of  their  houses  and  plantations.  .  .  .  The  tenure 
of  the  land  was  in  reality  tribal — viz.,  theoretically  the  chief  had  no  right  to 
alienate  the  land,  .  .  .  one  of  the  results  therefore  was  to  completely  free  .  .  . 
the  natives  by  restoring  to  them  the  inalienable  occupancy  of  their  villages  and 
plantations."  Finally,  treaties  were  concluded  with  all  the  chiefs  of  the  pro- 
tectorate "securing  Crown  control  over  the  remainder  of  the  land,  which  the 
natives  were  henceforth  unable  to  alienate  without  the  sanction  of  the  Com- 
missioner. In  some  cases  (says  Sir  H.  Johnston)  large  sums  were  spent  in 
buying  up  waste  lands,  where  complete  control  over  its  disposal  was  desired.  A 
percentage  of  the  selling  price  or  rental  was  paid  to  the  native  chief  when 
portions  of  the  Crown  lands  are  let  or  sold." — 'British  Central  Africa,'  pp. 
112,  113.  The  Official  Handbook  No.  95  states  that  the  "British  Central 
African  Company  "  owns  350,000  acres,  the  "African  Lakes  Company"  and  the 
"Blantyre  and  East  African  Company,"  150,000  each  (p.  69). 


POPXILATION  AND  LAND  AREAS.  331 

let  without  the  Governor's  written  permission,  and  no  rent 
or  service  may  be  exacted  from  any  native  on  the  land. 

From  this  brief  summary  it  appears  that  throughout  these 
three  protectorates  the  Government  has  assumed  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree  not  merely  the  right  to  control,  but  the  actual 
ownership  of  the  greater  part  of  the  land.  In  the  available 
records — the  Blue-books  of  the  time  and  the  works  of  Sir  C. 
EUot  and  Sir  J.  Johnston,  their  earliest  administrators  and 
historians — ^we  do  not  find  any  record  of  iavestigations  as  to 
the  native  systems  of  land  tenure.  EngUsh  terms  are  used, 
and  English  conceptions  of  land  tenure  seem  to  have  guided 
the  principles  of  the  settlements  or  agreements.  In  Uganda, 
"  kings,  princes,  princesses  "  and  others  are  granted  freehold 
lands,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  are  referred  to  as  their 
"  tenants."  The  Government  is  regarded  as  the  owner  of 
the  land  not  included  in  these  freeholds,  which  apparently 
embraced  the  land  actually  occupied  at  the  time.  The  de- 
mands made  by  any  increase  of  population  since  that  date 
(1900)  are  to  be  satisfied  by  Government,  whose  rent-paying 
tenants  these  "  landless  natives  "  were  to  become. 

In  Nyasaland  the  settlement  appears  to  have  assured  to 
the  natives  the  possession  at  least  of  their  actual  villages 
and  plantations,  though  it  is  stated  that  no  chief  or  tribe 
now  owns  any  land.  Settlers  in  some  cases  obtained  their 
land  at  prices  as  low  as  |d.  an  acre  (27s.  a  square  mile). 

The  density  of  the  population  has,  of  course,  an  intimate 
relation  to  the  importance  of  the  land  to  the  natives,  the 
amoimt  available  for  expropriation  to  aliens,  and  the  labour 
supply.  A  glance  at  the  table  on  page  45  reveals  the  astonish- 
ing paucity  of  the  population  of  British  tropical  Africa,  even 
though  it  be  considerably  greater  than  that  of  the  French 
possessions.  The  density  per  square  mile  (14'4)  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  that  of  British  India  (223  iu  1911)  or  of  Hong- 
Kong  (1530).^  These  figures  bear  eloquent  testimony  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  people  of  Africa  iu  the  past,  and  to  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  when,  with  the  aid  of  peace  and 
prosperity  on  the  one  hand  and  of  medical  science  on  the 
other,  the  vacant  places  fill  up  under  British  control. 

Calculations  of  average  density  over  vast  areas  are,  how- 

'  The  'Stateaman's  Year-book,  1921,'  gires  the  population  of  the  colony 
(exclusive  of  leased  territory)  as  501,000,  area  35  sq.  miles — viz.,  a  density  per 
sq.  mile  of  14,314  ! 


332  LAND   TENXJEE   AND   TRANSFER. 

ever,  apt  to  give  a  wrong  impression,  for  the  people  are  very 
unequally  distributed.  Northern  Nigeria,  for  instance,  with 
an  average  density  of  36*2,  includes  areas  where  the  density 
reaches  350  to  the  square  mUe,  with  corresponding  depopu- 
lated lands  with  perhaps  not  more  than  one  or  two  to  the 
square  mile.  The  Sudan,  with  its  million  odd  square  mUes, 
has  an  average  density  of  three  only,  but  stretches  of  desert 
have  no  population  at  aU.^ 

The  table  is  interesting.  The  average  density  of  the  group 
of  West  African  dependencies  appears  to  be  six  times  that 
of  the  eastern.  The  Gold  Coast,  which  has  been  most  clamant 
of  its  land  rights,  shows  a  density  of  less  than  twenty.  In  all 
except  in  the  few  very  densely  populated  districts,  it  may 
be  said  that  there  is  ample  room  for  the  legitimate  needs  of 
aUen  enterprise  and  development. 

In  those  regions,  whether  in  the  east  or  west,  where  Euro- 
pean settlement  is  not  possible,  the  demand  for  land  by  non- 
natives  is  so  limited,  the  area  available  is  so  large,  and,  except 
in  limited  districts,  the  native  population  is  so  small,  that, 
whether  the  Government  ia  theory  owns  the  land  or  not, 
it  is  not  likely  in  practice  that  the  native  cultivator  will  find 
any  difficulty  ia  obtaining  all  the  land  he  needs. 

It  would,  however,  seem  desirable  that  the  claim  of  the 
natives  of  the  soU  to  sufficient  rent-free  lands  for  their  needs 
should  be  explicitly  recognised,  and  there  should  be  no  ques- 
tion of  "  landless  natives  becoming  Government  tenants." 
For  the  rest,  since  by  treaty,  consent,  or  estabUshed  usage  the 
Governments  in  Eastern  Africa  have  for  a  long  period  exer- 
cised a  control  of  the  land  at  least  equivalent  to  that  con- 
ferred by  conquest,  the  extent  and  the  limitations  of  that 
control  might  well  be  embodied  in  the  local  legislation  as  a 
guide  to  the  British  staff.  The  claim  of  the  State  should  be 
that  of  trustee  and  not  that  of  owner,  and  in  other  respects 
the  legislation  would,  I  hope,  embody  the  principles  which 
I  have  discussed  as  relating  to  conquered  countries,  which  it 
will  have  been  noted  diverge  in  some  important  respects  from 
the  proposals  of  the  Lands  Committee  regarding  Northern 
Nigeria. 

1  The  Haifa  Province  (112,300  square  miles)  has  only  1  person  to  3  square 
miles;  Dongola  (124,300  square  miles)  only  1,  and  Berber  and  Red  Sea  (125,800) 
only  IJ  per  square  mile,  while  the  Shilluk  country  is  said  to  be  the  most 
densely  populated  in  Africa. — Handbook  98,  pp.  1  and  20. 


333 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

LAND   TBNTJBE   AND   TEANSFEE — (Continued) 

General  conditions  of  land  grants — Building  leases — Agricultural  leases — 
Mining  leases — Grazing  leases — Eevision  of  rentals  of  all  leases — 
Premium  —  Sents  —  Auction  —  Improvements  —  Surrender  ^  Inter- 
dependence of  lease  conditions — Compensation — Object  of  lease  con- 
ditions— Views  of  Liverpool  merchants — Acquisition  of  land — Mission 
lands — Registration — Southern  Rhodesia — Other  British  tropics — 
India — Burmah  —  West  Indies  —  Malaya — Fiji — Hong-Kong — Non- 
British  tropics —French — Portuguese — The  Congo — Java — Philippines 
— China. 

MINERALS. 

Ownership  of  minerals — Justification  of  Government  ownership — Aliena- 
tion of  mineral  rights  by  Suzerain — Conditions  of  native  ownership — 
Varying  conditions  of  mining  laws — The  function  of  Government — 
Prospecting  licences— Mining  leases — Government  monopoly  in  coal 
—Oil-fields. 

I  PROPOSE  now  to  offer  a  few  comments  on  the  conditions 
on  wMch  land  may  reasonably  be  granted  by  Governments 
to  non-natives,  ia  the  hope  that  they  may  perhaps  prove 
useful  or  suggestive  to  administrators,  though  probably  the 
general  reader  may  feel  disposed  to  "  skip  "  the  next  few 
paragraphs.  My  comments  refer  to  the  tropics  proper,  and 
are  not,  generally  speaking,  appUcable  to  homesteads  and 
farms  held  under  conditions  of  English  law  in  East  Africa. 
It  has  for  many  years  past  been  an  accepted  principle 
in  British  Crown  dependencies  that  land  granted  to  non- 
natives  must  be  held  on  terminable  leases  and  not  as  free- 
jiold — whether  the  grant  is  by  the  Crown  or  by  a  native, — 
but  occupation  rights  to  a  native  may  be  for  an  iudeflnite 
term.  Land  grants  are  exclusive  of  mineral  rights.  The 
conditions  of  general  application — such  as  those  relating  to 
security  of  title,  payment  of  rent,  rights  of  way,  survey,  &c. 


334  LAND  TENURE  AND  TEANSPEE. 

— are  usually  contained  in  ordinances  and  regulations,  and  are 
implied  in  the  document  of  title,  which  contains  any  addi- 
tional covenants.  The  Crown  usually  reserves  the  right  to 
lay  telegraphs  or  pipes  across  the  land  if  necessary,  on  pay- 
ment of  compensation,  and  waterside  leases  usually  reserve 
a  strip  of  land  as  a  public  right  of  way  along  the  water's  edge. 
Ifative  rights  are  safeguarded,  and  payment  must  be  made 
for  aU  unexhausted  improvements  assessed  by  Government. 
It  is  usual  also  to  require  that  the  lessee  shall  effect  certain 
specified  improvements  within  a  stated  time.  These  may  be 
either  in  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  for  which  the  lease  is 
granted — e.g.,  to  erect  buildings  of  a  certain  value  under  a 
building  lease,  &c. — or  they  may  effect  permanent  improve- 
ments on  the  land,  such  as  raising  its  level  or  reclaiming  swamp, 
or  filling  in  pits,  &c.  Improvements  of  the  former  class  are 
the  property  of  the  lessee,  but  those  of  the  latter  class  are  in 
the  nature  of  a  contract  between  the  lessor  and  the  lessee, 
whereby  the  latter  undertakes  to  do  certain  work  which 
otherwise  must  be  done  by  the  lessor.  The  cost  is  repaid  by 
an  equivalent  remission  of  premium  or  rental,  and  they 
belong  therefore  to  the  lessor. 

The  term  of  leases  of  residential  sites  in  the  European 
quarter  of  a  township  must  be  sufficient  to  encourage  a  lessee 
to  spend  capital  in  permanent  buildings,  &c. — say  for  ninety- 
nine  years.  If  the  land  is  only  used  for  warehouses,  or  for 
temporary  houses  outside  a  township,  the  term  would  pro- 
bably be  less.  The  length  of  the  lease  is  usually  stated  in 
the  auction  notice.  The  covenant  requires  that  buildings  of 
a  specified  value  shaU  be  erected  within  a  specified  time.  To 
prevent  overcrowding,  the  number  of  persons  who  may  reside 
on  a  native  plot  may  be  restricted. 

The  area  of  European  residential  sites  in  a  township  is 
usually  not  less  than  one  or  more  than  two  acres,  and  in  a 
native  location,  quarter  to  half  an  acre  (which  may  not  be 
subdivided),  exclusive  of  separate  garden  allotments.  Out- 
side a  township  they  may  extend  to  five  acres  or  more.  Leases 
of  wharves,  railway  sidings,  &c.,  are  subject  to  special  terms 
and  conditions. 

Agricultural  leases  in  Nigeria  are  limited  to  1200  acres, 
and  a  separate  building  lease  is  required  for  permanent 
European  residences,  but  labourers'  huts,  store-sheds,  &c.,  are 
allowed.    Natives  resident  on  the  land  do  not  become  tenants, 


CONDITIONS  OF  LEASES.  335 

and  no  rent  may  be  charged  to  them.  The  term  of  an  agri- 
cultural lease  may  he  from  forty-five  to  sixty  years,  or  longer 
if^costly  machinery  is  installed — oil-mills,  saw-miUs,  &c.  The 
lessee  should  bring  at  least  one-eighth  of  the  area  under 
cultivation  each  year.  The  same  lessee  should  not  hold  two 
coterminous  leases  so  as  to  evade  the  Umit  of  size.  "  Dummy- 
ing "  must,  of  course,  be  guarded  agaiast  ia  aU  leases.  Such 
leases  are  intended  for  rubber,  cocoa,  and  similar  plantations 
in  regions  not  suited  to  European  settlement.  Allotments  for 
gardens  around  a  township  are  usually  granted  on  short-term 
leases  to  natives  at  very  low  rentals.  Forest  licences  convey 
no  rights  whatever  in  the  land. 

With  regard  to  mining  leases — I  am  only  concerned  here 
with  surface  rights.  When  the  mines  are  underground  these 
are  unimportant,  and  consist  merely  of  the  area  required  for 
the  erection  of  machinery,  disposal  of  tailings,  and  residential 
areas  for  Europeans  and  labourers.  Where,  however,  the 
workings  are  alluvial  or  open-cast,  surface  rights  are,  of 
course,  all-important.  Leases  and  "  mining  rights  "  may  in 
Nigeria  be  for  800  and  76  acres  respectively.  Surface  rights 
can  be  claimed  over  any  area  certified  by  the  Inspector  of 
Mines  to  be  actually  required  for  mining  purposes.  For 
permanent  residences,  recreation  grounds,  trading  stores,  or 
plantations,  a  separate  lease  is  required.  If  the  grant  of 
surface  rights  would  deprive  the  natives  of  sufficient  cultiv- 
able land  for  their  support,  the  mining  lease  might  be  refused. 

As  to  grazing  leases — ^in  a  populated  country  where  pastoral 
tribes  own  millions  of  cattle  and  flocks,  grazing  land  for  stock 
and  ostrich  farming  is,  of  course,  only  available  where  lack 
of  water  or  fodder-grass  prevent  its  use  by  the  natives.  It 
follows  that  a  trustee  in  control  of  the  land  for  the  benefit  of 
the  natives  can  grant  no  extensive  grazing  rights  in  such 
coimtries  to  non-natives,  except  in  regions  at  present  useless 
for  the  purpose.  There  are  great  areas  in  Nigeria  where  these 
conditions  apply — ^lack  of  water  and  of  forage ;  there  are 
stiU  greater  areas  in  the  Sudan  and  the  Kalahari  and  Rhodesia. 

The  pioneer  should  have  security  for  a  good  return  on  the 
capital  he  has  risked,  by  an  option  after  the  first  twenty  years 
to  renew  for  a  further  period  of,  say,  fifty  years,  over  all  land 
which  he  has  rendered  useful.  A  grazing  lease  should  not 
exclude  native  settlements  on  the  land,  which,  with  proper 
safeguards  regarding  cattle  disease  and  the  use  of  water, 


336  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

would  be  advantageous  to  the  lessee.  The  natives  would  not, 
of  course,  be  his  tenants,  but  free  occupiers.  Exclusive  grazing 
rights  would  be  confined  to  fenced  areas  on  leased  land,  and 
it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  District  Officer  to  see  that,  if  the 
lessee  were  allowed  to  graze  stock  outside  his  leased  area, 
no  preference  whatever  was  obtained  over  native  herds,  and 
the  non-native  cattle-owner  would  pay  a  cattle  tax  or  licence. 
The  land  must,  of  course,  be  used  for  the  purpose  for  which 
it  is  granted — including  the  raising  of  fodder  and  com  for 
cattle  or  ostriches. 

The  Colonial  Office  has  of  late  years  insisted  that  leases 
of  all  kinds  by  Government  to  non-natives  should  be  subject 
to  revision  of  rental  periodically.  In  East  Africa,  as  we  have 
seen,  leases  are  revised  at  the  thirty-third  and  sixty-sixth 
years. ^  In  Northern  Nigeria  the  ordinance,  as  recommended 
by  the  Committee,  enacted  septennial  revision, — ^the  term  was 
later  extended  (for  building  leases  only)  to  twenty  years. 

Eevision  is  based  on  the  exchange  value  of  the  land  irre- 
spective of  improvements  by  the  lessee.  For  leases  of  sixty 
years  and  upwards  revision  at  one-third  and  two -thirds  of 
the  term  seems  reasonable — shorter  leases  at  half-time  with 
exemption  for  those  of  ten  years  or  less.  The  period  should, 
however,  vary  according  to  situation,  being  shorter  in  a  rapidly- 
growing  township,  newly  served  by  a  railway,  and  longer  in 
back  districts  where  the  land  is  unlikely  to  appreciate  rapidly 
in  value.  If  land  held  under  an  agricultural  lease  has  become 
valuable  for  building  purposes,  the  lessee,  if  required  to  sur- 
render any  portion,  should  be  entitled  to  full  compensation 
both  for  improvements  and  disturbance,  with  an  equivalent 
extension  in  another  direction.  Leases  of  Crown  lands  to 
natives  not  subject  to  income  tax  should  be  equally  liable  to 
revision,  but  land  leased  for  purely  mining  purposes  should 
be  exempt.  An  appeal  to  the  courts  or  to  arbitration  against 
the  revised  rent  should  always  be  aUowed. 

This  system  has  naturally  been  opposed  by  lessees  as  in- 
volving State  interference,  and  introducing  an  element  of 
uncertainty  as  to  future  rents  which  would  render  it  difficult 
to  borrow  money  on  mortgage.  Its  advocates,  on  the  other 
hand,  maintain  the  right  of  the  colonial  revenue  to  partici- 
pate directly  in  the  increasing  value  of  land  (due  in  great 
part  to  the  expenditure  of  pubhc  money),  and  they  argue 

1  Also  in  Uganda  Annual  Report,  1918-19,  No.  1654. 


EENTS   AND   PEEMTDM.  337 

that  the  revision  system  enables  the  Government  to  encourage 
pioneer  effort  by  very  low  initial  rentals.^  The  alternative, 
as  I  have  said  (p.  293),  seems  to  lie  in  an  income  tax  by 
which  the  State  receives  its  share  of  the  expanding  profits 
made  from  the  land,  or  the  graduated  land-tax  on  Europeans, 
proposed  by  Lord  Elgin  and  Mr  Harcourt.^  It  caimot,  how- 
ever, be  denied  that  revision  at  such  short  intervals  as  seven 
years  is  harassing  and  deterrent  to  private  enterprise. 

Premium  may  be  regarded  as  a  capitalisation  of  a  portion 
of  the  rent  due  up  to  the  date  of  the  first  revision,  and  is  a 
reimbursement  to  the  pubUc  revenues  of  the  day  of  the  ex- 
penditure incurred  in  providing  necessary  access  to  sites  and 
other  amenities.*  It  also  forms  a  convenient  basis  for  bidding 
at  auction.  As  a  rough-and-ready  hypothesis,  the  premium 
should  not  exceed  the  annual  rental,  multipUed  by  half  the 
period  up  to  the  first  revision.  In  some  colonies  the  premium 
charged  is  fixed  at  four  to  ten  times  the  rental,  apparently 
without  regard  to  these  considerations.  If  the  amenities 
provided  (roads,  drains,  water-supply,  &c.)  are  defrayed  from 
municipal  funds,  the  municipality  and  not  the  general  revenue 
would  receive  the  premium.  The  rent  fixed  at  revision  is  the 
original  annual  value  without  premimn,  plus  any  increased 
value  of  the  land  apart  from  the  lessee's  improvements. 

Eents  depend  on  the  exchange  value  of  land,  and  in  a 
country  where  as  yet  land  has  little  or  no  exchange  value, 
and  there  is  more  than  enough  for  aU  demands,  it  can  only  be 
arbitrarily  fixed  in  relation  to  the  amenities  of  the  site,  and 
the  profits  to  be  made  by  occupying  it.  Auction  in  such  a 
case  is  of  little  value  in  determining  it,  for  except  in  a  re- 
stricted township  there  is  probably  no  person  other  than  the 

^  A  critic  of  this  system  writes  :  "  X,  Y,  and  Z  take  up  plots  at  a  certain 
rent  and  proceed  to  improve  their  holdings.  After  a  time  W  wants  a  plot. 
The  amount  of  trade  that  the  enterprise  of  X,  Y,  Z  has  drawn  to  or  developed 
in  the  place  has  enhanced  the  value  of  the  land,  and  at  an  auction  W  is  con- 
tent to  pay  such  enhanced  rate.  Now  if  X,  Y  or  Z's  first  revision  falls  due, 
Ws  value  can  form  the  basis  for  the  increase.  If  that  does  not  mean 
that  X,  Y,  and  Z  are  being  charged  on  their  own  improvements,  what  does  it 
mean  ? "  The  system  is  not  the  fancy  of  any  local  Administrator,  but  has 
been  laid  down,  for  East  and  West  Africa  alike,  by  His  Majesty's  Government. 
The  officer  employed  in  dealing  with  such  questions  must  necessarily  be  an 
expert,  and  it  is  for  him  to  judge  to  what  extent  enhanced  rentals  are  due  to 
the  expenditure  of  the  State  and  the  community  in  general,  and  to  what  extent 
they  are  due  to  the  individual  enterprise  of  the  lessee. 

^  Despatch  of  29/2/1911  in  'East  African  Gazette'  of  1/3/1911. 

2  See  Table,  "Present  Value  of  Lease,"  Whitaker,  p.  399. 

Y 


338  LAND  TBNUHE  AND  TRANSFER. 

applicant  who  is  interested  in  acquiriag  the  land.  Even  in  a 
new  township,  the  boimdaries  of  which  can  be  extended 
without  difficulty,  there  can  only  be  competition  based  on 
the  comparison  between  two  particular  lots,  unless  fewer  lots 
are  put  up  for  auction  than  there  are  known  to  be  applicants. 

It  is,  however,  manifest  that  where  the  profits  of  occupation 
have  iacreased  a  thousandfold  by  the  advent  of  a  railway 
built  out  of  a  local  revenue,  that  revenue  (e.g.,  the  local  tax- 
payer) is  entitled  to  a  fair  share  of  the  profits  for  the  benefit 
of  the  country  (whether  by  means  of  an  income  or  profits 
tax  or  by  revision  of  rentals) — especially  if  those  profits  are 
made  by  persons  with  a  foreign  domicile,  and  only  partially 
expended  ia  the  country.  Comparison  with  rental  values  in 
England,  where  tenants  have  heavy  rates  and  taxes  to  pay, 
is  of  course  misleading. 

The  principle  to  be  adopted  seems,  therefore,  to  be  that 
the  rent  and  premium  shoidd  bear  some  relation  to  the  esti- 
mated profits  of  occupation  within  the  first  revision  period, 
in  comparison  with  the  direct  taxes  levied  on  the  native 
population.  In  an  old  colony  the  price  at  which  land  has 
changed  hands  by  private  sale,  and  the  price  obtained  for 
similar  lots  at  auction,  afford  data  on  which  the  upset  price 
and  rental  can  be  fixed  with  accuracy.  As  between  lots  in  a 
particular  locality,  the  extent  of  frontage  on  the  sea,  or 
on  a  navigable  river,  or  on  a  railway  or  road,  wiU  of  course 
afford  data  for  comparative  valuation.  Eentals  for  land 
owned  by  the  Government  must  be  distinguished  from  a 
land-tax.  In  agricultural  leases  the  rent  shoidd  be  low  for 
the  first  six  years,  imtil  the  trees  come  into  bearing.  In 
Penang  the  rent  is  quadrupled  after  the  sixth  year. 

Surface  rentals  for  land  leased  for  open-cast  or  alluvial 
mineral  workings  should,  when  the  minerals  belong  to  the 
State,  be  merely  nominal,  and  they  are  only  imposed  at  all 
because,  when  the  land  is  in  private  ownership,  such  rentals 
belong  to  the  owner,  and  must  be  distinguished  from  the 
mineral  lease. 

Penal  rents  may  be  imposed  by  ordinance  for  failure  to 
carry  out  covenanted  improvements  or  obUgations  within  the 
specified  time.  Eeduced  or  even  pepper-corn  rents  may  be 
charged  it  the  land  is  required  for  a  purpose  conducive  to  the 
public  welfare,  such  as  sites  for  schools  and  hospitals,  or  for 
reUgious  purposes  or  pubUc  recreation. 


IMPROVEMENTS  AND  STIREENDER.  339 

The  system  of  auction  is  the  best  method  of  securing  strict 
impariiiality  in  the  disposal  of  land.  The  auction  may  be 
held  either  on  the  land  or  at  any  other  place  convenient  to 
bidders.  A  bid  may  be  made  by  letter,  and  annoimced  at 
the  auction.  The  public  notice  (in  consecutive  gazettes  and 
otherwise)  should  give  the  fuUest  particulars,  with  ample 
time  for  inspection  of  plans  and  inquiry,  and  bidding  should 
be  on  the  upset  price  (premium),  and  not  on  the  rental.  In 
default  of  competition,  the  lot  goes  to  the  original  appUcant 
on  the  reserve  terms  previously  agreed. 

The  amount  which  an  appUcant  declares  himself  wiUing  to 
expend  on  improvements,  and  their  permanency,  is  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  deciding  the  terms  of  a  lease.  They  are  defined 
as  "  anything  or  any  quahty  permanently  attached  to  the 
land,  directly  resulting  from  the  expenditure  of  capital  and 
labour,"  and  include  buildings,  fixed  machinery,  plantations 
of  long-lived  crops  or  trees,  fenckig,  wells,  roads,  clearing  for 
agriculture,  irrigation  or  reclamation  works,  and  even  better- 
ment of  the  soU  which  is  not  the  result  of  ordinary  cultivation. 
Improvements  of  which  the  cost  has  been  deducted  from  the 
premium  or  rental  belong  of  course  to  the  lessor,  but  all  other 
improvements  remain  the  absolute  property  of  the  lessee. 
They  only  revert  to  Government  (in  the  case  of  Crown  lands) 
if  the  occupier  vacates  his  lease  at  his  own  wish,  or  if  his  title 
has  been  revoked  for  good  cause — e.g.,  breach  of  covenant, 
&c. — or  finally,  in  the  case  of  the  expiration  of  a  terminable 
lease.  The  object  of  requiring  "  improvements  "  as  a  condi- 
tion of  the  covenant  is  in  order  to  prevent  speculators  buying 
up  land,  and  leaving  it  imdeveloped  till  an  opportunity  of 
selling  at  a  profit  should  occur. 

Surrender  of  a  lease,  though  permissible,  is  usually  subject 
to  a  statutory  fine  to  prevent  applications  for  land  which  the 
applicant  has  no  intention  of  keeping.  It  may,  of  course,  be 
reduced  or  remitted.  The  land  must  be  left  in  good  condi- 
tion, and  no  permanent  fixtures  attached  to  the  soil  may  be 
removed. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  length  of  a  lease,  the  rent,  premimn, 
revision  period,  and  value  of  improvements  to  be  eifected,  are 
all  interdependent,  and  must  be  considered  in  their  mutual 
relations  when  advertising  the  conditions  upon  which  a  piece 
of  land  shall  be  put  to  auction.  The  applicant  has  to  state, 
on  the  form  of  application,  the  value  of  the  improvements 


340  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

he  is  prepared  to  effect,  and  the  length  of  the  lease  would 
largely  depend  on  the  amount  of  this  capital  expenditure, 
whether  in  the  form  of  permanent  buildings  on  a  building 
site,  or  of  extensive  plantations  and  machinery  on  an  agri- 
cultural site,  or  of  water-supply,  irrigation,  and  importation 
of  stock  on  a  grazing  lease.  ISTo  definite  scale  can  be  laid 
down,  for  the  situation  of  the  site  has  an  important  bearing 
on  the  question.  Whether  the  land  is  let  on  a  "  long-term  " 
or  a  "  short-term  "  lease  depends,  therefore,  chiefly  on  the 
value  of  "  improvements." 

Compensation  for  imexhausted  improvements,  the  property 
of  the  lessee,  must  be  paid  in  full  if  the  land  is  taken  by 
Government  for  any  purpose,  but  not  if  the  lessee  surrenders 
for  either  of  the  three  reasons  named.  It  would,  however, 
be  open  to  Government  to  refund  to  him  any  part  of  the  value 
of  Ms  improvements  which  might  seem  just.  If  the  land 
with  its  unexhausted  improvements  is  re-leased,  the  value  of 
these  should  be  kept  distinct  from  the  ground  rent,  and  added 
to  the  premium.  The  Government  manifestly  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  pay  for  the  whole  of  the  unexhausted  improvements, 
whenever  an  occupier  may  choose  to  suirender  on  revision  of 
rental,  however  just  the  revision  might  be,  and  even  if  it 
were  below  the  proper  rental  value.  An  unlimited  Uability 
would  thus  be  imposed  on  the  Government,  which,  if  there 
were  valuable  buildings  or  plantations  on  the  land,  might 
amount  to  a  large  sum,  while  Government  could  be  saddled 
at  the  caprice  of  the  holder  with  an  estate  which  it  did  not 
require,  and  of  which  it  might  be  unable  to  dispose.  Com- 
pensation is,  of  course,  due  for  any  damage  caused  by  pubUc 
works  on  leased  land,  and  if  more  than  4  per  cent  of  an  agri- 
cultural lease  is  taken,  compensation  should  also  be  given 
for  the  land  itself.  Full  compensation  must  of  course  be  paid 
to  natives  for  any  crops  or  dwellings,  and  also  for  disturbance 
if  the  land  is  leased  to  a  non-native  or  acquired  by  Govern- 
ment. 

Some  of  these  principles,  as  might  be  expected,  are  by  no 
means  concurred  in  by  those  who  have  embarked  their  capital 
in  the  development  of  purely  tropical  lands  in  Africa.  The 
Englishman  is  accustomed  to  freehold  and  to  long  leases  on 
fixed  rentals,  and  such  conditions  best  suit  his  interests.  It 
is  the  object  of  British  poUcy  to  promote  those  interests  by 
every  legitimate  means,  while  safeguarding  the  revenue  of  the 


VIEWS   OF   LIVERPOOL  MERCHANTS.  341 

futuie,  and  the  interests  alike  of  posterity  and  of  the  native 
populations.  Its  task  is  to  distribute  the  burden  of  the 
contribution  to  public  revenue  equally  between  all.  The 
object  of  the  methods  proposed  is  ia  brief  to  ensure  that  the 
native  shall  hold  his  land  rent-free  ia  perpetuity,  paying  a 
tax  assessed  yearly  on  its  usufruct,  while  the  non-native, 
who  occupies  lands  whose  value  is  rapidly  increasing,  has  a 
terminable  lease,  with  rent  periodically  revised. 

The  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  commimicated  their 
views  to  the  West  African  Lands  Committee  in  a  series  of 
resolutions.!  They  consider  that  if,  as  Sir  H.  Belfield  states, 
the  population  is  sparse  and  not  increasing,  it  would  be  a 
mistake  inimical  to  development  to  recognise  the  inalienable 
right  of  natives  to  the  whole  of  the  available  land ;  "  that 
where  the  lessee  can  prove  an  expenditure  of,  say,  £500  per 
acre  upon  buildings  or  other  permanent  works,  he  shall  be 
entitled  to  purchase  the  freehold  of  the  land  on  specified 
terms,"  which  the  Chamber  suggests  should  be  ten  years' 
rental ;  that  on  the  expiry  of  a  lease,  failing  renewal  on  accept- 
able terms,  the  lessee  be  compensated  for  all  improvements, 
the  amount  being  settled  if  necessary  by  arbitration ;  that 
the  rent  of  an  agricultural  lease  should  be  commutable  "  for 
a  period  not  exceeding  twenty  years  by  paying  a  lump  simi 
under  discount  at  5  per  cent  per  annum  "  ;  that  mining  leases 
should  include  such  superficial  rights  as  would  enable  the 
lessee  to  sublet  sites  for  dwellings  for  employees,  and  those 
who  cater  for  them  ;  that  agricultural  leases  should  not  be 
limited  to  ninety -nine  years  ;  that  no  export  duties  on  the 
produce  of  European  estates  (or  otherwise)  should  be  im- 
posed ;  that  the  transfer  of  individual  rights  in  land  should 
be  facilitated,  and  no  distinction  made  between  foreign  or 
native  individual  owners  ;  and  finally,  that  neglect  to  utilise 
a  mining  or  agricrdtural  lease  for  two  years  should  render  it 
liable  to  forfeiture. 

In  a  later  Memorandam  the  merchants  recognised  the  claim 
of  Government  to  the  unearned  increment  on  land,  and  did 
not  criticise  the  system  of  rent  revision  "  if  ioaposed  in  an 
equitable  manner,  and  upon  a  settled  basis."  They  ask  for 
"  trading  and  residential  "  leases  of  not  less  than  ninety -nine 
years,  with  revision  at  twenty-one  years — existing  leases  being 
converted  if  desired  ;  that  at  the  last  revision  the  lessee  should 

1  Published  in  the  report  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 


342  LAND  TBNTIEE  AND  TEANSFEE. 

have  an  option  of  renewal  to  be  exercised  within  five  years 
of  the  expiry  of  a  lease ;  that  auction  should  be  abolished, 
and  that  palm-oU  plantation  leases  should  be  not  less  than 
ten  square  nules.  Eemaining  stipulations  are  practically  as 
already  discussed. 

Wben  land  (other  than  that  in  a  township)  at  the  dis- 
posal of  Government  is  demanded  on  lease  for  any  purpose,  it 
devolves  on  the  District  StafE  to  make  the  fuUest  inquiries 
as  to  whether  the  grant  will  interfere  with  native  rights  of 
cultivation,  grazing,  or  forestry,  and  how  such  rights  can 
best  be  equitably  adjusted — whether  by  the  grant  of  equiva- 
lent land  elsewhere,  and  by  compensation  for  crops  and  dis- 
turbance or  otherwise,  or  whether  the  grant  should  be  cur- 
tailed or  abandoned,  and  in  the  case  of  surface  rights  for 
mining,  the  minimum  which  is  necessary.  The  District  Officer 
informs  the  apphcant  of  his  intended  recommendations  as  to 
the  lease  conditions.  These  data  are  carefuUy  considered  by 
Government  before  the  lease  is  granted.  To  avoid  delay  and 
inconvenience,  it  is  desirable  that  Government  should  permit 
occupation  prior  to  survey  and  the  completion  of  the  lease, 
when  the  terms  have  been  satisfactorily  settled.  Short-term 
leases — ^for  five  years  or  less — ^renewable  from  year  to  year, 
without  compensation  for  improvements,  may  be  granted 
when  desirable — e.g.,  for  land  which  will  later  be  required  for 
a  pubUc  purpose,  or  where  the  lessee  does  not  wish  to  commit 
himself  to  a  long  lease.  In  the  case  of  native-owned  lands, 
the  District  Officer  ascertains  whether  the  proposed  lease  is 
by  a  tribal  authority  or  by  an  individual,  and  in  the  latter 
case  whether  he  has  a  title  to  the  land,  and  he  reports  whether 
the  proposed  terms  are  in  his  opinion  equitable  to  the  owner. 

Missions  in  Uganda  occupy  a  specially  privileged  position, 
and  77,500  acres  were  assigned  to  them  as  freehold  in  the  1900 
treaty.  An  alien  mission  is,  of  course,  "  non-native,"  and  as 
such  would  be  bound  to  obtain  the  Governor's  sanction  for 
the  acquisition  of  land — though  if  the  land  is  at  the  disposal 
of  Government  the  grant  might  be  made  rent-free  or  on 
special  terms.  Like  any  other  application,  it  woidd  be  in- 
vestigated by  the  District  Officer,  and  in  particular  he  would 
ascertain  whether  the  people  were  desirous  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  mission  among  them  or  hostile  to  it. 

It  may  sometimes  happen  that  a  party  of  converts,  with  or 
without  the  consent  of  their  chief,  may  erect  a  church  and 


THE  DECISION  re  EHODESIAN  LANBS.  343 

other  buildiags,  with  a  residence  for  any  missionary  who 
comes  to  visit  them,  towards  the  cost  of  which  they  may  or 
may  not  have  received  help  from  mission  funds.  The  mission 
body  disclaims  any  rights  in  the  land  or  bnilditigs  (though  they 
may  have  an  indirect  interest  ia  them),  and  the  transfer  is 
not  therefore  cognisable  as  a  transfer  to  a  non-native.  It  is 
advisable  that  the  Government,  in  the  interests  of  peace  and 
good  order,  should  be  cognisant  of  such  matters,  and  this 
would  be  impressed  upon  both  the  missions  and  the  people. 

All  transactions  regarding  land  which  are  in  writing  should 
be  registered  withia  a  prescribed  time,  and  if  not  registered 
should  be  void,  and  not  admissible  in  evidence.  Boundary 
settlements  made  by  District  Officers,  and  approved  by 
the  Governor,  should  be  endorsed  by  the  chiefs  and  registered. 
A  record  should  also  be  kept  in  the  provincial  office.  An 
entry  ia  the  register,  properly  authenticated,  should  be  a 
guarantee  of  title  against  the  world,  and  to  effect  this  verbal 
transactions  must  be  held  to  be  iavaUd  by  the  courts,  unless 
reduced  to  writing  and  registered.  Individual  owners  ia 
districts  not  declared  to  be  under  English  land  law  (p.  306) 
should  recite  the  grounds  of  their  claim  to  title.  Mortgages 
on  land,  and  on  permanent  crops,  should  be  included  ia  the 
definition  of  "  transactions  ia  land." 

The  position  ia  regard  to  land  in  Southern  Ehodesia  (though 
outside  the  tropics)  is  particularly  worth  notiag,  siace  it  has 
been  the  subject  of  an  important  judgment  of  the  Privy 
CouncU.  The  Chairman  of  the  Chartered  Company  explained 
that  there  were  four  claims  :  ^  (1)  The  white  settlers  claimed 
that  the  Chartered  Company  held  the  land  only  as  adminis- 
tering it  for  their  benefit.  (2)  It  was  claimed  on  behalf  of  the 
natives  that  the  land  was  theirs.  (3)  The  Colonial  Office 
claimed  the  land  as  belongiag  to  the  Crown.  (4)  The 
Chartered  Company  claimed  the  land  as  their  property.  The 
Privy  CouncU  found  that  the  Company,  acting  on  behalf  of  the 
Crown,  conquered  the  country,  and  the  Crown  thus  became 
possessed  of  the  land  by  right  of  conquest ;  that  it  had  not 
by  any  formal  act  transferred  its  rights  to  the  Company, 
which  rightly  disposed  of  the  land  as  its  agent,  but  the  Crown 

^  See  report  of  22nd  meeting,  August  1918,  and  note  on  page  24.  The 
judgment  did  not  apply  to  Northern  Rhodesia,  and  since  no  claim  there  could 
he  hased  on  right  of  conquest,  Lord  Buxton's  Committee  recommended  a  new 
reference.— Cmd.  1471/1921. 


344  LAND   TENTJEE   AND   TRANSFER. 

was  liable  for  all  necessary  administrative  expenditure,  less 
the  receipts  from  the  land.  The  Privy  Council  did  not  appa- 
rently consider  that  the  natives  had  any  private  or  communal 
rights  which  the  Crown,  though  conqueror,  was  bound  to 
respect — other  than  the  assignment  to  them  of  adequate 
reserves. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  add  a  few  comments  regarding  the 
systems  adopted  in  some  other  British  colonies  and  depend- 
encies outside  Africa. 

In  India  the  Government  claims  a  portion  of  the  unearned 
increment  when  the  enhanced  value  of  the  land  is  due  to  State 
expenditure.  Sir  T.  Morison  writes  :  "  It  is  useless  to  dis- 
cuss nationalisation  of  land,  since  the  Indian  Government 
has  definitely  repudiated  such  a  conception  of  its  rights  in 
land.  .  .  .  The  British  Government  has  everywhere  con- 
ferred or  recognised  a  private  right  in  land,  .  .  .  and  in  large 
areas  has  expressly  declared  the  rights  of  landlord  and  village 
owners,  .  .  .  the  economic  doctrine  has  never  been  applied  to 
the  ownership  of  land  in  India."  He  adds  in  a  later  passage : 
"  The  general  conclusion  is  that  the  Indian  system  of  land 
tenure  is  something  intermediate  between  complete  nationah- 
sation  of  land  and  absolute  private  property  in  land.  To  the 
extent  of  a  half  the  State  is  able  to  appropriate  that  increased 
increment  which  is  due  to  the  development  of  the  country."  ^ 

Individual  ownership  is  safeguarded  by  legislation  designed 
to  prevent  the  transfer  of  land  from  the  peasant  proprietor 
to  the  money-lender — a  process  which  at  one  time  was  rapidly 
taking  place. 

In  Upper  Burmah,  after  the  British  annexation,  nothing 
was  said  in  the  regulations  about  defining  the  nature  and 
extent  of  rights  in  land,  but  a  "  record  of  rights  "  was  insti- 
tuted, in  which  the  facts  as  they  came  to  Ught  were  simply 
stated,  with  all  changes  in  ownership,  &c.  Practically  every 
one,  though  not  legally  defined  as  "  occupant  "  or  "  owner," 
had  the  enjoyment  of  his  land  on  showing  his  possession  and 
right  thereto,  provided  the  land  was  not  State  or  Eoyal  land. 
Eoyal  lands  were  separately  and  carefully  defined.  About 
three  years  later  a  rough-and-ready  assessmient  was  made.^ 

'  Loc.  cit,  pp.  21,  22,  and  39.  See  also  Baden-Powell,  'Land  Systems  of 
British  India,'  and  '  Village  Communities  of  India ' ;  also  N.  B.  Baillie,  '  The 
Land-tax  of  India.' 

2  Sir  E.  P.  Qirouard  in  Od.  5103  of  1910,  p.  47. 


LAND  CONDITIONS  IN  OTHER  COLONIES.  345 

In  the  West  Indies  the  policy  of  small  holdiags  has  been 
pursued.  A  Eoyal  Commission  in  1897  recommended  the 
purchase  (compulsory,  if  necessary)  of  areas  held  by  large 
proprietors,  with  a  view  to  their  conversion  into  small  holdings 
of  about  five  acres  each,  and  this  proposal  was  adopted. 

In  Malaya  practically  all  the  land  was  the  property  of 
the  Government,  and  it  took  some  time,  says  Sir  F.  Swetten- 
ham,  to  convince  the  Malays  of  the  desirabihty  of  obtaining  a 
clear  title  in.  return  for  a  low  rental.  Leases  were  issued 
for  999  years  or  in  perpetuity.  When  Federation  of  the 
States  was  accomplished  a  uniEorm  land  code  was  adopted. 
Prior  to  this  the  land  laws  had  differed  widely.^ 

In  Fiji,  by  the  deed  of  cession,  aU  land  not  at  the  time 
already  alienated  to  foreigners,  or  actually  being  used,  or 
probably  required  for  use  of  the  natives,  was  vested  in  the 
Crown,  but  in  practice  the  Crown's  rights  were  ignored,  and 
the  proceeds  of  sales  were  credited  to  the  natives,  so  that 
the  Crown  is  now  without  land. 

In  Hong-Kong  the  land  vested  in  the  Crown,  and  up  to 
1848  building  sites,  were  leased  without  premium  on  seventy- 
five  year  terms — other  leases  were  for  twenty-one  years. 
999  year  leases,  with  premium,  were  granted  till  1885,  when 
the  older  term  was  again  adopted,  and  in  1898  these  were 
made  renewable  for  a  second  seventy-five  years,  with  revision 
of  rentals.  In  the  Kew  Territories  all  titles  held  imder  Chinese 
law  were  recognised,  and  in  a  total  area  of  40,000  acres  over 
20,000  certificates  were  issued,  in  addition  to  the  mortgages 
registered.  As  on  the  island,  aU  land  vested  in  the  Crown, 
if  not  held  by  individual  title.  Compensation  for  resumption 
of  cultivated  land  is  put  at  thirty-three  times  the  annual 
rent. 

Space  does  not  admit  of  a  lengthy  examination  of  the 
way  in  which  "  the  land  question  "  has  been  handled  by  other 
nations  in  tropical  Africa  and  elsewhere.  We  have  seen  that 
M.  Delafosse  agrees  with  our  own  authorities  in  regard  to  the 
principles  which  underlie  the  native  system  of  land  tenure 
in  West  Africa,  but  that  the  French  nevertheless  believe  that 
individual  ownership  is  incontestably  the  most  favourable  to 
production.  This  view  is  enforced  throughout  his  volumes  by 
the  great  French  writer  on  Colonial  Economics,  Mons.  P. 
Leroy  Beaulieu. 

1  'Malaya,'  p.  236.     See  also  Straits  Annual  Eeport,  1910,  Cd.  5389. 


346  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

As  regards  Portuguese  possessions,  a  Lisbon  decree  some 
years  ago  was  designed  to  promote  free  native  holdings  on 
vacant  lands.  No  rent  is  charged  for  five  years,  and  after 
twenty  years  a  freehold  is  granted.  Two-thirds  must  be 
cultivated,  and  the  title  is  inalienable.  Holders  are  exempt 
from  forced  labour  of  any  Mnd,  and  from  service  in  the 
police  or  military  forces.  Lisbon  decrees  are,  however,  not 
always  operative  in  the  colonies.^ 

The  former  system  iu  the  Congo  State  apparently  not 
only  denied  any  rights  in  land  to  the  natives,  but  in  the 
domains  privies,  which  are  said  to  have  included  nine-tenths 
of  the  area,  they  were  forbidden  to  coUect  ivory  and  rubber 
except  for  sale  to  the  Government.  Purchasers  of  such 
produce  were  accounted  to  be  receivers  of  stolen  goods.  This 
system  has  happily  been  replaced  by  a  juster  and  more  liberal 
regime. 

Mr  Ireland  tells  us  that  all  land  in  Java,  other  than  the 
comparatively  small  area  sold  outright  to  Europeans  and 
Chinese  in  the  early  days,  is  the  property  of  the  State,  but 
free  play  is  allowed  for  the  operation  of  native  customs,  with 
the  result  that  all  agricultural  land  (with  the  exceptions 
noted)  is  held  la  hereditary  leasehold  tenure  by  individuals, 
or  iu  communal  holdings.  The  assessment  of  the  land-tax 
foUows  the  methods  adopted  in  British  India.  Natives  may 
sell  their  tenure  rights  to  one  another,  but  the  sale  to  a 
European  or  to  a  foreign  Asiatic  is  absolutely  prohibited. 
This  has  been  completely  successful  (he  says)  in  protecting  the 
native  from  the  loss  of  his  vested  interest  in  the  land,  but 
it  is  generally  felt  that  the  Government  has  gone  too  far  in 
its  desire  to  protect  the  native,  and  has  thereby  retarded  the 
development  of  the  land.^ 

In  the  Philippines  the  United  States,  by  the  treaty  with 
Spain,  had  become  possessed  of  the  public  lands.  With  the 
exception  of  those  reserved  for  miMtary  or  Government  pur- 
poses, these  were  placed  \mder  the  control  of  the  local  Govern- 
ment, to  be  administered  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  "  The 
sale  of  public  lands  was  so  carefully  hedged  about  with  restric- 
tions that  the  development  of  the  country  has  been  retarded. 
In  order  to  develop  a  class  of  small  landowners,  the  sales  of 

1  Described  by  Mr  J.  H.  Harris  in  'The  African  Mail,'  9th  August  1912. 
^  'The  Far   Eastern  Tropics.'  Alleyne  Ireland,  p.   182.      See   also  'Java,  or 
How  to  Manage  a  Colony,'  Money. 


OWNERSHIP   OF  MINERALS.  347 

public  lands  were  limited  to  40  acres  to  one  person,  and 
2500  acres  to  a  Corporation."  406,730  acres  were  held  by 
the  Friars,  and  leased  on  three-year  terms,  generally  renewed. 
The  Government  acquired  these  lands.^ 

In  China  the  original  right  to  all  land  vests  in  the  State, 
and  titles  may  be  acquired  by  individuals,  by  reclaiming 
waste  land  (by  permit),  and  on  payment  of  the  tax.  Waste 
is  not  subject  to  tax,  and  cannot  be  owned  by  an  individual. 
When  reclaimed  it  is  assessed  for  tax  according  to  quality. 
AH  titles  are  entered  in  the  Tsilc  ('  Domesday  Book  ')  and  Tsah 
(rent-roll).  The  last  assessment  was  ta  1771.  There  can 
be  no  title  without  payment  of  tax,  and  a  penalty  is  imposed 
for  using  land  which  is  not  registered. 

If  in  this  chapter  I  have,  on  the  one  hand,  appeared  to  go 
into  unnecessary  detail,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  enunciate 
well-understood  principles  as  though  they  were  something 
new,  my  apology  is  that  though  the  conditions  of  land  tenure 
and  transfer  do  not  differ  very  materially  in  different  parts 
of  Africa,  there  has,  as  we  have  seen,  been  but  little  uni- 
formity of  principle  in  the  treatment  of  the  question,  and 
it  may  be  useful  alike  for  the  young  administrator,  and  for 
the  applicant  for  land,  to  have  before  them  a  brief  summary 
of  the  principles  on  which,  as  I  have  ventured  to  suggest, 
the  acquisition  of  land,  rents,  compensation,  premia,  &c., 
should  be  based. 

MINERALS. 

The  Parliamentary  Paper  already  quoted  purported  to 
render  a  return  showing  the  ownership  of  minerals  in  the 
Crown  colonies  and  protectorates.^  From  this  it  appears 
that  the  ownership  of  all  minerals  is  unreservedly  vested  in 
the  Crowa  in  East  Africa,  Uganda,*  Mgeria  (in  the  south  since 
1916),  Malaya,  Trinidad  and  Tobago  (since  1902),  and  British 
Honduras.  The  statement  is  not  very  clear  as  regards  the 
remaining  colonies,  but  apparently  ownership  of  minerals  is 

1  '  The  Philippines,'  Elliott,  vol.  ii.  p.  68. 

2  Parliamentary  Paper  68  of  March  1912. 

'  The  Governor,  in  a  public  paper,  states  that  "the  holders  of  land  in  the 
kingdom  of  Uganda  have  the  right  to  minerals  found  on  their  estates,  subject  to 
the  payment  of  a  royalty  (10  per  cent).  Elsewhere  in  the  protectorate  minerals 
belong  to  Government."  See  also  Sir  R.  Coryndon  in  'United  Empire,'  June 
1920,  p.  300. 


348  LAJSTD   TENXJEE  AND   TKANSPEE. 

claimed  by  Government  in  all  controlled  lands  (which  in 
Nyasaland  and  British  Gtiiana  are  practically  synonymous 
with  the  whole  country),  and  aU  rights  in  minerals  are  re- 
served ia  leases  of  Crown  lands. 

The  ownership  of  all  minerals  is  claimed  by  France  in  her 
African  colonies,  and  by  the  United  States  in  the  Philippines.* 
"  The  formal  claim  of  the  State  to  ...  all  unworked  minerals 
may  be  readily  conceded  by  both  international  and  mimicipal 
law,"  writes  Professor  Keith. ^  The  reservation  of  the  right 
of  the  natives  to  work  any  minerals  which  are  necessary  for 
their  own  industries  or  requirements — e.g.,  iron,  salt,  &c. — ^is 
eminently  just,  and  should  always  be  conceded.^ 

In  countries  which  are  not  highly  industrialised,  the  bulk 
of  the  minerals  are  worked  for  export,  and  not  for  local  manu- 
facture, and  the  royalty  imposed  by  Government  is  in  fact 
an  export  duty,  which  the  Government  has  an  unquestioned 
right  to  levy  for  revenue  purposes.  The  claim  of  ownership 
therefore  means  in  effect  that  the  right  to  grant  licences  for 
the  working  of  minerals,  not  required  by  the  natives  for  their 
own  use,  is  vested  ia  the  Government,  and  that  the  owner 
of  the  surface  rights  in  the  land  may  not  impose  any  additional 
royalties  in  situ. 

The  claim  of  Government  to  imworked  minerals  does  not 
deprive  the  natives  of  any  customary  rights  or  profits.  Their 
discovery  is  generally  due  to  the  technical  knowledge  of  aUen 
prospectors,  and  the  possibility  of  their  exploitation  usually 
depends  on  the  scientific  methods,  and  the  use  of  the  machinery 
imported  by  Europeans .  In  those  countries ,  therefore,  in  which 
the  Government  exercises  the  right  to  dispose  of  vacant  lands 
and  of  mineral  rights  to  aliens,  it  secures  two  important 
sources  of  revenue,  to  defray  the  cost  of  administration  and 
development,  without  encroaching  on  the  customary  rights 
or  requirements  of  the  people.  The  revenue  thus  reahsed  is 
expended  whoUy  on  the  country  to  the  benefit  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, and  diminishes  fro  tanto  the  amount  it  is  necessary  to 
raise  by  taxation  for  this  purpose. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  is  better  able  to  take 
measures — ^impossible  to  a  native  grantor — ^to  exclude  those 

>  'The  Philippines,'  Elliott,  vol.  ii.  p.  69. 
^  'Journal  of  African  Society,'  July  1918. 

'  In  Nigeria  tin  had  been  worked  in  small  quantities  for  ornaments  or  barter, 
and  the  small  group  of  villages  engaged  in  this  industry  were  compensated. 


ADVANTAGES   OP  STATE  CONTROL  OF  MINEEALS.         349 

concession-lmnters  who  desire  to  obtain  a  title  merely  for 
manipulation  in  the  money  market,  and  to  ensure  that  the 
interests  of  the  bona  fide  miner  are,  as  far  as  possible,  identical 
with  those  of  the  country  in  which  his  profits  are  made.  These 
objects  can  best  be  effected,  inter  alia,  by  requiring  a  guarantee 
that  the  grantee,  or  his  assignee,  has  adequate  capital  for 
his  enterprise,  and  by  insisting  on  an  annual  miaimum  of 
development  work,  so  that  mineral  resources  may  not  be  locked 
up  for  speculative  reasons. 

Government  control  should  also  result  in  the  elimination 
of  much  litigation,  due  to  overlapping  or  to  badly-drafted 
concessions.  The  Ucensee  is  relieved  of  the  initial  purchase 
price  of  his  concession,  and  his  working  capital  is  thus  in- 
creased. He  can  therefore  afford  to  pay  a  somewhat  larger 
share  of  his  profits  by  way  of  rents  and  royalties — a  system 
more  advantageous  alike  to  the  industry  and  to  the  country, 
which  thus  retains  a  direct  interest  in  mineral  development. 
The  position  of  the  grantee  is  more  secure  when  he  has  to  deal 
with  Government  alone,  and  enterprise  is  thus  attracted,  while 
Government  is  less  hampered  in  securing  adequate  develop- 
ment and  the  best  conditions  for  labourers. 

Minerals,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  are  a  part  of  the 
capital  wealth  of  a  country,  not  perennially  renewed  like  its 
vegetable  products,  and  their  development  should  afford  a 
means  for  creating  other  assets  of  permanent  utUity,  such  as 
railways,  harbours,  irrigation  works,  &c.,  which  shall  continue 
to  benefit  the  country  when  the  minerals  are  exhausted. 

Viewed  from  this  standpoint,  it  seems  a  short-sighted,  even 
if  it  is  a  justifiable  policy,  for  the  Suzerain  Power  to  barter 
these  assets,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of  the  transfer  of  the 
Mger  Chartered  Company's  territory  to  the  Crown.^  The 
Company,  which  claimed  to  have  secured  mineral  rights  by 
treaty  from  native  chiefs,  was  entirely  justified  in  making 
the  best  bargain  it  could  for  its  shareholders,  and  no  one  will 

1  Parliamentary  Papers,  C.  9372  of  1899,  39  of  August  1900,  and  304  of 
February  1901.  Within  a  defined  area  embracing  the  greater  part  of  Northern 
Nigeria,  whether  covered  by  the  Company's  treaties  or  not,  the  Government 
undertook  to  impose  such  royalty  on  all  minerals  exported  from  a  British  port, 
or  passing  through  a  British  Customs  House,  as  may  be  compatible  with  the 
development  of  the  industry,  and  to  institute  no  specific  taxation  on  the  mining 
industry  as  such,  which  would  prevent  its  imposition.  The  Company  and  its 
assigns  were  to  receive  half  the  royalty  for  ninety-nine  years.  As  the  price  of 
its  land  and  mining  rights  in  the  remainder  of  its  territory  a  sum  of  £150,000 
was  paid. 


350  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFER. 

be  foimd  to  grudge  to  these  patriotic  pioneers  the  fullest 
recompense  for  their  efforts.  But  one  wonders  how  many 
of  them  have  benefited  from  the  prosperity  of  the  mining 
industry  in  Mgeria.  Shares  have  changed  hands,  but  the 
onus  on  the  industry,  and  on  the  revenues  of  Mgeria — ^upon 
which  falls  the  whole  cost  of  the  Mines  Department,  survey, 
collection  of  royalties  and  rents,  &c. — remains.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  a  money  payment,  as  in  the  case  of  the  com- 
mercial lands,  was  not  made,  even  if  it  had  remained  a  charge 
on  the  revenues  of  the  country.^ 

Where  native  ownership  of  minerals  worked  for  export  is 
recognised,  the  monies  received  for  the  concession,  rents,  &c., 
are,  like  the  rents  of  tribal  lands,  the  property  of  the  com- 
mimity,  and  should  be  expended  for  the  common  benefit — 
viz.,  paid  into  the  native  administration  treasury  or  commimal 
fuQd,  and  not  used  (as  it  appears  that  they  often  are)  as 
the  private  perquisite  of  the  chiefs.  If  the  land  has  changed 
from  tribal  to  individual  tenure,  the  ownership  of  minerals 
requires  elucidation.  They  should,  I  think,  be  vested  in  the 
Government  on  behalf  of  the  whole  community. 

The  terms  upon  which  prospecting  rights  and  mining  leases 
may  be  granted  must  obviously  vary  according  to  the  miaeral 
sought,  and  the  form  in  which  it  occurs.  The  task  of  the 
administrator  of  a  colony  when  drafting  legislation  on  this 
complicated  subject  has  been  Ughtened  by  the  recent  pubUca- 
tion  of  the  mining  laws  of  the  different  parts  of  the  Empire 
in  a  compendious  form.  The  conditions,  for  instance,  which 
affect  the  wiiming  of  gold  when  found  in  quartz  rock  lying 
perhaps  at  considerable  depths  below  the  surface,  and  those 
affecting  aUuvial  or  placer  deposits,  must  differ  essentially, 
and  the  mining  law  must  deal  fuUy  and  separately  with  each 
class.  I  do  not  propose  to  do  more  than  make  a  few  general 
notes  on  this  subject  here. 

The  function  of  the  Government  is,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
facilitate  in  every  possible  way  the  enterprise  of  the  pros- 
pector and  miner,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  protect  the 
native  occupier  of  the  land  from  injury  resulting  from  mining 
operations,  and  to  ensure  fair  treatment  and  reasonable 
comfort  for  the  native  labourer. 

The  exploitation  of  the  mineral  resources  of  a  country 

'  The  annual  payment  to  the  Niger  Company  amounted  to  some  £70,000 
in  1917,  and  is  steadily  increasing. 


PROSPECTING  ANB   MTNING.  351 

can  best  be  promoted  in  the  first  instance  by  a  comprehen- 
sive geological  survey,  such  as  is  now  being  undertaken  by 
most  of  the  Governments  of  the  Crown  colonies.  When 
minerals  have  been  found,  the  first  demand  of  the  industry 
is  for  a  clear  and  understandable  mining  law  and  regulations, 
and  expert  Departments  of  Mines  and  Surveys,  which  shall 
deal  rapidly  with  claims,  and  surveys  of  leases,  &c.  Means 
of  access  by  railway,  to  facilitate  the  import  of  machtaery 
and  supplies,  and  where  necessary,  the  export  of  ore,  is  essen- 
tial to  development.  All  these  things  take  some  time  to 
provide,  especially  if  the  revenues  of  the  country  are  smaU, 
and  delays  are  apt  to  give  rise  to  acrid  criticism,  however 
anxious  the  Government  may  be  to  assist. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  devolves  upon  the  Government  to 
protect  the  interests  of  the  natives,  more  especially  in  alluvial 
or  open-cast  workings,  where  surface  rights,  including  the 
acquisition  of  land,  and  interference  with  water-courses  and 
the  supply  of  water  for  the  agricultural  and  domestic  needs  of 
the  natives,  are  involved.  Nor  can  the  duty  of  protecting 
the  country  from  deforestation  be  neglected.  There  is  a 
natural  tendency  to  denude  the  country  of  timber  for  pit- 
props  and  fuel,  which,  while  affording  only  a  temporary  advan- 
tage to  the  industry,  inflicts  a  permanent  injury  on  the  country, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  mining  districts  of  South  Africa. 

General  prospecting  licences  are  usually  granted  for  a  year 
at  a  time,  for  a  small  fee,  and  unrestricted  in  area.  They 
should,  in  my  opinion,  convey  no  important  rights,  such  as 
cutting  of  timber,  damming  of  streams,  &c.,  and  are  more  in 
the  nature  of  a  registration  fee  than  a  payment  for  special 
privileges.  Exclusive  prospective  licences,  on  the  other  hand, 
convey  definite  rights,  for  which  a  corresponding  payment 
can  be  demanded.  No  other  person  may  prospect  the  area 
simultaneously,  and  the  prospector  has  the  right  to  acquire 
one  or  more  mining  leases  in  the  area  included  in  his  exclu- 
sive licence.  He  may  cut  timber,  and  use  water  under  con- 
ditions, and  on  compensation  to  natives  for  injury.  These 
licences  should  be  very  limited  in  area  and  in  time,  ia  order 
to  avoid  locking  up  the  country  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
enterprise.  An  exclusive  prospecting  Ucence  should  not  be 
transferable  without  permission,  and  this  should  be  clearly 
endorsed  upon  it  to  prevent  its  beiag  used  for  purposes  of 
speculation. 


352  LAND  TENURE  AND  TRANSFEE. 

MiniTig  leases  for  alluvial  and  open-cast  workings  should 
not  exceed  one  square  mUe.^  The  term  might  be  fifty  years, 
and  the  rent  need  not  be  high,  for  the  industry  is  taxed  by 
royalties.  Premia  are  unnecessary.  Eoyalties  on  metals, 
whose  price  is  constantly  varying,  can  best  be  fixed  by  a 
shding  scale,  framed  on  the  value  in  the  London  market. 
In  the  facilities  granted  for  prospecting  and  mining  there 
should,  of  course,  be  no  discrimination  between  natives  and 
non-natives.  Minerals  such  as  gold  and  tin,  which  by  erosion 
have  been  detached  from  their  matrix  and  carried  down  by 
streams — ^faUing  by  their  weight  to  the  stream-bed — are 
naturally  sought  for  in  streams,  and  in  the  beds  of  former 
streams.  The  winning  of  these  minerals  in  such  circum- 
stances must  involve  interference  with  water-courses,  and 
necessitates  the  use  of  water  for  washing  the  soil  containing 
the  ore.  Special  care  is  therefore  needed  to  safeguard  the 
native  rights  in  the  water-supply  and  in  the  disposal  of  tail- 
ings. To  facilitate  the  exploitation  of  ground  not  rich  in  ore, 
and  to  assist  the  operations  of  the  miner  with  small  capital, 
"  mining  rights  "  as  opposed  to  "  mining  leases  "  are  granted 
in  Mgeria.  These  are  tenable  for  a  year — ^renewable  from  year 
to  year — and  convey  certain  privileges  as  regards  wood  and 
water. 

There  is  no  temptation  to  Colonial  Governments  to  inter- 
fere with  private  enterprise  by  creating  monopolies  in  the 
working  of  minerals  other  than  coal  and  oil.  A  temporary 
monopoly  in  the  working  of  a  coalfield  may  not  only  be 
justified  but  highly  expedient,  in  order  to  prove  the  extent 
and  quaUty  of  the  seams,  and  to  enable  the  Government  to 
form  a  reUable  estimate  of  the  cost  of  winning,  and  the  value 
of  the  coal  at  pit's  mouth  or  delivered  at  the  coast,  with  a 
view  to  determining  what  royalty  the  industry  can  bear, 
and  what  would  be  a  fair  price  to  fix  for  supphes  needed  by 
Government. 

It  will,  moreover,  be  more  than  probable  that  a  railway 
must  be  built  to  the  coalfield,  and  since  (for  reasons  I  shall 
discuss  in  the  chapter  on  Transport)  it  is  advisable  that  all 
railways  should  be  built  and  operated  by  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment, it  becomes  essential  that  the  Government  should  have 
the  best  possible  independent   technical   advice   as   to   the 

'  Sir  F.  Fuller  mentions  that  the  Ashanti  Gold  Fields  Syndicate  were  granted 
mineral  and  other  rights  over  100  square  miles. — Loc.  cit.,  p.  227. 


COAL  AND   OIL  FIELDS.  353 

value  of  the  field  before  committing  itself  to  the  cost  of 
railway  construction.  The  scheme  of  development  of  a  coal- 
field is  a  highly  technical  matter,  depending  on  geological 
and  other  conditions,  and  ia  order  to  avoid  wasteful  methods 
it  is  necessary  that  Government  should  be  iu  full  possession 
of  all  data  regarding  the  deposits  before  leasiag  the  whole 
or  any  portion  to  a  company,  so  that  the  conditions  of  devel- 
opment may  be  carefully  prescribed.^ 

Initial  investigation  would  cost  a  considerable  sum  of 
money,  and  delay  must  be  iacurred  before  the  railway  facilities 
can  be  created.  A  private  company  would  demand  very  liberal 
terms  to  induce  it  to  accept  these  risks  and  delays,  and  the 
lease  would  therefore  necessarily  be  of  a  highly  speculative 
nature.  In  these  circumstances  it  cannot,  I  think,  be  dis- 
puted that  an  enterprise  so  vital  to  the  future  of  the  country, 
and  involving  railway  and  probably  harbour  construction, 
should  be  initiated  by  the  Government.  When  the  industry 
has  been  proved,  the  Goverimient  can,  if  it  desires,  reserve  a 
portion  of  the  field  for  its  own  railway  and  steamship  require- 
ments, and  lease  the  remainder  to  private  companies.  Its 
expert  staff  on  the  spot  wiU  then  be  able  to  carry  out  the 
periodical  inspection  necessary  to  see  that  the  lease  conditions 
of  development  are  being  fulfilled. 

Boring  for  oil  olfers  no  obstacle  to  private  enterprise,  since 
the  oil  if  found  can  be  piped  without  railway  connection.  If 
the  geological  investigations  conducted  by  Government  have 
afforded  indications,  correspondingly  favourable  terms  can 
be  demanded  from  the  lessee.  The  Men  on  the  supply  for  the 
needs  of  the  Imperial  Navy,  to  which  I  have  elsewhere  re- 
ferred, is  justified  by  the  dependence  of  the  colony  on  the 
Navy  for  its  defence. 

^  This  is  the  policy  which  has  been  followed  in  regard  to  the  Enugu  coalfield  in 
Nigeria.  Germany,  by  a  decree  of  4th  December  1901,  reserTcd  any  coal  found 
on  north-west  of  Nyasa  as  a  Government  monopoly. 


354 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

SLAVERY   IN   BRITISH   AFRICA. 

The  origin  of  slavery — Effects  of  slavery — Growth  of  opinion  adverse  to 
slavery — The  position  in  East  Africa — The  nature  of  Central  African 
slave-trade — Realisation  by  Europe  of  the  real  facts — Effect  of  the 
scramble  for  Africa — The  Brussels  Act — Suppression  by  force — 
Slavery  as  an  administrative  problem  —  Tribal  slavery,  or  aUen 
masters — Predial  and  domestic  slaves — Moslem  slave-law — Evils  of 
slavery  and  extenuations — Internal  slavery  in  Africa — Slavery  in 
protected  Moslem  States  —  Compensation  and  alternatives  —  Mean- 
ing of  the  abolition  of  the  "  legal  status " — Results  of  abolition  of 
legal  status — Its  application  at  Zanzibar. 

Op  all  African  problems  there  is  none  more  engrossing  than 
that  of  slavery,  and  as  to  assist  in  its  solution  has  been  the 
consistent  object  of  my  efforts  since  I  first  entered  tropical 
Africa  in  1888, 1  will  ask  indulgence  if  in  discussing  it  I  digress 
somewhat  beyond  the  strict  hmits  of  present-day  adminis- 
trative problems. 

Though  the  iastitution  of  slavery  appears  to  be  as  old  as 
the  records  of  the  human  race,^  and  exists  to-day  in  China  ^ 
and  m  Moslem  countries,  it  is  from  Africa  alone  that  large 
sections  of  the  popidation  have,  in  at  aU  recent  times,  been 

^  For  an  exhaustive  historical  review  of  the  subject,  reference  may  be  made 
to  Dr  Ingram's  learned  article  in  the  'Encyclopaedia  Britannica,'  9th  edition, 
vol.  xxii.  pp.  129-144.  It  may  be  noted  that  "slave-holding  and  its  ally  polygamy  " 
have  exhibited  a  tendency  to  flourish  in  the  tropics  rather  than  in  the  temperate 
zones.  In  the  latter,  the  transition  to  serfs  or  villeins — adscripti  glebce — and 
from  serfdom  to  a  free  peasantry  has  generally  been  a  normal  process  not 
unduly  prolonged.  Adam  Smith  points  out  that  the  transition  from  the  serf 
to  the  freeman  is  encouraged  by  the  sovereign,  who  grows  fearful  of  the  power 
of  his  feudal  retainers  and  their  armies  of  serfs.  — Book  iii.  chap.  2. 

2  Slavery  in  China  assumes  a  mild  form.  Sale  of  the  freeborn  is  illegal 
though  common.  Girls  are  bought,  often  as  infants,  and  become  household 
drudges  until  marriage,  when  they  are  free.  Slaves  are  recruited  chiefly  by 
the  sale  of  themselves  or  their  children  by  a  starving  peasantry  in  time  of 
famine  or  inundation.     See  Dyer  Ball,  'Things  Chinese,'  pp.  623-628. 


ORIGIN  AND  EFFECTS   OF  SLAVERY.  355 

deported  for  use  as  slaves  overseas. ^  The  institution,  though 
fundamentally  opposed  to  the  principles  of  Christian  ethics, 
was  not  specifically  condemned  by  St  Paul,  who  even  directed 
the  rendition  of  a  fugitive  slave,^  probably  because  in  his  day 
it  had  become  so  iategral  a  part  of  the  social  system  that  to 
have  condemned  it  would  have  conflicted  with  his  teaching 
of  obedience  to  constituted  authority ;  but  the  influence  of 
the  Church  has  been  opposed  to  it  from  the  earliest  times. 

The  incorporation  in  the  tribe  of  the  captives  of  war  as 
slaves  is  indeed  regarded  by  Dr  Ingram  as  a  "  universal  and 
inevitable  accompaniment  "  of  the  stage  of  human  evolution 
when  sedentary  habits  replaced  nomadic  tendencies  ;  and 
siQce  it  taught  the  necessity  for  continuous  labour,  he  char- 
acterises it — as  did  Zebehr  Pasha — as  "  a  necessary  step  in 
social  progress,"  supersediag  the  earher  law  of  massacre  and 
cannibahsm.* 

But  however  inevitable  in  the  earliest  stages  of  develop- 
ment the  institution  of  slavery  may  be,  its  moral  results  are 
undeniably  disastrous.  To  the  slave-owners  the  exercise  of 
despotic  power,  without  external  check,  ia  all  the  relations  of 
daily  Ufe  is  demoralising.  Self-control  is  weakened,  sus- 
ceptibility to  flattery,  harshness  or  even  cruelty,  as  well  as 
immorality,  are  encouraged,  and  indolence,  with  a  contempt 
for  industry,  becomes  natural. 

To  the  slave  the  efiEect  is  hardly  less  demoralising.  He 
is  deprived  of  the  dignity  of  manhood.  He  is  without  re- 
sponsibility and  without  incentive  to  work  other  than  the 
fear  of  punishment.  His  status  approximates  to  that  of  his 
master's  cattle.* 

'  Calculations  of  the  number  of  human  beings  killed  or  enslaved  are  purely 
guesswork.  Pruen  ('The  Arab  and  African,'  p.  224)  estimates  that  fully 
100,000  reached  the  East  Coast  yearly,  and  Livingstone  and  others  considered 
that  at  least  10  are  killed  or  left  to  starve  for  each  one  who  arrives.  This 
gives  1,000,000  per  annum  for  the  East  Coast  alone — a  figure  which  may  pre- 
sumably be  at  least  doubled  for  the  rest  of  Africa.  This  has  been  going 
on  for  centuries  ! 

2  Philemon  10  and  16. 

'  So  also  Congreve,  commenting  on  the  passage  of  '  Aristotle '  quoted  in  the 
next  paragraph,  ' '  the  human  rival  is  the  food  of  his  conqueror.  The  first  step 
out  of  this  state  of  things  is  taken  when  the  prisoners  are  not  sacrificed  and 
eaten,  but  kept  and  made  useful." 

■•  See  Ingram,  loc.  cit.  Also  Clarke,  '  Lavigerie  and  Slavery,'  p.  248.  The 
slave  laws  of  various  countries  have  a  striking  similarity  to  each  other.  The 
Moslem  law  varies  little  from  that  of  the  Hebrews  described  in  Deuteronomy, 
or  of  Rome,  or  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. — (See  Green's  '  History  of  the  English 
People,'  Colonial  Press  Edition,  p.   18,  and  Buckland,   '  The  Roman  Law  of 


356  SLAVERY   IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

"  Certain  peoples,"  says  Aristotle,  "  are  naturally  free, 
others  are  naturally  slaves.  For  these  latter  slavery  is  both 
just  and  expedient,"  and  the  same  view  has  been  held  by 
able  and  influential  men  of  our  own  day.  To  the  African, 
they  argue,  owing  to  his  lack  of  prevision  and  self-control, 
such  a  state  of  dependence  is  not  altogether  distasteful,  and 
philanthropic  effort  can  best  be  directed  towards  regulating 
the  conditions  of  slavery  as  a  recognised  institution.'^  But 
they  overlook  two  vital  facts — ^first,  that  the  history  of  slavery 
in  aU  countries  shows  that  the  system  cannot  be  maintained 
without  constant  recruitment,  involving  aU  the  horrors  of 
slave-raids,  or  of  kidnapping  and  purchase,  with  depopulation 
of  the  country,  decrease  in  its  productivity,  and  stagnation 
in  its  development ;  ^  and  secondly,  that  by  perpetuating 
the  institution  of  slavery  the  African  is  denied  the  oppor- 
tunity of  rising  to  a  higher  plane  of  individual  and  corporate 
responsibility  and  progress  in  social  life. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  Europe  and  America 
had,  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  led  their  people  to 
condemn  the  overseas  export  of  slaves  from  Africa,^  which 
had  been  inaugurated  by  Portugal  in  1442,  but  it  was  not 
till  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  majority 
of  the  nations  abolished  the  system  of  employing  slave  labour.* 

Slavery. ')  The  alave  may  not  give  evidence  in  court.  His  master  is  responsible 
for  his  crimes.  Wrongs  to  him  are  regarded  as  wrongs  to  his  master,  who  has 
absolute  power  over  him.  These  laws  were  modified  by  the  ''jus  naiurale"  in 
Rome,  and  by  the  growth  of  a  more  liberal  practice  in  other  countries,  as  the 
predial  slave  passed  to  the  status  of  a  serf,  and  the  domestic  slave  became 
included  in  the  family. 

1  The  notorious  German,  Dr  Karl  Peters,  is  reported  to  have  proposed  that  a 
"fair  arrangement"  would  be  that  the  natives  should  be  hired  out  by  the  State 
to  work  for  eleven  hours  a  day  from  the  age  of  twenty  to  thirty-five  years.  The 
African,  he  contends,  does  not  understand  freedom,  and  "such  a  system  would 
form  a  convenient  half-way  house  between  slavery  and  the  European  system  of 
free  labour — the  result  of  centuries."  Herr  Zimmermann's  policy  difiers  only  in 
degree  {loc.  cit.,  pp.  39-45).  English  apologists  for  slavery,  needless  to  say,  do  not 
advocate  such  methods. 

^  The  writings  of  all  African  explorers  are  full  of  evidence  of  the  ruthless 
destruction  of  life  and  the  human  misery  caused  by  slave-raids,  and  of  the  ap- 
palling cruelties  of  the  march  to  the  coast.  A  resume  of  the  evidence  may  be 
found  in  Rev.  R.  Clarke's  book, '  Cardinal  Lavigerie  and  Slavery  in  Africa, '  pp.  254- 
287.  For  an  account  of  the  appalling  devastation  in  the  Sudan,  where  the  popu- 
lation was  reduced  from  8  J  millions  to  under  2  millions  in  a  few  years,  see  Foreign 
Office  Handbook  98,  p.  26,  and  the  authorities  there  quoted. 

'  Denmark  led  the  way,  1802  ;  England  followed,  1806  ;  America  in  1808  ;  the 
Dutch  in  1814  ;  Spain  in  1820.  The  movement  which  led  to  these  decisions  had 
been  growing  both  in  England  and  America  for  100  years  previously. 

■*  England  emancipated  her  West  Indian  and  other  slaves  in  1833  ;  France  in 
1848  ;  Portugal  in  1858  decreed  emancipation  without  compensation  in  20  years. 
America,  Brazil,  and  Cuba  alone  remained. 


THE   OVERSEAS   SLAVE-TRADE  IN  EAST  AFRICA.  357 

This  was  not  effected  in  America  till  after  the  Civil  War,  while 
serfdom  ia  Russia  was  abolished  the  year  before. 

There  was  naturally  no  sympathy  with  the  movement  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  ia  Moslem  countries  Uke  Turkey, 
Arabia,  and  Zanzibar,  where  the  institution  was  an  integral 
part  of  the  social  system,  sanctioned  ahke  by  reUgion  and 
by  the  civil  law. 

Though  the  export  of  slaves  from  Africa  to  America  had 
been  prohibited,  the  traffic  was  so  lucrative,  so  long  as  slave 
labour  continued  to  be  employed,  that  it  lingered  on  as  a 
smuggUng  trade  from  the  West  Coast  till  late  in  the  'sixties. 
Great  Britaia  took  steps  to  suppress  it,  and  for  this  purpose 
formed  settlements  and  forts  at  the  Gold  Coast,  and  in  1861 
acquired  Lagos.  With  the  cessation  of  the  traflBc  she  pro- 
posed in  1868  to  abandon  them.  From  the  Mediterranean 
ports  (especially  Benghazi),  and  from  those  on  the  East  Coast, 
however,  an  active  export  was  carried  on  to  supply  the  re- 
quirements of  Turkey,  Arabia,  and  Persia,  and  also  Mada- 
gascar.^ 

In  the  'seventies  Zanzibar  was  a  powerful  independent 
State,  claiming  an  undefined  sovereignty  over  the  mainland 
of  Eastern  Africa  as  far  as  the  Great  Lakes.  The  Sultan  and 
the  ruling  class  were  Arabs  from  Muscat  in  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  British  Consul-General  was  Sir  John  Kirk,  companion  of 
Livingstone,  and  a  man  of  very  exceptional  ability,  who  had 
acquired  great  influence  over  the  Sultan.  As  early  as  1873 
he  had  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to  make  a  treaty  declaring 
the  export  of  slaves  from  the  mainland  illegal,  and  in  1876 
an  edict  was  issued  prohibiting  their  arrival  at  the  coast  from 
the  interior.    The  edicts,  however,  remained  a  dead  letter. 

For  over  half  a  century  Great  Britaia  had  maintained  a 
squadron  iu  Bast  African  waters  for  the  suppression  of  this 
trade.  After  the  Sultan's  edicts,  H.M.S.  London,  especially 
equipped  with  a  mosquito  fleet,  seized  many  dhows,  which 
were  condemned  in  the  Consular  Court.  She  was  withdrawn 
in  1883,  and  two  Vice-Consuls  were  appointed  on  the  coast 
and  one  on  Lake  Nyasa.  The  latter,  as  I  have  said  (p.  29), 
was  without  jurisdiction,  and  when  he  was  seized  by  a 
slave-trading  chief,   stripped,  and  imprisoned,  nothing  was 

'  There  can,  I  fear,  be  little  doubt  that,  unknown  of  course  to  Lisbon,  the 
Portuguese  in  Africa,  at  least  as  late  as  1888,  continued  to  transport  slaves  from 
one  of  their  possessions  to  another  (nominally  as  deportees  for  some  trivial 
offence)  in  order  to  recruit  their  local  levies. — See  '  Rise  of  East  African  Empire,' 
vol.  i.  p.  13. 


358  SLAVERY   m  BRITISH  AFRICA. 

done.  These  operations  had  been  costly  both  in  lives  and 
money/  and  the  result  was  whoUy  inadequate.  Of  the  thou- 
sands of  slaves  arriving  at  the  coast,  the  Uganda  railway 
survey  report  estimates  that  only  about  120  per  annum  were 
rescued.  The  squadron,  though  a  check  on  the  sea-borne 
traflEic,  was  of  course  unable  to  touch  the  trade  on  the  main- 
land, or  even  to  control  the  transport  of  slaves  thence  to  the 
islands,  which  continued  to  be  abundantly  supplied  with 
slaves.  2 

The  withdrawal  of  H.M.S.  London  was  marked  by  a  consider- 
able increase  in  the  slave-trade,  though  British  naval  vessels 
continued  to  capture  dhows.  In  1885  the  Berlin  Act  was 
signed,  Turkey  being  a  signatory  Power.  It  stipulated  that 
each  of  the  Powers  "  binds  itself  to  use  all  the  means  at  its 
disposal  to  put  an  end  to  the  slave-trade,  and  to  punish 
those  engaged  in  it."  But  the  export  by  Arab  dhows  con- 
tinued ;  and  even  when  in  1889  a  joint  blockade  of  the  coast 
was  instituted  by  Great  Britain  and  Germany,  ostensibly 
to  deprive  the  slave-traders  of  arms,  but  practically  in  order 
to  withhold  from  the  Arabs — with  whom  the  Germans  were  at 
war — weapons  with  which  to  defend  themselves,  it  was  esti- 
mated that  not  5  per  cent  of  the  slaves  exported  were  rescued. 
These  measures  were  moreover  of  little  value  to  the  slaves 
themselves,  for  it  was  impossible  to  repatriate  them. 

The  trade  was  carried  on  by  the  Arab,  SwaheU,^  and  Beluchi 
subjects  of  the  Zanzibar  Sultan.  Many  of  these  men  had 
made  very  large  profits  by  trading  in  ivory  and  slaves.  With 
these  they  purchased  weapons  and  armed  their  "  Euga-ruga  " 
— at  first  as  elephant-hunters.  Taking  part  in  some  tribal 
quarrel,  and  increasing  their  armed  bands,  they  and  their 
aUies  soon  became  the  dominant  power,  and  could  raid  the 

'  The  cost  was  estimated  by  a  writer  in  the  '  Times '  at  £200,000  per  annum 
(29th  August  1893).  Consul  O'Neill,  formerly  an  ofiBcer  of  the  London,  con- 
sidered that  not  less  than  5  millions  had  been  spent  in  the  last  50  years. — 
'  The  Mozambique  and  Nyassa  Slave  Trade,'  p.  9.  Mr  Waller  stated  that  between 
1880  and  1890  our  crews  had  suffered  282  casualties,  besides  invalidings. — 'Ivory 
Apes  and  Peacocks,'  p.  44. 

^  Africa,  No.  6  of  1893,  p.  1.  These  facts  and  figures  are  given  at  greater 
length  in  my  book,  '  The  Rise  of  our  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  i.  chapters  vii. 
and  viii.  The  statements  there  made  were  either  prompted  or  visM  by  Sir  John 
Kirk,  the  highest  authority  on  the  subject,  who  for  20  years  was  Consul-Qeneral 
at  Zanzibar,  and  later  British  plenipotentiary  at  the  Brussels  Conference. 

'  Literally  ' '  coast  men, "  some  of  them  the  offspring  of  Arabs  and  female 
slaves,  others  slaves  from  the  interior  who  had  become  domiciled  at  the 
coast. 


ENTEENAL  SLAVE-TRADE,  EAST  AFEICA.  359 

entire  district  for  slaves.  Many  tribes  had  also  become  slave- 
raiders  on  behalf  of  the  Arabs,  and  sold  their  captives  to 
them. 

Many  following  in  the  path  opened  by  Stanley  and  Cameron, 
Uke  Tippoo  Tib  on  the  Congo,  became  powerful  despots,  prac- 
tically independent  of  Zanzibar.  Their  dhows  sailed  on  all 
the  Great  Lakes.  By  the  year  1888  they  had  grown  to  be 
the  greatest  militant  power  in  the  interior  of  the  Continent. 
Already  they  had  almost  turned  the  shadowy  claims  of  Zanzi- 
bar into  an  actual  Moslem  Empire,  no  longer  controlled  by 
the  Sultan,  whose  influence  had  been  weakened  by  the  advent 
of  the  British  and  Germans  at  the  coast.  Throughout  Central 
Africa  they  poisoned  the  minds  of  the  natives  by  saying  that 
Europeans  were  cannibals,  &c.  There  is  some  evidence  that 
they  had  formed  a  league.  The  loss  of  the  KUe  Sudan  by  the 
Mahdist  rising  had  dealt  a  heavy  blow  to  European  prestige. 
On  iNyasa  alone,  one  of  their  most  important  raiding  centres 
and  routes,  the  slavers  were  opposed  by  a  band  of  Scottish 
traders.  They  now  threw  off  the  pretence  of  friendship,  and 
attacked  the  little  garrison  at  Karongas,  which  held  the  gate.^ 

But  England  had  at  last  reahsed  the  futUity  of  the  attempt 
to  suppress  the  slave  traffic  by  chasing  dhows  at  sea,  and  that 
if  the  evil  which  the  Powers  at  Berlin  had  pledged  themselves 
to  check  was  to  be  suppressed,  it  must  be  dealt  with  at  its 
source.  While  Emin  on  the  Albert  Lake,  and  the  garrison  at 
Karongas  on  Nyasa,  were  doing  what  they  could  with  inade- 
quate resources  on  the  spot.  Cardinal  Lavigerie  began  his 
crusade  in  Europe.  He  preached  a  "  Holy  War  "  against 
Moslem  domination  in  Africa  and  the  slave-trade — a  "  Conti- 
nental blockade,"  with  a  line  of  "  anti-slavery  stations  sup- 
ported by  gunboats  on  the  Great  Lakes,  and  a  central  force 
of  500  European  crusaders."  ^  Others,  like  Victor  Hugo,  advo- 
cated European  settlements ;  others  again  thought  that  the 
redemption  of  Africa  must  be  by  Africans,  and  looked  to  the 
return  from  America  of  a  great  body  of  emancipated  negroes 
to  liberate  the  country  of  their  birth.^ 

'  The  story  is  told  in  my  book,  'The  Rise  of  our  East  African  Empire,' 
vol.  i.  chapters  iii.,  iv.,  and  v. 

2  '  Lavigerie  and  the  Slave  Trade,'  pp.  327,  343,  &o. 

^  I  prepared  a  scheme  myself  in  much  detail,  supported  by  estimates  framed 
with  the  advice  of  experts.  Its  basis  was  a  well-armed  and  equipped  native 
force  located  on  the  plateau  between  Lakes  Nyasa  and  Tanganyika,  with 
armed  transport  steamers — not  gunboats — on  both  lakes,  capable  of  transport- 


360  SLAVERY  IN  BRITISH  AFRICA. 

It  was  at  this  critical  moment  that  the  realisation  by  the 
industrial  nations  of  Eiixope  of  the  vast  commercial  resom'ces 
of  Africa  led  to  the  competition  for  territorial  sovereignty 
between  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  Prance  to  which  I  have 
already  referred — a  movement,  no  doubt,  accelerated  and 
strengthened  by  the  powerful  support  of  those  who  advocated 
the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade  by  force  in  the  interior, 
and  the  defence  of  mission  and  trading  stations.  Events 
marched  quickly.  In^l889  Great  Britain  and  Germany  took 
over  the  Sultan's  territories  on  the  mainland,  and  the  latter 
declared  war  against  the  Arabs.  In  1890  Uganda  made  a 
treaty  with  the  British  Chartered  Company,  and  the  Mohame- 
dan  party  there  was  finally  defeated.  A  British  mission  was 
sent  to  Nyasa,  and  shortly  afterwards  a  protectorate  was 
declared.  The  Congo  State  declared  war  on  Tippoo  Tib  ; 
Prance  annexed  Madagascar — a  great  receiving  depot  for 
slaves  from  the  mainland — and  began  her  long  campaign 
against  the  Mohamedans  of  ISTorth  Africa. 

The  days  of  the  oversea  slave-trade  were  numbered.  The 
power  of  the  great  resident  slavers  in  the  interior  was  broken, 
but  for  the  moment  the  organised  Moslem  despotisms  on  the 
Nile  and  in  West  Africa  were  too  powerful  to  be  affected  by 
these  measures,  and  they  continued  to  raid  and  depopulate 
the  countries  over  which  they  ruled. 

Already,  in  1889,  sixteen  of  the  principal  nations  of  the 
world  had  assembled  at  Brussels,  and  agreed  to  take  common 
action  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade.  They  declared 
"  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God  "  their  "  firm  intention  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  crimes  and  devastations  engendered  by 
the  traffic  in  African  slaves."  The  Act  was  signed  on  2nd 
July  1890,  but  was  not  finaUy  ratified  tiU  April  1892.^ 

Its  framers  could  not  foresee  the  astonishing  rapidity  with 
which  the  effective  occupation  of  tropical  Africa  was  to 
proceed  ;  and  though  the  opening  words  declared  that  "  the 
most  effective  means  for  counteracting  the  slave-trade  in  the 

ing  a  striking  force  with  its  supplies,  &c.,  to  any  point  where  a  slave-caravan 
was  heard  of.  I  hoped  eventually  to  control  a  line  from  the  north  of 
Tanganyika  to  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi — 1100  miles — of  which  all  but  200 
was  waterway,  and  so  occupy  the  line  which  Livingstone  had  said  would  cut 
the  slave-trade  in  half.  Mr  Rhodes  agreed  to  finance  the  project,  but  other 
events  interfered. — See  "Two  Ends  of  a  Slave-Stick,"  by  Rev.  H.  Waller,  in 
'  Contemporary  Review,'  April  1889, 
1  C.  6048  of  1890. 


THE   BERLIN   ACT.  361 

interior  are  progressive  organisation  of  the  administrative, 
judicial,  religious,  and  mUitary  services  "  of  the  Powers  con- 
cerned, they  proceeded  to  indicate,  as  a  means  to  this  end, 
the  establishment  of  strongly-occupied  stations,  fortified  posts 
on  navigable  waterways,  expeditions  and  flying  columns  for 
repressive  action,  the  use  of  cruisers  on  the  great  lakes,  and 
stations  of  refuge,  in  addition  to  maritime  suppression.  More 
appropriate  in  the  event  were  the  recommendations  to  adopt 
administrative  methods — such  as  the  construction  of  roads, 
railways,  and  telegraphs,  the  use  of  steamers  on  navigable 
waters,  and  the  encouragement  of  commerce  and  missions. 

But  the  most  essential  and  operative  clauses  of  the  Act 
(Arts.  8  &  14)  were  those  binding  the  signatories  to  prevent 
the  import  into  Africa,  except  under  strong  guarantees,  of 
all  firearms  and  ammunition,  other  than  flint-lock  guns  and 
trade  powder,  between  lat.  20  N.  and  22  S.  Great  Britain  had 
been  one  of  the  principal  importers  of  arms  to  Africa,  but 
since  the  ratification  of  the  Act  she  has  been  foremost  in  her 
efforts  to  observe  its  obligations.  Articles  62  to  70  referred  to 
countries  which  are  the  destination  of  slaves,  and  contained 
special  undertakings  by  the  Sultans  of  Turkey  and  Zanzibar 
and  the  Shah  of  Persia,  who  were  signatories. 

This  Act  was  the  Magna  Gharta  of  the  African  slave,  and 
Sir  John  Kirk's  share,  as  our  plenipotentiary,  in  its  production 
was  a  fitting  consummation  to  his  life-work.  With  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  Brussels  Act  a  new  era  dawned.  Africa  had 
passed,  or  was  passing,  under  the  control  of  different  European 
nations,  and  though  occupation  had  not  yet  become  fuUy 
effective,  the  obligations  of  those  who  claimed  territorial 
sovereignty  were  now  clearly  acknowledged. 

It  was  not  till  the  Mahdi  was  conquered  by  Kitchener  in 
1898  that  effective  control  could  be  exercised  in  the  Sudan. 
In  Mgeria,  where  the  Moslem  Emirs  axmually  employed  large 
armies  in  raiding  for  slaves  and  had  depopulated  great  regions,^ 
the  Imperial  Government  assumed  control  in  1900,  and  ia 
spite  of  the  pressure  of  the  South  African  and  the  Ashanti 
wars,  the  power  of  the  Pulani  was  broken  in  1902  and  1903, 
and  slave-raiding  put  an  end  to.  A  system  founded  on  the 
tyrannical  and  bestial  misuse  of  force  had  been  crushed  by 
force — the  only  method  which  could  be  understood  by  the 

1  Northern  Nigeria  Annual  Report,  Colonial  Office  Series  409  of  1902.  See 
also  Earth's  'Travels  in  Central  Africa,'  vol.  iii.   pp.   225,   233-236,  et  patsim. 


362  SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

people.  Omelettes  cannot  be  made  without  breaking  eggs. 
There  were  those,  no  doubt,  who  said  that  slave-raiding  could 
only  be  suppressed  by  the  construction  of  railways  and  the 
introduction  of  currency — ^neither  of  which  was  possible  in  a 
country  openly  hostile,  which  admitted  the  ingress  of  no 
Europeans.  Such  methods  would  have  required  one  or  two 
decades  to  accomplish.  Prom  a  distance  they  advocated 
patience.  Why  hurry,  though  villages  were  burning  and  the 
remnant  of  the  people  was  being  wiped  out  ? 

The  atrocities  of  the  slave-trade  and  the  decision  to  abolish 
it  were  the  immediate  expression  of  a  conflict  between  two 
rival  ideals,  supported  by  two  great  world  forces — that  of 
mUitant  Islam  ^  on  the  one  hand,  with  its  disregard  for  Ufe 
and  its  selfish  appropriation  by  the  powerful  of  all  that  was 
desirable  ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  nations  assem- 
bled at  Brussels  in  1889 — as  they  assembled  at  Paris  three 
decades  later — to  declare  their  Mandate,  "  in  the  name  of 
God  Almighty,"  as  trustees  for  "  protectiag  effectively  the 
aboriginal  populations  of  Africa,  and  ensuring  to  that  vast 
continent  the  benefits  of  peace  and  civilisation."  Not  all 
perhaps  of  those  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  task  recog- 
nised the  greatness  of  the  issue.  Material  as  well  as  moral 
forces  were  at  work — and  it  is  weU  that  the  conflict  came 
when  it  did. 

With  this  brief  historical  and  descriptive  introduction,  I 
pass  to  the  discussion  of  slavery  from  the  standpoint  more 
proper  to  the  object  of  this  volume — viz.,  as  an  administrative 
problem.  In  the  first  place,  it  wiU  be  useful  to  consider  what 
slavery  is,  and  what  are  the  conditions  which  distinguish  the 
lot  of  a  slave  from  a  freeman.  We  may,  I  think,  assume  that 
there  are  three  factors  which  affect  the  lot  of  a  slave  most 
nearly :  (a)  whether  he  is  of  the  same  race  as  his  master ; 
(6)  the  nature  of  the  law  (if  any)  affecting  his  status ;  and 
(e)  what  facilities  it  gives  him  for  advancement  or  redemption. 

Slaves  captured  ia  tribal  war,  or  sold  by  one  tribe  to  another 

1  It  fell  to  my  personal  lot  to  fight  militant  Islam  in  the  Sudan,  on  STyasa, 
in  Uganda  and  in  Nigeria,  but  the  repatriation  of  the  Moslem  Waganda  by  me, 
and  my  subsequent  relations  with  the  Moslem  rulers  in  the  latter  country,  wiU, 
I  think,  show  that  it  was  against  it  as  an  aggressive  force,  and  not  as  a  creed, 
that  I  found  myself  on  so  many  occasions  opposed  to  it  in  arms.  My  action 
gave  rise  to  charges  of  militarism  in  Press  and  Parliament,  and  Mr  Woolf  (whose 
book  is  otherwise  devoid  of  humour)  describes  me  as  possessed  by  a  homicidal 
mania. — '  Empire  and  Commerce,'  p.  273. 


TRIBAL  SLAVERY,   AND  MOSLEM  OWNERS.  363 

for  crime  or  debt,  though  they  may  not  speak  the  language 
of  their  captors,  are  generally  closely  allied  to  them  in  race, 
and  in  the  same  stage  of  social  development.  Apart  from 
the  possibilities  of  fetish  sacrifice,  of  reservation  for  a  cannibal 
feast,  or  of  being  killed  at  their  master's  death  to  accompany 
him  to  another  world — all  of  which  may,  I  trust,  be  accounted 
to  be  horrors  of  the  past — the  hfe  of  such  a  slave  would  not 
differ  greatly  from  that  of  his  captor,  except  that  he  would 
have  to  work  harder.  He  would  become  the  lowest  grade  in 
the  social  scale,  while  the  condition  of  women  captives  would 
generally  be  identical  with  those  of  the  tribe.  Probably  in 
course  of  time  the  male  slave  would  also  become  identilied 
with  the  tribe.^  In  many  cases  the  custom  of  slavery  may 
have  been  learnt  from  alien  slave-dealers.  Slaves,  on  the 
other  hand,  whose  owners  were  either  Arabs  or  Fulani,  would 
be  subject  to  either  harsh  or  liberal  treatment,  according  to 
the  temperament  or  whim  of  their  master,  like  the  Gibeonites 
in  the  Hebrew  State,  or  the  Helots  of  Greece.  Last  of  aU 
came  those  who  were  shipped  overseas,  or  sent  to  a  country 
and  a  mode  of  life  as  different  from  their  own  as  Egypt  or 
Morocco. 

The  predial  slave,  employed  to  till  his  owner's  fields,  has, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  tendency  to  become  a  serf  attached  to  the 
land,  and  eventually  a  free  peasant,  Mke  the  Bakopi  in 
Uganda,^  rendering  a  portion  of  his  produce  to  his  landlord. 
But  imtil  he  gains  this  higher  status  he  may  be  punished 
with  severity,  or  sold,  or  his  family  may  be  taken  from  him 
and  sold.  Nothiag  he  possesses  during  life  can  be  called  his 
own,  and  at  death  any  substance  he  may  have  been  allowed 
to  acquire  passes  to  his  owner.  To  what  extent  these  harsh 
rights  may  be  enforced  depends  on  the  law  and  custom  to 
which  his  master  is  subject. 

The  lot  of  the  domestic  slave  differs  with  sex.  The  male, 
unless  he  be  a  favourite,  has  a  harder  time  than  the  predial 
slave,  his  work  is  more  arduous,  his  family  Ufe  more  pre- 

'  The  conditions  vary  according  to  tribal  usages.  Dr  Laws  writes  of  Nyasa- 
land  :  "  Domestic  slavery,  as  far  as  I  know,  exists  among  all  the  tribes,  and  varies 
in  severity  from  a  nominal  connection  to  the  power  of  life  and  death  exercised 
by  the  master."  Among  the  Wagauda,  on  the  other  hand,  the  predial  slaves  are 
practically  serfs,  with  few  disabilities. — See  '  Our  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  i. 
p.  171,  Wilson's  'Uganda  and  Sudan,'  vol.  i.  p.  186,  and  Monson's  Report, 
Cd.  1631  of  1903,  p.  2. 

^  Felkin,  loo.  cit,  pp.  46  and  50. 


364  SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

carious,  and  he  has  less  of  the  responsibility  of  a  human  being. 
Slaves  are,  however,  often  so  attached  to  their  masters  that 
they  do  not  desire  their  freedom.  The  question  of  female 
slavery  is  iaextricably  mixed  up  with  that  of  concubinage — 
on  which  I  shall  have  something  to  say  later.  At  the  worst, 
by  transfer  or  loan,  a  female  slave  may  become  a  prostitute 
by  order.  At  the  best  she  is  mother  of  her  master's  child, 
and  freed. 

The  Koran  inculcates  kindness  to  slaves,  and  the  liberation 
of  a  slave  is  an  act  of  piety.  Though  the  native  courts  are 
empowered  in  a  British  protectorate  to  administer  Mohamedan 
law,  it  is  superseded  by  any  ordinances  enacted  by  the  Govern- 
ment. In  West  Africa  the  Malaki  law  and  the  local  custom 
are  extraordinarily  liberal — probably  more  so  than  the  Mo- 
hamedan law  of  East  Africa.  The  sale  of  a  house-born  slave, 
except  for  gross  misconduct,  is  regarded  as  an  unjustifiable 
act,  and  so  is  the  separation  by  sale  of  a  slave  family.  Slaves 
may  attain  to  high  rank  and  power.  lU-treatment  of  a  slave 
is  strongly  condemned,  and  if  a  slave  can  prove  it,  he  would 
be  liberated  by  the  court.  Slaves  may  even  be  allowed  to 
give  evidence  in  court.  A  woman  who  has  borne  a  living 
child  to  her  master  is  freed.  While  Arab  owners  claimed  that 
siQce  a  slave  has  no  existence  as  a  man,  his  liberator  stands 
in  loco  parentis,  and  can  claim  the  rights  of  a  father,  the 
Malaki  law  recognised  no  rights  whatever  over  the  slave  once 
freed.i 

Slavery  as  an  institution  is,  as  I  have  said,  essentially 
bad,  demoraUsing  to  the  master,  and  debasing  to  the  slave, 
whom  (except  in  rare  instances)  it  robs  of  ambition,  initiative, 
and  responsibility.  It  is  economically  bad,  for  the  freeman 
does  more  work  than  the  slave,  who,  moreover,  is  indifferent 

'  Slaves  were  given  every  facility  for  ransoming  themselves  under  a  system 
known  as  "  Murgu." — Vide  infra,  p.  383.  Household  slaves  were  T generally 
treated  as  members  of  the  family,  often  with  affection.  Predial  slaves  were  not 
transferred  with  the  land,  and  except  for  arbitrary  demands,  when  their  master 
needed  money,  were  practically  independent.  The  master  supplied  seed  and 
implements,  and  claimed  a  percentage  of  the  produce.  Manumission  was 
decreed  if  a  slave  were  ill- treated,  and  if  a  slave  wished  to  educate  himself,  a 
grant  might  be  made  from  the  charity  fund.  The  Resident  of  Sokoto  (Mr 
Arnett)  writes  :  "In  discussing  slavery  matters  with  the  Sokoto  chiefs,  one  is 
always  conscious  of  their  extremely  enlightened  and  surprisingly  liberal  views. 
They  are  as  ready  as  any  European  to  deplore  the  inhumanity  and  moral  and 
material  ravages  caused  by  slavery. " — See  also  Sir  A.  Hardinge's  Report  on 
slavery  in  East  Africa,  Cd.  8683  of  1897,  and  Consul  Monson,  Cd.  1631  of  1903. 
He  strongly  defends  the  liberal  character  of  the  slave-law  in  East  Africa. 


EVILS  AND  EXTENUATIONS   OF  SLAVEKT.  365 

to  the  productiyity  of  the  soil  and  careless  of  posterity. 
Earth  noted,  as  we  do  to-day,  the  more  thorough  agricultural 
methods  of  the  independent  tribes  compared  with  the  land 
under  slave  cultivation.  Domestic  slavery  creates  a  demand 
for  new  slaves  to  replace  losses,  and  hence  encourages  the 
slave-trade.  It  is  the  most  serious  charge  against  Islam 
in  Africa  that  it  has  encouraged  and  given  reUgious  sanction 
to  slavery. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  an  early  stage  of  ciYihsation,  provided 
that  it  is  not  recognised  iy  law,  so  that  the  slave,  i£  ill-treated, 
can  leave  his  master,  the  temporary  continuance  of  domestic 
slavery  has  certain  advantages  as  a  form  of  labour-contract 
between  a  more  advanced  and  a  very  primitive  people,  where 
the  conception  of  labour  as  a  saleable  commodity  (but  with- 
out the  sale  of  the  labourer  himself)  has  not  yet  arisen,  and 
currency  with  which  to  pay  wages  is  unknown,  or  exists  only 
in  a  very  primitive  form.  The  master  must  look  after  his 
slave  in  sickness  and  old  age.  He  clothes,  feeds,  and  protects 
him..  If  the  public  opinion  of  the  community  is  sound  and 
enhghtened,  the  slave  is  assured  of  good  treatment,  and  even 
the  dead  hand  of  inertia  may  be  lifted  by  giving  him  the 
aspiration  of  redemption.  In  tribal  slavery,  however,  where 
the  owner  is  in  the  same  stage  of  evolution  as  the  slave,  these 
obligations  would  not  be  recognised. 

The  point  of  view  of  an  intelligent  African  regarding  slavery 
was  well  expressed  by  Zebehr  Pasha  in  conversation :  "  Slavery 
you  say  is  bad.  I  agree  that  it  is  bad,  but  slave-labour  is  to 
the  interior  of  Africa  what  steam-power  is  to  your  country. 
In  your  great  factories  where  steam  is  used,  is  all  well  with 
the  employees  ?  Is  there  not  much  misery  and  suffering  ? 
You  admit  there  is.  Well,  if  the  angel  of  God  came  and  saw 
the  unhappiness  of  your  factories  and  said :  '  This  must  not 
continue — abolish  steam,'  would  you  think  it  a  wise  decree  ? 
Would  you  not  think  it  wiser  to  find  means  of  alleviating  the 
suffering  ?  And  so  it  is  with  slavery.  You  cannot  say  abolish 
slavery  aU  at  once  because  in  some  cases  it  has  caused  much 
suffering." 

"  The  slavery  question  "  naturally  divides  itself  into  two 
distinct  though  closely-related  branches — ^the  acquisition  of 
and  dealing  in  slaves,  and  the  status  of  slavery  as  a  social 
institution. 

Prior  to  1888  it  was  not,  I  think,  fully  realised  in  England 


366  SLAVERY  IN  BRITISH  AFRICA. 

that  the  acqmsition  of  slaves  for  overseas  export  formed  only 
one  phase  of  the  evil.  The  internal  demand  was  also  very- 
great.  Morocco,  Tunis,  Tripoli  and  Egypt,  the  Zanzibar  ter- 
ritories on  the  mainland  and  islands,  and  the  Moslem  States 
of  Nigeria  and  French  West  Africa — all  these  required  enormous 
numbers  of  slaves.  Still  less  perhaps  was  it  realised  that 
slavery  is  an  indigenous  institution  in  Africa.  The  native 
despotisms  of  Mtesa  in  Uganda,  of  Benin,  Ashanti,  and  Da- 
homey made  great  demands  for  slaves,  a  large  number  of 
whom  were  sacrificed. 

Even  among  the  primitive  tribes  slavery  was  rampant. 
Sir  J.  Marshall  gives  a  graphic  account  of  his  expedition  to 
the  tribes  of  the  Lower  Mger  to  endeavour  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  wholesale  slave  sacrifices  there.  "  There  is,"  he  writes, 
"  a  terrible  form  of  slavery  prevalent  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  Dark  Continent  which  is  not  imder  European  control. 
This  is  the  slavery  which  every  tribe  is  ready  and  anxious  to 
practise  upon  other  tribes.  The  very  people  who  are  con- 
stantly captured  and  carried  off  by  the  more  powerful  Arab 
tribes,  are  themselves  everywhere  addicted  to  the  practice  of 
doing  the  same  thing  to  any  neighbour  they  can  conquer."  ^ 
The  same  state  of  things  prevails  in  Central  and  Eastern 
Africa.^  Prisoners  of  war  were  enslaved  if  not  killed.  It  was 
formerly  asserted  in  ISTyasaland  that  you  could  not  send  three 
men  on  a  mission,  or  two  would  combine  to  enslave  the  third. 

At  the  present  day,  however,  sacrifice  of  slaves  to  fetish 
deities  is,  I  hope,  rare,  and  is  dealt  with  whenever  detected  as 
ordinary  crime.  Inter-tribal  war,  and  the  capturing  of  slaves 
as  prisoners,  is  practically  a  thing  of  the  past.  There  re- 
mains an  illicit  traffic,  chiefly  in  children,  which  twenty  years 
of  vigilance  has  failed  to  exterminate  in  Mgeria,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  surreptitious  kidnapping  and  slave- dealing,  which 
wiU  no  doubt  continue  until  education,  combined  with  severe 
deterrent  sentences,  finally  stamps  it  out. 

The  declaration  of  a  protectorate  over  Zanzibar,  and  the 
inclusion  of  the  Mohamedan  regions  of  Mgeria  and  the  Sudan 
under  British  administration,  lead  us  to  the  consideration  of 
the  question  as  to  how  the  institution  of  slavery  should  be 
dealt  with  in  a  Moslem  country  under  the  protection  of  a 

1  '  Lavigerie  and  Slavery,'  p.  284  and  pp.  316-327. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  342. 


EFFECTS   OF   SUDDEN   EMANCIPATION.  367 

European  Power,  where  the  institution  is  not  only  recognised 
by  the  civil  law,  which  we  have  adopted  as  the  fundamental 
law,  but  also  by  the  religion  with  which  we  have  pledged  our- 
selves not  to  interfere.  In  Zanzibar,  for  instance,  the  valuable 
clove  plantations  depended  entirely  upon  slave  labour. 

However  justly  the  vested  rights  of  the  slave-owner  might 
be  dealt  with,  it  is  clear  that  sudden  emancipation  would  dis- 
locate the  whole  social  fabric.  Men  wholly  unaccustomed  to 
any  sense  of  responsibility  and  self-provision  would  be  thrown 
on  the  streets  to  fend  for  themselves.  Slave  concubines 
would  become  prostitutes.  Masters,  albeit  with  money  in 
their  pockets,  would  be  ruined  ;  industry  would  be  at  a  stand- 
still ;  and  plantations  would  be  wrecked  before  the  new  order 
could  adjust  itself. 

An  effort  was  made  by  England  when  she  emancipated  the 
slaves  in  the  West  Indies  to  bridge  over  this  period  of  social 
upheaval  by  an  apprentice  system,  which  Mr  Sturge,^  M. 
Beaulieu  and  others,  have  conclusively  shown  to  have  been 
a  disastrous  failure.  It  was  practically  a  temporary  legalisa- 
tion of  slavery.  In  that  case  the  owners  had  acquired  their 
slaves  under  a  system  recognised  by  our  Government,  the 
validity  of  their  claims  was  admitted  by  Lord  Grey,  and 
£20,000,000  was  paid  to  them  in  compensation.  But  in 
Zanzibar  the  case  was  different.  In  view  of  the  Sultan's 
edicts  of  1873  and  1876,  and  the  admitted  fact  that  slaves 
do  not  multiply,^  and  rarely  live  more  than  eleven  years  on 
the  coast,  it  was  imdeniable  that  in  1890  the  large  majority 
had  been  illegally  acquired.  Owners  could  urge  no  just  claim 
for  compensation  in  such  a  case — ^nor  yet  in  Mgeria  for  slaves 
captured  amid  aU  the  horrors  of  raiding  expeditions.  It 
would  be  monstrous,  said  Lord  Grey,  to  reward  those  who 
trade  in  slaves. 

What  then  shoidd  be  our  attitude  towards  masters  and 
slaves  respectively  ?  Sudden  emancipation  had  not  proved 
a  success,  either  in  the  West  Indies  or  when  adopted  by  the 
Chartered  Company  ia  the  case  of  certain  batches  of  slaves 
in  East  Africa,*  whether  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
Government,  which  had  to  pay  heavy  compensation ;    the 

1  'Compensation  to  Slave-Ownere,'  p.  13. 

^  Clarke,  'Lavigerie  and  Slavery,'  p.  250.     Ingrain,  loc.  cit. 

s  Cd.  1631  of  1903,  p.  4. 


368  SLAVERY   IN   BRITISH  APEICA. 

owner,  who  could  obtain  no  labour  for  his  estates  ;  the  com- 
munity, which  was  disorganised ;  or  the  slave  himself,  who 
was  demoralised. 

Sir  John  Kirk,  as  ever,  was  ready  with  a  solution.  The 
East  India  Company  had,  he  pointed  out,  eradicated  slavery  ia 
British  India  without  injustice,  dislocation,  or  compensation, 
by  enacting  in  1843  the  abolition  of  its  legal  status,  and 
slavery  had  died  a  natural  death.^  Alternatively,  as  Portugal 
did  in  1858,  emancipation  without  compensation  coTild  be 
decreed  at  a  date  sufficiently  distant  to  give  the  owners  time 
to  prepare  for  the  change.  Preferably  the  two  methods 
should  be  combined  by  enacting,  simultaneously  with  the 
abolition  of  the  legal  status,  that  aU  children  born  and  all 
persons  brought  iato  the  country  subsequent  to  that  date 
are  free.  This  was  the  course  adopted  in  Northern  Nigeria. 
That  the  question  is  a  social  and  not  a  reUgious  one  was 
shown  by  the  action  of  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar — a  strict 
Mohamedan — who  of  his  own  initiative  decreed  the  aboUtion 
of  slavery  io.  the  northern  ports  of  his  dominions,  and  again 
by  the  acquiescence  of  the  Mgerian  Emirs. 

By  aboUshiag  slavery  as  a  status  known  to  the  law,  per- 
missive freedom  is  granted  to  the  slave.  He  becomes  endowed 
with  full  civic  rights.  He  can  sue  for  iU-treatment,  and 
cannot  be  seized  if  he  leaves  his  master  and  asserts  his  free- 
dom. The  institution  of  domestic  slavery  is  not  thereby 
abolished,  as  would  be  the  case  under  a  decree  of  general 
emancipation.  A  master  is  not  compelled  to  dismiss  his 
slaves,  and  so  long  as  the  two  work  harmoniously  together 
the  law  does  not  interfere.  But  the  slave  has  the  power  of 
asserting  his  freedom  at  any  time,  and  his  master  is  action- 
able if  he  resorts  to  force  to  recover  him. 

The  proposal,  of  course,  only  apphes  to  Moslem  countries, 
which  possess  a  regular  code  of  law — ^which  we  have  accepted 
unless  opposed  to  local  ordinances  or  the  dictates  of  humanity.^ 

^  The  decree  of  1843  did  not  (as  Lord  Salisbury  pointed  out)  affect  the  Native 
States  in  India.  The  universal  abolition  of  the  legal  status  in  Northern  Nigeria 
was  possible  because  the  Moslem  emirates  were  (as  I  emphasised  in  chapter  x. , 
p.  196  et  seq.)  constituted  as  dependent  and  not  as  independent  States,  though 
enjoying  a  large  measure  of  self-rule.  It  is  not  in  harmony  with  British  traditions 
that  British  courts  should  recognise  slavery,  as  they  must  do  unless  the  institution 
has  been  expressly  repudiated  as  a  status  known  to  the  law. 

^  Since  the  acceptance  of  Koranic  law  is  thus  limited  in  a  British  protectorate, 
the  abolition  of  the  legal  status  is  not  an  arbitrary  interference  with  the  lex  loci 
as  argued  by  the  apologists  of  slavery. 


EFFECT   OP  ABOLITION   OF  LEGAL   STATUS.  369 

In  non-Moslem  countries  the  institution  of  slavery  has  no 
legal  status,  and  should  be  absolutely  and  entirely  abolished 
in  aU  its  forms,  and  no  claim  or  argument  based  on  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  in  such  countries  should  be  recognised,  either 
judicially  or  executively  ;  nor  can  Moslems  outside  the  Umits 
of  the  districts  in  which  Moslem  law  is  recognised  have  any 
claim  to  be  dealt  with  otherwise  than  under  the  lex  loci. 

We  have  seen  that  sudden  emancipation — compulsory  ahke 
on  owner  and  slave — although  it  might  be  strictly  justifiable, 
on  the  grounds  that  the  slaves  had  been  acquired  in  violation 
of  treaties,  or  in  opposition  to  the  teaching  of  the  Koran 
(which  condemns  slave-raiding,  though  admitting  the  right 
to  enslave  infidel  captives  of  war),  would  be  inexpedient  and 
disastrous  in  its  results.  It  would  moreover  create  a  bitter 
feeling  of  injustice,  especially  when  the  slaves  had  been 
iaherited  or  bought  for  cash.  The  aboUtion  of  the  legal 
status  is,  on  the  contrary,  intended  to  be  gradual  and  pro- 
gressive in  its  operation — the  initiative  lying  with  the  slave 
and  not  with  the  law. 

The  owners,  reaUsiag  that  slaves  who  assert  their  freedom 
cannot  be  recaptured  or  replaced,  are  compelled  to  treat  them 
with  kindness — a  result  which  was  at  once  apparent  no  less 
in  East  Africa  (as  Consul  Monson  relates)  than  in  West  Africa. 
Slave-dealing  is  simultaneously  prohibited,  and  any  attempt 
to  seU  would  be  rare,  for  the  slave  would  not  consent.  A 
free  labour  market  is  encouraged.  The  secret  acquisition  of 
raw  slaves,  except  small  children,  is  not  worth  the  risk,  for 
they  cannot  be  recovered  if  they  desert.  The  continued  ex- 
istence of  slavery  under  such  conditions  can  only  be  tem- 
porary (for  all  children  are  born  free),  and  domestic  slavery 
ceases  to  be  an  incentive  to  the  slave-trade. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  step  was  not  at  once  taken 
when  Zanzibar  was  declared  a  British  protectorate,  seeing 
that  our  Government  had  for  years  urged  it  upon  the  Sultan.^ 
Eecognition  of  the  rights  of  owners  was  even  impUed  in  the 
edict  of  August  1890 — issued  under  British  auspices,  in  spite 
of  the  Sultan's  decrees  of  1876  and  1889.  Pressure  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  Government  in  the  important  de- 
bates of  1894  and  1895,  when  Mr  Chamberlain,  with  Mr  Pease 
(now  Lord  Gainford)  and  others,  fought  the  battle  of  the  slave, 

1  See  Sir  J.  Kirk's  deBpatoh  to  Lord  Granville  of  11th  November  1884,  quoted 
by  Mr  Pease  in  the  debate  of  June  1894. — Hansard,  p.  239. 

2  A 


370  SLAVERY   IN   BRITISH   AFRICA. 

and  I,  with  Sir  John  Kirk  as  my  referee,  was  privileged  to 
supply  him  with  some  of  the  facts  and  figures  he  needed. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  6th  April  1897  that  the  Sultan, 
at  the  instance  of  the  British  Government,  at  last  issued  a 
decree  aboHsMng  the  legal  status.  At  that  time  there  were 
still  about  100,000  slaves  in  the  islands.  The  decree  was 
subjected  to  severe  criticism  in  the  debate  of  11th  February 
1898,  on  the  ground  that  it  extended  to  the  islands  only  and 
not  to  the  mainland,  that  concubines  were  exempted  from 
participation  in  its  provisions,  and  that  it  prescribed  such 
elaborate  procedure  that  not  more  than  twenty  or  thirty 
slaves  had  been  able  to  obtain  their  freedom  in  six  months.^ 

That  the  Government  was  right  in  its  endeavour  to  prevent 
a  wholesale  assertion  of  freedom,  and  so  precipitate  the  evils 
I  have  described,  no  sensible  man  will  deny,  but  the  method 
adopted  by  the  Foreign  Office  was  open  to  criticism.  "  The 
aboUtion  of  the  legal  status,"  said  Mr  (now  Marquis)  Curzon, 
"  means  that  every  slave  is  at  liberty  to  go  to  a  court,  consti- 
tuted for  the  purpose,  and  claim  his  freedom."  If  the  status 
is  no  longer  recognised  by  the  law,  how  can  a  person  be  held 
in  a  state  of  slavery,  with  the  cognisance  and  approval  of 
Government,  until  a  court  has  adjudicated  on  his  case  ?  To 
make  it  a  necessary  antecedent  to  the  recognition  of  freedom, 
that  a  slave  should  appear  before  a  court  and  show  adequate 
means  of  subsistence,  is,  in  fact,  a  recognition  of  the  slave- 
status  by  the  court,  which,  if  it  refuses  liberation,  illegally 
relegates  the  applicant  to  continuance  in  slavery.^ 

'  An  excellent  summary  of  the  action  taken  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  Sultan's 
dominions  may  be  found  in  the  Admiralty  Handbook  on  Kenya,  pp.  501-503  and 
577-580. 

^  The  debate  afforded  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  peculiarly  British  methods 
of  ignoring  opportunities  of  consulting  meu  of  experience  which  our  great 
Departments  of  State  adopt.  When  challenged  as  to  the  reason  why  concubines 
were  excluded  from  the  decree,  the  Under-Secretary  cited  the  recommendations 
of  a  young  man  who  had  been  sent  out  by  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  to  report  on 
their  behalf,  instead  of  referring  to  the  man  whose  verdict  would  have  been 
accepted  without  question,  who  had  been  twenty  years  Consul  at  Zanzibar,  was 
British  plenipotentiary  at  Brussels,  and  was  an  experienced  man  of  affairs. 


371 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

SLAVEET  IN  BEiTiSH  AFRICA  (Continued). 

The  legal  status  and  native  courts — The  change  must  be  gradual — 
"House-rule" — Method  of  checking  undue  haste — Justification  of 
methods — Results  in  Nigeria — Women  and  slavery — Purchase  of  wife 
or  concubine — Employment  of  ex-slaves  by  Europeans — By  natives 
in  Government  service — Enlistment  of  slaves— Self-redemption  and 
ransom  —  Slave-dealing  —  Pawning  —  Disposal  of  freed  slaves  :  (a) 
adults  ;  (6)  children — Inheritance  in  slaves — Special  cases — Women- 
husbands — "  Igba  "  in  Benin — Slave-chiefs— The  task  of  the  past  and 
of  the  future. 

Until  the  Government  policy  has  become  well  understood, 
and  acquiesced  in  by  the  Moslem  rulers  and  judges,  all  slave 
cases  should  be  heard  in  a  British  court.  Later  the  native 
courts  may  be  trusted  to  deal  with  them, — under  the  close 
supervision  of  the  British  staff  until  they  have  proved  them- 
selves thoroughly  reliable.  Native  courts  in  Moslem  districts 
administer  Mohamedan  law  (which  recognises  slavery),  and 
so  long  as  the  institution  is  not  Ulegal  they  must  continually 
be  deaUng  with  civil  suits  in  which  the  existence  of  the  status 
cannot  be  whoUy  ignored,  and  in  particular  it  is  desirable 
that  they  should  issue  certificates  of  freedom  to  ransomed 
slaves,  since  these  have  a  special  value  in  a  Moslem  com- 
munity when  issued  by  the  acknowledged  exponents  of  the 
Koran.    How  is  this  difficulty  to  be  met  ? 

In  the  first  place,  though  native  courts  administer  native 
law  only,  that  law  is  superseded  by  any  ordinances  by  Govern- 
ment. Native  courts  are  bound,  therefore,  to  recognise  in 
their  judicial  decisions  that  slave-dealing  is  an  offence,  and 
that  slavery  has  no  legal  existence.  They  cannot  assist  in 
detaining  a  slave  or  in  enforcing  the  return  of  a  nmaway, 
nor  can  they  discriminate  in  a  judgment  or  sentence  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that  the  defendant  or  accused  is  or  was  a 


372  SLAVERY   m   BRITISH   AFRICA. 

slave,  or  because  the  fault  or  damage  was  committed  by  or 
upon  a  slave.  But  in  civil  suits  they  can  use  their  powers 
of  arbitration  and  conciliation  with  a  due  appreciation  of 
aU  the  facts,  including  the  fact  that  one  party  has  of  his  own 
free  will  accepted  the  relation  of  unpaid  servant  to  another 
person,  in  return  for  food,  lodgiag,  &c.  In  order,  however, 
that  there  may  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  legality  of  the  ransom 
paper,  a  special  authorising  clause  is  inserted  in  the  Mgerian 
ordinance. 

But  if  every  slave  can  leave  his  master  at  will,  what,  it 
may  be  asked,  is  to  prevent  a  sudden  exodus,  which  would 
M  the  cities  with  vagrants,  criminals,  and  prostitutes,  and 
pauperise  the  ruling  classes,  whom  it  is  our  desire  to  support 
and  strengthen  ?  If  slaves  were  encouraged  to  assert  their 
freedom  wholesale,  there  would  only  be  a  difference  in  degree 
between  this  method  and  that  of  sudden  and  enforced  emanci- 
pation, and  those  owners  who,  prior  to  the  British  rule,  had 
under  Moslem  law  legally  acquired  their  slaves  by  inheritance 
or  purchase,  would  be  justly  entitled  to  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  their  property. 

For  the  sake,  therefore,  ahke  of  justice  to  the  owners  and 
in  the  interest  of  the  slaves  themselves,  the  Government  (as 
Zebehr  urged)  must  do  aU  in  its  power  to  make  the  change 
as  gradual  as  possible,  and  to  give  time  for  its  constructive 
policy  to  mature.  This  was  the  dilemma  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  embarrassed  the  Government  of  Zanzibar. 

In  Southern  Mgeria,  though  not  under  Moslem  law,  the 
Government,  faced  with  the  same  difficulty,  enforced  by 
ordinance  the  authority  of  the  head  of  the  "  house  "  over  all 
its  members,  who  were  chiefly  recruited  by  slaves,  and  thus 
under  the  name  of  "  house-rule "  it  practically  legalised 
slavery.  Government  pohce  actually  arrested  without  war- 
rant and  restored  fugitive  slaves  to  their  masters,  nor  was 
any  person,  European  or  native,  allowed  to  employ  a  "  mem- 
ber "  without  the  consent  of  the  head  of  the  house.^    These 

^  The  ordinance  was  passed  at  a  time  when  the  local  GoTernment  was  almost 
powerless  to  enforce  its  authority  on  the  tribes,  armed  as  they  were  with  Snider 
rifles.  It  was  repealed  shortly  after  the  amalgamation.  In  his  address  to  the 
Nigerian  Council  in  December  1920  (delivered  since  these  pages  were  written), 
my  successor,  Sir  H.  Clifford,  speaks  with  regret  of  the  "  abolition  of  house-rule, 
since  nothing  was  contrived  to  take  its  place."  House-rule  was  never  abolished, 
though  the  ordinance,  which  gave  to  its  worst  features  the  support  of  the 
law  and  of  Government  police,  was  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  State  (with 
my   entire  concurrence)   repealed.      A   scheme   which   I   had   suggested,   with 


HOUSEHOLD  SLAVES.  373 

"  houses  "  were  a  unique  institution  on  the  West  Coast,  and 
were  primarily  large  native  trading  concerns.  The  house- 
rule  system  is  more  likely,  I  thiak,  to  have  owed  its  origia 
to  the  powerful  slave-trading  chiefs,  who  in  former  days  acted 
as  purveyors  of  slaves  for  the  overseas  trafBc,  than  to  the 
patriarchal  authority  of  the  father  of  the  family  or  tribe,  as 
asserted  by  Mr  Morel.^  With  the  cessation  of  the  slave-trade 
the  houses  for  some  years  exercised  a  monopoly  of  the  general 
trade  with  the  interior.  It  is  not,  however,  necessary  to 
resort  to  either  of  the  courses  adopted  in  Zanzibar  and  in 
Southern  Mgeria,  which  in  effect  are  a  denial  of  the  pledges 
of  Government. 

We  have  seen  that  slaves  are  of  two  classes — household 
and  predial.  The  household  slave,  born  or  long  resident  in 
his  master's  house,  would  rarely  desire  to  assert  his  freedom 
unless  he  were  a  loafer  and  bad  character,  or  his  master  had 
ill-treated  or  threatened  to  seU  him,  or  unless  he  had  been 
recently  acquired.  He  would  have  become  too  dependent 
on  his  master,  and  unaccustomed  to  exercise  initiative  and 
free-will.  He  would  have  nowhere  to  go  and  no  resources, 
while  he  sees  around  him  the  poverty  of  the  vagrants  in  the 
great  cities.  He  is  generally  apathetic,  tolerant  of  control 
by  nature,  and  prefers  even  to  endure  much  Ul-treatment 
rather  than  make  a  change,  the  consequences  of  which  he 
cannot  foresee.  Moreover,  master  and  slave  are  often  much 
attached  to  each  other,  and  the  slave  knows  that  in  case  of 
sickness,  &c.,  his  wife  and  children  wiU  be  cared  for.  Even 
if  recently  captured  ia  a  raid,  he  knows  that  his  home  is  de- 
stroyed, or  if  kidnapped,  that  his  family  will  already  have 
been  broken  up. 

With  the  abolition  of  the  legal  status  and  the  prohibition 
of  slave-deaUng,  he  no  longer  fears  to  be  sold  away  from  the 
connections  he  has  formed,  and  he  is  fairly  contented.^  Afri- 
cans of  the  lower  classes,  moreover,  love  to  attach  themselves 

the  hearty  support  of  those  who  knew  the  country  best,  to  strengthen  the 
legitimate  functions  of  the  "houses"  was  not  approved  by  Mr  Harcourt.  For 
a  fuller  description  of  the  ordinance,  see  Cmd.   468/1920,  §  23. 

1  '  Nigeria,'  Morel,  pp.  62,  63. 

^  In  the  days  of  unchecked  slavery,  slaves  did  desert  In  considerable  numbers, 
especially  from  the  Arab  plantations  on  the  mainland  of  East  Africa,  and 
founded  stockaded  villages  such  as  Fuladoyo,  in  spite  of  the  reprisals  taken 
by  the  Arabs  on  tribes  which  harboured  them. — '  Rise  of  East  African  Empire,' 
vol.  i.  p.  231.  In  Nigeria,  the  capture  of  fugitive  slaves  was  a  lucrative  trade 
for  villages  on  the  main  routes. 


374  SLAVERY  m  BRITISH  AFRICA. 

to  a  "  big  man."  Ex-slaves  will  do  so — not  necessarily  to 
their  late  master.  The  master,  aware  that  his  slave  can 
leave  him  at  wUl,  and  cannot  be  reclaimed  by  force,  or  re- 
placed by  purchase,  is  compelled  to  treat  him  with  kindness. 
All  these  are  reasons  which  operate  to  make  the  household 
slave  chary  of  asserting  his  independence;  many  of  them 
apply  to  the  predial  slave  also.^  Those,  however,  who  have 
been  brought  into  contact  with  the  system  of  free  labour  learn 
to  value  freedom  to  earn  wages,  with  which  to  buy  what 
they  Uke,  for  slavery  and  free  lalsour  cannot  long  exist  side 
by  side. 

If  the  slave  asserts  his  freedom,  it  is  generally  in  the  form 
of  an  appeal  for  other  employment.  The  executive  officer 
inquires  into  his  case,  and  if  there  is  good  cause,  such  as  ill- 
treatment,  he  gives  him  a  liberation  paper,  and  finds  him 
some  Government  employment  on  wages,  and  would  encour- 
age any  individuals  who  show  initiative  and  a  real  love  of 
freedom  to  engage  themselves  as  free  labourers.  In  such  a 
case  native  opinion  is  fairly  satisfied.  If,  however,  there  is 
a  wholesale  movement  of  domestic  slaves  to  leave  their 
masters,  he  would  refuse  employment,  or  asylum  in  a  Govern- 
ment township,  to  those  who  had  no  good  cause.  In  the  last 
resort,  if  a  fugitive  slave  is  claimed  by  his  owner,  and  the 
officer  is  aware  that  his  decision  is  being  awaited  by  large 
numbers  of  others,  and  may  be  the  signal  for  a  wholesale 
rising  or  exodus,  it  would  even  be  expedient  to  avoid  the 
issue  by  conniving  at  the  escape  of  the  fugitive,  or  to  place 
the  town  under  special  rules  for  the  public  safety.  These 
were  serious  contingencies  at  one  time  in  Nigeria,  but  have 
long  ceased  to  exist. 

It  is,  however,  the  predial  slaves  who  are  generally  the  first 
to  assert  their  freedom,  by  declining  to  work  or  to  bring  the 
produce  of  their  fields  to  their  master.  They  desire  to  be  free 
of  all  restraints,  taxes,  and  obligations  either  to  a  master  or 
to  the  State.  Here  agata  inquiry  will  establish  whether  or 
not  the  assertion  is  justified.    If  not,  the  slaves  can  be  told 

^  In  Sokoto,  in  former  times,  owners  of  refractory  or  idle  slaves  were 
accustomed  to  transfer  them  temporarily  or  by  sale  to  the  Zabermawa  settlers, 
who  were  notoriously  hard  and  merciless,  making  the  slaves  work  in  chains 
in  the  fields,  with  a  bare  subsistence  and  no  family  life,  and  brutal  punishments. 
These  Zabermawa  now  own  very  few  slaves,  and  their  large  farms  went  out 
of  cultivation  at  the  British  occupation  of  Nigeria,  and  have  since  been  taken 
up  by  others. — Report  of  1918. 


AVOIDANCB  OF  SUDDEN  CHANGE.  375 

that  so  long  as  they  live  in  a  house,  and  work  on  land  which 
does  not  belong  to  them,  the  native  court  can  and  will  enforce 
an  adequate  return  in  labour  ;  at  the  same  time  an  offer  of 
payment  for  definite  work  would  be  made,  and  this  would 
probably  soon  develop  into  ordinary  paid  laboiir  and  a  con- 
tract enforceable  in  court. 

But  very  possibly  the  reply  of  the  slaves  may  be  that  they 
desire  to  take  up  new  land,  and  build  themselves  huts.  If  it 
is  imperative  at  the  moment  to  exert  a  temporary  check,  the 
Government  may  decline  to  grant  the  land,  except  to  those 
who  have  made  out  a  good  case.  They  are,  however,  at  Ub- 
erty  to  assert  their  freedom  and  offer  themselves  as  labourers 
for  wages,  and  the  masters  would  be  urged  to  accept  aU  who 
so  offered.  "  A  large  mmaber  of  slaves  at  Sokoto  have  acquired 
a  practical  freedom,  because  their  masters  have  encouraged 
them  to  earn  their  own  living  and  become  independent. 
The  slave  has  his  own  house  and  family  and  occupation,  and 
is  entirely  free  except  for  occasional  calls  for  such  work  as 
repairing  the  master's  house ;  occasional  presents  of  6d.  or 
Is.  may  be  given,  more  as  a  mark  of  goodwill  than  a  quit- 
tance of  real  obligation."  ^  The  case  of  women  is  complicated 
by  questions  of  marriage,  concubinage,  dowries,  and  divorce, 
and  merits  a  separate  paragraph. 

Such  measures  may  seem  to  constitute  an  arbitrary  inter- 
ference with  natural  laws  of  progress,  and  even  to  place  the 
executive  in  a  spirit  of  antagonism  towards  the  full  operation 
of  the  law.  But  they  are  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  equity  to 
the  owner,  and  for  the  real  benefit  of  the  slave.  They  are 
suited  only  to  a  brief  period  of  transition,  which  can  be 
hastened  by  judicious  explanations  to  master  and  slave  aUke. 
They  wiU  not  arrest  or  defeat  the  operation  of  the  law,  but 
only  make  it  more  gradual.  A  sympathetic  executive  intends 
that  every  slave  in  the  country  shall  have  fuU  knowledge  in 
due  course  that  he  can  assert  his  freedom  if  he  desires,  and 
wiU  be  supported  in  his  action  by  Government.  The  object 
in  view  is  to  restrain  an  ignorant  class  from  rushing  into 
precipitate  action,  and  to  allow  time  for  employers  and 
labourers  to  grow  accustomed  to  freed  paid  labour,  and  for 
Government  to  assist  in  facUitating  that  result. 

An  adequate  currency  for  the  payment  of  wages  is  essential 

'  Extract  from  report  of  June  1918,  by  Mr  Arnett,  Resident  of  Sokoto 
(Nigeria). 


376  SLATEET  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

to  the  creation  of  a  free  paid-laboiir  market,  for  if  an  employer 
is  compelled  to  pay  in  kind,  by  instalments  as  they  become 
available,  and  at  arbitrary  valuations,  the  employee  is  un- 
able to  save  wages  with  which  to  purchase  what  he  may 
desire,  and,  in  fact,  the  conditions  approximate  to  the  slavery 
system.  If  a  slave  is  in  debt  to  his  master,  the  fact  raises 
no  bar  to  his  assertion  of  freedom.  The  creditor  has  the  same 
remedy  in  the  courts  as  in  the  case  of  a  freeman. 

Civihsed  countries  in  the  twentieth  century  have  their 
labour  difi&culties — though  in  a  different  form, — of  which  a 
writer  pertinently  remarks :  "If  we  are  to  legislate  to  any 
purpose,  we  must  not  be  content  with  denouncing  them  as 
anachronisms,  or  as  contrary  to  Christian  principles.  They 
may  be  both,  but  they  exist.  It  is  not  a  question  of  what  we 
would  hke  to  do,  but  of  what  we  can  do  to  abate  an  evil 
without  causiag  more  mischief  than  we  can  cure."  It  is 
surely  very  striking  that  words  written  of  the  situation  in 
England  to-day  should  be  so  hteraUy  applicable  to  the  diffi- 
culties I  have  been  discussing. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulty  created  by  the  widespread  belief 
that  the  advent  of  British  rule  meant  that  the  whole  slave 
population  would  be  free  to  leave  their  work  and  do  what 
they  chose,  the  methods  adopted  have  succeeded  in  Mgeria, 
where,  owing  to  the  tact  and  sympathetic  counsel  of  the 
district  staff,  it  has  hardly  ever  been  necessary  to  exert  these 
restraints.  The  transitional  stage  has  been  negotiated  with- 
out any  social  upheaval,  without  payment  of  compensation, 
and  without  any  resulting  bitterness  on  the  part  of  owners. 
The  records  show  21,980  Uberated  by  the  native  courts  in 
the  Sokoto  Province  alone,  and  a  total  of  over  55,000  so 
liberated  ia  the  northern  provinces  to  the  end  of  1917,  a 
period  of  some  fourteen  years.  The  slaves  on  their  part, 
influenced  by  custom  and  by  public  opinion,  are  willing  and 
anxious  to  pay  the  ransom  money.  Many  villages  of  ex- 
slaves  have  been  formed.  To-day,  generally  speaking,  it  may 
be  said  that  in  the  Moslem  States  in  Mgeria  there  are  no 
slaves  who  are  not  well  aware  that  they  can  assert  their 
freedom  if  they  choose ;  that  the  masters  recognise  these 
facts,  and  are  ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  methods  of  liberation 
approved  by  native  law  and  custom,  and  accepted  without 
any  coercion  whatever  by  the  slave,  and  that  the  native 
courts  administer  the  law  freely,  impartially,  and  liberally. 


WOMEN  AND   SLAVERY.  377 

"  Slavery  in  its  strict  sense  is  already  dead,"  says  Mr  Gowers 
(now  Lieut.-Govemor  of  Northern  Provinces  of  Nigeria)  ; 
"  the  so-called  slaves  who  still  remain  are  rather  servants 
than  slaves." 

These  are  methods  adapted  to  a  Moslem  protectorate,  and 
their  success  depends  on  their  sympathetic  application.  They 
are,  of  course,  unnecessary  in  a  Crown  colony,  since  slavery 
is  illegal,  though  I  am  told  there  are  slaves  in  the  Gold  Coast. 
Nor  should  they  be  necessary  in  any  non-Moslem  protectorate 
or  district,  for  in  these,  as  I  have  said,  slavery  should  be 
absolutely  abolished.^ 

The  rights  claimed  over  the  person  of  a  woman  by  reason 
of  her  status  as  a  slave  are  compUcated  by  the  rights  claimed 
over  her  as  a  wife  or  concubine,  based  it  may  be  on  payment 
of  the  "  dowry."  The  sale  of  a  girl,  often  of  immature  age, 
for  the  purpose  of  forcible  concubinage  with  a  man  whom  she 
may  fear  and  loathe  is  one  of  the  worst  aspects  of  slavery, 
while  the  purchase  of  slave  concubines  by  the  powerful  and 
wealthy  classes  to  gratify  their  own  desires,  deprives  the  class 
from  which  these  girls  are  drawn  of  their  proper  complement 
as  wives.  I  am,  however,  concerned  in  this  chapter  to  view 
the  question  rather  from  the  point  of  view  of  "  slavery  " 
than  from  that  of  morality. 

Concubinage  is  a  recognised  relationship  under  Moslem  law, 
and  applies  only  to  female  slaves  who  have  sexual  relations 
with  their  masters,  since  a  man  caimot  marry  his  own  female 
slave,  ^  and  concubinage  with  a  free  woman  is  Olegal,  and 
constitutes  the  sin  of  "  Zinat  "  (adultery).  A  slave  concubine 
who  has  borne  a  living  child  to  her  master  is,  however,  prac- 
tically freed  during  his  life,  and  invariably  liberated  at  his 
death. 

Dowry  is,  properly  speaking,  given  to  a  wife  only.  If  a 
concubine  has  received  presents  from  her  master,  they  should 
be  regarded  as  having  been  liquidated  by  his  sexual  relations 
with  her,  and  if  she  asserts  her  freedom  (as  she  has  a  perfect 
right  to  do  when  the  legal  status  is  abolished),  he  can  neither 
claim  their  return,  nor  any  rights  over  her  on  the  grounds 
that  she  is  in  his  debt,  nor  can  he  retain  her  children  as  being 
his  slaves. 

1  The  Slavery  Ordinance  1916  decreed  the  emancipation  of  all  persons  "here- 
tofore or  hereafter  bom  in  or  brought  into  "  Southern  Nigeria. 
^  'Malaki  Law,'  Ruxton,  chapter  iii.,  section  3,  sub-section  9. 


378  SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH  AFRICA. 

If  a  slave  woman  is  married  to  a  man — whether  slave  or 
free — and  wishes  to  leave  him  and  marry  another  man  (who 
is  willing  to  ransom  her),  the  matter  must  be  decided  solely 
by  the  marriage  laws.  She  can  obtain  a  divorce  on  repay- 
ment of  the  dowry — ^for  Moslem  law  holds  that  it  is  futile  to 
attempt  to  detain  a  woman  who  has  made  up  her  mind  to 
go — and  she  can  assert  her  freedom  without  ransom  ;  but  it 
is  more  usual  for  the  intending  husband  to  ransom  her,  and 
obtain  a  certificate  of  freedom  from  the  native  court.  The 
ransom  money  is  indeed  often  an  equitable  return  from  a 
household  slave  for  the  maintenance  she  has  received  in  her 
master's  house. 

It  must  be  made  clear  to  persons  who  ransom  a  woman, 
and  if  necessary  to  native  courts  also,  that  siace  ransom 
money  is  not  dowry,  if  a  ransomed  wife  or  concubine  leaves 
her  ransomer  he  cannot  claim  the  ransom  money  from  her, 
or  from  her  new  husband,  or  the  return  of  presents  given  to 
her  parents  or  others.  He  can  only  claim  the  dowry  money 
given  to  her.  Nor  is  a  court  justified  in  refusing  to  allow  the 
new  husband  to  retain  the  woman  unless  he  repays  the  ransom 
money.  On  the  other  hand,  the  payment  of  ransom  gives  the 
ransomer  no  rights  in  the  woman,  and  if  he  treats  her  as  a 
slave,  he  is  liable  for  slave- dealing.  She  was  freed  when 
ransomed,  whether  as  a  wife  or  concubine.^  Native  opinion 
in  Mgeria  strongly  upheld  this  view.  It  was  pointed  out  by 
a  native  judge  that,  although  the  ransomer  apparently  suffered 
hardship  if  the  woman  left  him,  it  was  generally  his  own 
fault,  because,  though  he  had  nominally  ransomed  the  woman, 
he  had  treated  her  as  a  slave,  and  so  caused  her  to  leave  him  ; 
that  if  he  could  claim  the  ransom  money  back  it  became,  in 
fact,  purchase  money  and  not  ransom  ;  and,  finally,  that  if 
no  man  could  marry  such  a  woman  without  repaying  her 
ransom  as  well  as  dowry,  no  one  would  be  willing  to  do  so, 
and  she  would  remaia  unmarried  and  probably  become  a 
prostitute. 

I  have  said  that  concubinage  with  a  free  woman  is  un- 
lawful, and  the  effect  therefore  of  the  abolition  of  domestic 
slavery  is  to  abolish  the  system  of  concubinage  among  Mos- 

'  So  jealous  are  the  Mohamedan  judges  of  the  enforcement  of  the  spirit  of 
the  law,  that  I  am  informed  that  at  Sototo  they  hesitated  to  recognise 
ransom  by  an  intending  husband  lest  the  girl  should  consider  herself  his 
slave. 


CONOnBINAGE  AND  RANSOM.  379 

lems,^  a  result  whicli  is  only  deferred  by  the  enactment  that 
all  children  born  after  a  certain  date  are  free.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  this  result  is  one  which  is  exceeding  obnoxious 
to  the  slave-owning  classes.^  Already  in  Nigeria  it  has  given 
rise  to  an  evasion  of  the  law.  A  rich  man  promises  to  give 
a  native  court  liberation  certificate  to  a  slave-girl  whom  he 
desires  as  a  concubine,  but  instead  of  declaring  her  free  before 
the  native  judge,  he  states  that  he  ransoms  her  and  "  places 
her  in  his  house  " — a  phrase  which  is  imderstood  to  mean  that 
while  she  remains  there  (as  his  concubine)  she  is  stiU  a  slave 
— and  hence  the  Koranic  law  is  not  violated — ^but  the  moment 
she  leaves  him  she  is  free.  The  result  is  a  curious  anomaly. 
He  cannot  restrain  her,  for  she  has  been  freed.  She  can 
leave  her  ransomer  at  will  and  marry  whom  she  hkes.  She 
is  even  more  free  than  the  wife,  for  she  need  get  no  divorce, 
and  has  no  dowry  to  repay.  Cases  have  occurred  of  girls 
inducing  rich  men  to  ransom  them  as  concubines,  ia  order 
that  they  may  immediately  leave  them  and  marry  some  one 
else. 

The  immediate  effect  of  these  conditions  in  a  Moslem  dis- 
trict is  to  restrict  large  harems,  for  the  master  has  to  pay 
ransom  money  for  each  concubine,  and  his  possession  of  her 
is  precarious.  The  master  is  also  compelled  to  treat  his  con- 
cubine well,  for  fear  of  losing  both  her  and  the  money  he 
paid  for  her  ransom. 

It  is  customary  for  the  suitor  to  pay  not  only  the  dowry — 
which  must  be  applied  to  the  use  of  the  bride — ^but  also  to 
give  presents  to  her  parents.  It  is  obviously  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  sale  of  a  girl  by  her  parents,  and  their 
acceptance  of  large  presents  for  their  consent  to  her  marriage 
or  concubinage.     But  since  a  child  is  not  the  slave  of  its 

^  The  Moslem  judge  of  Bida  (Nigeria)  ruled  that  "all  concubinage  proceeds 
from  sale,  and  any  one  who  procures  a  concubine,  and  pays  a  monetary  consider- 
ation in  respect  of  her,  in  fact  buys  her,  whether  she  was  previously  free  or  a 


^  I  have  even  been  informed  that  the  majority  of  owners  would  now  view 
with  indifference  the  abolition  of  slavery,  were  it  not  for  ' '  the  concubine 
question."  It  is  easy  to  be  contemptuous  of  prejudices  we  do  not  share,  and  to 
say  that  the  four  wives  allowed  to  a  Mohamedan  by  his  creed  should  suffice,  but 
to  the  Arab  or  the  Fulani  the  matter  wears  another  aspect.  It  is  often,  I 
believe,  the  fact  that  wives  of  their  own  race  are  sterile,  and  they  desire  concu- 
bines of  the  more  virile  African  races  to  rear  their  children,  nor  is  it  unnatural 
that  they  should  hesitate  to  adopt  by  marriage  into  their  own  social  class,  slave- 
women  of  a  lower  social  grade.  These  prejudices,  however,  will  have  to  give 
way. 


380  SLAVERY  IN  BRITISH  APRICA. 

parents,  it  follows  that  if  they  hand  over  a  daughter  to  be 
the  concubine  of  a  Moslem — -e.g.,  his  slave — both  the  parents 
and  the  man  who  acquires  her  are  guilty  of  enslaving  if  she 
is  free-born  (as  aU  under  twenty  are  now  in  Mgeria),  or  of 
the  transfer  of  a  slave  if  she  is  slave-bom. 

If  a  master  accepts  a  sum  of  money  as  a  "  present  "  for 
allowing  his  slave-girl  to  marry,  and  does  not  liberate  the 
woman  before  a  native  court,  he  would  be  Uable  to  prosecu- 
tion for  the  sale  or  transfer  of  a  slave. 

Among  non-Moslem  communities — ^whether  professing  Chris- 
tians or  pagans — ^it  is  perhaps  even  more  difficult  to  distin- 
guish between  the  payment  of  dowry  and  the  purchase  of  a 
female  slave.  If  the  principle  that  the  dowry  is  given  to  a 
bride  and  to  no  one  else,  and  that  no  one  except  the  real 
parents  may  receive  any  present  (and  then  only  of  limited 
amount)  is  observed,  a  step  would  have  been  taken  towards 
putting  down  this  detestable  traffic ;  but  so  engrained  and 
so  universal  is  the  conception  of  wife  purchase,  that  I  fear 
it  will  be  long  before  the  progress  of  education  wiU  effect 
the  emancipation  of  women.  Were  the  repayment  of  the 
dowry  by  the  man  with  whom  a  wife  had  eloped  to  be  done 
away  with,  the  only  check  to  promiscuous  intercourse  would 
be  removed  among  tribes  whose  standard  of  morality  is  very 
low. 

Slavery,  as  I  have  said,  should  be  totally  abohshed  in 
every  non-Moslem  country,  but  if  for  some  sufficient  reason 
this  is  not  possible,  it  should  at  least  be  abohshed  in  the 
case  of  women.  In  Moslem  countries  the  aboUtion  of  the 
legal  status,  as  I  have  shown,  practically  destroys  concu- 
binage. For  the  rest,  if  a  woman  slave  desires  to  remain 
with  her  master,  and  marries  a  fellow-slave,  she  may  well 
be  allowed  freedom  of  choice  as  to  her  husband. 

The  employment — of  course  for  wages — by  Europeans,  or 
on  pubhc  works,  of  slaves  Uberated  by  Government,  is  a 
matter  in  which  great  care  should  be  exercised,  for  any  seem- 
ing inconsistency  is  jealously  noted,  and  it  is  said  that  Govern- 
ment, while  depriving  the  owners  of  their  rights  in  their 
slaves,  connives  at  their  acquisition  by  its  employees  or  other 
Europeans.  It  should  therefore  be  a  rule  that  a  freed  slave 
child  should  be  paid  a  smaU  wage,  even  though  its  mainte- 
nance may  be  more  than  sufficient  recompense  for  the  small 
services  it  is  called  on  to  perform. 


EMPLOYMENT  OP  SLAVES  BY  EUROPEANS.  381 

To  avoid  the  suspicion  of  any  ulterior  motive  by  Govern- 
ment in  its  slavery  policy,  it  should  also  be  the  rule  that  no 
slave  liberated  by  a  British  court  or  by  executive  order  should 
be  given  to  a  native  in  Government  employ,  either  as  wife  or 
servant,  except  with  express  sanction. 

In  East  Africa  in  former  times,  probably  the  majority  of 
the  "  porters "  who  composed  a  Government  or  private 
caravan  into  the  interior,  were  slaves  who  paid  the  greater 
part  of  their  earnings  to  their  masters  on  their  return.  This, 
it  was  alleged,  was  a  direct  encouragement  of  the  slave-trade, 
since  it  enabled  the  owners  to  make  large  profits,  with  which 
they  could  buy  more  slaves.  Access  to  the  interior  could  at 
that  time  only  be  gained  by  emplojlng  human  transport, 
and  as  long  as  Zanzibar  was  independent,  few  porters  could 
be  obtained  who  were  not  slaves.  I  arranged  with  the  owners 
a  scheme  of  self-redemption,  but  it  was  unfortunately  not 
pushed  with  energy  after  I  had  left.^ 

Circumstances  have  changed,  and  since  slave-dealing  is 
now  a  criminal  offence,  the  acquisition  of  new  slaves  is  im- 
possible under  a  vigilant  administration,  and  the  employment 
of  slave-labour  can  no  longer  increase  the  number  of  slaves. 
The  rule  should,  however,  be  made  that  no  slave  may  be 
employed,  either  on  Government  work  or  by  any  non-native, 
unless  under  a  contract  for  ransom — viz.,  that  the  slave  on 
payment  of  a  specified  sum  from  his  earnings  shall  receive 
a  liberation  certificate  from  the  native  court.  In  that  case 
a  deduction  could  be  made  from  his  wages,  but  the  slave 
would  himself  pay  over  the  ransom  money  to  the  native 
court.  Of  course  if  the  legal  status  had  been  aboUshed,  such 
an  arrangement  would  be  entirely  at  his  own  option,  since  he 
would,  if  he  desired,  be  able  to  assert  his  freedom  without  any 
payment.  If  in  the  beginnings  of  British  rule  in  a  Moslem 
State  there  was  no  free  labour  for  urgent  Government  work, 
and  none  could  be  imported,  it  might  be  necessary  to  accept 

■  'Rise  of  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  i.  p.  231.  An  interesting  case  recently 
arose  at  Sokoto  which  is  illustrative  of  the  native  point  of  view  in  such  cases. 
The  native  administration  maintains  a  number  of  "Dogarai"  (unarmed  police), 
many  of  whom  were  formerly  slaves  of  the  Sultan  and  chiefs.  An  owner  de- 
manded some  slight  service  from  one  of  these,  who  had  been  his  slave.  The 
Sultan  and  Council  condemned  his  claim,  on  the  ground  that  the  man  had 
previously  been  employed  by  the  chief  in  duties  similar  to  those  he  now  per- 
formed, and  not  for  private  gain.  They  considered  it,  they  said,  an  honour  that 
their  slaves  had  been  selected  for  these  public  duties.  They  were  therefore  all 
officially  freed. 


382  SLAVERY  IN   BRITISH   AFRICA. 

men  who  still  were  slaves,  but  their  wages  would  be  paid 
to  themselves,  and  no  claim  of  their  owners  would  be  recog- 
nised. 

It  would  be  desirable  that  no  person  in  Government  employ 
should  be  allowed  to  keep  a  slave,  but  in  Moslem  States  it 
would  be  invidious  to  place  high-class  Mohamedan  "  political 
agents,"  &c.,  under  disabilities  from  which  others  of  their 
own  standing  were  exempt ;  and  since  every  slave  can  assert 
his  freedom  at  will  or  claim  the  right  of  self-redemption,  the 
rule  is  unnecessary. 

In  the  case  of  soldiers  and  constables,  however,  the  pro- 
hibition has  for  many  years  been  enforced  in  Mgeria,  for 
these  men  are  apt  to  attach  to  themselves  wives,  or  small 
boys  or  girls,  and  it  is  impossible  to  prove  whether  they  have 
been  acquired  by  purchase  or  other  illicit  means,  or  have 
voluntarily  attached  themselves  to  them,  with  the  prospect 
of  good  food  and  Mttle  work.  If  an  ex-slave,  the  wife  or 
servant  must  be  iu  possession  of  a  native  court  liberation 
certificate,  and  the  commanding  officer  insists  on  some  small 
money  wage  being  paid  as  a  public  acknowledgment  that  the 
servant  is  free,  or  lest  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  should 
grow  up  between  them.  Those  authorised  are  entered  on  the 
company  register,  their  numbers  are  strictly  limited,  and 
every  care  is  taken  to  see  that  they  are  not  disposed  of,  espe- 
cially when  the  soldier  or  constable  goes  on  furlough  or  after 
his  discharge.  If  he  desires  to  ransom  a  woman  in  order  to 
marry  her,  he  may  receive  an  advance  for  the  purpose  under 
the  riales  applying  to  ransoms.  No  person,  whether  a  Govern- 
ment employee  or  not,  should  be  allowed  to  keep  any  slave 
in  a  colony  or  in  a  township.  All  persons  in  the  permanent 
service  of  Government  must,  of  course,  be  free. 

In  furtherance  of  the  policy  of  discouraging  too  rapid  an 
exodus  of  slaves  from  their  masters,  it  was  formerly  the  rule 
in  Nigeria  that  fugitive  slaves  should  not  be  enlisted  as  soldiers 
or  police,  and  a  recruit  before  being  enlisted  had  to  agree  to 
ransom  himself,  if  he  were  later  proved  to  be  a  slave.  If, 
however,  a  slave  succeeded  in  enlisting,  imder  no  circum- 
stances would  he  be  ordered  to  take  off  his  uniform  on  the 
grounds  that  he  was  claimed  as  a  slave.  These  rules  are  now 
relaxed,  but  any  recruit  who  acknowledges  himself  to  be  a 
slave  is  encouraged  to  obtain  a  native  court  certificate  by 
self-redemption. 


SELF-EEDEMPTION.  383 

With  the  abolition  of  the  legal  status  a  slave  can  assert 
his  freedom  without  payment,  but  so  strong  are  the  traditions 
of  slavery  that  native  opinion  does  not  readily  admit  that 
Uberation  by  a  British  Government  removes  the  stigma  of 
slavery.  A  slave  so  Uberated  is  a  "  white  man's  freedman," 
but  remains  de  jure  of  the  slave  caste  in  pubUc  opioion,  and, 
indeed,  in  his  own ;  for  the  slave  habituated  to  slavery  has 
learnt  to  regard  himself  as  the  property  of  another,  and  if 
he  has  embraced  Islam  he  feels  that  he  is  not  really  freed  by 
the  "  unbeHever's  "  act.  If  he  be  a  household  slave  he  may 
also  feel  a  flhal  duty  towards  his  master,  and  his  conscience 
is  not  satisfied  until  he  has  liquidated  the  debt.  Eansom  is 
indeed  only  justifiable  in  the  case  of  slaves  born  or  bred  in 
slavery. 

If,  however,  a  slave  receives  a  certificate  of  freedom  from 
the  judge  of  the  native  court — the  exponent  of  the  Koranic 
law — ^he  is  de  jure  free,  and  it  is  a  crime  to  re-enslave  him. 
These  native  court  certificates  are  therefore  greatly  valued, 
and  I  have  known  cases  of  men  freed  by  the  administration 
who  have  voluntarily  paid  their  redemption  money  to  obtain 
them.  In  one  ease  an  ex-sergeant-major  asked  that  the 
ransom  should  not  be  made  unduly  low,  as  his  old  master 
had  treated  him  well. 

Self -redemption  and  ransom,  though  entirely  voluntary  on 
the  part  of  the  slave,  are  worthy  of  encouragement  by  Govern- 
ment. It  is  creditable  to  the  slave,  and  adds  to  his  self- 
respect,  and  in  many  cases  it  is  equitable  to  the  master,  who 
may  have  acquired  his  slave  by  what  were  at  the  time  per- 
fectly legal  means.  Bedemption  may  be  effected  either  by 
the  system  of  Xitabah — viz.,  ransom  by  instalments — or  by 
that    of   Kita'dh — viz.,    immediate   payment.^     The   native 

'  The  Koran,  surah  xxiv. ,  paragraph  33,  enjoins  on  every  master  the  duty  of 
agreeing  to  his  slave's  request  to  ransom  himself,  and  of  giving  him  every  facility 
for  acquiring  the  means  to  do  so.  The  first  system  is  known  as  "  Murgu "  in 
Nigeria,  and  under  its  provisions  a  slave  would  be  allowed  to  retain  his  land  with 
complete  freedom  while  earning  his  ransom  money,  or  he  might  work  in  his  own 
time  (one  or  two  days  a  week  being  given  to  him)  for  wages,  or  he  might  pay  a 
fee  as  earnest  of  his  intentions,  and  be  free  for  a  year  to  earn  the  money,  or  he 
might  be  allowed  to  pay  for  his  board  and  lodging,  and  liquidate  the  ransom  by 
instalments  in  his  own  time.  Whichever  method  he  selects,  he  should  be  able  to 
redeem  himself  within  the  year.  The  second  method — viz.,  the  payment  of  a 
lump  sum  down,  known  as  Kita'ah  (panaa  in  Hausaland) — would  be  resorted  to 
by  men  who  wished  to  redeem  a  woman  for  marriage,  or  by  ex-slaves  freed  by 
Government  who  desired  to  get  the  native  court  certificate. — See  Euxton's 
'  Maliki  Law,'  chapter  li. 


384  SLAVERY  IN  BRITISH   AFRICA. 

courts,  acting  on  the  liberal  instructions  of  the  Koran,  may 
usually  be  trusted  to  fix  the  amount  of  the  ransom  money 
with  fairness  and  Uberality,^  but  care  must  be  taken  to  see 
that  Uberation  is  unequivocal  and  not  a  "  ransom  for  con- 
cubinage," and  that  persons  born  after  the  date  of  the  edict 
are  not  regarded  as  slaves  for  ransom.  Certificates  are  also 
given  when  a  slave  is  set  free  by  a  native  court  because  of 
ill-treatment,  or  when  voluntarily  freed  by  his  owner. 

The  slave-trade  and  open  dealing  in  slaves  in  British  Africa 
is  now  happily  a  thing  of  the  past.  Illicit  dealing  takes  the 
form  of  kidnapping,  or  purchase  by  trading  caravans,  espe- 
cially of  children,  who  are  often  sold  by  their  parents  in 
time  of  famine,  and  being  taught  the  language  of  their  pur- 
chasers are  passed  off  as  part  of  his  famUy,  and  told  how  to 
reply  to  any  questions.  Strict  vigilance  and  heavy  punish- 
ments upon  offenders  (including  villages  which  are  aware  of 
the  circumstances  and  fail  to  report  them)  are  the  only 
remedy.^  Adults  driven  by  starvation  may  also  attach  them- 
selves to  a  trading  party,  or  undesirable  persons  may  be  sold 
by  a  tribe.  In  former  times  it  is  said  that  porters,  left  sick 
in  a  village  by  a  passing  caravan,  were  also  generally  sold  as 
slaves.  The  purchase  of  children  for  adoption  or  religious 
education  is  slave- dealing,  even  if  the  chUd  is  immediately 
liberated,  and  encourages  the  traffic  by  creating  a  demand. 

The  holding  of  persons  in  pawn  for  debt — which,  unless 
voluntary,  is  forbidden  by  Moslem  law — often  results  in  the 
pawn  becoming  a  lifelong  slave,  without  a  slave's  privileges. 
If  the  contract  is  voluntary  and  hmited  in  time,  there  is 
Uttle  to  object  to,  but  if  unlimited  in  time  the  pawn's  labour 
should  be  set  against  the  debt,  and  the  pawn  should  be  free 
to  abandon  the  contract  and  defend  his  case  in  court  if  he 
prefers.  The  onus  of  proof  of  the  debt  must,  of  course,  be 
on  the  creditor.  The  seizure  of  a  pawn  by  or  for  a  creditor, 
including  the  pawning  of  children  for  debt,  is  by  the  Mgerian 
code  classed  as  slave-dealing.    The  pawn  is  released,  and  the 

1  Recently  it  was  found  at  Sokoto  that  many  of  the  Government  mail-carriers 
had  been  the  slaves  of  chiefs.  The  Resident  was  inclined  to  call  on  them  to 
ransom  themselves,  but  the  chiefs  said  that  the  services  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  render  to  their  masters  were  so  light  that  they  did  not  deserve  ransom. 

^  In  Nigeria,  Hausa  traders  and  Nupe  fishermen  carry  on  this  traffic  among 
primitive  pagan  tribes.  The  worst  offenders  are  said  to  be  the  nomad  Fulani 
herdsmen,  who  fill  the  children  with  terror  of  Europeans  so  that  they  fly  or 
conceal  themselves  on  the  approach  of  an  officer. 


DISPOSAL  OF  FREED  SLAVES.  385 

period  of  his  detention  is  counted  ia  liquidation  of  the  debt. 
The  plea  of  adoption  of  a  child-pawn  cannot  be  considered  as 
valid  as  between  creditor  and  debtor,  and  indeed  adoption 
without  ulterior  motive  is  rare.^ 

The  disposal  of  slaves  when  freed  after  recent  capture 
often  presents  dififtculties.  Those  freed  at  sea  on  the  East 
Coast  were  at  first  sent  to  Bombay  or  to  Mauritius,  later  they 
were  generally  handed  over  with  a  small  capitation  grant  to 
missions  (£5  by  the  British,  25s.  by  the  Germans).  It  is  rarely 
possible — though  most  desirable — ^to  restore  a  freed  slave  to 
his  home.  A  few  years  ago  he  would  almost  certainly  have 
been  re-enslaved  (unless  protected)  en  route.  Children  are 
unable  to  say  where  their  home  is,  and  there  is  always  the 
danger  that  children  who  have  been  sold  by  their  parents,  or 
adults  sold  by  their  tribe,  would  again  be  sold  if  returned. 

Men  after  beiag  given  a  liberation  paper  and  registered 
can  usually  be  left  to  follow  their  own  incliaations,  and  work 
can  be  foimd  for  them  if  they  desire  it.  Women  can  be 
employed  in  or  about  a  hospital,  or  as  servants  to  a  European 
lady,  or  they  may  be  allowed  to  engage  in  trade  or  other 
useful  occupation  in  the  native  quarter  of  a  township.  Fail- 
ing any  other  method,  a  freed  slave  woman  may  be  entrusted 
to  the  care  of  a  reliable  village  headman  tOl  she  marries,  if 
there  is  no  freed  slave  vUlage  or  home  to  which  she  can  be 
sent.  In  any  case  it  is  practically  certain  she  wiU  find  a 
husband  in  a  very  short  time,  and  he  should  pay  her  the 
usual  dowry  money  due  to  a  freed  woman.  It  is  necessary 
to  exercise  great  care  that  he  does  not  sell  or  transfer  her  as 
a  slave. 

Unmarried  females  are  always  children.  In  Nigeria  there 
is  a  K'ative  Children's  Ordinance  designed  for  the  protection 
of  juvenile  ex-slaves.  A  child  is  entrusted  to  the  custody  of 
such  guardian  as  may  be  named  in  the  mandate,  who  is 
bound  to  care  for  and  educate  it  properly,  and  may  not 
transfer  it.  The  mandate  is  for  a  limited  period,  which  may 
be  extended,  and  the  children  are  periodically  inspected  by 
a  Government  official. 

The   "  guardian "   may  be  a  Government  establishment, 

'  Only  in  the  present  year  (1920)  has  the  system  of  debt-slavery  been  finally 
eradicated  in  the  unfederated  Malay  States  under  British  protection.  There  the 
debt  was  treated  as  hereditary.  Children  were  taken  in  pledge  for  parents, 
and  no  reduction  in  the  debt  was  made  for  the  labour  of  the  debtor. — Cmd. 
470,  1920. 

2b 


386  SLAVERY  IN  BEITISH  APEICA. 

such  as  a  freed  slave  home  or  village,  or  a  department  to 
which  a  boy  is  apprenticed,  or  it  may  be  a  mission,  or  a 
private  person.  The  cldld  may  not  leave  its  guardian — ^who 
is  vested  with  parental  authority — till,  if  a  girl,  she  reaches 
the  age  of  eighteen.  Boys  over  twelve  should  be  appren- 
ticed, or  may  take  service  on  wages.  On  attainiag  the  age 
of  fifteen  they  would  be  given  freedom  papers,  and  allowed 
to  go  where  they  please,  xmless  bound  as  apprentices.  A  full 
periodical  report  is,  of  course,  demanded  from  any  institution 
or  mission  which  obtains  a  grant  from  Government  for  re- 
ceiviug  freed  slaves. 

The  disadvantage  of  transferring  freed  slaves  to  missions 
is  that  liberation  should  not  be  open  to  the  charge  by  bigoted 
Moslems  that  Government  frees  slaves  only  in  order  to  con- 
vert them  forcibly  to  Christianity.^  I  prefer  myself  a  freed 
slave  home  for  children,  and  "  liberty  village  "  for  adults, 
both  under  Government  auspices,  for  such  freed  slaves  as 
caimot  readily  be  absorbed  into  the  village  population.^ 

Adoption  by  individuals  is,  as  I  have  said,  open  to  a  similar 
accusation — ^viz.,  that  Government  robs  owners  of  their  slaves 
in  order  to  bestow  them  on  its  nomiaees.  The  willingness  of 
the  ordinary  native  to  take  a  girl  chUd  gives  colour  to  the 
assertion  that  he  hopes  to  make  a  profit  out  of  her.  If  adop- 
tion must  be  resorted  to,  the  selection  of  guardians  should 
be  exercised  impartially  as  between  responsible  Mahomedans 
and  Christians. 

A  slave  desirous  of  remaining  in  his  master's  house  passes 
at  his  owner's  death  to  his  heir,  but  if  he  is  taken  out  of  the 
family,  or  by  a  distant  relative  (except  with  his  own  consent), 

^  We  can  hardly  be  Burpriaed  that  the  forcible  detention  of  a  "  freed  "  woman, 
and  her  recapture  by  force  if  she  ' '  escapes  "  from  a  mission,  should  be  conf using^ 
to  the  mind  of  the  late  owner. 

^  At  the  instance  of  Mr  W.  E.  Forster  a  home  was  established  in  Cairo  in 
1884,  and  Lord  Cromer  in  1900  reported  that  it  was  still  necessary  and  desirable. 
It  had  the  advantage  (impossible  in  Nigeria)  of  the  continuous  superintendence 
for  twenty-four  years  of  an  Arabic-speaking  lady — Mrs  Crewe.  Probably  over 
1000  women  passed  through  the  home. — (' Anti-Slarery  Reporter,'  May  1900.) 

A  freed  slave  home  was  established  in  Northern  Nigeria  at  Government  Head- 
quarters, but  it  was  found  almost  impossible  to  control  the  women,  the  majority 
of  whom  preferred  to  leave  the  home  and  lead  an  immoral  life.  It  was  devoted, 
therefore,  almost  exclusively  to  children,  of  whom  more  were  rescued — generally 
in  an  emaciated  and  starving  condition — than  could  be  accommodated.  The 
home  was  under  a  trained  nurse,  and  was  visited  daily  by  a  doctor.  It  received 
a  grant  from  Government  and  from  the  Rebecca  Hussey  and  Giles  trusts.  After 
I  left  Northern  Nigeria  it  was  broken  up,  and  the  children  transferred  to  the 
Sudan  United  Mission  with  a  capitation  grant.  A  second  home,  and  also  a 
"  liberty  village,"  were  established  in  Bornu  to  meet  the  large  influx  of  slaves 
from  the  German  Cameruns. 


WOMEN-HUSBANDS.  387 

a  charge  of  "  transferring  "  could  be  preferred.  The  family 
of  a  slave  should  not  be  broken  up  for  purpose  of  division 
among  heirs,  nor  is  joint  ownership  permissible,  for  some  single 
individiial  must  be  held  accountable  for  good  treatment.  If 
an  owner  dies  intestate,  the  slaves  are  freed. 

The  custom  of  elderly  women  procuring  young  girls,  whom 
they  call  "  wives,"  and  with  whom  they  go  through  a  mar- 
riage ceremony,  appears  to  be  prevalent  among  tribes  mth 
widely  different  origins  and  customs.  The  purchase  money 
is  misnamed  "  dowry,"  and  the  woman-husband  becomes 
absolute  owner  of  the  girls.  The  same  thing  is  sometimes 
done  for  an  identical  purpose  by  very  old  and  decrepit  men. 
In  some  few  cases  it  may  be  that  the  purchaser  wishes  to 
assure  herself  of  a  "  wife  "  who  will  tend  her  in  her  old  age, 
but  the  more  usual  reason  is  in  order  to  claim  fees  for  adul- 
tery, and  to  gain  possession  of  the  children  of  such  inter- 
course, who  by  native  custom  are  the  property  of  the  "  hus- 
band "  who  has  paid  the  dowry.  In  such  cases,  no  doubt, 
the  woman,  who  is  in  fact  the  keeper  of  a  brothel,  would  be 
prosecuted  on  a  criminal  charge,  and  awarded  no  compensa- 
tion for  the  loss  of  her  "  wives  "  and  their  dowries.^  Or  it 
may  be  that  the  girls  are  "  married  "  by  women  traders,  who 
pay  a  higher  dowry  than  the  young  men  can  afford,  in  order 
to  provide  themselves  with  labour  to  transport  their  goods, 
since  the  men  of  the  tribe  refuse  such  work.^ 

"  It  was  the  custom  in  Benin  (writes  the  Eesident)  when 
a  father  and  daughter,  husband  and  wife,  or  brother  and 
sister  quarrelled,  if  the  man  chose  to  say  '  Igba '  to  the 
woman,  she  became  at  once  '  devoted '  to  the  Oba  (king), 
and  had  to  become  one  of  his  wives.  Since  April  1918  aU 
these  devotees  have  been  released  by  the  Oba,  and  the  use 
of  the  word  '  Igba  '  has  been  prohibited." 

In  Mgeria,  as  in  other  Moslem  countries,  favourite  slaves 
often  became  very  wealthy,  even  owning  slaves  of  their  own, 
and  held  appointments  as  chiefs  of  villages  or  districts.  In 
Bornu,  where  these  slave-rulers  had  in  many  cases  been  dis- 
tinguished for  generations,  and  were  often  held  in  higher 
account  than  freemen,  the  system  has  died  hard.  It  arose 
from  the  fact  that  during  an  era  of  constant  revolt  by  the 
provincial  chiefs,  the  Shehu  (Sultan)  could  only  trust  his  own 
slaves — and  provincial  chiefs  were  in  like  case. 

^  One  such  woman  was  found  to  have  nineteen  wives. 
2  ' '  Dan  Gizo  "  in  '  West  Africa '  of  15th  May  1920. 


388  SLAVERY  m  BBITISH  APEICA. 

Since  all  the  property  amassed  by  a  slave-chief  reverted 
to  his  overlord  at  his  death,  the  system  was  lucrative  to  a 
despot.  It  was  thoroughly  bad  in  its  results,  for  the  slave- 
ruler,  having  no  rights  himself,  could  not  be  expected  to 
regard  those  of  others,  and  he  oppressed  the  peasantry. 

It  has  been  the  good  fortune  of  this  generation  to  witness 
not  only  the  practical  extinction  of  the  overseas  slave-trade, 
but  also  of  slave -raiding  and  open  slave -trading;  there 
remains  only  the  Ulicit  dealing  in  slaves.^ 

The  first  step  is  to  deal  with  slave-raiding  as  murder,  and 
with  the  enslaving  of  a  free  man  as  a  felony,  and  thus  to 
cut  off  the  supply  of  new  slaves.  The  second  is  to  regard 
any  "  transaction  in  slaves  "  as  a  serious  offence,  and  to  give 
the  slave  the  right  to  assert  his  freedom  if  he  desires  to  do 
so,  and  thus  to  destroy  the  value  of  property  in  slaves.  The 
third,  and  perhaps  the  most  difficult  task,  is  to  eradicate  the 
servile  habit  of  mind,  bred  by  long  traditions  of  slavery,  to 
inculcate  the  right  to  be  free,  and  to  educate  the  native  to 
a  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  initiative,  and  aspiration, 
in  order  that  he  may  learn  the  dignity  of  free  labour  and 
appreciate  his  duty  as  a  citizen  and  to  posterity. 

This  is  being  done  everjnvhere  in  British  Africa,  partly 
by  example,  for  the  people  see  that  the  British  officer  makes 
no  caste  difference  between  slave  and  free,  and  promotes  for 
merit  alone ;  partly  by  the  teaching  of  missions  and  the 
spread  of  education ;  partly  by  the  creation  of  small  land- 
holders with  a  title  in  perpetuity  to  their  holdings,  and,  above 
aU,  by  the  creation  of  a  free-labour  market,  with  which  I  shall 
deal  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  only  country  in  Africa  in  which  slave-raids  and  the 
slave-trade  are  still  openly  practised  is  Abyssinia,  and  the 
nations  of  Europe  must  presently  consider  how  they  can  re- 
concile this  state  of  things  with  their  solemn  declarations  to 
put  an  end  to  it  in  Africa.    The  very  intelligent  and  progres- 

'  There  is  much  still  to  be  done  before  this  curse  of  Africa  is  eradicated.  In 
Nigeria  as  late  as  1918  we  hear  of  slave-dealing  in  Onitsha,  of  kidnapping  of 
children  in  Bassa,  of  coast-traders  buying  slaves  from  the  Aros  at  Owerri,  of 
slave-dealing  between  the  pagan  Mamas  and  Bauohi,  and  of  the  Shuwa  Arabs 
buying  slaves  from  the  Cameruns.  These  offences  are  dealt  with  under  the 
Criminal  Code. 

In  the  Sudan  the  Abyssiuians  and  lower  Nile  tribes  still  actively  engage  in 
the  slave-trade,  which,  says  the  official  Handbook  (No.  98,  pp.  27  and  44), 
would  revive  to-morrow  it  the  British  hold  on  the  Sudan  and  French  control 
in  Wadai  were  relaxed. 


SLAVE-RAIDERS  IN  ABYSSINIA.  389 

sive  Eegent,  Eas  Tafari — ^whose  personal  friendship  I  value — 
recognises  and  deplores  this  blot  on  his  country's  reputation, 
and  would  gladly  do  his  best  to  suppress  it  were  he  afforded 
the  means  of  doing  so.^ 

^  In  1919  a  British  official  mission  traversed  Abyssinia  under  Majors  Athill, 
R.F.A.,  and  Darley,  and  an  account  of  the  journey  was  given  by  Major  Athill  in  a 
paper  read  before  the  Geographical  Society  ('Journal,'  November  1920).  Major 
Darley,  whom  his  colleague  described  as  one  of  the  best  type  of  British  pioneers, 
writes  that  in  the  commercial  centre  of  Jimma  children  were  sold  publicly  in 
the  market  and  "  slave-trading  seemed  to  be  the  chief  business  of  the  district." 
Gangs  of  slaves  with  the  men  chained  together  were  encountered  on  the  march, 
and  "  the  whole  country  was  desolate.  For  nineteen  days  between  Jimma  and 
Maji,  through  what  was  formerly  the  richest  part  of  Abyssinia,  we  marched 
through  a  district  in  which  the  date  of  each  raid  could  be  estimated  by  the 
height  of  the  bush  in  what  was  formerly  cultivated  fields.  A  population  of  at 
least  a  million  had  ceased  to  exist.  .  .  .  Between  Maji  and  the  north  end  of 
Lake  Rudolph  the  precipitous  hillsides  are  all  most  beautifully  terraced  from 
top  to  bottom  for  cultivation.  The  terraces,  built  of  large  boulders  running 
like  walls  for  miles,  must  have  occupied  a  large  population  for  several 
generations.  There  was  not  a  soul.  We  crossed  into  our  so-called  British 
territory.  For  sixteen  days'  march  we  never  saw  a  soul  or  a  sign  of  one.  This 
country  had  formerly  been  occupied  by  a  rich  stock-owning  people.  Eventually 
we  ran  into  a  few  unfortunate  natives  hiding  from  a  gang  of  100  Abyssinian 
riflemen  engaged  in  collecting  slaves  and  ivory.     This  was  in  British  territory." 

Major  Darley,  who  has  a  long  experience  of  Abyssinia  and  the  neighbouring 
British  territories,  thus  describes  the  process  :  "  An  Abyssinian  chief  appointed 
to  rule  a  province  arrives  penniless  (having  spent  all  he  had  in  obtaining  his 
appointment).  He  then  divides  up  the  people  between  his  chiefs,  and  they  must 
grow  food  for  their  owner  and  his  soldiers,  do  his  housework,  and  provide  him 
with  cash.  If  they  fail  to  produce  the  dollars,  the  usual  method  is  for  the 
owner  to  tie  up  the  serf  and  starve  him  till  he  surrenders  one  of  his  children." 
When  the  chief  is  removed,  "  it  is  the  invariable  custom  for  him  to  seize  all  those 
natives  on  whom  he  can  lay  hands  and  carry  them  off  en  masse  for  sale,  to  keep 
him  in  cash  until  he  gets  another  province.  In  1911  I  saw  a  chief  moving  from 
his  district.  The  natives  he  carried  off  were  so  numerous  they  took  four  days  to 
pass  my  camp — certainly  10,000.  I  counted  7000  and  then  got  tired.  The 
arrival  at  the  capital  of  the  chief  of  Baccu  with  the  whole  population  of  that 
district  is  only  another  instance." 

These  facts  have  been  fully  reported  to  the  British  Foreign  Office,  which  has 
moreover  the  full  report  on  slavery  made  by  Consul  Walker.  Britain  has  a 
special  responsibility  in  Abyssinia,  with  which  she  has  coterminous  frontiers  for 
miles  and  a  predominant  influence.  This  state  of  things  has  grown  up  only  in 
the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  since  the  strong  rule  of  Menelik  (who  made  a  law 
against  slave-dealing)  ceased.  The  problem  is  how  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
the  Regent  so  as  to  enable  him  to  curb  the  excesses  of  his  provincial  chiefs, 
with  adequate  safeguards  against  the  misuse  of  his  power.  To  this  end  I 
ventured  to  submit  some  suggestions  to  the  Foreign  Office  in  August  1920,  but 
without  result. 

By  common  action  between  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Italy — all  signatories  of 
the  Act  by  which,  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  they  pledged  themselves  to  put 
an  end  to  slave-raiding  in  Africa — these  atrocities  could  be  ended  without 
difficulty.  Nor  is  the  problem  insoluble  by  Great  Britain,  with  the  willing 
assistance  of  Ras  Tafari.  Space  precludes  any  further  digression  either  on  the 
conditions  of  slavery  in  the  country,  or  on  the  suggested  methods  for  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade. 


390 


CHAPTEK  XIX. 

LABOTJE.  IN  TEOPIOAL  APEICA. 

Free  labour  and  slavery — Policy  of  H.M.'s  Government — Decisions  re' 
East  Africa — Criticisms  and  charges— Local  opinion — Difficulty  of 
applying  the  Government  policy — Inadequacy  of  the  solution  pro- 
posed— Contrast  East  and  West  Africa — Inevitable  conclusions  re 
East  Africa — West  African  products  and  conditions — The  cocoa 
industry— The  African  as  a  worker — The  African  as  a  wage-earner — 
Quality  of  the  work — The  wage-rate — Method  of  payment  of  wages — 
Conditions  of  free  labour — Labour  regulations — Unpaid  labour. 

We  have  seen  that  where  a  native  conqueriiig  race  holds 
an  aboriginal  people  in  control,  a  system  of  slavery  and  forced 
labour  becomes  practically  inevitable  by  reason  of  mutual 
mistrust  and  the  absence  of  such  social  organisation  as  renders 
possible  a  written  contract,  and  payment  for  services  in  a 
recognised  medium  of  exchange. 

That  system,  though  demoralising  both  to  master  and  slave, 
and  opposed  to  progress  both  moral  and  material,  was  by  no 
means  wholly  one-sided  when  humanely  enforced  xa.  accord- 
ance with  the  teaching  of  the  Koran.  It  laid  heavy  obliga- 
tions on  the  master,  who  is  now  quick  to  recognise  that  the 
free  labourer  can  claim  his  day's  wage  and  no  more ;  and  if 
he  breaks  his  contract  and  does  not  do  his  work,  the  courts, 
which  would  have  given  the  master  no  assistance  in  such  a 
dispute  with  his  slave,  wiU  help  him,  and  that  he  is  no  longer 
responsible  for  the  faults  of  his  employee,  or  compelled  to 
support  him  and  his  family  ia  sickness  and  old  age.^ 

Our  task  is  to  discuss  how  free  labour  can  best  be  pro- 

'  Consul  Monson  writes  of  the  institution  of  slavery  in  East  Africa  as  "so 
repugnant  in  principle  to  English  ideas,  so  little  injurious  in  practice  to  its 
supposed  victims."  The  owners  "had  been  forced  to  treat  their  slaves  liberally 
in  order  to  retain  them." — Cmd.  1631  of  1903, 


THE  TRADITIONAI,  BRITISH  POLICY.  391 

vided  in  a  country  in  which  industry  has  hitherto  been  largely 
conducted  by  slave  labour,  and  where  most  of  the  necessities 
and  many  of  the  incentives  to  work  for  wages  which  exist  in 
civilised  countries  are  lacking.  In  England  the  peasant  must 
buy  his  daily  food.  Men  and  women  may  not  go  about  quite 
nude.  They  are  not  physically  inured  to  extremes  of  heat 
and  cold,  and  need  fires  and  fuel.  We  have,  in  fact,  aU  ac- 
quired the  habit  of  using  many  things  which  by  long  custom 
have  become  necessities  of  life.  On  the  other  hand,  though 
I  have  warmly  advocated  the  principle  of  small  iadividual 
holdings,  it  is  not  a  reasonable  thesis  (as  some  writers  seem 
to  infer)  that  every  predial  slave  should  become  a  peasant 
proprietor,  for  no  country  in  the  world  can  do  without  casual 
paid  labour. 

In  a  despatch  to  the  Governor  of  East  Africa,  Lord  Milner 
laid  down  the  "  traditional  policy  "  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment on  the  subject  of  native  labour,  "  in  order  that  there 
may  be  no  room  for  doubt  in  the  matter."  ^  Such  a  pro- 
nouncement is  particularly  opportime  at  a  moment  when  the 
claims  and  demands  which  arise  out  of  the  dual  responsibilities 
of  the  Controlling  Powers  in  the  tropics — viz.,  as  trustees  to 
civilisation  for  the  adequate  development  of  their  resources, 
and  as  trustees  for  the  welfare  of  the  native  races — may  seem 
in  some  cases  to  be  mutually  antagonistic,  and  have  given 
rise  to  controversy.  It  is  especially  important  in  East  Africa 
and  Tanganyika,  where  our  declared  reason  for  ousting 
Germany  was  because  of  her  misrule.^  The  "  traditional 
policy,"  he  says,  "  is  absolutely  opposed  to  compulsory  labour 
for  private  employment.  ...  It  is  a  point  of  fundamental 
importance  .  .  .  that  there  is  no  question  of  force  or  com- 
pulsion, but  only  of  encouragement  and  advice  through  the 
native  chiefs  and  headmen." 

The  particular  policy  of  His  Majesty's  Government  to-day 
in  regard  to  the  difficulties  which  have  arisen  in  East  Africa 
"  aims  at  the  advancement  and  wellbeing  of  the  native  races 

1  Cmd.  873  of  1920. 

^  The  Official  Handbook  quotes  the  German  writer  Hassert :  "  Colonisation  oon- 
eiets  in  the  utilisation  of  the  soil,  its  products,  and  its  men,  for  the  economic  profit 
of  the  colonising  nation  "  ;  and  Fischer  :  "  Colonising  Africa  is  making  the  negro 
work." — No.  113,  p.  40.  The  Governor's  report  states  that  the  Germans  had 
reduced  the  natives  to  abject  submission  as  permanent  serfs,  and  they  were 
rarely  fully  paid  for  their  work.  Unless  they  were  able  to  prove  their  complaints 
they  were  flogged  for  making  them. — Cmd.  1428  of  1921,  p.  35. 


392  LABOUE  IN  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

in  the  protectorate,  no  less  than  the  meeting  of  the  settlers' 
requirements."    It  may  be  summarised  as  follows  : — 

(a)  "  Natives  may  be  required  to  perform  certain  paid  labour 
for  Government  .  .  .  (viz.)  works  of  a  public  nature,  subject 
to  the  express  proviso  that  no  native  shall  be  required  to 
perform  such  work  for  more  than  sixty  days  in  any  one  year, 
and  that  any  native  who  is  fully  employed  in  any  other 
occupation,  or  has  been  so  employed  during  the  preceding 
twelve  months  for  a  period  of  three  months  shall  be  exempted 
from  such  labour."  Works  of  a  public  nature  are  defined  in 
the  ordinance  as  work  on  Goverimient  transport,  or  on  roads 
and  railways,  "  and  other  work  of  a  public  nature,  whether 
of  a  like  Mnd  to  the  foregoing  or  not."  The  three  months 
includes,  of  course,  any  work  on  his  own  account.^ 

(&)  That  natives  in  their  own  interests  should  seek  out- 
side employment  when  not  engaged  in  work  in  their  own 
reserves,  and  it  is  desirable  that  the  yoimg  able-bodied  men 
should  become  wage-earners,  and  should  not  remain  idle  in 
the  reserves  for  a  large  part  of  the  year. 

(c)  That  "  the  Protectorate  Government  woidd  be  failing 
in  its  duty  if  it  did  not  use  all  lawful  and  reasonable  means 
to  encourage  the  supply  of  labour  for  the  settlers  "  engaged 
in  the  production  of  raw  material  much  needed  by  the  Empire. 

(d)  That  for  this  purpose  the  principle  of  working  through 
the  native  chiefs  is  right,  but  they  must  be  closely  watched 
by  Government  officials.  On  the  one  hand,  any  attempt  to 
abuse  their  authority  must  be  promptly  checked,  and  on  the 
other  hand,  "  any  unwillingness  to  act  on  instructions  must 
be  taken  note  of  and  recorded." 

(e)  That  native  labour  shaU  not  be  procured  by  Govern- 
ment for  a  particular  employer,  and  "  the  native  is  free  to 
choose  where  and  for  whom  he  wiU  work." 

(/)  That  women  and  children  may  be  employed,  but  "  must 
return  to  their  houses  at  night,  and  that  only  when  the  hus- 
band is  employed,  and  living  in  the  plantation  should  his 
family  be  permitted  to  remain  there  at  night."  It  is  inferred 
that  their  labour  will  be  light — chiefly  coffee-picking,  and  for 
half  a  day  only. 

^  This  was  made  clear  by  Lord  Milner  in  reply  to  a  question  in  the  House 
of  Lords  on  27th  October  1920,  and  affirmed  by  the  Under-Secretary  in  the 
Commons.  Mr  Harris  states  that  the  settlers  resent  this  interpretation  of  the 
ordinance. — ('Manchester  Guardian,'  3rd  August  1921.) 


DECISIONS  re  labour  in  Kenya.  393 

(g)  Finally,  there  is  no  objection  to  recruiting  from  an 
adjoining  British  administration  (whether  under  Mandate  or 
not),  provided  there  is  a  surplus  of  labour  over  and  above 
that  required  in  the  territory  itself.  Eecruits  may  bring 
their  wives  with  them. 

It  is  permissible  to  examine  these  most  important  pro- 
noimcements  by  the  light  of  personal  experience  and  the 
criticism  of  the  public  Press.  The  "  traditional  policy " 
applies  to  the  whole  of  tropical  Africa  and  to  other  Crown 
colonies  and  Protectorates,  but  not  to  the  Dominions,  which 
frame  their  own  policy.  The  detailed  decisions  apply  imprimis 
to  the  conditions  of  East  Africa. 

The  conditions  resemble,  with  one  exception,  those  of 
South  Africa,  and  Lord  Milner  was  able  to  say  that  he  spoke 
from  personal  experience.  They  resemble  South  Africa  in 
that  Europeans  are  settlers  depending  on  native  labour,  and 
not  true  colonists  like  Canadians  and  Australians,^  while  the 
natives  are  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  relegated  to  reserves. 
They  differ  in  that  the  population  of  South  Africa  is  less  no- 
madic and  pastoral,  and  has  been  in  contact  with  Europeans 
for  a  longer  time.  The  fact  that  the  settlers  came  on  the  direct 
invitation  of  Government — first  in  1905  and  again  after  the 
war — obviously  saddles  the  Government  with  a  very  special 
responsibility  for  making  good  the  inducements  which  it 
held  out. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  Government  pronouncement 
was  the  issue  of  a  "  Memo,  of  policy,"  and  a  circular  by  the 
local  Government,  on  the  subject  of  native  labour,  which  called 
forth  a  very  trenchant  manifesto  by  the  Bishops  of  Mombasa 
and  Uganda.  They  asserted  that  though  there  was  "  techni- 
cally no  compulsion,  practically  compulsion  could  hardly  take 
a  stronger  form."  The  Memo,  was  also  severely  criticised 
in  a  Memorial  by  the  Aborigines'  Protection  Society,  by  the 
Conference  of   Mission   Societies,  and  by  the  Press.^     The 

'  As  Mr  Grogan  picturesquely  phrases  it,  "the  European  is  not  merely  the 
iudividual  producer  as  he  is  in  Canada  or  Australia — he  is  the  yeast  that  leavens 
the  inert  dough  of  Africa's  peoples." — 'Times,'  9th  February  1920. 

2  See  'The  New  Statesman,'  21st  February,  27th  March,  10th  April,  &c. 
Sir  S.  Olivier,  one  of  the  signatories  of  the  A.P.S.  Memorial,  asserts  in  the 
'Contemporary  Review'  (August  1920),  that  "the  permanent  principles  of  our 
policy  in  dealing  with  native  peoples  are  being  whittled  away,"  and  the  rights  of 
the  natives  are  to  an  increasing  extent  being  recognised  as  subsidiary  to  the 
interests  of  white  men.  In  a  note  on  an  article  on  "Labour  in  Nyasaland"  ('East 
and  West,'  January  1921),  the  editor  writes  of  East  African  conditions  :  "While 


394  LABOTTE  m  TROPICAL  APEICA. 

subject  gave  rise  to  a  debate  in  tbe  House  of  Lords  on 
14tli  July  1920,  in  which  Lords  Islington,  Bryce,  Emmott, 
and  the  Primate  passed  severe  strictures  on  the  policy. 

It  is  of  special  importance  to  note  that  the  Sub-Committee 
of  the  Labour  Party,  appointed  to  report  on  the  administra- 
tion of  the  dependencies,  repeats  and  even  exaggerates  the 
charges  brought  against  the  East  African  Administration  ia 
this  connection,  for  that  Party  assumes  that  sooner  or  later 
it  will  become  the  executive  power  in  the  British  State, 
charged  with  the  control  of  African  policy.  The  author  of 
the  Memo,  prepared  by  this  Sub-Committee,  while  advocating 
in  the  main  the  principles  for  which  I  have  contended  in  these 
chapters,  accuses  the  Governments  of  Kenya  and  Nyasaland 
of  "  aiming  at  the  evolution  of  a  race  of  servile  labourers  in 
European  employ  divorced  from  their  lands.  The  conditions 
(he  says)  ia  these  countries  iu  some  respects  reproduce,  and 
even  exaggerate,  the  evils  of  slavery  " — bad  food,  disease, 
bad  sanitation,  severe  pimishments  including  flogging,  lack 
of  supervision  by  Government,  desertion  punished  as  a 
criminal  offence  resulting  in  lack  of  labour  for  the  production 
of  food,  sedition,  and  grave  danger  of  insurrection.  Such  is 
the  picture  which  the  Labour  Party  is  invited  to  believe 
forms  a  true  presentment  of  British  rule  in  East  Africa.^ 

The  bishops  recognise  that  the  white  settlers  "  all  depend 
for  their  very  existence  as  farmers  on  native  labour,"  and 
they  go  so  far  as  to  recommend  that  compulsion  should  be 
definitely  legalised,  and  directed  piimarily  to  State  work 
under  certain  safeguards.^  ISo  doubt  strong  pressure  has  been 
brought  to  bear  on  the  local  Government  by  the  settlers, 
whose  views  are  recorded  in  the  report  of  the  Commission 
of  1917-19,  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  at  greater  length 
in  that  of  the  earlier  Commission  appointed  in  1912  to  examine 
this  question.^  They  were,  ia  brief,  that  the  native  reserves 
should  be  restricted  to  the  present  needs  oiily  of  the  natives, 
that  individual  tenure  should  be  substituted  for  commimal, 

nominally  the  law  compels  no  one  to  engage  in  any  but  public  service,  it  has  the 
intention  and  the  effect  of  imposing  wage-earning  on  all,  partly  because  the 
wages  for  Government  departments  are  fixed  so  low  as  to  be  no  attraction  (about 
3d.  a  day),  and  partly  because  in  practice  only  wage-earners  for  private  employers 
are  exempted  from  the  legal  obligation  to  work  for  wages." 

^  See  also  'Empire  and  Commerce'  by  L.  Woolf,  which  is  "a  report  for  a 
Committee  of  the  Labour  Research  Department,"  and  is  published  by  it.  Part 
III.,  chapter  2,  &c. 

Cmd .  873  of  1920,  p.  8.  s  Report  of  August  1913. 


PEAOTICAI,  APPLICATION   OF  THE  POLICY.  395 

that  "  squatting  "  on  European  estates  should  be  encouraged, 
and  that  labour  camps  under  official  supervision  should  be 
formed.^ 

These  recommendations  have  not,  however,  as  we  have 
seen,  been  accepted  by  Government,  and  we  have  Lord  Milner's 
assurance  that  the  policy  he  defined  is  being  carried  out  by 
the  local  officials.  It  will,  however,  be  exceedingly  difficult, 
if  not  impossible,  to  ascertain  in  the  case  of  each  individual 
native  whether  he  has  worked  on  his  own  land  for  three 
months,  and  the  attempt  to  do  so  must  open  the  door  to  all 
kinds  of  abuses  by  native  subordinates.  Among  the  agri- 
cultural tribes,  I  should  doubt  whether  there  are  any  indi- 
viduals who  do  not  devote  at  least  that  time  to  their  crops. 
The  pastoral  tribes  tend  their  cattle — ^which  is  presumably 
"  occupation,"  and  falls  entirely  on  the  males.  Agricultural 
labour  would  be  as  irksome  to  them  as  penal  servitude. 

Then  again  there  is  the  vital  question — at  what  time  of 
the  year  is  the  compulsory  labour  to  be  called  for  ?  If  at  the 
season  when  the  native  crops  demand  attention,  the  hardship 
may  be  great,  and  result  in  a  reduction  of  the  native  food 
supply.  If,  as  stated,  it  is  to  be  demanded  by  Government 
from  the  more  distant  tribes,  leaving  the  remainder  for  pri- 
vate labour,  is  the  time  taken  in  coming  from  and  returning 
to  these  remote  districts  to  be  counted  in  the  sixty  days  to 
be  paid  for  ?  If  so,  there  will  be  Uttle  margin  for  work.  We 
are  told,  moreover,  that  the  great  variations  ia  climate,  and 
the  different  diet  of  tribes,  causes  much  sickness  and  mor- 
tality when  labour  is  transferred  from  its  natural  environ- 
ment.^ Age-limits  for  labourers  are  difficult  to  determine ; 
medical  examination  for  fitness  is  impracticable  in  areas  so 
great,  with  a  small  medical  staff  overwhelmed  with  work, 
and  the  supervision  of  the  District  Officer  is,  we  are  told, 
negligible  for  the  same  reason. 

^  See  'Handbook'  1216,  p.  466.  The  policy  of  closing  the  reserves  to 
European  penetration,  which  they  say  "  has  lately  taken  shape  in  the  publicly- 
made  official  statement  of  the  Chief  Native  Commissioner,  that  '  he  did  not  see 
why  a  native  should  turn  out  to  work  for  a  European  if  he  wanted  to  develop  hi 
own  lands,'  should  (they  consider)  be  reversed  in  the  interests  of  the  development 
of  the  country."— Report  of  1919,  p.  19. 

^  The  Wakamba  and  Wa-Kikuyu  tribes  are  practically  the  only  sources  for 
labour  actually  on  the  Highlands,  for  the  climate  is  too  cold  even  for  the 
Wa-Kavirondo  from  the  sub-tropical  Lake  region  (who,  however,  are  largely 
employed),  and  these  tribes  suffer  equally  if  transported  to  the  tropical  coast 
regions,  where  a  mortality  of  145  per  mille  was  recorded. — 'Handbook,' 
pp.  324-467. 


396  LABOTJE  m  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that  there  are  serious  difficulties 
in  applying  the  policy  laid  down ;  but  setting  these  aside, 
does  that  policy  provide  any  permanent  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem ?  The  present  labour  supply,  we  are  told,  amounts  to 
about  100,000,^  which  would  seem  to  be  a  fairly  large  propor- 
tion of  the  adult  males,  allowing  for  an  adequate  contingent 
to  cultivate  their  own  crops.  But  this  niunber  is  said  to  be 
wholly  insufficient,  even  for  the  present  small  number  of 
settlers  and  for  Government  requirements.  But  if  the  public 
works  which  the  country  so  greatly  needs  were  taken  in 
hand,  the  Government  demand  alone  would  absorb  the  whole 
or  the  greater  part  of  the  available  supply.  If,  at  the  same 
time,  the  number  of  settlers  were  multiplied  (as  is  expected) 
tenfold,  what  solution  does  the  present  policy  offer  for  the 
difficulties  of  the  not-distant  future  ? 

An  essential  feature  of  that  policy,  as  stated  by  Lord 
Milner,  is  "  the  advancement  of  the  wellbeing  of  the  natives." 
As  they  are  educated  in  improved  agricultural  methods,  and 
as  they  learn  to  grow  exportable  produce  and  find  that  they 
can  realise  good  prices,  and  as  their  live-stock  increases  under 
peaceful  conditions,  the  available  supply  of  wage-earners  is 
likely  to  decrease.  Since  it  is  opposed  to  the  traditional 
policy  of  the  Empire  that  the  native  population  should  be  con- 
verted into  labour-tenants  of  Europeans,  it  is  imperative  that 
the  real  facts  should  be  faced  without  delay,  if  still  further 
difficulties — or  indeed  disaster — ^is  to  be  avoided  in  the  future. 

I  shall  presently  explain  how  labour  difficulties  have  been 
dealt  with  in  West  Africa  ;  but  such  methods  are  only  very 
partially  applicable  in  East  Africa,  where  there  is  no  vast 
reservoir  to  draw  upon,  and  differences  in  climate  make  it 
more  difficult  to  transfer  labour  from  one  part  of  the  country 
to  another.  Bates  of  pay  are  low  in  East  Africa  (from  8s.  to 
£1  for  the  best  men  per  mensem), ^  but  higher  rates  will  not 
permanently  increase  the  supply.  Something  may  perhaps 
be  done  in  the  way  of  better  housing,  better  and  more  liberal 
food,  and  more  sympathetic  treatment  by  both  recruiters  and 
employers,  and  improved  medical  attendance.'    But  the  truth 

1  Gmd.  7622  of  1915,  and  'Times,'  11th  August  1921. 

^  Handbook  1216,  pp.  465  and  469.  The  shortage  of  labour  began  to  be  felt 
in  1907,  and  became  acute  in  1912. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  466.  In  the  Sudan  there  is  a  "  Labour  Bureau  "  which  appears  to 
have  been  a  success. — (Handbook  98,  p.  95.)  Pilgrims  from  Nigeria  passing 
through  or  settled  in  the  Sudan  supply  a  considerable  part  of  the  labour  demand. 


NATIVES  AS  BIVAL  PKODtTOEES.  397 

of  the  matter  is  that  the  policy  proposed  is  incompatible  with 
the  conditions  as  they  exist. 

In  West  Africa,  where  European  settlement  is  out  of  the 
question,  it  is  recognised  that  the  native  must  be  the  pro- 
ducer of  all  agricultural  exports.  The  Departments  of  Agri- 
culture, Forestry,  &c.,  endeavour  to  improve  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  his  output.  Wage  labour  is  chiefly  required 
for  public  works — ^roads,  railways,  and  harbours,  &c. — and 
for  mining  operations.  It  is  to  some  extent  possible  to  allow 
the  labour  gangs  to  look  after  their  fields  at  the  crucial  season 
without  abandoning  such  works. 

In  the  Highlands,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  in  the  sub-tropical 
zone  of  the  Lakes — and  even  in  the  Lowlands  of  East  Africa 
— the  European  desires  to  be  the  producer  of  agricultural 
exports.  There  is  no  large  labour  reserve,  and  the  European 
requires  his  labourers  for  his  crops  at  the  very  time  when  the 
native  desires  to  tend  his  own  fields.  The  requirements  of 
the  settlers,  to  put  it  bluntly,  are  incompatible  with  the 
intersts  and  advancement  of  the  agricultural  tribes,  nor  could 
they  be  otherwise  than  impatient  of  native  development  as 
a  rival  iu  the  growiag  of  coffee,  flax,  and  sisal.^ 

In  justice  alike  to  the  old  settlers  and  to  the  new-comers 
(who,  it  is  said,  have  been  tempted  to  enter  the  country  by 
the  specious  prospects  held  out  by  emigration  pamphlets  and 
the  Uke),  and  in  justice  to  the  natives,  British  immigrants 
should  be  fully  warned  of  the  deficiency  of  native  labour, 
and  discouraged  from  coming  to  the  country  unless  they  are 
prepared  to  dispense  with  it.^    This  was  not  done  in  the  case 

'  The  Official  Handbook  on  Tanganyika  observes  that  ' '  all  the  tribes  are 
capable  of  maintaining  themselves  without  working  for  wages,  and  object  to 
doing  so.  Hence  the  establishment  of  great  estates  demanding  large  supplies 
of  labour  must,  if  continued,  lead  to  perpetual  discord  and  trouble." — 
No.  113,  p.  40. 

^  Mr  Qrogan,  a  Member  of  Council  and  of  the  Economic  Commission, 
suggested  some  years  ago  ('  Times,'  5th  April  1903)  that  grants  of  land  should  be 
offered  to  attract  such  settlers.  The  Germans,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  391,' note), 
had  no  scruples  as  to  compelling  the  natives  to  work,  and  they  had  a  particularly 
good  labour  supply  in  Unyamwezi,  but  they  were  soon  faced  with  the  same 
difficulty  as  Kenya.  The  recently-issued  report  by  the  Governor  of  Tanganyika 
(Cmd.  1428  of  1921)  states  that  the  German  system  resulted  in  "an  over- 
crowded and  discontented  native  community  on  the  one  hand,  and  large  and 
valuable  properties  handicapped  for  lack  of  sufficient  labour  on  the  other" 
(p.  70).  They  were  forced  to  the  decision  to  alienate  no  more  land  to  settlers, 
in  view  of  the  labour  difficulties  (p.  36). 

Mr  Duff,  Resident  of  the  British  Cameruns  province — a  good  German  scholar 
reported,  after  a  long  study  of  the  German  archives,  that  in  1912  the  Govern- 
ment had  decided  to  change  its  policy  radically  in  view  of  the  success  of  British 


398  LABOTJK  IN  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

of  the  soldier  settlers  who  were  invited  to  the  country  after 
the  war,  and  the  Mombasa  correspondent  of  the  '  Times ' 
describes  the  result.  "  Kenya,"  he  says,  "  has  not  yet  dis- 
closed the  modus  operandi  by  which  a  small  farmer  can  make 
a  home  and  a  Uviug  .  .  .  the  outlook  is  dismal  in  the  extreme 
.  .  .  the  soldier  settlement  is  dying."  ^  It  would  in  any  case 
be  a  dangerous  experiment,  for  men  ignorant  of  the  climate 
may  imagine  that  they  can  do  physical  work,  which  the  alti- 
tude forbids. 

Siace,  then,  the  labour  supply  of  the  country  is  insufficient 
for  the  needs  of  the  white  settlers  ;  since  it  is  doubtful  whether 
the  small  proprietor  can  dispense  with  native  labour,  and 
quite  certain  that  the  existing  large  estate  owners  cannot 
do  so ;  and  since  it  is  the  declared  poMcy  of  His  Majesty's 
Government  "  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  settlers,"  for 
whose  advent  they  are  responsible,  there  is  only  one  conceiv- 
able solution  remaining — viz.,  imported  contract  labour, 
which,  after  all,  differs  only  in  degree  from  the  recruitment 
of  labourers  from  remote  tribes  to  serve  imder  conditions  of 
climate,  food,  and  language  whoUy  alien  to  them. 

The  cost  would  no  doubt  be  greater  than  that  of  the  exist- 
ing local  labour,  and  the  settler  wUl  be  anxious  to  reduce  the 
number  of  labourers  asked  for  by  employing  labour-saving 
devices  and  improved  methods  of  transport,  by  closer  super- 
vision and  increased  efficiency  of  the  employees,  by  concen- 
trating on  crops  which  require  scientific  culture,  and  yield 
the  highest  returns.  The  native  wiU  then  be  left  to  grow  the 
cheaper  and  more  easily -cultivated  products,  and  to  buQd 
up  a  trade  which  will  add  to  the  prosperity  and  revenues  of 
the  coimtry.  I  shall  presently  discuss  the  subject  of  imported 
contract  labour  more  fully. 

The  critics  who  write  for  the  Labour  Party  contrast  the 
"  amazingly  successful "  economic  progress  in  West  Africa 
with  that  of  East  Africa,  and  ascribe  it  primarily  to  a  differ- 
ence in  policy.  Whole-hearted  advocate  as  I  am  of  the 
principle  of  "  free  native  labour  on  native-owned  land,"  no 
impartial  man  can  regard  the  comparison  otherwise  than  as 

methods.  It  abandoned  ita  hopes  of  any  considerable  German  colonisation,  and 
determined  to  encourage  native-owned  plantations  of  cocoa,  rubber,  and  oil- 
palms,  as  against  German  estates  and  hired  labour,  with  an  elaborate  scheme 
of  inspectors,  and  the  distribution  of  vast  numbers  of  plants  from  Govern- 
ment nurseries. 

'  'Times,' 11th  November  1920. 


WEST  AFRICAN  CONDITIONS  NOT  ANALOGOUS.  399 

grossly  misleading,  and  I  digress  for  a  moment  to  make  this 
clear. 

Figures  are  quoted  which  hold  up  to  derision  the  output 
of  East  Africa  (except  Uganda)  compared  with  West  Africa. 
In  the  latter,  it  is  said,  the  exports  vary  from  10s.  to  £5  per 
head  of  the  population,  and  that  ia  East  Africa  they  are  less 
than  2s.  (See,  however,  table,  p.  45.)  But  what  comparison 
can  be  made  between  the  exports  of  a  densely  populated 
agricultural  country  and  one  whose  much  sparser  population 
consists  largely  of  nomad  pastorals  ?  ^  Between  a  country 
where  the  uncultivated  oil-pabn  alone  produces  exports  to 
the  value  of  about  six  million  sterling,  and  one  in  which  every 
agricultural  export — coffee,  sisal,  flax,  cotton,  &c. — ^has  been 
iutroduced  in  quite  recent  years  by  the  enterprise  of  the 
European  settlers  ?  *  The  natural  wealth  of  the  west  has 
enabled  those  countries  to  build  railways,  and  so  increase 
their  output  by  geometrical  progression. 

The  cocoa  industry  on  the  Gold  Coast  is  the  favourite 
instance  of  what  free  labour,  employed  for  its  own  sole  profit, 
can  do,  and  it  is  a  truly  wonderful  record.  In  1891  the  out- 
put was  80  lb.,  value  £4  ;  iu  1919  it  had  reached  176,151  tons, 
value  £8,278,500 ;  and  now  that  little  colony,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  only  2,000,000,  produces  more  than  half  the  cocoa 
consumed  iu  the  world.^  But  while  giving  hearty  praise  to 
the  initiative  of  the  Gold  Coast  native,  and  to  the  methods 
which  produced  such  results,  it  is  misleading  to  cite  them  as 
evidence  of  astonishing  industry,  due  to  a  policy  however 
excellent,  when  they  are  due  primarily  to  an  exceptionally 
favourable  soU,  climate,  and  rainfall. 

The  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  (Sir  H.  Clifford)  remarked 
that  "  cocoa  is  notoriously  one  of  the  least  exacting  forms  of 
permanent  cultivation  known  to  mankind."  The  natives 
would  probably  not  have  undertaken  it  otherwise,  "  or  any 

^  Consul  Monson  {loo.  oit.)  says  that  three  of  the  chief  tribes  of  East  Africa — 
the  Masai,  the  Somalis,  and  the  Gallas — are  utterly  unsuited  for  labour  both 
by  character  and  tradition.  This  is  perhaps  too  sweeping  a  statement,  for  the 
Gallas  are  the  serfs  of  the  Abyssinians,  and  in  that  country  have  shown  them- 
selves industrious  labourers,  while  the  French  railway  from  Jibuti  to  Addis- 
Ababa  was  built  chiefly  by  Somali  labour. 

'  The  Economic  Commission  asserts  that  the  native  of  East  Africa,  without 
European  supervision,  has  no  surplus  products  for  external  exchange,  whereas 
7000  whites  have  created  over  £6,000,000  of  overseas  trade  in  thirteen  years 
(Eeport,  p.  3). 

5  Annual  Report,  Omd.  1103.9  of  1921,  pp.  35-36,  and  'Colonial  Office  List,' 

p.  212. 


400  LABOUR  m  TROPICAL  APBICA. 

task  of  the  sort  that  made  a  more  severe  demand  on  their 
physical  energies."  It  is  admitted  that  even  that  small 
amount  of  exertion  has  not  been  given  to  it,  and  a  danger 
of  fungoid  and  other  disease  on  the  "  indolent  and  slovenly- 
farms  "  is  the  result.  The  quality,  too,  is  very  inferior  for 
lack  of  proper  care  and  trouble  in  its  preparation.  The  rush 
for  large  profits  in  cocoa  has  replaced  the  more  laborious 
palm-oil  industry,  and  the  haste  to  get  rich  without  toil  has 
resulted  in  a  serous  shortage  of  food,  and  the  destruction  of 
irreplaceable  forest  lands  in  the  search  for  virgin  soil.  The 
cocoa-farmers,  we  read,  have  become  indolent,  and  the  work 
is  left  to  the  women.  Boys  despise  labour,  and  have  a  horror 
of  manual  work.  Maize  and  other  native  food  has  now  to  be 
imported.^  Another  result  has  been  to  enhance  the  cost  of 
labour  to  such  a  degree  that  there  is  great  difficulty  in  carrying 
out  public  works  and  private  undertakings.^  These  condi- 
tions are  increasingly  evident  in  the  Lagos  hinterland  also. 

We  must  not,  however,  forget  that  cocoa  is  the  first  perma- 
nent crop  introduced  into  West  Africa  for  native  cultivation. 
It  is  to  the  native  a  novel  experiment,  and  if  he  has  failed  as 
yet  to  realise  that  greater  energy  and  improved  methods  are 
necessary,  and  that  failure  with  a  permanent  crop  means 
more  than  a  seasonal  disaster,  we  must  not  be  in  haste  to 
blame  him. 

It  has  long  been  the  fashion  to  speak  of  the  African  as 

'  Dr  Unwin,  late  Forest  Settlement  Officer  in  Nigeria,  a  very  competent 
observer,  writes  of  the  Gold  Coast  plantations:  "Disease  is  already  rampant, 
and  thousands  of  the  plantations  remain  unweeded  and  uncleared,  a  prey  to 
further  disease  of  all  kinds.  This  is  chiefly  due  to  lack  of  labour  and  of  appreci- 
ation of  the  necessity  of  keeping  a  plantation  clean.  .  .  .  However,  it  is  an 
easy  crop  to  grow,  and  up  to  now  it  has  been  possible  for  the  people  to  leave 
the  trees  alone  till  they  bear,  and  then  pull  off  the  cocoa-pods  at  leisure.  .  .  , 
We  have  now  thousands  and  millions  of  acres  of  magnificent  forests  devastated 
each  year  in  order  to  plant  cocoa.  ...  In  about  a  decade  the  climate  will  be 
too  dry  for  the  growth  of  the  cocoa-tree,  and  disease  will,  at  the  same  time, 
have  practically  prohibited  its  growth  .  .  .  already  there  is  a  food  shortage." 
He  goes  on  to  argue  that  as  trustees  for  the  African  in  economic  affairs,  we 
have  no  right  to  allow  him  "  to  go  on  blindly  to  face  the  rigours  of  ruthless 
natural  laws,"  and  the  impending  disaster  to  a  crop  which  appeared  to  him  a 
gold-mine.  Sir  D.  Prain,  Director  of  Kew,  says:  "The  dangers  which  now 
threaten  cocoa  in  the  Gold  Coast  bid  fair  in  the  near  future  to  extinguish  what 
is  now  a  profitable  industry."  Great  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  necessity  for 
grading,  and  a  graduated  price  for  quality.— Handbook  93,  p.  33.  See  Mr 
Farquharson's  statement,  p.  507  inf. 

^  The  Governor  (General  Guggisberg),  speaking  at  Liverpool  in  September 
1920,  stated  that  labourers  earned  lOs.  to  158.  a  day  for  carrying  cocoa  on  their 
heads.  "  Naturally  they  would  do  that  in  preference  to  mining  or  agricultural 
work  at  Is.  to  2s." 


THE  INDUSTEY  OF  THE  AFRICAN.  401 

naturally  lazy,  leaving  work  to  his  women,  and  contented  to 
lie  in  the  sun  and  eat  and  drink.  It  would  seem,  however 
(as  I  observed  in  the  chapter  describing  the  characteristics 
of  the  people),  that  there  are  few  races  which  are  more  natu- 
rally industrious.  The  fertility  of  the  soil,  his  few  wants,  the 
physical  capacity  of  his  women  for  manual  work,  are  all 
prompting  causes  for  idleness,  yet  except  when  relegated  to 
reserves,  or  when  his  status  as  a  slave  deprived  him  of  all 
incentive,  he  is  usually  iadustrious.  Even  as  a  slave  his 
natural  aptitude  for  work  often  makes  him  a  wiUing  and 
good  worker.  As  a  wage-earner  he  has  not  the  plodding 
application  of  the  Chinaman,  and  "  he  makes  no  pretence  of 
taking  pride  in  planting  cotton  or  tobacco  for  some  one  else," 
says  Mr  WUson ;  but  this  writer  emphatically  denies  that  the 
native  in  Nyasaland  is  idle  and  leaves  most  of  the  work  to  his 
women,  and  he  "  cannot  think  why  Europeans  persist  in 
assuming  that  a  native  lives  in  degradiug  idleness  unless 
working  for  a  European."^ 

The  free  pagan  tribes  in  West  Africa  often  cultivate  more 
than  it  seems  possible  to  consume.  There  is  no  question  of 
merely  "  scratching  the  surface,"  and  the  deep  trenches  in 
the  Yoruba  yam-fields  show  how  thoroughly  his  work  is  done. 
Though  ia  most  districts  the  pressure  of  population,  which 
compels  hard  and  continuous  work  to  provide  the  necessities 
of  life,  is  absent,  you  may  see  him  in  the  very  early  morning, 
and  even  in  the  heat  of  the  tropical  day,  hoeing  his  fields — 
sometimes  so  engrossed  that  he  will  hardly  pause  to  look  at 
a  passiug  European  with  his  long  traiu  of  carriers — ^and  though 
his  needs  and  desires  are  so  small  he  willingly  engages  for 


It  is  the  tradition  of  Africa  that  the  men  tend  the  cattle 
and  fight,  while  the  women  work  in  the  fields  ;  but  through- 
out the  greater  part  of  the  contiaent  the  men  share  the  field- 
work  with  the  women,  and  in  many  districts  do  by  far  the 
larger  part  of  it.  The  cattle-owning  tribes  had  to  be  ready 
at  any  moment  to  fight  for  their  herds,  and  thus  it  was  the 
task  of  the  men  to  tend  them.  The  use  of  oxen  in  agriculture 
would  thus  free  the  women,  and  leave  cultivation  more  largely 
in  the  hands  of  the  men.  The  labour  expended  in  collecting 
and  preparing  for  export  some  £4,000,000  worth  of  palm  pro- 
duce in  the  Southern  Provinces  of  Nigeria,  and  of  £1,500,000 

1  "The  Labour  Problem  in  Nyasaland." — 'East  and  West,'  January  1921. 

20 


402  LABOXIR  IK  TROPICAL  APEICA. 

worth  of  ground-nuts  from  the  Northern  Provinces,  must  be 
prodigious.^ 

We  are  told  that  the  African,  though  a  hard  worker  in  his 
own  fields,  "  does  not  like  or  understand  the  European  capi- 
talist system  of  wage-earning."  In  point  of  fact,  this  seems 
to  be  quite  untrue.  It  would  iadeed  be  natural  to  expect 
in  a  country  like  Nigeria,  where  in  the  north  there  are  large 
areas  of  fertile  vacant  lands  which  the  peasant  can  now 
occupy  secure  from  eviction  or  arbitrary  exactions,  and  where 
in  the  south  sylvan  products  which  command  high  prices  are 
provided  without  cultivation  by  the  bounty  of  nature,  that 
the  very  security  for  life  and  property,  and  the  individual 
freedom  enjoyed  under  British  rule,  would  result  in  the  peas- 
antry taking  up  land  for  themselves,  or  engaging  in  trade, 
and  would  militate  against  the  supply  of  free  casual  labour 
for  wages.  This,  however,  has  only  been  the  case  to  a  limited 
extent. 

The  Government  has  been  able  to  count  on  a  fairly  adequate 
supply  of  labour,  and  some  20,000  seek  employment  on  the 
mines,  in  addition  to  other  unoflQcial  requirements.  During 
the  time  I  was  in  Nigeria  there  was  never  any  shortage  of 
free  voluntary  labour  for  the  arduous  work  of  quarrying^  coal 
underground,  even  in  night  shifts,  and  in  a  temperature 
which  makes  the  work  most  exhausting,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  colUery  was  opened  in  a  district  of  primitive  and 
turbulent  pagans,  where  no  previous  demand  for  labour  had 
existed. 

It  would  seem  that  in  proportion  to  the  population  the 
supply  of  wage-earners  in  East  Africa,  Uganda,  and  Nyasa- 
land  is  very  considerable.  The  conception  of  free  wage- 
labour  is  not  indeed  entirely  new,  for  wages  have  long  been 
paid  to  carriers  of  goods.  Time  payment  is  recognised  in 
West  Africa,  and  Krumen  engage  for  twelve  months  as  ships' 
labourers  and  stevedores  at  the  various  ports.  Native  land- 
owners can  engage  labour  at  low  rates  in  Nigeria.  At  Tola 
hired  labour  is  reported  as  common,  and  slave-owners  say 
that  they  would  not  mind  if  aU  their  male  slaves  now  asserted 

1  'Les  Colonies  et  Marine'  estimates  that  the  export  of  only  20,000  tons  of 
palm-oil  from  French  West  Africa  employs  600,000  carriers  for  transport  alone 
—viz.,  12,000,000  days'  work— or  40,000  men  a  year.— '  West  Africa,'  30th 
October  1920. 


THE  AFRICAN  AS  A  WAGE-EAENEK.  403 

their  freedom.  At  Sokoto  chiefs  declared  that  they  had  found 
by  experience  that  hired  labour  was  cheaper  than  feeding  and 
clothing  slaves  who  had  little  work  to  do  for  a  great  part  of 
the  year.  In  one  somewhat  backward  district  even  the 
system  of  piece-work  was  found  to  exist,  the  ground  being 
marked  out  into  plots  of  ten  cowries  (Id.)  worth  of  work. 
In  Zanzibar,  long  before  the  legal  status  was  aboUshed,  many 
Arabs  declared  that  they  preferred  free  labour,  and  later 
Consul  Cave  succeeded  in  introducing  signed  labour  con- 
tracts.^ 

The  native  is  tempted  to  earn  wages  by  his  desire  to  pur- 
chase the  attractive  goods  offered  for  his  choice,  and,  though 
it  is  true  that  he  can  equally  obtain  money  by  seUing  produce 
grown  or  collected  by  himself,  he  is  glad  when  his  fields  do 
not  require  aU  his  energies  to  earn  extra  money  to  satisfy 
his  new  wants.  There  is  also  a  large  class  who  are  not  dis- 
posed to  settle  down  to  agriculture — ^perhaps  because  the 
pressure  of  population  in  their  own  particular  district  has 
left  no  fertile  land  available,  and  they  do  not  care  to  go  else- 
where ;  more  often,  probably,  because  once  having  been  in- 
duced to  leave  his  home,  the  labourer  has  become  impatient 
of  tribal  life,  and  "  often  prefers  being  a  wage-earner  to  a 
capitalist,  and  following  a  free  Ufe  to  the  discipline  and  re- 
straint of  his  elders  " — as  Sir  E.  P.  Girouard  says,  speaking 
of  East  Africa,^  and  Mr  Wilson  as  regards  Nyasaland.^  The 
African  has  also  a  love  of  being  associated  with  the  ruling 
class,  whether  European  or  Native.  The  conditions  of  paid 
labour  are,  moreover,  not  unattractive, — ^good  and  prompt 
payment,  which  admits  of  the  purchase  of  little  luxuries  in 
the  way  of  food  ;  the  absence  of  any  need  for  taking  thought ; 
and  freedom  from  anxiety  as  to  rainfall,  locusts,  and  the 
other  cares  which  beset  the  small  farmer.    If  he  refuses  work, 

'  The  Arab,  however,  has  been  unable  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  changed 
conditions  of  labour  since  the  abolition  of  the  legal  status  of  slavery  in  1897. 
Most  of  the  clove  estates  are  now  mortgaged  to  Indians,  and  the  population  is 
not  increasing. — (Monson's  Report,  Cd.  1631  of  1903.)  The  negro  appears  to 
deteriorate  as  a  worker  in  the  West  Indies.  A  correspondent  of  the '  Spectator ' 
(31st  August  1901),  writing  of  Trinidad,  quotes  an  ex-Governor  as  saying  that 
the  negro  population  looks  on  agricultural  labour  as  degrading,  and  Dr  Cumins 
in  his  report  on  Indian  emigration  says  that  since  emancipation  the  negroes 
do  less  and  less  work.  The  Royal  Commission  of ^1897  reports  that  they  are 
disinclined  to  continuous  labour. 

2  Report  1909-1910.     Cd.  5467  of  1911,  p.  47. 

3  '  East  and  West,'  loe.  cit. 


404  LABOUK  m  TEOPIOAL  AFRICA. 

it  is  generally  because  he  knows  that  his  would-be  employer 
is  unfamiliar  with  his  language  and  customs,  or  because  he 
can  make  more  money  ia  another  way,  or  because  he  dare 
not  leave  his  crops. 

As  to  the  quality  of  the  work  done  by  the  wage-earner. 
Captain  Orr  says,  I  think  very  truly  :  "  The  whole  question 
of  iudustry  and  idleness  depends  almost  on  incentive.  When 
the  African  native  is  given  an  incentive  to  work,  he  will  work 
in  a  way  that  is  sometimes  almost  astounding.  .  .  .  Give 
him  an  interest  in  his  task,  encourage  his  initiative  by  making 
him  think  for  himself,  thrust  responsibility  upon  him,  demand 
results,  and  not  the  mere  mechanical  performance  of  labour, 
and  he  will  be  foimd  surprisingly  industrious."  ^ 

His  output  of  work  depends  very  largely  on  the  popularity 
and  tact  of  the  European  overseer  and  on  the  class  of  work  to 
be  done.  No  white  man  could  carry  so  heavy  a  load  or  for  so 
long  a  distance  as  he  does  without  over-fatigue,  and  at  heavy 
earth-work  with  his  own  implements  he  can  show  good  results. 
At  skilled  trades  he  is  an  apt  pupil — a  subject  I  shall  deal 
with  at  greater  length  in  the  chapter  on  education.  In  West 
Africa  natives  trained  as  apprentices  man  the  workshops  and 
the  printing  oflBces,  and  make  eflSicient  turners,  fitters,  smiths, 
and  ship-carpenters,  and  even  engineers  of  launches.  In 
East  Africa  the  Waganda,  the  Somals,  and  others  are  said  to 
have  mechanical  aptitude. 

It  is  an  economic  disadvantage  to  any  country  if  the  wage- 
rate  for  unskilled  labour  is  imduly  high,  for  it  arrests  de- 
velopment. It  is  particularly  unfortunate  when  free  labour 
is  struggling  to  assert  itseU  against  slave  labour,  for  it  is 
deterrent  to  employers.  If,  however,  labour  is  really  "  free," 
the  wage-rate  must  be  determined  by  natural  laws,  and  not 
by  any  arbitrary  standard.  Employers  have,  of  course,  a 
perfect  right  to  settle  among  themselves  what  is  the  highest 
wage  the  industry  can  afford  to  offer — as  the  naine  managers 
did  in  Nigeria — and  the  lower  the  rate  the  better,  so  long  as 
it  win  attract  voluntary  labour. 

Since,  however,  the  wants  of  the  African  peasant  are  few 
and  are  not  necessities,  and  since  he  can  generally  obtain 
sufficient  cash  to  purchase  them  and  pay  his  small  tax  (where 
a  tax  is  levied)  by  the  sale  of  a  Uttle  produce,  there  is,  as  I 
have  said,  but  little  incentive  to  earn  wages,  and  it  may 

1  <  The  Making  of  Nigeria,'  by  Captain  Orr,  p.  216. 


THE  WAGE  BATE  AND  METHOD  OF  PAYMENT.  405 

often  happen  that  as  soon  as  the  small  sum  he  requires  has 
been  obtained  he  will  cease  to  work.^  The  higher  the  wages 
in  such  a  case  the  less  the  work,  as  the  Indian  industrial 
report;  says  is  the  case  with  the  Indian  coolie.*  Whether  the 
wage  is  unduly  high  or  not  depends,  of  course,  solely  on  its 
purchasing  power.  A  daUy  wage  of  9d.  may  be  considered 
to  be  high  in  those  districts  where  it  would  probably  be  more 
than  four  times  the  cost  of  a  labourer's  daily  food,  but  in 
other  districts  it  might  be  barely  sufficient.'  When  the  rate 
has  become  standardised  it  is  difficult  to  reduce  it,  except  by 
the  introduction  of  alien  labour. 

The  first  and  most  important  of  all  conditions  to  attract 
free  labour  is  that  the  wage  should  be  paid  in  fuU,  without 
deductions,  into  the  hand  of  each  man,  and  not  through  a 
headman,  contractor,  or  chief,  who  may  find  some  means  of 
appropriating  a  part  of  it.  It  should  be  paid  in  cash — ^which 
incidentally  stimulates  currency — and  not  in  a  note  divisible 
among  several  men,  and  above  aU,  not  in  the  form  of  an 
order  on  a  store.  The  latter  form  of  payment  is  apt  to  lead 
to  abuses,  and  discourages  free  labour.  Inexperienced  young 
agents,  eager  to  show  profits,  may  be  tempted  to  palm  off 
unsaleable  stock.  The  recipient  who  requires  cash  either  to 
purchase  articles  offered  for  cash,  or  to  pay  his  tax,  sells  the 
goods  he  has  received  for  what  they  will  fetch  in  the  market, 
very  possibly  not  more  than  half  the  wages  due  to  him,  and 
the  result  is  that  you  may  often  purchase  imported  goods  in 
the  native  market  much  below  their  price  in  the  adjoining 
European  store. 

Wages  should  be  paid  at  short  intervals — at  least  weekly, — 
and  I  think  that  an  employer  will  find  that  it  is  to  his  eventual 

'  The  principle  determining  factor  in  the  wage-rate  must  (subject  to  modifying 
causes)  obviously  be  whether  a  man  can  make  more  money  by  wage-earning  or  by 
growing  and  selling  produce,  or  by  trading  himself. 

^  Cmd.  51/1919,  p.  151. 

'  The  usual  pre-war  wage  for  unskilled  labour  paid  by  Government  and 
Europeans  in  Nigeria  was  9d.  per  diem  in  the  interior,  but  native  employers 
could  generally  obtain  workmen  at  a  lower  rate.  In  East  Africa,  the  rate  is  stated 
to  be  as  low  as  3d.  per  day  for  an  eleven  or  twelve-hour  day,  and  in  Uganda 
and  Nyaaaland  it  appears  to  have  been  about  the  same — in  Northern  Rhodesia, 
lid.— 'Gazette,'  14/8/20.  In  the  Sudan  it  is  9d.  or  lOd.,  but  reached  9s.  4d. 
in  some  places  in  1919. — Handbook  98,  p.  95.  In  the  Union  of  South  Africa 
the  rate  was  about  Is.  lOd.  per  day,  but  inclusive  of  food,  housing,  and  other 
contingencies,  it  was  some  63  per  cent  higher  (Cd.  873  of  1920,  p.  24  ;  'East  and 
West,'  loe.  cU.  ;  'Times,'  12th  July  1912,  &c.).  It  is  curious  to  note  that  in 
all  countries  the  daily  wage  of  unskilled  labour  is  approximately  the  same  as  the 
local  value  of  a  fowl. 


406  LABOtTK  m  TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

advantage  to  pay  such  small  flues  as  may  be  authorised  by 
regulations  into  a  fund,  to  be  employed  in  any  way  he  thinks 
fit  for  the  good  of  the  labourers  rather  than  credit  them  to 
himself.    It  has  a  marked  effect  in  establishing  confidence. 

The  next  most  important  consideration  to  the  labourer  is  the 
establishment  of  a  native  market  close  to  his  camp,  where  he 
can  readily  buy  his  food,  salt,  tobacco,  and  anything  else 
he  requires.  Precautions  would  be  taken  that  the  prices 
asked  are  reasonable,  and  no  intoxicating  liquor  would  be 
allowed.  In  stores][close  by  he  should  be  able  to  purchase  for 
cash  imported  goods  at  low  prices.  Something  may  be  done 
towards  improving  his  standard  of  comfort  by  exhibiting  for 
sale  useful  articles,  such  as  enamel- ware  utensils,  blankets,  &c. 

It  is  the  custom  in  Nigeria  to  pay  a  labourer  "  subsistence 
money  " — generally  half  wages — ^for  the  period  necessary  for 
him  to  return  to  his  home  or  place  of  engagement,  together 
with  any  steamer  or  railway  fare,  and  also  "  detention  money  " 
if  he  is  kept  unemployed.  It  is  essential,  if  an  employer 
wishes  to  retain  a  hold  on  his  labourers,  that  they  should  be 
released  punctually  at  the  date  on  which  their  contract  ex- 
pires, or  when  they  desire  to  go  to  look  after  their  crops. 
The  village  sees  that  its  members  who  had  gone  to  work  for 
wages  have  not  been  forcibly  detained,  as  they  had  feared, 
and  the  cloth,  &c.,  which  they  have  purchased  with  their 
earnings  is  a  great  attraction  to  others  to  come  forward  for 
work. 

It  is  all-important  that  the  man  who  actually  handles  the 
labourers  should  possess  those  instincts  of  fair-play  and 
tolerance  which  we  Uke  to  think  are  eminently  British,  and 
that  he  should  have  the  knack  of  getting  on  well  with  his 
men.  For  the  man  they  Uke,  Africans  wiU  do  double  the 
work  they  will  for  another.  Jones  may  be  quite  as  just  and 
kind  as  Brown,  but  Brown  "  has  a  way  with  him  "  of  exciting 
a  laugh  and  of  good-natured  chaff  which  is  irresistible  to  an 
African.  A  free  labourer  can,  of  course,  choose  for  whom 
he  win  work,  and  Brown  wiU  have  the  pick  of  those  who 
offer.  Decent  hutments  must  be  provided  rent-free,  and 
groups  of  men  from  different  tribes  should  be  housed  apart. 
They  should  be  encouraged  to  bring  their  women  to  cook  for 
them.  The  gift  of  a  blanket — ^iustead  of  treating  it  as  an 
advance — may  be  found  to  be  an  economy  in  the  long-run. 

Elaborate  regulations  under  a  "  master  and  servant,"  or 


LABOITE  EEGTJLATIONS.  407 

similar  ordinance  in  all  our  Crown  colonies  and  protectorates, 
now  amply  safeguard  the  welfare  of  the  native  labonrer,  and 
provide  for  many  of  the  poiats  I  have  mentioned.  They  also 
prescribe  places,  methods,  and  conditions  of  recruiting,  maxi- 
mum periods  for  which  men  may  be  engaged,  conditions  of 
repatriation,  maximum  distances  for  which  a  carrier  may  be 
called  on  to  carry  a  standard  load,  conditions  as  to  medical 
attendance  and  sanitation,  iaspection  of  labour  camps,  and 
especially  the  punishments  (from  which  flogging  is  wholly 
excluded)  which  may  legally  be  inflicted  by  an  employer. 
They  provide  the  machinery  for  entering  into  labour  con- 
tracts, as  security  against  desertions,  but  good  employers  are 
found  to  prefer  casual  labour.  These  ordinances  must  neces- 
sarily vary  according  to  the  circumstances  of  each  protec- 
torate, and  though  some  years  ago  some  of  them  left  much  to 
be  desired,  they  may  now,  I  think,  be  said  to  be  generally  fair 
and  just  both  to  the  employer  and  the  employee. 

It  is,  I  think,  important  in  such  regulations  to  keep  in 
view  the  following  points,  inter  alia  : — 

(a)  That  breaches  of  contract  by  a  labourer  should  be 
prosecuted  as  civil  actions  by  the  employer,  and  no  contract 
should  be  enforceable  against  a  labourer  under  the  sanctions 
of  the  criminal  law. 

(&)  It  should  be  the  recognised  duty  of  the  District  Officer 
when  inspecting  labour  camps  to  satisfy  himself  on  behalf 
of  illiterate  natives  that  the  conditions  of  contracts  are  being 
observed,  and  to  take  appropriate  action  in  case  of  any 
breach  by  employers. 

(c)  A  clear  distinction  should  be  drawn  between  labour 
recruited  on  the  spot  and  that  engaged  by  an  agent  at  a  dis- 
tance. In  the  latter  case,  though  engaged  within  the  pro- 
tectorate, the  conditions  may  for  all  practical  purposes  assimi- 
late to  those  of  labour  imported  from  overseas,  since  the 
labourer  cannot  desert  if  detained  overtime  or  ill-treated,  and 
cannot  speak  the  local  language. 

(d)  The  authenticated  certificate  of  the  person  who  actually 
pays  the  labourers,  that  he  has  paid  the  full  wage  in  cash  to 
each  man,  as  set  down  against  his  name,  should  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  receipt,  made  in  the  form  of  a  mark  against  his 
name,  by  an  illiterate  labourer  who  is  ignorant  whether  he  is 
acknowledging  the  payment  of  £5  or  5d. 

(e)  Finally,  it  is  above  all  desirable  that  regulations  which 


408  LABOTJE  IN  TROPICAL  AFEICA. 

must  inevitably  become  inoperative,  because  impracticable} 
and  -will  remain  a  dead  letter,  should  be  avoided.  They 
are  unfair  to  the  native,  to  the  honest  employer,  and  especially 
to  the  District  Officer  who  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  enforc- 
ing them. 

A  Memorial  of  the  Aborigines'  Protection  Society  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  describes  the  safeguards  which  the  Society 
considers  as  essential  to  schemes  of  Government  "  corvde." 
The  application  of  this  term — corvee  (travail  oUigS  et  gratuit) 
— ^to  the  conditions  of  compulsory  free  labour  is  misleading 
and  mischievous.  All  labour  employed  in  British  East  Africa 
or  elsewhere,  whether  by  Government  or  by  private  persons, 
is  fully  paid,  and  this  is  made  clear  in  Lord  Milner's  despatch. 
The  concessionaire  system,  formerly  sanctioned  in  the  Belgian 
and  French  Congo,  depended  for  its  existence  on  forced  labour. 
It  failed,  we  are  told,  under  the  French,  because  of  their 
disUke  to  the  use  of  such  methods. 

The  exponents  of  the  Labour  Party's  policy  approve,  I 
understand,  the  use  of  compulsory  unpaid  labour  "  for  purely 
tribal  purposes  in  tribal  areas."  Tribal  forced  labour  is,  how- 
ever, even  less  justifiable  than  a  Government  corvee  for 
public  works  would  be.  To  urge  the  sanction  of  native  law 
and  custom  is  absurd,  for  that  customary  law  would  sanction 
slavery,  and  many  other  things  contrary  to  humanity.  If 
labour  is  employed  at  all  under  such  conditions,  it  should 
only  be  by  special  rule,  promulgated,  with  the  approval  of 
the  Governor,  by  the  native  authority,  for  purposes  of  road 
repair  and  sanitation.  But  I  would  prefer  to  see  the  total 
prohibition  of  all  forms  of  unpaid  labour,  with  the  exception 
to  which  I  shall  refer  in  a  moment.  It  is  ra  my  view  by  no 
means  the  least  advantage  in  the  system  of  "  native  treasuries," 
described  in  chapter  x.,  that  it  enables  the  native  administra- 
tion to  pay  for  the  labour  it  needs  for  repairing  city  walls  and 
gates,  for  new  road  construction,  for  sanitation  and  buildings, 
and  that  it  deprives  the  salaried  chiefs  of  any  excuse  for 
employing  impaid  labour  to  build  their  houses.  A  native 
administration  has,  moreover,  at  its  disposal  for  public  pur- 
poses the  use  of  its  own  prison  labour.  The  peasant  who  pays 
his  tax  has  a  right  to  be  relieved  from  all  such  arbitrary 
obligations. 

The  one  and  only  form  of  unpaid  labour  demanded  by  the 
Government  in  Nigeria  is  the  "  cleaning  of  the  roads."    Each 


ROAD-MAKING.  409 

village  is  called  upon  to  clear  the  road  which  passes  by  it 
of  weeds  and  grass,  to  patch  ruts,  and  clean  the  side-drains. 
It  is  to  its  own  interest  to  do  so.  This  does  not  include  the 
repair  of  metalled  roads  or  the  construction  of  new  roads — 
tasks  which  devolve  upon  the  public  works  department,  or 
the  native  administration  funds,  with  paid  labour.  If  villages 
are  so  far  apart  as  to  make  the  task  onerous  a  subsidy  is 
given.  It  is  occasionally  reported  that  a  community  is 
anxious  to  make  a  road  in  order  to  facilitate  its  own  trade, 
and  will  supply  aU  labour  if  Government  will  lay  out  the 
trace.  It  is  not  always  safe  to  accept  such  representations  at 
their  face  value,  for  it  may  be  that  they  emanate  only  from 
chiefs  and  wealthy  traders,  and  that  the  peasantry  are  forced 
to  make  the  road  (very  possibly  on  the  pretence  that  it  is  the 
order  of  Government)  greatly  against  their  will — even  the 
native  courts  assisting  by  fining  recalcitrants.  It  is  probable 
that  the  serious  disturbance  which  took  place  in  Egbaland 
(South  Nigeria)  in  1917  was  largely  due  to  this  cause. 


410 


CHAPTER  XX. 

LABOUE  m  TEOPicAL  AFEiCA  {Continued). 

Compulsion  by  Government  when  justified — How  enforced  :  (a)  pressiire 
on  chiefs  ;  (6)  by  legislative  authority — Taxation  for  labour — Recruit- 
ment from  contiguous  territory — Alien  immigration  and  labour — 
Contracts  for  repatriation — Compulsion  for  self-advancement — Wage- 
earning  and  peasant  ownership — Necessity  of  European  ownership  in 
certain  cases — Co-partnership  and  profit-sharing — Exceptional  justi- 
fication of  pressure  on  chiefs — Native  contractors — ^Substitutes  for 
labour — Conclusions. 

If  the  safety  of  the  State  is  imperilled,  it  is  miiversally 
admitted  that  the  government  of  a  free  and  civilised  people 
is  justified  in  resorting  to  compulsion  by  means  of  obligatory 
military  service  for  the  young  and  able-bodied  males,  and 
to  taxation  limited  only  by  the  needs  of  the  State  on  the 
rest  of  its  citizens.  This  is,  of  course,  the  extreme  case. 
The  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  speaking  for  the 
British  Government,  in  a  State  paper  has,  as  we  have  seen, 
laid  down  the  principle,  "  in  order  that  there  may  be  no 
room  for  doubt  in  the  matter,"  that  the  Government  of  an 
African  dependency  is  justified  in  resorting  to  compulsion 
for  paid  labour  required  for  works  of  a  public  nature,  subject 
to  express  provisos.  This  dictum  was  not  contested  in  the 
debate  in  the  House  of  Lords,^  and  has  been  supported  by 
various  high  authorities.^ 

1  14th  July  1920.  Lord  Bryce  admitting  the  necessity,  pointed  out  that 
since  such  works  are  conducted  in  public  any  abuse  would  be  known  and 
rectified.     The  Primate  concurred. 

^  The  Aborigines'  Protection  Society  quotes  Lord  Cromer  :  "  We  reluctantly 
admit  the  necessity  of  compulsory  labour  in  certain  cases,  and  we  do  not 
stigmatise  as  slavery  such  labour,  when  under  all  possible  safeguards  against 
the  occurrence  of  abuses,  it  is  employed  for  indispensable  and  recognised  purposes 
of  public  utility.  On  the  other  hand,  we  regard  the  system  when  employed 
for  private   profit  as  wholly  unjustifiable,  and   as   synonymous  with   slavery." 


COMPULSION  :  WHEN  JUSTIFIED.  411 

In  what  circumstances  and  by  what  methods,  then,  is  it 
justifiable  for  a  Government  to  resort  to  compulsion  in  the 
employment  of  paid  labour  ?  The  reasons  given  for  com- 
pulsion in  East  Africa  do  not  appear  to  be  limited  to  Govern- 
ment necessity,  but  include  also  the  training  of  natives  to 
work,  so  that  they  shall  not  "  live  ia  idleness  and  vice." 
The  payment  of  tax  by  labour  in  lieu  of  cash,  as  ta  Uganda, 
is  a  different  matter,  and,  as  I  have  said  (p.  251),  it  is  prefer- 
able that  the  labour  should  be  paid  ia  fuU  and  the  amount 
of  the  tax  subsequently  refunded,  so  as  to  make  the  distinc- 
tion perfectly  clear. 

The  educative  results  of  compulsory  labour  depend  on  the 
conditions  under  which  it  is  employed,  and  are  not  a  primary 
reason  for  resorting  to  compulsion  for  public  works,  for  it  is, 
of  course,  possible  to  compel  natives  to  work  for  their  own  or 
their  community's  benefit  instead  of  for  the  white  man's 
wages.  In  short,  compulsion  is  only  justified  where  labour 
cannot  otherwise  be  procured  for  public  works  of  an  essential 
and  urgent  nature.  It  is  preferable  that  it  should  be  avoided 
if  possible  for  ordinary  and  continuing  works,  since  it  mili- 
tates against  the  evolution  of  voluntary  contract  by  rendering 
Government  employment  unpopular. 

Primitive  tribes  are  suspicious,  and  fear  employment  by 
the  white  man.  In  such  a  case  the  wages  paid,  and  the 
good  treatment  received,  should  have  the  effect  of  removing 
these  fears  and  suspicions,  so  that  compulsion  may  no  longer 
be  necessary,  and  free  voluntary  labour  take  its  place. 

Among  more  advanced  communities,  familiar  with  the  con- 
ception of  wage-labour  and  contract,  the  "  educative  "  argu- 
ment recedes  farther  into  the  background.  In  Mgeria  private 
employers — e.g.,  mine  managers  and  others — ^knowing  that 
their  labour  supply  depends  whoUy  on  the  inducements  they 
can  offer,  have  succeeded  in  attracting  a  fair  labour  supply, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  a  Government  should  not  do  the 
same,  though  the  supply  may  not  at  first  be  obtainable  so 
quickly,  in  such  large  numbers,  or  at  so  low  a  rate  of  pay, 
as  when  compulsion  is  resorted  to. 

When  in  cases  of  exceptional  emergency  it  is  necessary 

"Forced  labour,"  writes  Sir  S.  Olivier,  "under  the  authority  of  tribal  chiefs, 
is  a  permissible  institution  for  the  execution  of  public  services,  as  in  the 
old  brig-bote  and  burg-bote  of  our  own  ancestors  "  ('  Contemporary  Keview,' 
January  1919).  But  the  precedents  of  early  Anglo-Saxon  times  are  hardly 
applicable  to  the  rule  of  a  modern  State  in  Africa. 


412  LABOUR  IN  TEOPICAl  AFRICA. 

to  resort  to  compulsion,  how  should  it  be  enforced?  In 
primitive  communities  an  executive  order — though  an  un- 
desirable method — may  suffice ;  but  under  an  organised 
native  administration,  even  though  the  demand  be  only  in 
a  grave  and  temporary  emergency,  such  a  method  is  still 
more  undesirable.  The  Criminal  Code  of  Nigeria,  as  Mr 
Gowers,  the  Lieut.-Governor,  points  out,  makes  it  a  felony, 
punishable  by  five  years'  imprisonment,  for  any  one  to 
threaten  with  injury  to  himself,  his  reputation,  or  property, 
any  person,  or  those  in  whom  he  is  interested,  or  to  induce 
him  or  them  to  believe  that  he  will  become  an  object  of 
displeasure  to  the  Government,  or  to  a  Government  official, 
if  he  does  so  with  the  intent  to  compel  the  person  to  do  any 
act  which  he  is  lawfully  entitled  to  abstain  from  doing.  But 
is  not  a  native  chief  who  is  told  to  provide  labour  for  Govern- 
ment ordered  to  commit  this  felony  ? 

The  employment  of  chiefs  and  headmen  for  this  purpose 
can  only  weaken  the  native  authority,  for  it  exposes  them  to 
the  very  probable  contingency  of  a  refusal  on  the  part  of 
Bome  individual,  and  unless  he  is  coerced  by  illegal  means, 
their  authority  is  defied.  In  any  case,  a  chief  would  be  called 
on  to  do  precisely  that  kind  of  arbitrary  act  which  the  District 
Officer  has  been  constantly  telling  him  the  Government  will 
no  longer  tolerate.  Consider,  moreover,  the  actual  working 
of  the  order.  The  headman  is  directed  to  produce  a  specified 
nimiber  of  men.  Those  able  to  afford  it  offer  bribes  to  be 
let  off,  others  refuse  or  disappear.  In  one  case  a  village  head, 
being  a  butcher,  ordered  aU  the  butchers  to  go,  so  as  to  enjoy 
a  monopoly  himself.  The  most  law-abiding  are  penalised. 
At  best  the  incidence  is  purely  arbitrary,  and  almost  certainly 
attended  by  abuses  difficult  to  detect  or  suppress.  If  the 
chief  fails,  he  is  accounted  to  have  insufficient  influence  and 
authority  for  his  position.^ 

'  The  evidence  of  Mr  Hollia,  C.M.Q.  (Colonial  Secretary),  before  the  East 
African  Commission  of  1912-13,  is  quoted  :  "Whenever  an  agent  wants  labour  he 
goes  to  the  chiefs  and  bribes  them,  with  the  result  that  a  number  of  men  are 
brought  to  the  District  Commissioners  and  registered,— one  could  not  call  this 
voluntary  labour. "  Lord  Milner,  though  emphatic  that  no  form  of  compulsion 
for  private  employment  is  admissible,  and  that  only  "judicious  advice"  may 
be  tendered,  adds  that  "  any  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  chiefs  to  act  on 
the  instructions  conveyed  through  responsible  Government  officers  would 
naturally  be  taken  note  of  and  recorded."  "  Instructions  "  are  a  very  different 
thing  from  "judicious  advice,"  which,  whether  given  by  the  District  Officer 
or  by  missionaries,  does  not  so  far  appear  to  have  produced  the  desired  effect. 

Mr  Churchill  has  lately  ruled  that  officials  shall  take  no  part  at  all  in  recruit- 
ing labour  for  private  employment. — Cmd.  1509,  1921. 


COMPULSION  BT  SPECIAL  LEGISLATION.  413 

In  East  Africa  sixty  days'  compulsory  labour  is  enforced 
by  ordinance,  and  since  this  will  not  be  demanded  if  a  native 
works  on  his  own  fields  or  in  other  occupations,  the  object  is 
manifestly  purely  educative.  It  is  improbable,  as  I  have 
pointed  out,  that  it  will  result  in  procuring  any  appreciable 
supply  of  labour  for  Government — apart  from  the  great  diffi- 
culty of  enforcing  the  law  without  injustice — and  therefore 
the  problem  of  an  adequate  contingent  of  labour  for  railway 
construction,  &c.,  is  left  practically  untouched. 

The  recommendation  of  the  bishops  that  compulsory  labour 
should  be  legalised,  "  preferably  for  Government  purposes," 
was,  it  is  understood,  made  with  the  object  of  regularising 
the  action  of  the  District  Officer  and  the  native  headmen, 
and  providing  them  with  the  authority  to  enforce  their  de- 
mands. It  is  without  question  essential  that,  for  whatever 
purpose  compulsion  may  be  resorted  to,  it  should  have  the 
sanction  of  a  law  clearly  defining  the  extent  and  conditions 
of  the  service  required. 

It  is,  however,  in  my  opinion,  preferable  that  special  legis- 
lation should  be  enacted  in  each  case  where  the  necessity 
may  arise,  or,  at  least,  that  the  Governor  should  be  em- 
powered to  declare  by  Order  in  Council  or  proclamation 
that  the  necessity  has  arisen,  and  to  specify  the  propor- 
tion of  the  adult  able-bodied  male  population  of  a  named 
district  who  are  called  upon  through  their  chiefs  to  come 
forward,  and  for  what  period  they  will  be  required,  and 
for  what  length  of  time  the  special  emergency  wiU  con- 
tinue. 

If  direct  taxation  is  in  force  the  District  Officer  will  have 
an  approximate  census  of  every  village,  and  can  arrange  the 
numbers  to  be  called  up  for  each  relief  gang.  The  formaUties 
of  this  procedure  will  vest  it  in  the  eyes  of  both  educated 
and  uneducated  natives  with  the  character  of  emergency 
legislation.  The  close  supervision  of  the  British  staff  will 
minimise  abuses,  and  the  responsibility  rests,  where  it  ought 
to  rest,  on  the  Head  of  the  administration. 

In  countries  where  the  population  is  not  inadequate  for 
the  supply  of  reasonable  demands — ^in  which  category  Uganda 
and  Nyasaland  may  perhaps  be  included ' — ^the  unwillingness 

'  In  the  latest  Uganda  report  we  read  :  "  Voluntary  enlistment  of  labour  is  the 
recognised  policy,  and  is  expected  to  furnish  the  quota  required,  always  presuming 
that  terms  and  conditions  of  employment  are  reasonably  inviting.  The  current 
wages  for  unskilled  labour  arerages  between  2d.  and  4d.  per  diem."  This  wage, 
contrasted  ?dth  the  money  to  be  made  by  growing  cotton  (for  which  the 


414  LABOUB,  m  TEOPIOAl  AFRICA. 

of  the  people  to  come  forward  may  be  diminished  by  the  more 
equitable  iacidence  of  the  demand  which  would  thus  be  en- 
sured, and  by  greater  iaducements  in  the  welfare  and  treat- 
ment of  the  labourers,  more  especially  by  beiag  allowed  to 
return  to  their  YiUages  at  seed-time  and  harvest. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Glen-Grey  Act  imposed  a  tax  upon 
natives  who  could  not  prove  that  they  had  worked  beyond 
the  borders  of  the  district  for  three  months.  This  was  an 
Act  of  the  Cape  Legislature  for  which  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment was  not  responsible.  The  clause  was  never  operative, 
and  the  South  African  Commission  of  1903-5  recorded  its 
view  that  "  any  measure  of  compulsion  is  to  be  deprecated, 
not  only  as  unjust,  but  as  economically  unsound."  A  similar 
undesirable  system  has  recently  been  abandoned  in  Nyasa- 
land.  If  the  payment  of  the  ordinary  tax  must  be  made  in 
currency,  natives  will  work  for  wages  in  order  to  earn  the 
small  sum  required,  and  as  a  result  will  often  become  regular 
wage-earners. 

The  Aborigines'  Protection  Society  lays  stress  on  the  un- 
desirability  of  recruitiag  labour  from  a  Mandated  territory 
for  service  beyond  it.  Lord  Milner  has  no  objection  to  such 
a  course,  provided  there  is  a  surplus  of  labour  available. 
If  both  are  under  the  same  controlling  Power,  the  desirability 
or  otherwise  would  seem  rather  to  depend  on  distance — a 
matter  equally  important  if  the  labour  is  recruited  within  the 
protectorate — a  poiat  on  which  I  have  already  laid  emphasis. 

If  labourers  are  conveyed  long  distances  by  steamer  or 
rail,  it  may  be  that  neither  the  climate  nor  the  food  are  suit- 
able, and  the  conditions  approximate  to  those  of  indentured 
rather  than  of  free  local  labour.^  If  the  employer  fails  to 
repatriate  the  men  at  the  agreed  time,  they  have  no  remedy. 
For  this  reason  it  seems  desirable  that  when  men  are  engaged 
for  service  at  a  destination  over  100  miles  from  the  place 

Governor  says  48.  a  lb.  was  paid  in  Manchester),  seems  hardly  sufficiently 
inviting.— Cmd.  508  (37),  1920. 

The  Governor  (Sir  R.  Coryndon)  says  that  "the  available  supply  of  labour  is 
much  more  than  adequate  if  it  would  come  forward." — '  United  Empire, '  June 
1920,  p.  298. 

^  The  export  of  labourers  from  Nyasaland  to  the  South  African  mines  some 
years  ago,  where  they  died  in  large  numbers,  seems  to  have  been  a  lamentable 
failure.  It  is  now  discouraged  by  the  Government,  even  though  entirely 
voluntary.  Consul  Monson  declared  that  nothing  short  of  force  would  induce 
natives  of  East  Africa  to  go. — Cmd.  1631  of  1903,  p.  8.  A  similar  export  from 
Senegal  to  the  French  Congo  was  stopped  by  the  French  Government. 


THE  LABOim  OF  ALIEN  COLONISTS.  415 

of  engagement,  they  shonld  be  registered  before  a  magistrate, 
a  copy  of  the  contract  being  deposited  with  the  District 
Officer  at  the  place  of  engagement,  and  a  duplicate  sent  to 
the  officer  of  the  district  in  which  they  are  to  serve.  The 
duty  then  devolves  upon  the  former  of  seeing  that  the 
labourers  understand  the  terms  of  the  contract,  and  where 
they  are  going  ;  and  on  the  latter  of  seeing  that  the  contract 
is  fulfilled  and  the  labourers  are  properly  treated,  and  re- 
patriated on  its  expiry.  If  engaged  for  over  a  month,  it  is 
desirable  that  they  should  take  their  wives  with  them.  In 
most,  if  not  in  aU,  colonies  recruiting  agents  must  be  licensed. 

I  have  in  the  last  chapter  shown  that  since  the  British 
settler  is  unable  to  perform  the  manual  work  on  his  estate 
in  East  Africa,  there  is  no  really  permanent  solution  to  the 
labour  difficulty  which  wiU  meet  the  demands  of  the  future, 
other  than  the  importation  of  contract  labour  under  Govern- 
ment supervision  and  control,  supplemented  by  labour-saving 
devices. 

Alien  labour  may  either  be  of  the  class  which  intends  to 
remain  in  the  country  permanently  as  colonists — ^being  either 
free  immigrants  or  labourers  who  have  completed  their  period 
of  indenture — or  it  may  consist  of  labourers  who  are  pro- 
hibited from  settlement,  or  who  do  not  desire  to  remain. 
To  the  colonist  class  belong  the  Indian  immigrants  who  have 
settled  in  British  Guiana,  the  West  Indies,^  and  Fiji,  and  also 
to  a  large  extent  the  Chinese  in  Malaya.  To  the  non-colonist 
class  belong  the  Tamils  in  Malaya,  the  Indian  labour  in 
Ceylon  (where  half  a  million  indentured  coolies  serve  their 
time  and  return  to  India  of  their  own  wish),  and  the  Chinese 
imported  into  South  Africa,  and  the  Kanakas  in  Australia, 
for  whom  repatriation  was  a  condition  of  service. 

It  is,  of  course,  desirable  that  the  profits  arisiag  from  the 
development  of  the  resources  of  a  country  should  as  far  as 
possible  accrue  to  its  own  people.  But  it  is  manifest  that 
when  the  population  is  too  scanty,  or  too  apathetic  to  develop 
those  resources,  or  to  supply  sufficient  imskilled  labour  for 
their  development  under  alien  supervision,  there  is  no  in- 

^  In  Trinidad  half  the  population  consists  of  naturalised  immigrants,  and  that 
of  the  West  Indies  generally  consists  of  the  descendants  of  imported  African 
slaves.  Sumatra,  Borneo,  Mauritius,  Java  and  Madagascar,  offer  parallel  cases. 
It  has  been  maintained  that  white  men  in  North  Queensland  can  be  inured  to 
labour  in  the  sugar  plantations  under  tropical  conditions,  but  no  one  has  so  far 
had  the  temerity  to  maintain  this  view  as  regards  Africa,  except  in  the  Highlands. 


416  LABOtTB  m  TEOPICAL  APEICA.. 

justice  if  the  people  of  countries  where  land  is  insuflftcient 
for  the  needs  of  a  congested  population  are  called  iu  to  help 
to  develop  it.  If,  indeed,  the  adequate  development  of  the 
resources  of  the  tropics  be  regarded  as  a  trust,  fertile  lands 
capable  of  producing  raw  materials  and  food  greatly  needed 
by  mankind  cannot  be  allowed  to  lie  unproductive.  It  may 
therefore  be  contended  that  if  British  capital,  energy,  and 
expert  knowledge  are  available  to  occupy  waste  lands  ia 
Africa,  but  lack  suflBcient  manual  labour,  there  is  sufficient 
justification  for  importing  aUen  labour. 

The  importation  of  labourers,  however,  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  whom  intend  to  remaiu  as  colonists,  presupposes  a 
policy  of  Asiatic  colonisation,  and  I  have  already  (iu  chapter 
XV.)  discussed  the  many  serious  difficulties  inherent  ia  such 
a  policy  in  our  African  dependencies.  It  would,  moreover, 
only  afford  a  very  temporary  relief  to  the  labour  difficulty, 
which  would  become  as  acute  as  ever  as  soon  as  the  land 
assigned  for  Asiatic  colonisation  was  filled  up,  and  fresh 
immigrants  could  no  longer  be  encouraged.^ 

If  therefore  Indian  immigration,  whatever  its  merits  or 
demerits  from  other  points  of  view,  offers  no  solution  to  the 
labour  problem,  there  remains  only  the  possibility  of  importing 
labourers — ^Uke  the  Chinese  iu  South  Africa — ^who  are  under 
an  obligation  to  leave  the  country  on  the  expiry  of  their  con- 
tract. This  form  of  labour  contract  has  been  condemned  by 
a  large  section  of  British  opinion,  as  the  debates  iu  Mi 
Lyttelton's  time  testify.  The  allegation  that  it  was  equiva- 
lent to  slavery  must,  I  think,  be  regarded  as  insincere  or  ill- 
informed,  looking  to  the  safeguards  employed,  the  high  rate 
of  wages,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  a  voluntary  and  a  strictly 
limited  contract.  But  the  fact  that  such  labourers  were  un- 
accompanied by  their  wives — with  the  inevitable  result  of 
trouble — was  a  serious  objection,  and  this  should  not  be 
allowed. 

If,  then,  there  is  no  alternative  to  the  employment  of 
labour  imported  under  limited  contracts  and  repatriated  on 
their  expiration,  if  the  future  necessities  of  Government 
development  and  private  enterprise  are  to  be  satisfied  in 
Kenya  without  retarding  the  education  of  the  native  of  the 
soil  as  a  producer  on  his  own  lands,  or  limiting  the  areas 
available  for  his  future  expansion,  by  the  introduction  of  an 

J  This,  Sir  H.  May  informs  me,  is  the  present  experience  in  Fiji. 


EEPATRIATED   CONTRACT  LABOTfR.  417 

alien  peasantry,  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  conditions 
under  which  such  labour  is  employed  in  Malaya  and  elsewhere. 

The  labourers  are  generally  "  assisted,"  for  they  lack  money 
for  the  sea-voyage  and  maintenance,  and  would  land  as 
destitutes  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  the  employer.  It  is  there- 
fore in  their  own  interests  that  Government  insists  that  they 
should  either  embark  under  contract,  or  form  a  contract  as 
soon  as  they  arrive. 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  here  in  elaborate  detaU  the 
rules  made  in  British  tropical  dependencies  for  the  protection 
and  care  of  alien  labour.  They  may  be  studied  in  the  ordi- 
nances of  Hong-Kong,  the  Straits  Settlements,  British  Borneo, 
and  British  Guiana  by  any  one  interested.  It  suffices  to  say 
that  both  in.  the  country  from  which  the  labourers  come  (if 
British)  and  that  to  which  they  go,  a  "  protector  "  who  knows 
their  language  and  understands  them  is  appointed  to  look 
after  their  welfare,  and  scrutioise  the  contracts  in  the  interest 
of  the  immigrant.  Stringent  rules  are  enforced  as  regards 
the  duration  of  contract,  recovery  of  advances,  facility  for 
repatriation,  working  hours,  and  method  of  payment.  The 
labourer  is  medically  examined,  and  care  is  taken  that  he 
has  medical  aid  and  hospital  treatment,  and  food  at  reason- 
able prices.  Housing,  water-supply,  and  sanitation  are  regu- 
lated. He  may  not  be  separated  from  his  family  (if  he  has 
one),  or  employed  in  prescribed  unhealthy  districts,  and  must 
be  repatriated  at  his  employer's  expense  if  imflt  to  remain. 
He  is  assured  of  a  right  of  complaint  and  of  redress. 

Contract  labour  under  such  conditions  has  been  a  boon 
to  the  Indians  and  Chinese  who  have  been  employed  in  Ceylon, 
Fiji,  Malaya,  and  other  British  colonies.  Its  use  should  be 
limited  to  countries  in  which  the  population  is  at  present 
insufiBcient  for  the  essential  needs  of  the  country.  Where 
there  exists  an  adequate  native  population,  it  is  a  confession 
of  failure  that  we  should  have  to  resort  to  imported  contract 
labour,  whether  it  be  Chinese  labour  in  the  Transvaal,  or 
Indians  in  Natal.  The  education  of  local  labour  should  pro- 
gressively reduce  the  demand. 

The  question  of  the  measure  of  compulsion  which  is  ad- 
missible or  advisable  in  order  to  induce  the  African  to  work, 
solely  for  his  own  moral  and  material  benejit  and  advance- 
ment, is  one  which  belongs  rather  to  the  subject  of  education 
than  to  that  of  labour.    An  informative  article  tu  the  '  Colonial 

2d 


418  LABOUR  IN   TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

Journal '  ^  cites  Belgian  and  French  criticism  of  British 
methods  of  free  labour.  The  Dutch  in  Java,  we  are  told, 
compel  the  natives  to  work,  "  with  the  result  of  extraordinary- 
prosperity,  and  the  natives  have  flourished."  The  popula- 
tion has  increased  from  four  to  twenty  millions  in  120  years, 
and  is  stated  to  be  more  industrious,  trustworthy,  and  intel- 
ligent than  the  same  races  under  British  rule.  The  Germans 
in  Samoa  compelled  the  natives  to  plant  and  maintain  a 
certain  number  of  cocoanut  pabns  per  man :  the  population 
has  quadrupled,  the  area  of  cultivation  has  increased,  and 
the  natives,  it  is  said,  so  appreciate  the  system  that 
defaulters  are  reported. 

The  results  in  British  neighbouring  dependencies  are  quoted 
in  contrast.  In  Malaya  and  in  Sarawak  the  Chinese  are  dis- 
placing the  Malays  and  Dyaks.  Indians  are  dispossessing  the 
aboriginals  in  Fiji,  and  Sir  Everard  im  Thum  writes  that 
"  either  the  Fijians  themselves  must  in  some  way  be  per- 
suaded to  do  a  fair  share  of  work,  or  more  and  more  coloured 
labour  must  be  brought  in  from  outside." 

The  question  at  issue  is  whether  a  trustee  Power  has  ful- 
filled all  its  obligations  towards  an  indolent  and  apathetic 
ward  by  assuring  to  it  complete  security  of  life  and  property 
and  the  opportunity  of  a  literary  education,  and  then  allow- 
ing it  to  commit  racial  suicide.  We  have  upset  the  old  order, 
and  in  many  regions  have  weakened  tribal  authority.  Our 
rule  is  not  popular,  for  new  generations  forget  the  old  hard- 
ships which  their  fathers  suffered,  and  from  which  they  have 
been  relieved.  They  care  less  for  our  impartial  justice  than 
we  Uke  to  think  they  do.  It  is  at  least  arguable  that 
they  are  not  yet  fitted  for  the  full  measure  of  individual 
liberty  which  it  has  taken  us  centuries  to  evolve  for 
ourselves. 

Such  are  the  arguments  of  those  who  uphold  compulsion, 
not  as  an  unavoidable  and  disagreeable  necessity,  in  order  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  administration  and  development,  but  as 
being  in  itself  a  justifiable  means  to  an  end — "  the  advance- 
ment of  the  natives  themselves."  ^    In  those  rare  instances 

'  "Problems  of  Empire,"  April  1914— citing  the  '  Bulletin  de  la  Sooi(5t<!  Beige 
d'Etudes  Ooloniales,'  December  1913,  and  Lebon, '  Lois  psychologiques  d'^volution 
des  peuples.' 

2  This  view  was  supported  by  the  East  African  bishops.  The  commission 
appointed  "  for  the  protection  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo "  (which  consisted 
largely  of  Roman  Catholic  priests)  reported  in  1912   that   "it  is  necessary  to 


"WAGE-EAENING  V.  PEASANT  PROPRIETOESHIP.  419 

where  the  African  is  apathetic  or  indolent,  snch  means  may 
be  of  educative  value,  provided  that  the  native  is  made  to 
work  on  his  own  behalf  and  not  for  an  alien  master ;  but  I 
think  that  there  are  other  methods  more  essential,  which  I 
shaU  discuss  in  the  chapter  on  education. 

When  discussing  land  questions,  I  maintained  that  the 
cultivation  of  exportable  products  by  natives  on  their  own 
holdings  is  unquestionably  preferable  to  a  system  of  European- 
owned  plantations  worked  by  paid  labour,  provided  that  the 
enterprise  does  not  require  large  capital  or  technical  skill  and 
management,  and  that  the  crop  is  an  indigenous  or  naturalised 
one.  The  native  holder  occupies  a  higher  status,  and  working 
in  his  own  sole  interests  and  at  his  own  time,  will  produce 
more  than  if  working  for  another,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
palm  produce,  cocoa,  and  ground-nut  industries.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  admitted  that,  though  the 
cost  of  European  supervision  is  heavy,  it  is  compensated  by 
improvement  in  the  quality  of  the  output,  and  by  more  con- 
tinuous returns  due  to  better  care  of  the  soil ;  but  European 
ownership  on  a  large  scale  has  in  all  cases  resulted  in  the 
demand  for  aUen  or  compulsory  labour,  by  which  alone  large 
foreign-owned  estates  can  be  kept  going.  I  am  not,  however, 
disposed  to  regard  the  system  of  wage-earning  with  the 
aversion  of  those  who  consider  that  "  ca,pitalism  "  and  "  land- 
lordism "  are  anathema.  The  agricultural  wage-earner  is  free 
from  the  anxieties  inseparable  from  an  industry  dependent  on 
climatic  variations,  the  fluctuations  of  markets,  the  outbreak 
of  plant  disease  or  insect  pests,  and  the  lack  of  necessary 
fimds  at  a  critical  moment. 

In  the  case  of  the  mining  industry  the  technical  skiU  and 
appliances  of  foreign  experts,  and  their  continued  super- 
vision, is  of  course  essential  to  the  development  of  a  mine- 
field. But  even  in  this  case  free  native  labour  can  be  encour- 
aged by  the  system  of  "  calabashing  "  or  "  tributing  "  in  the 
tin-mining  industry,  by  which  a  labourer  is  paid  for  the  clean 
ore  he  extracts  by  washing,  and  can  seek  the  field  where  he 
will  obtain  the  highest  remuneration  for  his  labour.  Mining 
industries,  moreover,  often  yield  high  returns,  so  that  they 

impose  labour  on  the  blacks  in  order  to  secure  the  modification  of  their  men- 
tality, and  to  bring  them  to  realise  their  duty  as  civilised  people  do. " — '  Diocesan 
Magazine,  West  Equatorial  Africa,'  July  1912,  p.  13. 

'  Beaulieu  lends  the  weight  of  his  high  authority  to  this  view,  and  is  emphatic 
that  Africa  should  be  developed  by  free  African  labour.— -Vol.  ii.  p.  1 16. 


420  LABOTJE  IN  TROPICAL  APEICA. 

are  able  to  release  a  considerable  portion  of  the  labourers  to 
attend  to  their  crops  at  the  critical  seasons. 

M"or  is  foreign  skUl  less  essential  for  the  introduction  of 
new  vegetable  products,  or  the  improvement  and  adaptation 
of  existing  ones — e.g.,  flax,  or  the  curing  of  tobacco  for  ex- 
port,— ^untU  the  natives  have  learnt  to  cultivate  and  prepare 
them  for  the  foreign  market.  Such  industries,  mineral  and 
agricultural,  are  the  means  of  adding  to  the  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  country,  and  though  they  create — for  a 
time  at  least — a  large  demand  for  wage-labour,  the  natives 
so  employed  are  being  educated  in  new  and  better  methods 
of  applying  their  labour,  which  they  can  later — as  in  the  cocoa 
industry — undertake  on  their  own  account.  The  attempt  to 
establish  plantations  on  a  basis  of  communal  labour  is,  as  I 
have  said,  an  experiment  of  doubtful  value.  This  subject  is 
one  which  touches  so  many  native  interests  that  I  have 
already  had  occasion  to  refer  to  it  in  the  chapter  on  land,  and 
shall  again  recur  to  it  in  speaking  of  economic  development. 

Experiments  aimed  at  identifying  the  interest  of  the  native 
labourer  with  that  of  the  European  employer,  and  of  the 
native  producer  with  that  of  the  ahen  merchant,  are  as  yet 
unfortunately  rare.  The  system  of  cotton-growing  adopted 
in  the  Sudan  is  an  excellent  example,  for  here  the  Govern- 
ment, private  capital,  and  the  labourer  aU  share  in  the 
profits.^  (See  p.  525.)  The  African  and  Eastern  Corporation 
on  the  Gold  Coast  has,  I  believe,  made  an  attempt  at  genuine 
profit-sharing  with  its  employees,  but  the  problem  offers 
special  difficulties  in  its  application  to  Africa. 

I  have  in  a  previous  paragraph  strongly  deprecated  the 
application  of  pressure  on  native  chiefs  as  a  recognised  ad- 
ministrative method  of  obtaining  labour,  whether  for  Govern- 
ment or  for  private  enterprise.  Where  the  urgency  of  the 
public  service  leaves  no  possible  alternative  to  compidsion, 
I  suggested  that  a  legalised  ad  hoc  conscription,  properly 
supervised  by  the  district  staff,  through  the  chiefs,  is  prefer- 
able to  informal  and  illegal  "  pressure." 

In  the  earliest  inauguration  of  an  administration,  however, 
before  the  machinery  is  fully  organised,  the  experiment  may 
be  justified,  if  the  reluctance  of  the  natives  to  work  is  due  to 

'  The  Germans  instituted  a  system  in  the  Lindi  district  (East  Africa)  by  which 
the  planter  prepared  the  ground  by  machinery,  supervised  the  manuring,  sowed 
the  crop,  and  bought  it  at  a  fixed  price  from  the  natives. — Handbook  113,  p.  69. 


PEESSXIRE   ON   CHIEFS  :   WHEN   JUSTIFIED.  421 

fear  of  the  white  man,  and  terror  of  the  treatment  to  be 
expected  from  him,  assumiag  that  tribal  authority  is  strong 
enough  to  enforce  obedience,  and  that  in  consequence  this 
method  is  the  least  likely  to  give  rise  to  disturbance  and 
trouble. 

In  such  circimistances  in  Mgeria,  in  order  to  construct 
the  Baro-Kano  main  trimk  railway,  and  again  when  the 
Eastern  Bailway  was  undertaken  in  a  district  but  little  under 
administrative  control,  orders  were  sent  to  each  chief  to  supply 
a  given  quota  of  men.  The  advantage  that  a  railway  would 
be  to  their  trade  was  in  the  latter  case  pointed  out  to  them, 
and  this  was  not  without  its  effect,  and  added  a  personal 
interest  in  the  results  of  their  labour.  The  district  oflBicers  in 
the  first  case  themselves  supervised  the  labour  from  their 
districts ;  ia  the  second  case,  where  the  work  was  more  con- 
centrated, a  senior  district  ofl&cer  was  told  off,  whose  sole 
duty  it  was  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  labourers,  to 
settle  their  differences,  and  to  see  that  they  were  housed  and 
fed,  and  were  regularly  and  fuUy  paid.  They  were  in  charge 
of  an  engineer  who  had  gained  a  weU-deserved  reputation 
for  handling  natives  with  success.  The  result  was  that  on 
discharge  at  the  time  appointed,  they  returned  to  their  homes 
with  cloth  and  goods  bought  from  their  wages,  and  presently 
came  flocking  back  to  engage  of  their  own  freewill. 

The  coal-mtoe  at  Udi  was  another  example.  Here,  as  I 
have  already  described,  a  particularly  truculent  tribe,  during 
the  time  I  was  in  Mgeria,  supplied  an  entirely  voluntary 
and  adequate  contingent  for  work  underground  of  an  un- 
usually strenuous  Mnd,  in  a  suffocating  temperature,  from 
the  first  initiation  of  the  work  in  1914.  145,400  tons  were 
placed  on  the  railway  in  1918.  It  was  even  possible  to  reduce 
the  wage-rate  considerably,  and  to  introduce  piecework.  Both 
on  the  railway  and  in  the  coal-miae  it  was  found  that  the 
labourer  readily  grasped  the  idea  of  piecework,  and  appre- 
ciated the  option  of  leaving  as  soon  as  he  had  completed  his 
task,  or  of  earning  double  money  by  doing  double  work.^ 

1  The  educative  value  may  be  gauged  from  the  following  extract :  ' '  Recently 
the  re-lining  and  heightening  of  the  main  drift,  including  the  blasting  out  of  2  ft. 
of  stone  from  the  floor,  and  re-timbering,  was  successfully  done  chiefly  in  night 
shifts,  under  the  sole  supervision  of  a  native  foreman  engaged  in  1915.  A 
section  of  the  mine  has  also  been  placed  under  a  native." — Report  468/1920, 
p.  53.  Some  of  the  mining  companies  are  replacing  their  European  foremen 
by  Africans. 


422  LABOXm  IN   TROPICAL  AFRICA. 

The  primitive  native  does  not  discriminate  between  em- 
ployment by  one  white  man  or  another,  unless  and  until  he 
has  found  cause  to  do  so.  Since  Government  employment 
had  become  popular,  he  was  equally  ready  to  engage  for  work 
with  any  white  man.  The  mining  companies  now  employ 
about  19,000,  many  of  whom  travel  considerable  distances 
to  seek  work.  It  was  the  same  in  Nyasaland  when  I  was 
there  in  1888.  The  Scottish  planters  treated  their  labour 
well,  and  got  as  much  and  more  than  they  needed  at  2s.  6d. 
to  5s.  per  mensem.  The  employment  of  agents  and  touts 
recruiting  labour  on  their  own  accoxmt  among  primitive  tribes 
is  to  be  deprecated. 

It  is  obviously  desirable  to  employ  native  contractors  to 
carry  out  a  specific  task,  as  in  more  advanced  countries, 
in  order  to  minimise  the  need  of  personal  supervision  of  un- 
skQled  work  by  officials.  A  contractor,  however,  pays  his 
own  labourers,  and  experience  has  shown  that  native  chiefs 
who  have  undertaken  contracts  for  Government  have  not 
only  in  some  cases  failed  to  pay  their  labourers,  or  paid 
them  a  whoUy  inadequate  sum,  but  were  apt  to  keep  them 
for  many  days  unpaid  before  the  material  for  their  work 
was  suppUed.  The  rule  in  Mgeria  therefore  is  that  when- 
ever work  for  Goverimient,  or  for  a  native  administration, 
is  given  to  a  native  contractor,  he  must  engage  to  pay  his 
labourers  at  an  agreed  rate  for  every  day  they  are  detained 
(whether  at  work  or  not),  and  do  so  weekly  in  the  presence 
of  a  European  if  the  contract  is  for  Government,  or  of  a 
responsible  officer  of  the  native  administration  when  works 
are  executed  for  or  through  the  agency  of  a  native  adminis- 
tration,  unless  the  British  officer  is  fully  satisfied  as  to  the 
integrity  of  the  contractor,  or  knows  that  his  labourers  are 
so  independent  that  they  would  not  remain  unless  they 
received  their  full  and  regular  pay.  Care  is  taken  that  each 
labourer  is  paid  a  fuU  day's  wage,  and  that  no  peculation 
or  misappropriation  of  the  money  takes  place,  whether  it 
is  paid  by  Government  or  from  a  native  treasury,  and  the 
principle  of  piecework  is  encouraged. 

Lord  MUner  instanced  Government  transport  as  one  of 
the  tasks  for  which  compulsory  labour  was  authorised — ^viz., 
for  porters  to  carry  the  effects  of  officials,  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  travel  on  duty, — which  is  a  vital  necessity.  It  is, 
however,  economically  unsound,  especially  in  a  country  where 


CONCLUSIONS  re  compulsory  labour.  423 

laboTix  is  scarce,  to  employ  men  merely  as  beasts  of  burden, 
nor  is  it  done  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  I  have 
already  quoted  the  French  calculation  that  to  transport  only 
20,000  tons  of  pabn-oil  to  the  coast  involves  the  withdrawal 
of  40,000  men  for  a  year  of  300  days  from  productive  labour. 
It  therefore  becomes  the  first  duty  of  a  Government  to  pro- 
vide a  better  means  of  transport,  and  it  seems  indefensible 
that  forced  labour  should  be  used  for  such  a  purpose,  except 
where  any  other  form  of  transport  is  impossible.  I  shall 
refer  at  greater  length  to  this  subject  in  the  chapter  on 
transport,  and  when  discussing  economic  development  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  discuss  the  desirability  of  economising 
human  labour  by  the  use  of  domestic  animals  in  agriculture, 
and  of  machinery  for  the  preparation  of  produce  for  the 
market. 

The  subject  of  the  education  of  labour  wiU  be  more  appro- 
priately dealt  with  in  the  chapters  on  education  ;  but  I  may 
note  here  that  the  opportunity  afforded  for  teaching  a  trade 
to  long-sentence  prisoners  should  not  be  overlooked,  and  it  is 
desirable  that  special  pains  should  be  taken  in  the  education 
of  aU  forms  of  prison  labour.^ 

The  facts  which  have  thus  been  briefly  reviewed  will,  I 
think,  lead  us  to  the  following  conclusions.  While  the  com- 
pulsory enlistment  of  fuUy-paid  labour  by  Government  for 
the  essential  needs  of  the  country  is  justified,  it  shotdd, 
when  resorted  to  on  any  large  scale,  be  legaUsed  by  special 
emergency  legislation,  and  every  effort  should  be  made  to 
render  it  as  attractive  as  possible,  with  a  view  to  encouragtag 
timid  and  suspicious  savages  to  return  voluntarily.  Where 
an  adequate  population  exists,  any  form  of  compulsion  should 
be  only  a  very  temporary  phase. 

Where,  however,  the  population  is  inadequate  to  supply 
the  necessary  contingent  of  labourers  for  the  construction 
of  railways  and  other  essential  works  without  constantly 
resorting  to  compulsion,  not  merely  of  a  surplus  of  un- 
employed, but  interfering  with  the  ordinary  industry  of  the 

1  In  Nigeria  the  Director  of  Prisons,  in  his  last  report  (1919),  contrasts  the 
present-day  results  with  his  earlier  experience.  "  Reports  (he  says)  for  idleness 
against  prisoners  employed  on  industrial  labour  are  almost  non-existent,  and 
during  this  period  only  two  men  who  have  been  taught  a  trade  in  the  prison 
have  been  known  to  return."  In  Hong-Kong  great  care  was  taken  to  train  all 
long-sentence  prisoners  to  a  trade,  and  on  discharge  they  were  eagerly  sought 
after  at  high  wages. 


424  LABOTJE.  ESr  TKOPICAL  APEICA. 

native  population,  the  only  solution  appears  to  be  imported 
contract  labour,  which,  in  certain  circumstances,  may  also 
be  tolerated  for  private  enterprise. 

If  imported  labour  is  resorted  to,  it  should  be  employed 
under  the  strictest  Government  control  and  supervision. 
When  possible,  indentured  labourers  should  be  encouraged 
to  become  colonists,  the  period  of  indenture  forming  a  kind 
of  apprenticeship  to  enable  them  to  realise  the  conditions 
of  the  country,  and  to  accumulate  a  little  capital  to  assist 
them  in  making  a  beginning  on  their  own  account.  Where 
this  is  not  possible  or  advisable,  and  the  imported  labour  must 
be  repatriated,  it  can  only  be  justified  for  private  enterprise 
where  immense  areas  of  vacant  lands  suitable  for  European 
settlement  and  development  exist, — where  it  has  been  con- 
clusively proved  that  the  local  labour  supply,  in  spite  of  all 
inducements  by  good  treatment,  is  insufficient,  and  that  the 
temporary  transfer  of  voluntary  African  labour  from  more 
distant  parts  of  the  country  is  not  feasible,  by  reason  of  sick- 
ness and  mortaUty  due  to  change  of  climate  and  food.  Ex- 
cept where  conditions  such  as  these  exist,  the  development 
of  the  resources  of  the  country  should  be  carried  on  by  the 
native  himself,  working  as  a  voluntary  wage-earner,  or  prefer- 
ably on  his  own  land  as  a  free  producer. 


425 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

EDUCATION. 

Objects  and  ideals  of  education — Effect  of  European  influence  and  educa- 
tion— The  example  of  India — The  system  in  British  colonies — In 
West  Africa — Mission  responsibility — The  need  of  co-operation — 
Principles  adopted  in  Nigeria — Formation  of  character — Residential 
schools — The  British  staff — School  monitors — Field  sports — Grant 
dependent  on  tone  of  school — Moral  instruction — Religious  instruc- 
tion— Contrast  of  Africa  with  India  and  China — The  machinery  of 
education — Unassisted  schools — Assisted  schools — Grant  code  must 
^         be  attractive — Suggestions  for  a  grant  code. 

If  a  life  happy  and  progressive  so  far  as  the  individual  is 
concerned,  useful,  sympathetic,  and  stimulating  in  its  rela- 
tions with  the  community,  may  be  said  to  constitute  a  worthy/ 
ideal,  the  object  which  education  in  Africa  must  have  inl 
view  must  be  to  fit  the  ordinary  individual  to  fill  a  useful 
part  in  his  environment,  with  happiness  to  himself,  and  to 
ensure  that  the  exceptional  individual  shall  use  his  abilities 
for  the  advancement  of  the  community  and  not  to  its  detri-y 
ment,  or  to  the  subversion  of  constituted  authority.  ^ 

Its  results  should  be  manifest  in  the  adaptation  of  the 
people  to  the  existing  conditions  of  life,  and  iu  enabling 
them  to  effect  some  betterment  and  progress  in  those  con- 
ditions. It  should  train  a  generation  able  to  achieve  ideals 
of  its  own,  without  a  slavish  imitation  of  Europeans,  capable 
and  wiUing  to  assume  its  own  definite  sphere  of  public  and 
civic  work,  and  to  shape  its  own  future.  The  education 
afforded  to  that  section  of  the  population  who  intend  to 
lead  the  lives  which  their  forefathers  led  should  enlarge  their 
outlook,  increase  their  efficiency  and  standard  of  comfort, 
and  bring  them  into  closer  sympathy  with  the  Government, 
instead  of  making  them  unsuited  to  and  Hi-contented  with 


426  EDUCATION. 

their  mode  of  life.  It  should  produce  a  new  generation  of 
native  chiefs  of  higher  integrity,  a  truer  sense  of  justice,  and 
appreciation  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity. As  regards  that  smaller  section  who  desire  to  take 
part  in  public  or  municipal  duties,  or  to  enter  the  service  of 
Government  or  of  commercial  firms,  education  should  make 
them  efficient,  loyal,  reliable  and  contented — a  race  of  self- 
respecting  native  gentlemen.  Finally,  the  policy  should 
popularise  education,  should  extend  it  to  the  ignorant  masses 
instead  of  confining  it  to  the  few,  and  should  increase  the 
output  of  youths  well  qualified  to  meet  the  demand,  whether 
clerical,  professional,  or  industrial.^ 

The  diffusion  of  education  throughout  the  country,  and 
especially  the  education  of  the  sons  of  native  rulers,  is  par- 
ticularly desirable  in  order  to  avoid  the  present  danger  of  a 
separate  educated  class  (in  West  Africa  chiefly  confined  to  the 
coast  cities)  in  rivalry  with  the  accepted  rulers  of  the  people. 

The  impact  of  European  civilisation  on  tropical  races  has 
indeed  a  tendency  to  undermine  that  respect  for  authority 
which  is  the  basis  of  social  order.  The  authority  of  the  head, 
whether  of  the  tribe,  the  village,  or  the  family,  is  decreased, 
and  parental  discipline  is  weakened — tendencies  which,  as 
Lord  MacdonneU  observed,  are  probably  inseparable  from 
that  emancipation  of  thought  which  results  from  our  educa- 
tional system  and  needs  the  control  of  scholastic  discipline.^ 
These  tendencies  are  no  doubt  largely  due  to  the  fact  that 
each  generation  is  advancing  intellectually  beyond  its  pre- 
decessor, so  that  "  the  younger  men  view  with  increasing 
impatience  the  habits,  traditions,  and  ideas  of  their  elders."  ^ 
From  this  standpoint  we  may  even  regard  this  restlessness 
as  a  measure  of  progress.* 

These  tendencies  became  very  marked  in  India  towards 
the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  failure  of  the 
system  of  Indian  education  is  graphically  described  by  Sir 
V.  Chirol,^  and  appears  now  to  be  very  generally  admitted. 

^  The  opposite  ideal  is  that  ascrihed  to  Germany,  as  shown  by  her  own 
publicists.  "  Her  object  was  mainly  to  teach  a  sufficient  number  of  natives 
trades  and  handicrafts  in  which  they  could  be  of  use  to  European  employers." 
Handbook  113,  p.  38. 

2  Selected  Records  of  Indian  Government,  265,  p.  11. 

3  Sir  A.  Croft,  ibid.,  p.  142. 

J  '  The  British  Empire,'  Sir  C.  Lucas,  p.  220. 
'  Unrest  in  India, '  chapters  xvii.  to  xxi. 


THE  EXAMPLE   OF  INDIA.  427 

"  A  purely  literary  type  of  education  was  the  only  one  gene- 
rally provided  by  Government,"  says  the  Industrial  Eeport 
of  1919,  and  the  intellectual  classes  eagerly  grasped  at  the 
prospect  of  Government,  professional,  and  clerical  employ- 
ment, with  the  result  that  a  disproportionate  number  of 
persons  with  a  purely  literary  education  were  created,  and 
industrial  development  was  arrested.^ 

Prosperity  would  seem  to  be  a  contributory  cause — as  in 
Egypt  and  Ireland, — ^for,  as  the  special  correspondent  of  the 
'  Times,'  writing  in  1913,^  observes :  "  The  people  of  India 
have  never  been  so  weU  off,  never  so  wisely  cared  for,  never 
so  secure  as  they  are  to-day."  Yet  the  undermining  of  all 
authority  is  rapidly /prooeeding.  Parents  complain  of  the 
intractability  of  thein  boys.j  The  local  press  preaches  sedition, 
and  racial  strife  is  strrredMip  by  misrepresentation  and  false 
reports.  If  "  the  influence  of  education  for  good  depends  on 
the  qualities  of  character  it  is  able  to  evoke,"  it  must  be 
judged  to  have  failed.  Its  aim,  it  is  alleged,  has  been  to 
train  the  intellect,  and  to  gauge  the  product  of  the  schools 
by  the  ability  to  pass  tests  in  prescribed  fields  of  knowledge, 
to  the  neglect  of  moral  discipline  and  standards  of  duty. 
Positive  knowledge  as  tested  by  competitive  examinations 
has  constituted  the  key  to  success. 

As  long  ago  as  December  1887  the  Government  of  India 
drew  the  attention  of  the  local  Governments  to  "  the  growth 
of  tendencies  unfavourable  to  discipline  in  the  rising  genera- 
tion," and  various  suggestions  were  made  to  counteract  this 
tendency.  They  included  the  establishment  of  hostels  and 
boarding-houses,  the  appointment  of  British  headmasters  and 
of  school  monitors,  the  recognition  of  field  sports  as  a  part 
of  the  school  training,  the  adoption  of  disciplinary  punish- 
ments which  should  fall  more  directly  on  the  offender  than 
fines,  and  of  prizes  for  good  conduct,  together  with  moral 
instruction  based  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  natural 
religion,  and  having  a  direct  bearing  on  personal  conduct. 
The  suggestions  were  favourably  received,  and  the  replies  of 
the  local  Governors  and  of  educational  experts  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Blue-book  from  which  I  have  quoted,  under 
the  title,  '  Discipline  and  Moral  Training  in  the  Schools  and 
Colleges  of  India  '  (255  pages).    It  is  a  volume  so  fuU  of  ripe 

1  Cmd.  51  of  1919,  pp.  65  and  93. 

2  '  Times,'  19th-22nd  December  1913. 


428  EDUCATION. 

experience  and  suggestion  that  the  Colonial  Office  would  do 
well  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Director  of  Education  in 
every  colony. 

On  18th  June  of  the  following  year  a  resolution  was  passed 
which  recognised  the  necessity  for  abandoning  the  purely 
literary  scope  of  education,  and  it  was  followed  in  1889  by 
a  still  wider  recognition  of  the  defects  of  the  system.  The 
results  were,  however,  small,  though  they  led  the  way  to 
Lord  Curzon's  Educational  Conference,  and  the  very  import- 
ant resolution  of  March  1904. 

The  system  which  had  proved  so  disastrous  in  India  had 
its  counterpart  in  the  Crown  colonies  and  dependencies,  and 
its  results  were  similar.^  The  lessons  of  India  were  ignored. 
I  have  already  quoted  the  opinion  of  a  French  writer  that  a 
literary  education  on  European  hnes  has  mischievous  results, 
and  only  produces  hostility  and  ingratitude.  The  results 
achieved  by  Holland,  and  to  a  lesser  degree  by  Germany, 
in  their  Eastern  colonies  are  contrasted  to  our  disadvantage. 
In  South  Africa  General  Smuts  has  recently  described  the 
existing  system  as  "  wholly  unsuited  to  native  needs,  and 
positively  pernicious,  leading  the  native  to  a  dead  wall,  over 
which  he  is  unable  to  rise,  and  becomes  a  ready  prey  to  the 
agitator."  ^ 

The  results  in  West  Africa  were  described  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  (Mr  Harcourt)  in  1916  as  "  very  imsatisfactory,"  a 
verdict  endorsed  by  Dr  Blyden  and  by  many  other  leading 
Africans,  including  the  (native)  Acting  Director  of  Education 
in  Nigeria  (Mr  Carr).^  The  output  of  the  schools  is  described 
as  unreliable,  lacking  in  integrity,  self-control,  and  discipline, 
and  without  respect  for  authority  of  any  kind.  The  vanity 
of  the  young  men  produced  by  the  schools  had  (said  the  ' 
senior  native  councOlor  in  Lagos)  become  intolerable,  and 

'  Mr  (now  Sir  Jamea)  Currie,  formerly  Director  of  Education  in  the  Sudan 
and  Principal  of  Gordon  College,  strongly  condemns  the  Crown  colony  system 
of  education.  "  Wellnigh  all  critics  (he  writes  in  1905)  of  systems  of  education 
among  backward  races,  if  agreed  on  nothing  else,  seem  to  be  sceptical  of  the 
results  hitherto  attained.  .  .  .  Their  indictment  seems  to  be  that  the  educated 
product  in  the  tropics  has  proved  himself  out  of  touch  with  his  proper  social 
environment,  and  as  a  member  of  society,  fruitless  on  the  economic  side." 

^  Speech  on  second  reading  Native  Affairs  Bill,  26th  May  1920. 

*  "  There  is  hardly  a  sign  of  the  growth  of  mental  power  or  of  self-control. 
They  are,  generally  speaking,  not  intelligent  and  not  reliable."  Sir  W.  MacQregor, 
when  Governor  of  Lagos,  referred  to  the  class  of  "  Mission-educated  young  men 
who  live  in  the  villages  interfering  with  the  native  councils,  and  acting  as 
correspondents  for  the  mendacious  native  press." 


RBStn.TS  EST  WEST  AFRICA.  429 

something,  he  urged,  must  be  done  to  rescue  the  rising  gen- 
eration from  these  evils.  It  is  only  to  be  expected  that  the 
result  of  the  present  system  should  be  to  create  a  prejudice 
against  education,  since,  as  a  Sierra  Leone  chief  remarked,  "  it 
teaches  youths  to  despise  their  elders,"  while  others  ascribed 
the  increased  cost  of  food  to  the  unwillingness  of  youths  from 
school  to  work  on  the  land.'  Provincial  reports  speak  of  the 
contempt  for  manual  work  shown  by  boys  from  schools. 

Education  has  brought  to  such  men  only  discontent,  sus- 
picion of  others,  and  bitterness,  which  masquerades  as  racial 
patriotism,  and  the  vindication  of  rights  unjustly  withheld. 
As  citizens  they  are  unfitted  to  hold  posts  of  trust  and  respon- 
sibDity  where  integrity  and  loyalty  are  essential,  or  to  become 
leaders  of  their  own  community  in  the  path  of  progress. 
They  have  lost  touch,  as  I  said  in  chapter  iv.,  with  their  own 
people.    Fortunately  there  are  many  and  brilliant  exceptions. 

Since  education  has  in  the  past  been  largely  in  the  hands 
of  the  Missions,  to  whom  moral  training  would  naturally  be 
of  the  first  importance,  how  are  these  results  to  be  explained  ? 
Was  there  no  means  by  which  the  disruptive  forces  of  educa- 
tion could  be  minimised  in  a  country  like  Africa,  where  the 
problem  is  comparatively  simple  ?  The  lack  of  discipline 
among  Mission  converts  has  indeed  occasionally  led  to  political 
disturbances,  both  in  Mgeria  and  in  Ashanti.^ 

The  fault  has,  I  think,  lain  primarily  on  the  Governments, 
for  the  grant  on  which  the  aided  schools  depend  has  been 
based  on  a  purely  intellectual  test.  Great  as  are  the  results 
achieved  by  the  Missions  ia  Africa — and  they  are  great  indeed 
in  Uganda,^  Nyasaland,  and  West  Africa — they  too  must 

1  That  a  serious  prejudice  against  education  may  be  created  by  the  usurpation 
of  the  prerogatives  of  the  native  rulers  by  "  intelligentsia"  who  call  themselves 
the  "  natural  leaders  of  the  people "  was  recently  shown  by  the  speech  of  the 
Gold  Coast  chief  Ofori,  and  by  the  press  comments  and  the  speeches  of  leading 
natives  of  Nigeria,  in  regard  to  the  claims  of  the  members  of  the  "  Kational 
Conference,"  who  presented  a  petition  to  the  King  in  1920.  The  Governor  of 
the  Gold  Coast  laid  emphasis  on  this  aspect  of  the  matter.     See  p.  86. 

2  Prior  to  1905,  when  the  cost  of  the  Bonny  school  first  appeared  in  the 
estimates,  education  in  Southern  Nigeria  was  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Missions.  Government  non-denominational  schools  were  first  established  in 
Ashanti  in  1911,  because  the  Christian  converts  had  refused  service  to  the 
chiefs.— 'A  Vanished  Dynasty,'  Sir  F.  Fuller,  p.  223. 

'  In  Uganda  education  is  still  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Missions,  and 
there  are  no  Government  schools.  The  number  of  pupils  is  79,000.  A  grant 
of  £2100  is  made  from  revenue.  [Annual  Report,  Cmd.  508,  1920.]  The 
Governor  says  that  good  discipline  is  maintained  in  many  of  the  schools. — 
'United  Empire,'  June  1920,  p.  299. 


430  EDUCATION. 

bear  their  share  of  the  blame  in  having  set  too  slight  a  value 
on  discipline,  and  concentrated  too  much  on  the  acquisition 
of  such  knowledge  as  would  enable  their  pupils  to  do  credit- 
ably ia  the  Government  examinations,  and  the  training  of  a 
specialised  class  for  evangelical  work.^ 

If  these  iU-results  are  to  be  avoided  in  the  future,  it  is 
essential  not  merely  that  the  local  Missions  should  act  in 
co-operation  with  the  secular  authority,  but  that  the  ex- 
perienced and  able  men  who  control  the  policy  of  the  great 
societies  should  take  counsel  with  colonial  administrators  in 
England.  It  is  also  no  less  vital  that  the  local  Governments 
should  exercise  some  control  over  all  unaided  schools. 

I  cannot  too  strongly  emphasise  this  need  for  co-operation 
between  all  those  who  are  interested  ia  the  education  of  the 
native  races.  No  adequate  results  will  be  achieved  if  Govern- 
ment and  Missions  work  in  separate  compartments,  nor  can 
the  Government  discharge  its  obUgations — as  it  has  attempted 
to  do  in  some  cases  ia  the  past — by  the  mere  payment  of  a 
grant  from  revenue,  based  on  examination  results.  Co- 
operation can  only  become  effective  by  the  creation  of  Boards 
of  Education,  and  local  committees,  upon  which  not  only 
managers  of  schools  (both  assisted  and  unassisted)  should  be 
fully  represented,  but  also  influential  members  of  the  com- 
munity (European  and  native),  and  iatelligent  chiefs.  There 
are  very  many  subjects  upon  which  the  most  experienced 
and  the  most  sincere  may  hold  different  views,  which  can 
only  be  adjusted  to  some  measure  of  uniformity  by  discussion 
and  compromise,  and  concentration  of  effort  on  clearly  defined 
lines.  This  co-operation  must  not  be  limited  to  those  actually 
engaged  ia  educational  work,  but  must  extend  to  the  adminis- 
trative staff  and  the  native  chiefs,  on  whose  help  and  good- 
will the  education  officer  must  largely  depend  for  his  prestige 
and  standing  in  the  native  estimation,  for  the  removal  of 
prejudices,  and  for  the  popularity  of  his  work.^ 

^  Mr  Khodes  expressed  the  view  that  Mission  education  only  produced  "  Kaffir 
parsons  and  editors."  There  are  of  course  notable  exceptions  to  the  general 
charge  of  indiscipline  (largely  due  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  Mission  staff). 
Two  stand  out  in  my  personal  experience — that  of  Dr  Laws  on  Lake  Nyaaa, 
and  that  of  Archdeacon  (now  Bishop)  Melville-Jonea  at  Oyo  in  Nigeria.  Kid- 
glove  discipline  is  no  more  suited  to  the  African  than  to  the  English  boy. 

'•'  In  Nigeria  a  Central  Board  under  each  Lieut. -Governor  considers  all 
proposals  and  suggestions,  and  makes  its  recommendations  to  the  Government, 
while  each  provincial  (Government)  school  has  an  Advisory  Committee,  on 
which  natives  are  largely  represented. 


SOME   PEINCrPLES   OP   AFRICAN  EDUCATION.  431 

In  the  endeavour  to  give  effect  to  the  ideals  which  I  have 
described  as  the  primary  objects  of  education,  and  to  profit 
by  the  experience  of  the  past,  an  ordinance  and  regulations 
were  drawn  up  in  1915  in  Nigeria,  but  did  not  obtain  Colonial 
Office  approval  for  a  year.  They  were  enacted  ia  1916,  and 
they  sought  to  embody  the  following  principles  : — 

(a)  That  the  primary  object  of  all  schools  should  be  the 
formation  of  character  and  habits  of  discipline,  rather  than 
the  mere  acquisition  of  a  certain  amount  of  book-learmng 
or  technical  sbiU,  and  that  the  grant-in-aid  should  be  in  part 
based  on  success  in  this  direction. 

(6)  That  the  teaching  should  be  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  pnpUs,  whether  they  are  intending  to  quahfy  for  clerical 
or  other  like  service,  or  desire  to  become  mechanics  or  artisans, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  have  no  wish  to  leave  their  village  and 
the  pursuits  their  fathers  had  followed. 

(c)  That  the  proportion  of  teachers  to  pupils  should  be 
adequate,  that  they  should  be  properly  quaUfied  and  their 
status  improved.  Adequate  grants  must  be  given  to  assisted 
schools  (from  which  Government  and  commercial  clerks  are 
largely  drawn)  to  enable  them  to  pay  adequate  salaries  to 
their  staff. 

(d)  That  educational  agencies,  whether  controlled  by  Gov- 
ernment or  by  Missions,  should  co-operate  with  a  common 
object,  and  as  far  as  possible  by  similar  methods  of  discipline 
and  iastruction. 

(e)  That  continuation  and  evening  classes  for  advanced 
and  for  specialised  study,  and  iastitutions  and  classes  for 
the  training  of  teachers,  should  receive  special  encouragement. 

(/)  That  the  value  of  religion,  irrespective  of  creed  or  sect, 
and  the  sanction  and  incentive  it  affords,  should  be  recog- 
nised and  utilised  as  an  agent  for  this  purpose,  together  with 
secular  moral  instruction. 

(g)  That  Government  should  exercise  some  measure  of  con- 
trol over  all  schools,  even  though  not  assisted  by  grants, 
and  endeavour  to  bring  them  into  line  with  the  general 
policy. 

To  which  I  may  add  : — 

{h)  That  the  schools  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  con- 
ducted in  accordance  with  native  customs  in  matters  of  dress 
and  etiquette,  ia  order  that  the  pupils  may  not  become 
denationaUsed  or  consider  themselves  a  class  apart. 


432  EDUCATION. 

I  have  placed  the  formation  of  character  in  the  foreground 
of  African  education,  for  if  this  be  recognised  as  a  primary 
function  of  education  in  communities  whose  standards  have 
been  moulded  by  centuries  of  Christian  ethics,  whose  youth 
even  in  its  most  squalid  surroundings  is  subjected,  however 
unconsciously,  to  the  influence  of  those  standards,  whether 
in  the  board  school  or  the  picture  palace,  how  much  more 
necessary  is  it  in  Africa,  where,  as  a  rule,  such  influences  are 
absent  1  Among  the  primitive  tribes  ethical  standards  must 
be  created — among  few  are  they  a  vital  and  potent  force. 
If,  for  instance,  in  his  village  home  the  African  boy  perceives 
that  self-indulgence  and  lack  of  self-control  excite  no  re- 
probation ;  that  thrift,  ambition,  and  initiative  are  concep- 
tions as  foreign  to  his  associates  as  an  alien  tongue,  for  which 
his  language  has  no  appropriate  terms  ;  if  justice,  fair-play, 
truthfulness,  and  mutual  obligation  have  no  influence  in  guid- 
ing the  actions  of  those  around  him, — then  these  conceptions 
must  be  created  and  built  up.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  mean 
to  infer  that  there  is  a  complete  lack  of  such  qualities  among 
Africans  who  have  not  been  brought  into  contact  with  the 
higher  standards,  for  I  profoundly  believe  that  these  con- 
ceptions are  all  innate  in  humanity,  and  are  exhibited  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  even  in  the  primitive  savage,  but  they 
are  generally  imdeveloped,  and  are  not  enforced  by  the  public 
opinion  of  the  community,  and  lack  the  sanction  of  local 
custom. 

If,  then,  it  is  admitted  that  it  is  inevitable  that  education 
should  produce  a  ferment  of  new  and  progressive  ideas,  sub- 
versive of  the  old  order,  the  function  of  a  sound  system  must 
be  to  guide  these  tendencies  so  that  they  may  conduce  to  the 
betterment  of  the  body  politic  and  not  to  its  disintegration. 
If,  further,  it  be  granted  that  this  result  can  only  be  obtained 
by  placing  the  formation  of  character  and  habits  of  discipline 
above  the  training  of  the  intellect  as  the  primary  object 
education  for  Africans,  it  remains  to  discuss  how  this  can 
best  be  effected.  ^ 

The  agencies  which  are  indicated  as  most  effective  for  this 
purpose  are :  (1)  residential  schools  ;  (2)  a  more  adequate 
British  staff  ;  (3)  the  delegation  of  responsibility  for  discipline 
to  school  monitors ;  (4)  encouragement  of  field  sports  ;  (5) 
the  classification  of  the  order  of  merit  of  schools,  and  the 
grant  to  aided  schools  to  be  partly  dependent  on  tone  and 


ae  V 
of  ^ 


EESIDBNTIAL  SCHOOLS.  433 

discipline ;  (6)  religious  and  moral  instruction  to  be  recog- 
nised.   I  will  make  a  few  comments  on  each  of  these  heads. 

Character  is  formed  "  by  the  pubUc  opinion  of  the  school- 
boy world  in  which  a  boy  moves  " — ^by  example  and  in- 
fluence rather  than  by  precept.  The  first  object,  then,  must 
be  to  see  that  the  pupils  are  brought  continuously  under  the 
right  influences.  This  can  best  be  effected  by  the  boarding- 
school,  in  which  a  boy  Uves  wholly  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
school,  and  is  removed  from  the  subversive  influences  of  his 
normal  environment.'  It  is  here  that  he  learns  to  be  less 
self-centred,  and  to  take  pride  in  the  corporate  body  of  which 
he  is  a  member — the  school,  the  "  house,"  or  the  sports 
"  team," — and  to  understand  the  meaning  of  "  playing  the 
game,"  of  loyalty,  and  of  co-operation  ta  a  common  ambition 
and  a  united  effort.  It  becomes  therefore  essential  to  give 
the  fullest  and  most  careful  consideration  to  the  principles 
which  shoTild  guide  us  iu  the  constitution  and  the  conduct 
of  such  schools.^ 

The  boarding-school  must  not  be  too  near  to  a  native 
town.  It  should  approximate  to  the  model  of  an  EngUsh 
public  school  in  its  iaternal  organisation — ^in  regard  to  school- 
houses,  dormitories,  class  and  living  rooms,  playgrounds,  and 
the  rules  respecting  school  boundaries,  roll-calls,  "  exeats," 
meals,  and  hygiene. 

The  vital  and  essential  importance  of  a  British  head- 
master for  each  primary  school,  and  at  least  two  British 
masters  per  100  pupUs  in  a  secondary  school — exclusive  of 

'  The  importance  of  boarding-schools,  or  of  hostels  and  boarding-houses 
attached  to  schools,  is  strongly  emphasised  in  the  Indian  Blue-book  (see 
p.  5,  &o.)  It  was  again  insisted  on  at  the  Educational  Conference  of  1904 — 
(Chirol,  loc.  cit.,  p.  231).  It  was  laid  down  as  one  of  the  essential  principles 
at  the  foundation  of  the  Hong-Kong  University,  that  all  students  must  reside 
in  the  University  quarters  or  in  approved  hostels. — "Appeal  "  of  June  1910. 

The  same  principle  was  recognised  by  the  Gordon  College  at  Khartum, 
where  there  are  231  boarders.  It  was,  as  I  have  said,  emphasised  in  the  policy 
of  Nigeria,  and  I  am  glad  to  note  that  the  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  has 
recently  (January  1921)  spoken  in  the  same  sense.  Moral  training,  he  observed, 
is  impossible  in  day-schools,  and  his  Government  therefore  proposes  to  increase 
the  number  of  boarding-schools,  and  to  encourage  Mission  hostels.  The  native 
press  has  begun  to  adopt  the  same  point  of  view — (Nigerian  '  Pioneer,'  December 
1920).  The  disastrous  results  of  the  opposite  policy  are  graphically  described 
in  chapter  xviii.  of  Sir  V.  Chirol's  book. 

^  Mr  Maugham,  in  his  'Republic  of  Liberia,'  speaks  of  a  system  of  native 
education  which  has  existed  from  time  immemorial.  Both  girls  and  boys,  he 
says,  are  taken  away  from  their  families  for  a  period  of  about  three  years,  to 
undergo  a  course  of  instruction  in  tribal  usages  and  duties  under  strict  discipline 
— showing  that  the  boarding-school  is  in  no  way  opposed  to  native  ideas. 

2  E 


434  EDUCATION. 

those  absent  on  leave — cannot  in  my  judgment  be  too  strongly 
emphasised.  It  is  they  who,  by  the  stimulus  of  living  ex- 
ample, will  set  the  standard  of  the  school.  It  is  their  in- 
fluence which  wiU  form  the  character  and  ideals  of  the  boys, 
and  introduce  the  English  public  school  code  of  honour. 
"  Considering,"  says  Sir  V.  Ohirol,  "  how  immeasurably  more 
difBcult  is  the  task  of  training  the  youth  of  an  entirely  alien 
race  according  to  Western  standards,  and  how  vital  that 
task  is  for  the  future  of  British  rule,  the  conditions  should 
be  such  as  to  attract  not  average  men,  but  the  very  best 
men  that  we  can  produce."  ^  The  status  and  salaries  of  the 
British  educational  staff  should  be  equal  to  those  of  the 
administrative  branch.  Upon  the  influence  exerted  by  these 
men  will  depend  the  co-operation  and  loyalty,  or  the  estrange- 
ment, of  the  rising  generation  of  educated  Africans,  upon 
whom  wiU  devolve  iu  an  iacreasiug  degree  the  conduct  of 
municipal  affairs,  and  a  responsible  share  in  the  work  of 
Government,  ^o  consideration  of  cost  should  be  allowed 
to  weigh  against  an  issue  fraught  with  such  momentous 
possibilities.^  It  is,  of  course,  a  part  of  the  system  that 
the  teaching  staff — ^British  and  native — should  also  be  resi- 
dent in  the  school  or  hostels,  and  in  constant  touch  with 
the  boys. 

The  character  and  influence  of  the  native  teaching  staff 
is  a  matter  second  only  in  importance  to  that  of  the  British 
masters.  Much  weight  is  attached  by  the  Government  of 
India  to  the  system  of  "  monitors,"  and  Mr  Jacob's  letter 
is  quoted  with  approval :  "  It  is  the  delegation  of  this  dis- 
ciplinary power  to  the  prefects  that  emphatically  marks  the 
trust  reposed  in  them,  and  brings  them  to  look  upon  the 
reputation  and  prosperity  of  the  school  as  partly  committed 
to  their  keeping.  If  you  withhold  this  power,  and  require 
the  prefects  not  to  preserve  discipline,  but  merely  to  report 
breaches  of  it  to  the  masters,  you  reduce  the  prefects  to 
the  position  of  mere  tale-bearers.     Self-government  becomes 

'  Loc.  cit.,  p.  227.  See  also  p.  215,  where  he  describes  the  result  of  a 
deficiency  of  British  staff:  "From  the  point  of  view  of  mere  instruction  the 
results  have  been  highly  unsatisfactory.  From  the  point  of  view  of  moral 
training  and  discipline,  and  the  formation  of  character,  they  have  been 
disastrous." 

'  "The  character  of  the  head  of  the  school,  with  respect  to  the  healthy 
influence  he  is  likely  to  exercise  over  the  boys,  and  his  power  of  moulding 
their  character,  is  the  most  essential  qualification  for  the  post."  —  Sir  A. 
Macdonnell,  Indian  Report,  p.  14. 


MORAL   INSTEUCTION.  435 

government  by  espionage,  and  with  a  decided  tendency  to 
develop  nothing  but  ignoble  traits  of  character  in  those  who 
are  allowed  to  play  no  higher  part  in  it  than  that  of  menials."  ^ 
Every  Englishman  who  has  been  at  a  public  school  will,  I 
think,  heartily  endorse  these  views. 

For  the  purposes  of  field  sports,  so  wisely  recommended 
by  the  Indian  resolution,  it  is,  of  course,  essential  that  play- 
grounds and  gymnasia  should  be  provided.  In  Mgeria  we 
have  found  that  polo  was  a  specially  good  game  for  the  sons 
of  chiefs  and  others  who  could  afford  it,  while  for  other  boys 
cricket,  football,  and  "  athletics  "  bring  the  staff  and  pupils 
into  close  touch,  and  have  the  best  effect  in  traiuing  character. 

Finally,  iu  order  to  show  the  importance  attached  to  the 
training  of  character,  I  suggest  that  up  to  30  per  cent  of  the 
marks  awarded  to  qualffy  a  school  for  the  Government  gran1| 
should  be  allotted  for  tone,  discipline,  manners,  and  char- 
acter, so  far  as  they  can  be  judged  by  outside  indications — j 
dress,  demeanour,  &c.^  -^ .^ 

Government  schools,  though  not  applicants  for  the  grant, 
should  be  inspected  by  the  same  staff,  and  their  comparative 
merit  and  place  among  the  schools  of  the  colony  (Government 
or  other)  should  be  determined  by  the  same  tests. 

Though  character  can  best  be  moulded  by  example  and 
personal  contact,  something  can  also  be  done  in  the  class- 
room by  what  for  lack  of  a  better  name  is  called  "  moral 
instruction."  This  consists  in  placing  before  children  iu  an 
attractive  way,  by  illustration_and  anecdotal  biography,  the 
social  and  other  4i6!centiv©r^  gentlemamy^coMuCTpaSd  the 
success  which  rewards  honesty,  self-control,  and  industry. 
Truthfulness,  courage,  fair-play,  respect  for  authority,  good 
manners,  &c.,  are  treated  from  the  secular  point  of  view  of 
their  value  in  social  intercourse,  and  their  results  in  attaining 
success  in  life,  leaving  the  higher  sanctions  to  be  dealt  with 
in  the  class  of  reUgious  instruction.  In  the  higher  standards 
moral  instruction  might  include  "  civics  " — the  duties  and 
privileges  of  citizenship,  the  true  meaning  of  patriotism,  &c. 
These  principles  would  also  be  enforced  by  the  stories  and 
dialogues  selected  for  "  school  readers  "  and  text-books.    Very 

^  Indian  Report,  p.  5. 

^  This  principle  is  not  new.  Lord  Macdonnell  quotes  a  circular  issued  by 
the  Council  of  Education  in  the  United  Kingdom,  in  which  a  reduction  in  the 
grant  is  ordered  if  discipline  and  a  high  moral  tone  are  not  maintained. 
Parliamentary  Paper  C  1964  of  1878. 


436  EDUCATION. 

much  miist  depend  on  the  ability  of  the  teacher  to  point  the 
moral  in  an  interesting  and  vivid  way,  and  to  avoid  being 
too  didactic.^ 

Just  as  the  evangelist  looks  on  education  as  a  means  for 
the  spread  of  the  gospel,  so  the  educationalist  regards  religion 
as  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  the  formation  of  character.  Ex- 
perience in  India,  China,  and  Africa  seems  to  demonstrate 
that  purely  secular  education  (including  moral  instruction), 
divorced  from  religious  sanctions,  produces  among  races  not 
habituated  to  the  ethics  of  a  monotheistic  religion  a  class 
which  lacks  reverence  and  respect,  whether  for  parents,  social 
superiors,  employers,  or  Government.  To  inculcate  this  dis- 
cipline, and  to  overcome  the  natural  proclivities  of  the  ^rican 
ISQJJ  requires  every  iniluence  which  can  be  brought  to- bear, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  no  influence  can  be  stronger  with 
youth — ^perhaps  especially  in  Africa — than  that  of  religion. 

It  is  however  necessary,  in  order  that  religious  instruction 
may  rank  in  the  estimation  of  the  pupils  as  of  at  least  equal 
importance  with  the  rest  of  the  school  syllabus,  that  it  should 
be  regarded  ,afS  an  "  examination  subject,"  to  which  they 
must  pay  the  same  attention  as  to  their  other  lessons.  In 
Moslem  schools  the  instruction  would  be  imparted  by  a 
selected  Mohamedan  teacher,  and  in  all  other  schools  the 
Christian  religion  would  be  taught.  The  late  Sir  V.  Buxton 
declared  himself  in  agreement  with  the  suggestion  that  a 
common  non-denominational  syllabus  should  be  drawn  up — 
at  least  for  elementary  schools — ^for  teaching  reUgion  and 
moral  training,  so  as  to  admit  of  Government  inspection  and 
examination.^  Others  maintain  that  non-sectarian  teaching 
must  necessarily  be  devoid  of  all  vitality. 

^  See  the  exhaustive  and  most  interesting  report  on  this  subject  by  Sir  A. 
Croft  in  the  Indian  Blue-book  cited,  pp.  140-157.  He  fears  lest  the  inclusion 
of  "  morals "  in  the  school  time-table  may  be  inadvisable. 

The  "Moral  Education  League"  has  published  a  number  of  text-books  and 
essays  on  this  subject,  and  the  "Duty  and  Discipline  Movement,"  founded  by 
Lord  Meath,  has  issued  a  great  number  of  useful  papers.  Mr  Harward,  late 
Inspector  of  Schools,  Nigeria,  has  compiled  a  series  of  readers,  suited  to  each 
school  standard,  and  a  volume  in  three  parts  suitable  for  senior,  junior,  and 
preparatory  pupils  (Nelson  &  Co.).  See  also  a  small  book,  'Formation  of 
Character,'  by  J.  B.  Watson. 

^  The  late  Chief  Rabbi  vpould,  I  am  sure,  forgive  me  for  quoting  a  conversa- 
tion in  which  he  hazarded  the  conjecture  that  if  the  Primate,  the  Cardinal,  and 
himself  could  meet  to  determine  upon  a  system  of  religious  education  vphich 
could  be  universally  taught  in  the  schools  of  England,  each  being  empowered  to 
erase  anything  to  which  he  took  essential  objection  with  the  words  "  I  bar,"  and 
without  discussion,  he  was  confident  that  they  would  find  no  obstacle  to  success. 


THE   ITiTFLXJENCE   OF  RELIGION.  437 

In  the  Government  schools  of  the  Sudan  "  every  boy  is 
taught  his  own  reUgion."  In  Nigeria  the  same  rule  is  applied, 
and  a  time  is  set  apart  each  day  for  reUgious  teaching ;  but 
any  pupil  may — ^if  his  parents  so  desire,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
Mohamedan  attending  a  Christian  school  or  vice  versa — ^be 
excused  attendance  and  set  some  other  task.  Assisted  schools 
are,  of  course,  entirely  free  to  teach  their  own  beliefs,  whether 
Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic,  in  whatever  form  seems  right 
to  them.  The  reUgious  class  ia  a  Government  school  would 
probably  be  taken  by  a  missionary  in  the  district. 

In  India  the  teaching  of  religion  is  surrounded  with  special 
diflSculties,  and  it  has  not  been  foimd  feasible  to  introduce 
it  in  Government  schools  ;  but  "  the  Governor-General  in 
Council  would  be  sincerely  glad  if  the  number  of  aided  schools 
and  colleges  in  which  religious  instruction  is  prominently 
recognised  were  largely  increased."  ^  Even  the  teaching  of 
the  doctrines  of  natural  religion,  from  which  the  moral  duties 
flow  as  necessary  deductions,  is  impracticable  to  Hindus,  for 
"  these  conceptions  are  essentially  violated  in  theory  as  in 
practice  in  every  one  of  the  idolatrous  religions  of  India."  ^ 

This  was  a  problem  for  which  a  solution  had  to  be  sought 
when  we  founded  the  University  of  Hong-Kong,  for  the 
Chinese,  though  singularly  tolerant,  could  not  be  expected 
to  acquiesce  in  the  compulsory  teaching  of  Christianity,  or 
the  Christian  supporters  of  the  university  in  the  teaching  of 
ancestral  worship.^ 

Fortunately  in  Africa  we  are  not  faced  with  the  temble 
dilemma,  "  To  what  theory  of  life,  to  what  ultimate  basis  of 
conduct,  can  we  appeal  in  addressing  members  of  a  society 
whose  religions,  and  therefore  whose  ethical  principles,  have 
been  fatally  imdermined  by  Western  education  ?  "  *  Islam 
carries  with  it  its  own  religious  sanctions,  while  the  Animism 
and  Fetish  of  the  pagan  represents  no  system  of  ethics,  and 
no  principles  of  conduct.  Christianity  by  replacing  the  terror 
of  the  supernatural  supplies  incentives,  constructive  as  well 
as  emotional,  which  may  prove  a  basis  for  social  organisation, 
creating  and  not  destroying  "  the  instincts  of  order,  obedience, 
and  reverence — the  cement  of  the  fabric  of  society." 

1  Indian  Blue-book,  p.  15.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  150. 

'  The  problem  was  dealt  with  in  a  paper  read  by  me  at  the  Imperial  Education 
Conference  of  1911  on  "  Character-training  in  Non-Christian  Universities." — Cmd. 
5666  of  1911. 

*  Indian  Blue-book,  p.  146. 


438  EDUCATION. 

Turning  from  these  general  considerations,  let  us  briefly 
review  the  existing  machinery  of  education  in  our  tropical 
dependencies. 

Schools  for  the  education  of  youth  in  the  Crown  colonies 
and  protectorates  are  either  conducted  directly  by  Govern- 
ment, or  by  some  other  agency  which  may  be  "  assisted  " 
by  Government  financially,  or  may  be  "  vmassisted."  Adults 
and  youths  are  also  educated  by  means  of  an  apprenticeship 
system,  and  by  "  continuation  classes."  The  educational 
agencies  —  other  than  Government  —  which  exist  in  Africa 
are  chiefly  Mission  societies,  but  there  are  also  private 
venture  schools  conducted  for  profit  by  individuals  or 
bodies. 

This  last  class  includes  in  a  Moslem  country  the  schools 
in  which  boys  are  taught  to  memorise  passages  of  the  Koran, 
and  to  read  and  write  in  the  Arabic  character,  of  which  there 
are  estimated  to  be  some  25,000  in  Mgeria,  with  perhaps  a 
quarter  of  a  million  pupils.  Apart  from  these  semi-reUgious 
iastitutions,  unassisted  schools  may  either  be  conducted  by 
Missions  which  do  not  desire  to  accept  the  conditions  attached 
to  Government  assistance,  or  have  failed  to  satisfy  those 
conditions,  or  they  may  be  private  venture  schools  conducted 
by  natives. 

Speaking  on  behalf  of  the  EngUsh  Education  Bill,  Mr 
Fisher,  Minister  of  Education,  said  that  he  feared  that  many 
private  venture  schools  were  frauds  on  the  pubUc.  The  new 
BiU  would  enable  the  Board  of  Education  to  caU  for  par- 
ticulars as  to  the  quality  of  the  education  afforded.  The 
London  Coimty  Council  went  farther  (January  1918),  and 
urged  upon  the  Board  of  Education  the  necessity  of  the  regis- 
tration and  inspection  of  all  such  schools. 

If  such  criticism  is  justified  in  England,  where  the  force 
of  pubUc  opinion  is  strong,  and  where  parents  are  themselves 
educated,  or  at  least  Uterate,  it  applies  with  much  greater 
force  in  Africa.  Among  many  primitive  tribes  the  possession 
of  a  school  is  looked  upon  as  conferring  prestige  and  dignity 
upon  a  village.  Half-educated  youths,  and  others  who  are 
quite  incompetent  to  teach,  set  up  so-called  "  schools  "  for 
profit,  and  are  treated  with  deference  by  the  ignorant  parents, 
who  are  whoUy  indifferent  to  the  nature  of  the  teaching  given. 
Such  estabUshments  are  a  danger  to  the  coimtry.  The  local 
chiefs  find  it  difficult  to  control  them,  and  they  are  reported 


THE       GEANT-CODE."  439 

to  be  lacking  in  discipline  and  in  loyalty  to  any  constituted 
authority  whatever.  ^ 

In  order  to  quaHfy  for  a  Government  grant,  a  school  must 
conform  to  the  conditions  prescribed  by  the  "  grant-code  " 
or  other  regulations.  Since  ia  tropical  Africa  practically  all 
assisted  schools  are  conducted  by  Missions,  with  whom  educa- 
tion is  considered  secondary  and  ancillary  to  evangehsation, 
the  popularity  of  the  code  will  depend  very  largely  upon  the 
encouragement  to,  or  the  seeming  restrictions  it  may  impose 
upon,  religious  teaching.  In  Mgeria,  prior  to  the  ordinance 
of  1916,  many  excellent  Mission  schools  preferred  to  forgo 
the  grant.  This  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  misfortune,  for  it 
is  in  assisted  schools  only  that  Government  can  prescribe, 
and  enforce  by  trained  inspectors,  considered  schemes  for  the 
improvement  of  education,  and  can  promote  imiformity  of 
method. 

It  is  therefore  of  great  importance  that  the  conditions  of 
the  code  or  regulations  should  be  made  attractive  to  the 
Missions.    This  may  be  done  :   (a)  by  inviting  the  co-operation 

^  The  Nigerian  Education  Ordinance  of  1916  anticipated  to  some  extent  the 
provisions  of  the  English  Education  Act,  1918,  by  obliging  the  manager  of  every 
unaided  school  to  submit  an  annual  return  showing  the  subjects  taught,  and 
the  qualifications  of  the  staff,  &c.,  but  the  Colonial  Office  would  not  agree  to 
any  further  control  or  inspection.  Not  till  1919  was  an  ordinance  enacted 
empowering  the  Director  of  Education,  or  the  Resident  of  a  Province,  to  inspect 
a  school  which  in  their  opinion  ought  to  be  closed,  and  enabling  the  Governor,  on 
the  report  of  a  commission  of  inquiry,  to  close  such  a  school  for  certain  specified 
offences  or  defaults. 

The  hesitation  of  the  Colonial  Office  contrasts  unfavourably  with  the  action  of 
the  High  Commissioner  in  South  Africa,  for  in  Northern  Rhodesia  no  school  may 
be  opened  without  Government  consent,  and  all  are  subject  to  inspection.  Any 
school  may  be  closed  by  the  Administrator  if  he  is  satisfied  after  due  inquiry  that 
the  general  conduct  of  the  teacher  or  pupils,  or  the  manner  in  which  the  school 
is  carried  on,  is  detrimental  to  good  order  and  government,  or  if  the  natives  on 
reasonable  grounds  desire  it.  Every  teacher  must  be  properly  qualified,  and 
married,  and  may  be  removed  if  he  interferes  with  the  tribal  control  of  a  chief, 
or  with  officials. — Ordinance  No.  3  in  'Gazette'  No.  5  of  1918. 

The  efibrts  of  Government  in  Nigeria  to  bring  these  schools  under  control  were 
the  subject  of  an  outcry  by  the  native  press  of  Lagos — with  the  honourable 
exception  of  the  paper  owned  by  Hon.  K.  Ajasa, — and  they  appealed  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  against  this  form  of  "  moral  slavery  "  ! 

The  absence  of  Government  control  over  educational  institutions  is  one  of  the 
four  defects  to  which  Sir  V.  Chirol  attributes  the  failure  of  education  in  India. 
— Loc,  cit, ,  p.  248.  The  Sudan  Government  goes  so  far  as  to  make  a  small  grant 
to  "  Kuttabs  "  which  agree  to  inspection,  but  they  are  for  the  most  part  under 
teachers  trained  at  Gordon  College. 

The  policy  of  the  Colonial  Office  appears  to  have  changed,  for  it  has  recently 
been  announced  that  all  unaided  schools  in  the  Straits  and  Federated  Malay 
States  shall  be  registered  with  their  teachers,  and  subjected  to  Regulations. — 
'  Times,'  6th  October  1921. 


440  EDUCATION. 

of  the  managers  of  their  schools  in  the  general  scheme  of 
education,  and  giving  them  an  opportimity  of  expressing  their 
views  as  members  of  educational  boards,  &c. ;  (&)  by  recognis- 
ing religious  teaching  as  part  of  the  school  course,  or  at  least 
by  removing  what  may  be  considered  by  them  to  be  gratuitous 
diflBculties  in  the  way  of  teaching  religion ;  (c)  by  making 
the  financial  assistance  sufficiently  substantial,  and  unham- 
pered by  conditions  which  are  considered  obnoxious,  or  which 
tend  to  destroy  the  individuality  of  the  school  and  its  devel- 
opment upon  its  own  Unes. 

The  poUcy  laid  down  by  the  Government  of  India  resolu- 
tion (199)  of  1888  appears  to  me  to  formulate  the  principle 
which  should  guide  Crown  colony  administration — viz.,  that 
the  Government  should  encourage  private  enterprise  in  educa- 
tion as  in  all  other  matters ;  that  it  should  pioneer  the  way, 
and  maintain  schools  in  which  the  system  of  instruction  and 
discipline  shall  afford  a  standard  for  the  emulation  of  aided 
or  private  institutions,  and  that  it  should  assist  their  efforts 
by  reasonable  subventions.^ 

When  I  left  Mgeria  an  experiment  was  in  progress  on  the 
following  lines  :  Grants  are  no  longer  awarded  on  the  basis 
of  an  annual  and  necessarily  hurried  examination  in  certain 
set  subjects,  but  on  frequent  inspections  and  examinations 
extending  throughout  the  school  year.  Thirty  per  cent  of  the 
marks  which  determine  the  amount  of  the  grant  are  awarded 
for  the  tone  of  the  school,  discipline,  organisation,  and  moral 
instruction ;  20  per  cent  for  the  adequacy  and  efficiency  of 
the  teaching  staff  by  whom  those  results  are  achieved ;  40 
per  cent  on  the  result  of  periodical  examinations  and  general 
progress,  and  10  per  cent  for  buildings,  equipment,  and 
sanitation. 

Since  it  is  far  easier  to  train  the  characters  of  pupils  who 
are  boarders  than  of  day  scholars  (while  the  former  are  very 
much  more  expensive  to  the  school),  the  grant  for  a  boarder 
in  an  assisted  school  is  double  that  for  a  day  scholar.  The 
boarding-schools  must  be  well  found,  with  good  dormitories 
and  a  recreation-room  and  grounds.  The  different  grades  of 
masters  and  teachers  are  defined  in  regard  to  their  qualifica- 
tions, and  the  minimum  requirements  of  staff  in  proportion 
to  pupils  are  laid  down.  There  are  special  grants  for  training 
institutes  for  teachers. 

'  Indian  Blue-book,  p.  3. 


SUGGESTED  REGULATIONS.  441 

There  are  no  obligatory  subjects,  but  no  school  is  eligible 
for  a  grant  unless  its  pupils  show  satisfactory  results  in 
English  and  in  arithmetic.  The  list  of  school  subjects  is 
strictly  limited,  for  a  curriculum  which  is  overloaded  and  too 
advanced  means  the  neglect  of  English  and  other  essential 
subjects.  A  clear  distinction  is  drawn  between  those  that 
remain  as  part  of  the  school  syllabus,  and  "  special  subjects  " 
which  are  taught  (to  selected  boys  ia  the  secondary  schools 
in  substitution  for  a  subject  in  which  they  have  qualified, 
or  in  a  more  advanced  standard)  largely  by  means  of  "  con- 
tinuation "  and  vacation  classes.  Eighty-one  new  schools 
came  on  the  grant  list  the  year  after  this  code  was  intro- 
duced (an  increase  of  94  per  cent),  showing  that  it  had  the 
cordial  approbation  of  the  Missions. 

The  system  necessarily  leaves  large  powers  in  the  hands  of 
the  inspector,  for  instead  of  the  fixed  criterion  afforded  by  an 
annual  set  examiaation,  the  progress  of  the  school  is  gauged 
by  repeated  visits  and  informal  examinations.  The  inspec- 
tor's reports  are,  however,  subject  to  careful  scrutiny  and 
verification  by  the  Director  of  Education,  and  the  managers 
are  represented  on  the  Board  of  Education,  so  that  any  com- 
plaint may  be  fuUy  iavestigated.  But  it  is  obvious  that  in 
such  a  system  the  very  best  and  most  experienced  men  must 
be  selected  as  inspectors. 


442 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

EDUCATION  (Continued). 

The  three  types  of  education  required — Literary  training — The  demand — 
Provincial  Government  schools — Village  schools — Central  industrial 
schools — Clerical  apprentices — Technical  training — The  African  as  a 
worker — Technical  institutes — Technical  courses — Details  of  educa- 
tional methods — Subjects  of  tuition — Adequacy  of  teaching  staff — 
Moslem  education  in  Arabic — The  language  difficulty — Higher  educa- 
tion— Continuation  and  special  classes — The  education  of  girls — The 
cost  of  education — Compulsory  education — The  essential  conclusions. 

Assuming,  then,  that  the  Government  takes  the  lead  in  the 
task  of  education,  let  us  consider  the  nature  of  the  problem 
which  it  has  to  solve,  so  far  as  class-room  iastruction  is  con- 
cerned. There  may  be  said  to  be  three  objects  which  educa- 
tional agencies  have  in  -view — viz.,  («)  the  literary  training 
required  for  posts  in  which  a  good  knowledge  of  English  and 
accounting  is  necessary  ;  (b)  the  technical  training  of  mechanics 
and  artisans  employed  with  power-driven  plant  and  other 
technical  work  ;  and  (c)  the  teaching  of  crafts  and  agriculture 
and  the  very  elementary  schooling  suitable  to  viUage  hie. 

We  sometimes  hear  the  opinion  that  it  would  be  better 
if  the  African  confined  himself  to  agriculture  and  artisan 
work,  and  left  hterary  education  alone.^  We  read  that  in 
India  the  output  of  the  schools  and  universities  is  in  excess 
of  the  demand,  and  creates  an  unemployable  class  which 
becomes  a  prey  to  the  agitator.  In  tropical  Africa,  on  the 
contrary,  there  is  an  illimitable  demand,  not  only  for  sub- 
ordinates but  for  doctors  and  for  the  Civil  Staff,  if  men  with 

^  Dr  Moton,  Head  of  Tuskegee  College,  tells  us  that  Booker  Washington 
himself  was  often  accused  of  being  opposed  to  higher  negro  education,  but  his 
real  view  was  that  education  for  the  negro  must  be  thorough,  and  suited  to  his 
reasonably  immediate  needs.  He  desired  to  raise  the  masses  by  an  industrial  and 
economic  education  widely  diffused. — 'Finding  a  Way  Out,'  p.  215. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR   CLEEICAL   SXIBORDINATBS.  443 

the  proper  qualifications  both  of  education  and  of  character 
were  available. 

The  progress  made  in  the  development  of  Africa  would  have 
been  impossible  were  it  not  for  the  enormous  number  of 
Africans  who  fill  posts  in  which  a  knowledge  of  English,  of 
reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  of 
book-keeping  and  accountancy,  is  required.  Those  who  are 
employed  in  the  technical  departments,  such  as  surveyors, 
telegraphists,  printers,  and  skilled  men  in  the  workshops, 
require  the  same  initial  training.^  With  the  extension  of 
railways  and  the  expansion  of  Government  departments  and 
of  private  enterprise,  the  demand  for  such  men  has  become 
very  large  indeed. 

The  result  in  West  Africa  is  that  boys  who  have  only  half 
completed  their  education  are  tempted  to  leave  school,  and 
are  able  to  obtain  posts  which  demand  much  higher  quahflca- 
tions  than  they  possess,  so  that  two  or  three  may  be  neces- 
sary to  do  the  work,  with  iU  success,  which  one  efficient  man 
should  perform.  Thus  the  standard  of  efficiency  is  lowered, 
and  wages,  as  compared  with  the  cost  of  living  and  the  value 
of  the  work  done,  increase  beyond  the  scale  paid  in  England 
and  elsewhere  for  similar  work.  The  wages  paid  to  clerks 
react  on  the  technical  departments,^  and  it  becomes  increas- 
ingly difficult  to  secure  an  adequate  number  of  apprentices 
with  elementary  schooling,  or  of  teachers  for  the  schools. 
The  latter  deficiency  tends  further  to  restrict  the  supply  at 
its  source.  So  difficult  has  the  situation  become  in  Mgeria 
that  the  Acting  Director  of  Education — himself  a  native 
African  of  great  distinction — surged  the  necessity  of  importing 
clerical  subordinates  in  large  numbers  from  the  East. 

It  is  clear  that  in  dependencies  so  situated  the  Government 
cannot  rely  on  the  output  of  the  Mission  schools  only — much 
as  the  British  African  tropics  are  indebted  to  them  in  the 
past, — and  the  creation  of  an  adequate  mmaber  of  Govern- 
ment primary  and  secondary  schools  is  a  matter  which  must 
not  be  left  (as  it  has  too  often  been)  until  the  deficiency  has 
already  caused  grave  injury  to  the  country.     Schools  are 

^  See  page  87  as  to  the  numbers  required  in  Nigeria  as  clerks,  accountants, 
dispensers,  dressers,  sanitary  and  other  inspectors,  station-masters,  railway  guards, 
&c.,  &c.  Probably  at  least  another  1000  are  required  by  banting,  commercial, 
and  mining  firms. 

^  The  cost  of  African  skilled  labour,  measured  by  results,  is  estimated  by  the 
Director  of  Works,  Nigeria,  to  be  double  the  cost  in  England. 


444  EDUCATION. 

required  at  every  provincial  and  at  many  divisional  head- 
quarters. Whenever  it  is  possible,  the  boys  should  be  boarders, 
for  the  reasons  already  given,  and  the  school  should  not  be 
nearer  than  one  or  two  nules  from  a  native  city.  An  age 
Umit  should  be  fixed  for  each  class  or  standard. 

The  medium  of  instruction,  except  in  the  lower  standards, 
should  be  Enghsh,  and  as  many  scholarships  as  possible  should 
be  provided.  In  the  northern  provinces  of  Nigeria  the  cost 
of  buildings  and  native  staff  is  borne  by  the  native  administra- 
tions (42  per  cent  in  1913),  that  of  the  British  staff  and  in- 
spectorate by  general  revenue.  Each  school  would,  of  course, 
have  its  "  normal  class  "  for  the  training  of  teachers,  and  its 
continuation  classes.  Uniformity  in  the  "  standards  "  of  the 
various  schools  is  of  importance,  so  that  the  degree  of  pro- 
ficiency of  any  boy,  who  is  certified  as  having  passed  a  cer- 
tain standard,  may  be  known  to  his  prospective  employer.^ 

When  such  schools  are  situated  among  primitive  communi- 
ties their  chief  function  is  to  train  the  more  promising  boys 
from  the  village  schools  as  teachers  for  those  schools,  as 
clerks  for  the  local  native  courts,  and  as  interpreters.  For 
these  the  higher  standards  are  not  required. 

The  village  schools  must  depend  on  these  primary  and 
secondary  Government  schools  for  their  supply  of  teachers ; 
and  siace  the  teaching  in  the  village  schools  is  chiefly  industrial, 
each  of  the  "  Uterary  "  schools  should  have  a  class  in  which 
native  crafts  and  industries  (especially  agriculture)  are  taught, 
so  that  boys  who  desire  to  become  teachers  in  village  schools 
may  be  properly  quaUfied. 

Village  schools  should,  in  my  opinion,  be  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  the  peasantry,  who  do  not  seek  either  a 
literary  education  to  quahfy  them  as  clerks,  &c.,  or  a  technical 
training  for  power-driven  workshops.  Their  object  is  to 
improve  the  village  craftsmen  and  agriculturists,  to  raise 
the  standard  of  hfe,  comfort,  and  intelligence  in  the  village 
community,  and  to  teach  habits  of  discipline,  industry,  and 
truthfulness.     At   these    schools   trades    should   be   taught 

^  There  are  six  such  primary  schools  in  the  Sudan,  where  English  is  taught, 
but  no  industrial  training  is  given.  Each  year  about  thirty  boys  are  selected 
from  the  elementary  vernacular  schools  and  sent  to  them,  and  about  15  per  cent 
go  on  to  the  Upper  School  at  Gordon  College.  The  entrance  age  is  about  eleven, 
and  the  course  is  for  four  years.  The  schools  are  intended  for  the  sons  of 
Government  employees  and  better-class  natives,  who,  after  a  further  training  at 
Gordon  College,  will  be  qualified  to  fill  junior  posts  under  Government. 


VILLAGE  SCHOOLS.  445 

(carpentry,  blacksmithing,  agriculture,  &c.),  together  with 
some  rudimentary  schooling  in  elementary  hygiene,  colloquial 
English,  and  such  moral  and  religious  instruction,  whether 
Christian  or  Mohamedan,  as  may  help  to  free  the  peasant 
from  the  cruel  domination  of  superstitious  and  inhuman 
practices.  To  this  may  usefully  be  added  simple  explanations 
of  British  aims — the  advantages  of  railways,  roads,  currency, 
and  free  labour,  the  reasons  for  taxation,  &c.  In  the  higher 
classes  some  smaU  knowledge  of  "  the  3  E's  "  may  be  included, 
which  shaU  render  him  less  liable  to  be  the  victim  of  mis- 
representation and  fraud. 

These  schools  would  not  be  intended  to  quahfy  a  boy  for 
Government  employment,  or  to  develop  into  literary  schools. 
They  would  be  afiSliated  to  the  nearest  Government  primary 
or  secondary  school.  In  non-Moslem  districts  Mohamedan 
teachers  would  not  be  employed,  and  in  practice  no  doubt  these 
schools  would  be  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Missions.^  They 
woidd  be  conducted  by  a  carefully-selected  native  teacher, 
and  would  not  be  boarding-schools.  The  medium  of  instruc- 
tion would  be  the  vernacular — ^in  the  higher  classes  English  or 
a  local  lingua  franca — such  as  Arabic,  Swaheli,  or  Hausa. 
The  boys  would  at  first  spend  about  half  their  time  in 
elementary  education,  and  later  practically  the  whole  time 
in  learning  some  craft.  The  instruction  imparted  would  be 
very  simple,  and  given  from  the  most  practical  standpoint,^ 
special  attention  being  devoted  to  the  introduction  of  better 
appliances,  in  order  to  improve  the  quality  and  increase  the 
quantity  of  the  output.* 

'  The  late  Sir  Victor  Buxton  emphasised  ' '  the  growing  consensus  that 
industrial  training  should  be  given  a  more  prominent  place  in  the  Mission 
schools." — ('African  Journal,'  April  1918.)  It  is  in  these  rural  schools  that 
these  objects  can  best  be  carried  out. 

^  The  elementary  vernacular  village  schools  (kuttabs)  in  the  Sudan  number 
about  74  with  7000  pupils.  They  are  under  native  teachers.  Reading,  writing, 
drill,  simple  arithmetic,  and  elementary  religion  are  taught,  but  no  industrial 
crafts. 

In  the  village  schools  of  Sierra  Leone  boys  are  taught  to  write  their  own  lan- 
guage in  the  Roman  character,  and  instruction  is  given  in  elementary  arithmetic 
and  the  rudiments  of  English,  but  the  chief  subject  of  instruction  is  agriculture. 
"  We  find  by  actual  experience  that  a  Mendi  boy  can  be  taught  to  read  and 
write  his  own  language,  and  to  work  out  simple  calculations  in  less  than  a  year." 
The  Governor  complains  of  the  rivalry  between  denominational  schools,  of  which 
there  may  be  "  three,  four,  or  seven  in  a  single  small  village,  with  results  fatal 
to  teaching,  to  discipline,  and  to  the  proper  payment  of  teachers." — (Speech 
to  Legislative  Council,  December  1920.) 

s  The  native  loom  is  only  capable  of  weaving  a  strip  of  cloth  a  few  inches 
wide,   and  can   only  be  worked  out  of  doors  in  the  dry  season  (owing  to  its 


446  EDUCATION. 

The  instruction  given  at  each  school  should  be  especially 
adapted  to  the  occupations  most  suited  to,  or  traditional  in, 
the  village.  In  some  weaving,  in  others  smelting,  dyeing, 
or  tanning  may  be  time-honoured  crafts.  Similarly  in  regard 
to  agriculture,  the  care  of  those  crops  which  are  chiefly 
cultivated  in  the  district  would  receive  special  attention — 
cotton  in  one,  cocoa  in  another,  and  so  on. 

The  Indian  Industrial  Eeport — published  since  these  in- 
structions were  issued  in  Nigeria — recommends  practically 
identical  methods  in  regard  to  the  "  cottage  industries  "  of 
India,  which,  it  is  suggested,  may  be  assisted  by  peripatetic 
instructors,  teaching  improved  processes,  and  introducing 
new  patterns  and  designs  and  labour-saving  devices.  The 
report  emphasises  the  difference  in  training  needed  for  these 
cottage  industries,  and  the  class-room  study  and  apprentice- 
ship necessary  to  produce  skilled  mechanics.^ 

The  teaching  of  the  village  school  may  be  carried  to  a  higher 
stage  in  the  agricultural  classes  (vide  inf.)  on  the  one  hand, 
or  in  a  Central  Industrial  School  on  the  other.  In  the  latter 
native  arts  and  crafts  would  be  taught  by  skilled  native 
craftsmen,  under  the  supervision  of  a  British  foreman.  The 
object  would  be  to  preserve  aU  that  is  best  in  native  design 
and  art,  while  introducing  better  methods,  appliances,  and 
tools.  Carpentry  and  wood-carving,  metal-work  and  engrav- 
ing on  brass  and  copper,  blacksmith's  work,  smelting  and 
casting,  leather-work  and  tanning,  weaving  and  embroidery 
on  cloth  and  leather,  and  other  native  industries,  would  be 
taught.  To  these  might  be  added  such  new  crafts  as  are 
suitable  for  cottage  industry,  such  as  brickmaking  and  the 
construction  of  country  carts  and  wheels.  There  would  be 
no  class-room  instruction — though  pupils  would  be  encouraged 
to  attend  the  evening  classes  at  the  provincial  school, — and 

length),  but  with  the  aid  of  an  imported  loom  a  native  weaver  was  able 
without  expert  guidance  to  make  a  piece  of  cloth  of  full  breadth. — 
(Ibid.) 

As  to  the  value  of  native  crafts  in  Nigeria,  Captain  (now  Major-Qeneral) 
Mance,  R.E.,  asserts  that  "European  manufacturers  cannot  put  on  the  market 
cotton  stuffs  approaching  the  quality  and  the  wearing  power  of  the  Kano  cloth 
at  the  same  prices  as  it  is  charged  for  by  the  natives."  He  even  anticipates 
that  these  durable  hand-woven  cloths  of  excellent  design  will  compete  with 
imported  textiles  throughout  West  Africa,  ' '  and  might  even  make  an  inroad 
on  the  English  summer  market,"  since  they  are  already  being  used  by  Europeans 
"for  strong  tropical  suits,  riding  breeches,  and  ladies'  dresses."  This  may  be 
exaggerated  praise,  but  indicates  the  excellence  of  native  cloth. 

1  Cmd.  51,  1919,  pp.  97-99  and  162-167. 


CLERICAL  APPBJENTICES   OK   "  CADETS."  447 

no  attempt  to  train  boys  for  wage  -  earning  employ- 
ment.i 

It  is  very  desirable  that  provincial  schools — and  essential 
that  all  village  schools — should  possess  a  good  school  garden, 
in  which  boys  can  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  various  plants 
under  cultivation,  and  of  the  use  of  garden  tools  and  agricul- 
tural implements. 

Before  passing  to  technical  education,  I  have  a  very  tenta- 
tive suggestion  to  offer,  to  which  I  have  already  referred  in 
chapter  iv.  Parents  deplore  the  tendency  of  young  men  to 
embark  prematurely  on  an  independent  career,  which  in  such 
circumstances  can  offer  little  prospect  of  success,  and  exposes 
them  to  temptation,  and  to  the  cost  of  maintaining  a  separate 
establishment  beyond  their  means.  In  order  to  check  this 
tendency  and  to  maintain  parental  discipline,  it  may  perhaps 
be  feasible  to  institute  a  scheme  of  clerical  apprentices  some- 
what on  the  following  lines.  Youths  between  the  ages  of 
seventeen  and  twenty,  recommended  not  merely  for  intel- 
lectual ability  but  for  sterling  character,  would  be  selected 
from  among  the  seniors  at  the  best  schools  for  employment 
on  progressive  salaries  during  four  or  five  years.  They  would 
reside  during  this  apprenticeship  with  their  parents,  and  be 
attached  to  the  Secretariat  or  Treasury,  but  in  order  to 
acquire  proficiency  and  fluency  in  English  and  thorough 
quaUflcations  for  their  duties,  they  would  continue  to  attend 
school  for  certain  hours.  They  might  be  caUed  "  student 
clerks  "  or  "  cadets,"  and  if  they  pass  the  required  tests  at 
the  end  of  their  term,  they  would  have  received  a  much 
better  and  more  prolonged  education  than  the  ordinary  clerk. 
They  would  be  bound  to  enter  the  Government  service,  if 
wanted,  for  a  period  of,  say,  five  years,  and  would  be  eligible 
for  accelerated  promotion.  Eventually  the  cadets  might 
become  a  corps  d'ilite,  and  aspire  to  high  posts. 

We  have  dealt  with  two  of  the  great  classes  for  whom 
educational  facilities  are  required — viz.,  the  literary  (clerical) 

^  Such  a  school  has  been  established  at  Kano  (Nigeria)  with  excellent  results. 
Its  cosb  (exclusive  of  the  British  superintendent)  is  provided  by  the  native 
administrations,  and  pupils  are  sent  to  it  from  all  the  Moslem  provinces,  which 
make  proportionate  subscriptions  from  their  native  treasuries.  A  separate 
school  is  required  for  Christians  and  pagans.  Pending  the  completion  of  the 
Technical  Institute,  it  has  recently  engaged  in  the  making  of  "  furniture,  office 
fittings,  drills  and  tools,  boots,  and  book- binding,"  but  this  is  a  departure  from 
its  original  and  proper  purpose. 


448  EDUCATION. 

class,  and  the  rural  (industrial)  class.  The  third  group  con- 
sists of  the  artisans  and  mechanics  employed  in  Government 
and  commercial  workshops — ^by  the  railway,  marine,  public 
works,  and  printing  departments, — ^most  of  whom  are  engaged 
in  handling  power-driven  machinery.  For  these  a  primary 
education  is  a  necessary  preliminary,  but  the  "  manual 
training,"  which  has  found  favour  both  in  Government  and  in 
Mission  schools,  is  of  little  or  no  use.  The  workshop  staif 
reports  that  not  only  is  a  training  in  box  and  chair-making 
useless  for  a  boy  who  desires  to  become  a  trained  mechanic, 
but  that  he  must  unlearn  much  of  what  he  has  learnt,  and 
begin  aU  over  again.  Much  valuable  time  is  also  lost  in  giving 
such  teaching  to  boys  whose  intention  it  is  to  become  clerks, 
and  have  no  need  of  it. 

The  Indian  Industrial  Eeport  endorses  this  view,  and 
emphasises  the  necessity  of  discriminating  between  the 
industrial  training  needed  for  cottage  industries  and  the 
class-room  study,  and  the  apprenticeship  necessary  to  produce 
skilled  mechanics.^ 

As  soon  as  the  youth  has  passed  the  required  standard  he 
should  become  an  apprentice  in  the  department  which  he 
desires  to  adopt.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  every 
technical  department  should  train  a  large  number  of  appren- 
tices. Their  training  must  be  conducted  by  a  special  in- 
structor, and  not  left  (as  used  to  be  the  case)  to  the  chance 
assistance  of  men  engaged  in  work  themselves.  In  other 
words,  each  technical  department  should  have  a  technical 
class  attached  to  it  for  the  training  of  apprentices.  The 
instructor  would  also  hold  classes  for  special  instruction  in 
theory  and  drawing,  &c.,  for  those  who  show  special  aptitude 
— ^not  in  night  schools,  when  they  are  too  tired  to  learn,  but 
during  working  hours, — and  they  could  improve  their  general 
education  by  attending  contiauation  classes  at  the  provincial 
school.     The  aim  should  be  to  put  the  apprentices  on  the 

^  The  Indian  report  to  which  I  have  referred  is  a  mine  of  research  and 
practical  suggestion  on  this  subject.  The  Commissioners  find  in  India  the  same 
necessity  as  I  have  found  in  Africa  for  taking  measures  to  improve  the  social 
status  of  the  artisan,  and  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  prefer  a  clerical  educa- 
tion. They  corroborate  the  view  that  the  necessary  theoretical  instruction  of 
apprentices  cannot  be  given  in  night-schools  when  the  youths  are  too  tired  to 
assimilate  knowledge  ;  they  endorse  the  necessity  for  special  instructors  for 
apprentices  in  the  workshops  ;  they  dwell  on  the  need  for  training  a  class  of 
native  foremen  ;  and  they  recommend  the  provision  of  hostels,  &c.,  as  I  have 
done  for  Africa.— Pp.  100-108. 


THE  AFEIOAN  AS  A  SKILLED  MECHANIC.  449 

same  level  as  the  clerical  branch,  in  pay,  housing,  oppor- 
tunities for  recreation,  and  general  status,  so  as  to  attract 
to  it  an  equally  good  class.  During  his  five  years'  indenture 
an  apprentice  is,  of  course,  paid  a  progressive  wage.^ 

The  aptitude  of  the  African  as  a  skilled  worker  is  abun- 
dantly in  evidence  in  the  railway,  printing,  and  other  work- 
shops. In  West  Africa,  as  an  "  engineer  correspondent  "  tes- 
tifies, he  has  replaced  Europeans  in  many  departments  of 
skilled  work,  and  he  does  not  require  an  undue  amount  of 
European  supervision.  Even  in  such  highly  technical  work 
as  acetylene  welding  and  cutting,  in  pattern-making  from 
dimensioned  drawings,  and  in  the  use  of  the  lathe  and  of 
modem  machine  tools,  he  bears  witness  to  his  eflficienoy.^ 

If  the  African  does  not  yet  aspire  to  the  position  of  foreman, 
it  is  because  he  has  hitherto  lacked  sufficient  general  educa- 
tion, and  has  not  entered  the  shops  at  a  sufficiently  early 
age.  When  boys  of  sixteen  or  seventeen,  having  passed  the 
fifth  or  sixth  standard  so  that  they  can  make  accurate  calcula- 
tions and  correctly  interpret  plans  and  drawings,  can  acquire 
in  the  shops  from  a  special  instructor  some  knowledge  of  the 
theoretical  side  of  the  work  and  the  reasons  for  the  various 
processes,  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  become 
efficient  managers  and  shop-foremen.  The  weak  point  of 
the  qualified  African  engineer  who  holds  a  technical  degree 
is  that  his  ability  to  memorise  enables  him  to  fill  his  head 
with  formulae  of  which  he  does  not  appreciate  the  full  meaning. 
He  must  also  acquire  the  ability  to  control  men,  and  a  greater 
sense  of  responsibility  in  his  work. 

In  the  Sudan  the  Gordon  College  provides  an  extra  depart- 
mental institute  for  technical  training.  A  similar  institution 
is  in  course  of  erection  in  the  northern  provinces  of  Nigeria, 
a  considerable  part  of  the  funds  having  been  provided  by  a 
bequest  of  the  late  Sir  Alfred  Jones.  Such  an  institute  sup- 
plements, but  cannot  supersede,  the  value  of  the  training 
acquired  by  apprentices  in  workshops,  but  it  has  a  special 
value  in  Nigeria,  since  it  provides  an  opportunity  of  training 

1  The  rates  of  pay  in  Nigeria  for  Ist-grade  apprentices  (viz.,  those  who  have 
passed  standard  V.)  commence  at  £12  and  rise  to  £36,  and  for  heavy  machinery 
from  £18  to  £42.  An  apprentice  is  on  probation  for  three  months,  and  is 
pledged  to  remain  in  Government  employ  for  five  years  if  wanted.  It  was 
proposed  to  fix  the  number  under  training  at  760 — an  annual  output  of  150. 

^  'West  Africa,'  4th  September  1920.  We  have  seen  (p.  421)  that  in  Nigeria 
Africans  are  now  employed  as  foremen  in  the  mines. 

2p 


450  EDUCATION. 

Mohamedan  youths  who  do  not  readily  mix  with  the  artisans 
from  the  coast. 

It  has  also  an  additional  value  in  providing  a  means  of 
showing  that  the  skilled  workman  occupies  no  inferior  status 
to  that  of  the  clerk,  and  of  promoting  healthy  rivalry  in 
sports  between  the  two  classes.  By  these  various  means  the 
tropical  African  dependencies  should  be  able  to  produce 
competent  native  foremen  of  works  instead  of  being  depen- 
dent on  British  artisans,  who  are  very  costly,  and  of  whom 
the  supply  is  strictly  limited. 

Apart  from  the  departments  to  which  I  have  referred  as 
using  power-driven  machinery — ^railway,  marine,  public  works, 
and  printing — ^there  are  others  which  afford  technical  training 
— e.g.,  agriculture,  survey,  forestry,  veterinary,  telegraphs, 
and  medical — to  youths  who  desire  to  specialise  in  any  of 
these  subjects  with  a  view  to  entering  the  service  of  Govern- 
ment, or  a  private  employer,  or  a  native  administration. 

Such  training  in  its  earlier  stages  can  be  given  in  special 
classes  while  the  boy  is  still  at  school,  and  later  by  apprentice- 
ship to  the  department  concerned.  Trained  agriculturists 
are  wanted  as  instructors,  and  overseers  in  the  department, 
and  for  the  charge  of  model  plots  and  botanical  gardens,  &c. 
Education  in  forestry,  like  agriculture,  is  both  theoretical 
and  practical.  For  instruction  in  these  subjects  model  planta- 
tions, and  for  veterinary  work  a  small  stock  farm,  are  essential. 
It  is  very  desirable  that  pupils — whether  trained  for  the 
Government  service  or  for  service  under  a  native  ad- 
ministration— shoidd  be  selected  from  various  parts  of  the 
country. 

Surveyors  are  required  to  replace  Europeans  in  making 
simple  surveys  of  leases  of  land,  &c.,  and  in  the  medical  de- 
partment there  is  great  need  of  trained  sanitary  inspectors, 
dispensers,  dressers,  and  female  nurses. 

My  object  in  this  chapter  is  rather  to  discuss  the  general 
scope  and  object  of  education  m  Africa  than  to  deal  with  the 
subject  from  the  detailed  and  educationalist  standpoint.  I 
have  preferred  therefore  to  speak  of  "  provincial "  and 
"  village  "  schools  rather  than  of  "  secondary,"  "  primary," 
"  elementary,"  "  infant,"  or  "  trade  "  schools,  for  I  am  con- 
cerned here  only  with  the  general  purpose  which  they  are 
intended  to  serve.  The  provincial  school,  when  first  insti- 
tuted, would  not  aspire  beyond  the  primary  standards  ;  later 


SUBJECTS  OF  TTHTION.  451 

it  would  become  a  secondary  school.  The  village  school 
combines  the  last  three. 

ISTor  is  it  possible  within  the  scope  of  a  siagle  chapter  in  a 
volume  such  as  this,  to  discuss  in  detail  the  subjects  which 
should  find  a  place  in  the  school  curriculum,  the  degree  of 
scholastic  attainment  which  should  constitute  each  "  stand- 
ard "  and  class,  or  those  which  should  be  demanded  in  a 
"  quaMed  "  teacher,  the  age-limits  of  pupils,  or  the  methods 
of  inspection,  &c.  The  way  in  which  each  of  these  problems 
has  been  handled  in  the  various  Crown  colonies  and  pro- 
tectorates may  be  studied  in  the  admirable  series  of  "  special 
reports  on  educational  subjects  "  issued  by  the  Board  of 
Education,  which  are  probably  too  little  known  in  our  African 
dependencies.  They  are  now  somewhat  out  of  date,  since 
they  bring  their  review  only  up  to  the  end  of  1902.^  I  will 
content  myself  here  with  one  or  two  comments  only. 

It  is,  I  suggest,  a  mistake  to  include  in  the  syllabus  of 
an  ordinary  primary  or  secondary  school  such  subjects  as 
Oreek  and  Latin.  Their  place  as  classics  should  be  taken  by 
BngUsh.  French  and  German  would  be  taught  as  "  special 
subjects  "  if  there  were  sufficient  students  to  form  a  class. 
Exception  would  no  doubt  be  made  by  any  special  secondary 
school  for  youths  who  intend  to  take  up  the  professions  of 
law,  medicine,  &c.,  and  to  attend  an  EngUsh  university. 

The  first  essential — apart  from  character  training — ^is  to 
have  a  good  knowledge  of  English,  and  "  the  3  R's,"  whether 
a  boy  intends  to  adopt  a  "  literary  "  (clerical)  or  a  technical 
career,  or  whether  as  the  son  of  a  ruling  chief  he  desires  to 
be  able  to  take  his  place  some  day  on  a  Government  Council, 
and  represent  there  the  needs  and  aspirations  of  his  people. 
For  the  latter  a  course  in  practical  "  economics  "  and  com- 
merce would  be  of  greater  value  than  a  knowledge  of  the 
languages  named. 

The  usual  subjects  of  a  school  curriculum  should,  I  venture 
to  think,  be  treated  somewhat  differently  for  African  than  for 
English  boys.  It  is,  for  instance,  more  useful  that  a  student 
of  geography  should  acquire  a  general  knowledge  of  the 
British  Empire,  and  of  Africa  in  particular,  with  some  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  physical  geography,  than  that  he  should 

1  See  Volumes  V.,  XII.,  XIIF.,  and  XIV., [Cmd.  417,  2377,  2378,  and  2379. 
The  Sudan  is  not  included,  and  I  have  therefore  given  some  notes  of  the  system 
adopted  there. 


452  EDUCATION. 

be  familiar  with  the  names  of  the  English  counties.  The 
history  of  Africa  is  more  appropriate  than  a  knowledge  of 
Hengist  and  Horsa,  and  a  cursory  acquaintance  with  the 
evolution  of  democracy  under  Cromwell  may  do  more  harm 
than  good,  by  inducing  "  the  boy  patriot  to  deplore  the  woes, 
and  discuss  the  regeneration  of  his  country,  instead  of  attend- 
ing to  his  lessons,"  and  encouraging  him  to  believe  that  he 
can  accomplish  in  a  decade  what  England  has  taken  some 
centuries  to  achieve.  History,  said  Sir  H.  Hadow,  in  his 
presidential  address  to  the  Teachers'  Guild  in  January  1921, 
"  ought  to  be  taught  from  the  point  of  view  of  showing  what 
England  has  been  in  the  past,  what  England  has  done  for 
liberty  and  civilisation,  for  invention,  for  industry,  and  for 
the  spiritual,  moral,  and  material  welfare  of  mankind." 

A  "  general  knowledge  "  class  may  be  more  useful  in  de- 
veloping the  faculties  of  original  thought,  and  in  affording 
an  opportunity  of  explaining  the  economic  causes  of  present- 
day  "  unrest,"  than  time  spent  on  conic  sections  or  the  later 
books  of  Euclid. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  vital  necessity  of  an  adequate 
and  properly  qualified  staff,  and  to  the  importance  of  resident 
British  masters,  and  a  highly-trained  British  inspectorate. 
The  latter  should  be  composed  of  men  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  science  of  teaching,  and  suited  temperamentally  for 
work  which  needs  much  tact  and  patience.  They  should 
visit  each  school  once  a  quarter,  and  remain  a  few  days — or 
more,  if  required — in  order  to  assist  the  staff  by  their  advice, 
and  in  order  to  form  a  thorough  opinion  of  the  value  of  the 
teaching  and  the  tone  of  the  school.  A  senior  inspector  should, 
in  addition,  visit  each  school  once  in  the  year. 

The  native  staff,  no  less  than  the  British,  must  be  selected 
from  the  best  men  available,  for  it  is  on  their  example  no 
less  than  on  their  teaching  that  success  depends.  The  cry 
is  everywhere  the  difiBculty  of  procuring  teachers — even  at 
Gordon  College,  with  its  reservoir  in  Egypt.^    To  secure  the 

^  The  great  difSculty  in  the  "emirates"  of  Northern  Nigeria  was  to  provide 
teachers  professing  the  Moslem  faith,  and  no  others  would  have  been  tolerated 
or  exercised  any  influence.  Progress  was  necessarily  slow  till  youths  could  be 
first  taught  themselves,  and  then  trained  to  teach,  but  in  a  little  over  a  dozen 
years  (by  the  end  of  1919)  the  enthusiastic  efforts  of  the  British  staff  had 
succeeded  in  establishing  twenty-one  schools.  Ten  years  after  the  institution  of 
British  rule  only  twenty  teachers  had  been  trained.  The  original  class  consisted 
of  pupils  varying  from  six  to  sixty  years  of  age,  and  was  primarily  industrial. 
By  indefatigable  patience  and  tact  on  the  part  of  the  administrative  and  education 


THE  NATIVE  STAFF.  453 

right  type  of  teachers  in  countries  where  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  by  trading  offers  great  attractions,  adequate  salaries 
must  be  offered,  and  revenue  cannot  be  laid  out  to  better 
purpose,  whether  in  Government  schools  or  by  increased 
grants  to  assisted  schools.  It  is  impossible,  as  the  Governor 
of  Sierra  Leone  observed,  to  expect  men  who  are  underpaid 
and  overworked  to  continue  in  the  same  routine  all  their 
lives,  and  the  quaUfcy  of  their  teaching  must  suffer.  The 
nimiber  of  pupils  under  a  single  teacher  should  never  exceed 
forty.  The  village  schools,  as  I  have  said,  must  look  to  the 
provincial  schools  for  their  supply  of  teachers,  and  it  is 
essential  that  every  school  should  have  its  "  normal  class," 
in  addition  to  a  central  training  institute  for  teachers,  with 
liberal  free  scholarships.  The  staff  should  be  changed  as 
little  as  possible,  in  order  that  the  masters  may  acquire  the 
confidence  and  an  intimate  personal  knowledge  of  the  pupils, 
and  that  British  officers  may  become  fluent  in  the  local 
dialects. 

The  treatment  of  the  problem  of  education  must  necessarily 
differ  widely  in  Moslem  and  non-Moslem  coxmtries.  In  the 
former  there  already  exists  a  Uterate  class,  held  in  respect 
by  the  illiterate  peasantry.  The  goal  of  their  ambition  is 
to  read  the  Koran,  and  to  study  the  laws  and  traditions  of 
Islam.  No  Mohamedan  considers  that  he  can  claim  to  be 
properly  educated  imless  he  is  able  to  do  this.  His  outlook 
is  towards  the  literature  of  the  East — ^not  of  the  West.  In 
coimtries  where  Arabic  is  not  the  spoken  vernacular  (as  it  is 
in  the  Sudan),  secular  education,  and  the  reading  of  their 
own  language  in  the  Eoman  character,  does  not  offer  to  this 
class  the  same  attractions  as  it  does  to  non-Moslem  natives. 
Arabic,  says  Blyden,  is  learnt  for  religion  and  for  entrance 
to  heaven,  English  for  the  things  of  this  world. 

There  is,  however,  no  reason  why  the  two  aims  should 
conflict.  In  Nigeria  the  Government  schools  in  the  Moslem 
provinces  have  an  Arabic  class,  in  which,  like  "  the  classical 

officers,  the  schools  have  now  become  so  popular  that  it  is  difficult  to  meet  the 
demand,  though  the  cost  is  largely  borne  by  the  native  administrations,  who 
thus  regard  them  as  "their  own  schools."  The  keenness  of  the  pupils  is 
evidenced  by  the  average  attendance,  in  Zaria  87  "75  out  of  88,  and  others  but 
4ittle  less. 

The  Ngala  Agricultural  Institute  in  Sierra  Leone  aspires  to  provide  teachers 
for  all  the  village  schools.  The  pupils  are  fed,  housed,  and  taught  free  of  cost 
for  a  two-years'  course. — (Governor's  Speech,  19th  July  1919.) 


454  EDUCATION. 

side  "  in  our  public  schools  at  home,  the  study  of  an  ancient 
language  and  literature  can  be  fostered,  without  hindrance 
to  the  more  utilitarian  subjects  required  for  the  production 
of  a  class  who  can  take  their  share  of  the  appoiutments — 
clerical  or  technical — ^which  Government  has  to  ofEer  in  the 
departments  of  the  public  service.  Moslems  should  recog- 
nise the  disadvantages  of  allowing  these  posts  to  be  held  by 
aliens  of  a  different  creed,  while  a  certain  number  of  the 
Arabic  scholars  will  be  required  to  fill  posts  under  the  native 
administrations  and  as  judges  of  the  native  courts.  In  the 
Sudan  the  Kadis  (native  judges)  are  trained  at  Gordon  College. 
This  system  has  so  far  had  excellent  results  in  Nigeria, 
and  the  fact  that  the  Government  has  viewed  Arabic  educa- 
tion not  merely  with  tolerance  but  with  active  encourage- 
ment, has  gone  far  to  enlist  the  cordial  co-operation  of  the 
Moslem  rulers  in  the  scheme  of  Government  schools,  of  which 
— ^fearing  they  would  undermine  their  rehgion — ^they  were  at 
/'first  very  suspicious.^ 

The  diversity  of  languages  in  Africa  surrounds  the  problem 
of  education  with  special  difficulties.  Where  a  widely-spoken 
language  easily  acquired  by  Europeans  exists — such  as  Hausa 
in  the  west  and  Swaheli  in  the  east — ^it  would  appear  desirable 
to  promote  its  use  as  a  lingua  franca,  for  natives  easily  acquire 
an  African  tongue.  Elsewhere  EngUsh  must  form  the  medium 
of  instruction,  and  of  intercommunication  between  tribes,  as 
it  has  already  to  some  extent  done  in  West  Africa,  and  to  a 
more  remarkable  extent  among  the  Chinese,  where  it  has 
become  the  "  business  "  (pidgin)  language.  No  greater  benefit 
can  be  conferred  on  the  African,  whether  as  a  means  of  en- 
I  abling  him  to  make  known  his  desires,  or  for  purposes  of 
<  trade,  or  as  affording  an  access  to  a  great  literature,  than  the 
teaching  of  English  as  a  imiversal  mediimi. 

Missions,  on  the  other  hand,  being  concerned  with  evan- 
gelisation only,  have  no  desire  to  promote  intercommunica- 
tion for  trade  and  other  purposes,  and  are  generally  content 

'  In  Sokoto  the  Sultan,  who  is  recognised  as  the  Head  of  Islam  in  the  western 
Sudan,  visits  the  British  school  weekly,  and  the  Wazeri  spends  several  hours 
there  on  most  days,  and  the  same  in  varying  degrees  obtains  in  most  othef 
emirates. 

Contrary  to  expectation,  it  has  now  been  found  that  in  some  of  the  schools — 
notably  in  Sokoto  and  Bornu,  the  religious  headquarters  in  East  and  West — 
English  is  becoming  more  popular  than  Arabic,  but  the  latter  will  always  serve  a 
useful  purpose  for  the  sons  of  Emirs,  and  for  the  training  of  native  judges. 


HIGHER  EDUCATION.  455 

to  study  a  local  dialect,  and  translate  the  Scriptures  and 
text-books  into  it.  I  concur  with  Lord  Kimberiey's  dictum, 
that  though  instruction  in  English  must  of  necessity  at  first 
be  given  through  the  medium  of  the  vernacular.  Government 
J  encouragement  should  not  be  exerted  to  stimulate  or  preserve 
)these  native  tongues. 

Lord  Kitchener's  great  institution  ia  the  Sudan,  the 
Gordon  College,  stands  as  a  model — short  of  a  university ' — 
for  a  central  institution  for  education  both  literary  and 
technical,  and  most  other  African  dependencies  have  one  or 
more  special  schools  for  higher  education — notably  Furrah 
Bay  College,  Sierra  Leone,  afiBUated  to  Durham  University. 

Such  schools  are  attended  by  sons  of  educated  and  well- 
to-do  parents,  who  can  afford  heavy  fees,  or  by  promising 
youths  who  have  won  scholarships.  Their  aim  is  to  enable 
boys  who  go  to  England  for  degrees  in  law,  medicine,  or 
theology  to  complete  most  of  their  education  locally,  and  so 
to  curtail  their  period  of  absence,  and  also  to  qualify  youths 
to  flU  high  posts  ia  the  Civil  Service. 

It  is  essential  that  such  schools  should  be  residential  if 
boys  are  to  imbibe  the  traditions  that  give  to  English  public 
schoolboys  that  discipline  and  training  which  have  fitted 
them  for  the  work  of  the  Empire.  The  schools  must  have 
junior  classes,  and  not  merely  receive  from  other  schools 
boys  who  have  already  formed  habits  which  should  have 
been  moulded  under  the  influence  of  the  school ;  and  they 
should,  of  course,  have  normal  classes  for  the  training  of 
teachers. 

If  the  institutions  for  higher  education  are  at  present 
but  few  ia  British  tropical  Africa,  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  problem  hitherto  has  been  to  keep  abreast  of  the  demands 
of  Government  and  commerce,  and  to  supply  the  requirements 
of  the  teaching  staff.  The  educated  African  demands  a 
university  for  West  Africa,  and  nothiag  could  be  more  desir- 
able than  that  African  youths,  who  wish  to  qualify  for  the 

^  The  Omdurman  training  college  for  teachers  in  the  elementary  Bchools  was 
in  1916  absorbed  in  the  Gordon  College,  Khartum,  -which  in  addition  has  an 
upper  school  divided  into  four  sections,  to  train  pupils  for  the  several  vocations 
of  engineers,  kadis  (magistrates),  teachers,  and  general  service  under  Govern- 
ment or  business  houses,  in  the  proportion  of  1,  1,  5,  4^.  It  affords  the  only 
facility  for  higher  education  in  the  Sudan.  In  addition,  it  has  a  primary  and  a 
technical  school.  There  are  231  boarders,  and  great  attention  is  paid  to  field 
sports. 


456  EDUCATION. 

professions,  should  be  able  to  take  their  degrees  locally.  But 
its  advocates,  and  the  native  Press  which  points  to  the 
present  expense  required  for  "  a  four  or  seven  years'  stay  in 
England "  for  professional  quaUflcation,  do  not  offer  any 
suggestion  as  to  how  the  endowment  fund — ^without  which, 
of  course,  the  founding  of  a  university  is  impossible — can  be 
raised.  This  absence  of  initiative  and  self-help  among  those 
who  are  foremost  in  demanding  advanced  institutions  mili- 
tates against  the  fruition  of  their  desires.  They  cannot  fail 
to  realise  that  the  financial  support  which  the  local  Govern- 
ment can  legitimately  give,  from  revenues  raised  by  general 
taxation,  to  a  project  which  benefits  a  comparatively  small 
section,  must  necessarily  be  limited  by  the  imperative  demands 
for  popular  education.  It  is,  moreover,  more  than  doubtful 
whether  there  are  at  present  a  sufficient  number  of  candidates 
to  make  a  imiversity  a  practical  possibility.^ 

That  these  difficulties  may  be  met,  and  that  the  idea  may 
materialise  in  the  not  distant  future,  must  be  the  wish  of  all 
who  deplore  the  consequences  of  sending  African  boys  to 
England  to  complete  their  studies — not  seldom  with  the  result 
that  they  become  denationalised,  and  lose  touch  with  their 
own  people. 

Secondary,  and  even  primary,  schools  must  always  be 
supplemented  by  "  continuation  "  and  special  classes.  The 
object  of  these  is  to  provide  opportunity  for  boys  to  learn 
some  special  subject  not  included  in  the  syllabus,  or  to  carry 
their  studies  beyond  the  school  standards  in  subjects  taught 
in  the  schools  ;  and  finally,  to  enable  young  men,  who  are  no 
longer  pupils  at  any  school,  to  receive  instruction  which  they 
could  not  otherwise  obtain.  These  special  classes  thus  relieve 
the  syllabus  of  a  number  of  subjects  for  which  there  is  no 
time  in  school  hours,  or  for  which  the  nmnber  of  applicants 
for  tuition  is  smaU.  They  can  be  encouraged  by  special 
grants,  and  any  quaUfled  person,  official  or  unofficial,  can  be 

1  It  was  generally  agreed  that  before  the  idea  of  founding  a  university  in 
Hong-Kong  could  be  considered  to  be  a  practical  proposal,  an  endowment  of 
at  least  $1,000,000  must  be  raised  in  addition  to  the  cost  of  buildings  (about 
$300,000)  already  promised.  The  money  was  subscribed  chiefly  by  the  Chinese 
themselves.  Before  founding  the  Khartum  College  as  a  memorial  to  Gordon 
(not  so  ambitious  a  proposal  as  a  university),  Lord  Kitchener  asked  for  a  fund 
of  £200,000.  The  African  progressives,  who  lightly  say  that  "the  time  has 
come  to  found  a  West  African  university  on  lines  of  African  nationality,"  do 
not  indicate  a  single  donation  from  the  wealthy  members  of  their  community 
towards  its  realisation. 


FEMALE  EDTTCATION.  457 

employed  as  a  fee'd  lecturer.  They  include,  of  course,  tech- 
nical demonstrations,  for  which  purpose  Government  labora- 
tories, workshops,  and  apparatus  can  be  used.  The  award 
of  diplomas  to  students  who  pass  a  test  examination  will  add 
to  their  popularity.  __-— 

A  movement  has  lately  been  set  on  foot  by  an  African  lady 
to  collect  funds  for  the  establishment  in  the  Gold  Coast 
colony  of  a  training  institute  for  girls — ^who,  she  considers, 
are  fully  fifty  years  behind  their  brothers  in  educational 
development.  The  intention  is  to  teach  all  branches  of 
domestic  science  and  child-welfare,  and  to  train  girls  in 
dressmaking,  millinery,  market-gardening,  poultry-farming, 
and  typewriting.  To  these  midwifery  and  nursing  might  be 
added,  with  a  view  to  decreasing  the  present  heavy  infant 
mortality  in  Africa. 

In  a  Christian  monogamous  community  there  are  many 
girls  who  require  to  earn  their  own  living,  but  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  Africa  a  girl  is  married  at  a  very  early 
age,  and  "  domestic  science "  and  child- welfare  must  be 
learnt  in  her  school-days.  The  movement  is  one  to  which 
all  well-wishers  of  Africa  wUl  desire  success  in  the  limited 
number  of  places  where  its  need  is  felt. 

I  am  not  qualified  to  discuss  female  education  from  any 
detailed  or  particular  point  of  view.  What  I  have  written 
regarding  the  principles  of  education  in  Africa  applies  equally 
to  girls  as  to  boys — viz.,  that  the  primary  object  should  be  to 
fit  the  individual  to  fill  a  useful  part  in  her  environment,  with 
happiness  to  herself.  The  immense  value  to  the  educated 
youth  of  Africa,  of  having  wives  who  can  share  their  thoughts 
and  sympathise  in  and  understand  their  work,  is  only  less 
important  than  the  influence  which  the  mother  should  exert 
in  forming  the  character  of  her  children.  Improvement  lq 
the  standard  of  private  hfe  is  fully  as  important  as  in  that 
of  public  life.  ^ 

The  Governments  of  our  Crown  colonies  and  dependencies 
have,  I  think,  been  too  ready  to  leave  the  burden  of  education 
to  be  borne  by  the  Missions.  In  most  of  the  African  depend- 
encies the  proportion  of  revenue  devoted  to  this  aU-important 
object  might  well  be  doubled  or  even  trebled.  Eegarding  our 
task  from  either  of  the  two  standpoints  which  I  have  em- 
phasised in  this  volimie — viz.,  our  duty  to  the  natives,  and  our 
responsibility  to  civUisation — ^the  obligation  is  insistent.     It 


458  EDUCATION. 

is  from  the  natives  that  the  bulk  of  the  revenue  is  ultimately- 
derived,  and  it  is  oux  duty  to  train  them  so  that  they  may 
take  that  share  in  municipal  and  governmental  work  for 
which  they  prove  themselves  to  be  quaMed ;  that  they  may 
fill  the  posts,  both  clerical  and  technical,  for  which  good 
salaries  are  offered ;  that  they  may  learn  to  adopt  scientific 
methods  in  business  and  agriculture,  so  as  to  make  the  best 
of  their  opportunities,  their  labour,  and  the  resources  of  their 
coimtry,  and  hold  their  own  in  the  world's  competition. 

The  merchant,  the  miner,  and  the  trader  need  the  help  of 
educated  natives,  whether  as  clerks  and  accountants  or  as 
artisans,  to  assist  in  the  development  of  the  country — a 
development  in  which  Africans  are  themselves  taking  an 
increasingly  prominent  part.  It  is  useless  to  build  railways 
if  you  have  no  clerks,  accountants,  telegraphists,  or  signal- 
men, and  no  artisans  for  the  workshops — and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  every  other  department.  The  employment  of 
natives  of  the  country  by  Government  and  commercial  firms 
not  only  benefits  the  country  by  keeping  the  money  in  it, 
but  saves  the  passage-money  of  aliens,  and  promotes  con- 
tinuity, which  is  sacrificed  by  employing  Europeans,  who 
have  constantly  to  go  on  leave.  Alike,  therefore,  from  mo- 
tives of  moral  obligation  or  material  progress,  there  can  be 
no  way  in  which  the  revenue  can  be  better  applied  than  in 
promoting  education.^ 

Though  little  material  reduction  in  the  cost  of  education 
can  be  expected  from  school  fees,  it  is,  I  think,  important 
that  they  should  be  imposed,  however  nominal  in  amount.^ 

'  The  cost  of  education  in  Nigeria  (including  grants  to  aided  schools)  was 
only  about  1.5  per  cent  of  ordinary  revenue  in  1913.  This  would  have  been 
largely  increased  but  for  the  financial  stringency  due  to  the  war.  It  is,  however, 
exclusive  of  the  large  sums  spent  by  the  native  administrations,  and  of  the 
cost  of  training  apprentices.  The  cost  in  Sierra  Leone  in  1919  is  stated  to  have 
been  3.5  per  cent  of  "available  revenue."  Education  was  started  in  this  colony 
as  far  back  as  1737.— (Governor's  Speech.)  In  the  Gold  Coast  the  cost  was 
2  per  cent  in  1917  and  2.9  in  1918.  In  East  Africa  the  amount  spent  on  Tiative 
education  appears  to  be  altogether  negligible.  It  is  stated  by  Mr  Woolf  to  have 
been  £1835  out  of  £666,000  in  1909-10— viz.,  -3  per  cent.— ioc.  cit.,  p.  344. 
In  Uganda  lump-sum  grants  are  made  to  Missions  (without  qualification  tests) 
aggregating  in  1918-19  £2100  out  of  a  revenue  of  £351,835— viz.,  '6  per  cent.— 
(Report,  Cmd.  508  (37)  of  1920.)  See  note,  p.  429.  Similar  grants  are  made  in 
Nyasaland  of  £1000— viz.,  '5  per  cent  of  revenue  in  1918-19.— Cmd.  508  (24)  of 
1920.  There  is  evidence  of  a  greatly-increased  interest  in  education  in  all  the 
"West  African  colonies. 

^  In  the  Sudan  the  village  schools  are  supported  by  an  educational  rate, 
usually  on  crops,  land,  or  date-palms,  imposed  by  the  Governor  of  the  Province 


CONCLTJSIONS.  459 

The  African  is  not  singular  in  regarding  as  of  little  value  what 
costs  him  nothing.  The  primitive  savage  is  indeed  apt  to 
think  that  he  should  rather  be  paid  for  allowing  his  children 
to  attend  school,  since  he  loses  their  household  labour. 

The  time  has  not  yet  come  for  compulsory  education  in 
Africa,  if  for  no  other  reasons  than  the  paucity  of  qualified 
teachers,  and  the  enormous  cost.  When,  however,  a  boy 
receives  his  education  free  of  cost,  it  would  seem  desirable 
that  he  should  be  compelled  to  remain  and  complete  the  school 
course.  In  most  of  the  African  dependencies  there  is  an 
eager  demand,  both  on  the  part  of  the  parents  and  children 
— a  demand  which  may  be  expected  to  continue  unless  the 
results  of  education  are  such  as  to  create  a  prejudice  against 
it.  But  although  tmiversal  education  is  as  yet  a  distant  ideal, 
it  should,  I  think,  be  a  primary  object  of  British  policy  to 
disseminate  education  throughout  the  country,  with  a  view 
to  breaking  down  the  distinction  between  the  educated  and 
Europeanised  class  in  the  capital  cities,  and  the  bulk  of  the 
population  in  the  interior.  Each  provincial  capital  to  begin 
with  should  become  a  centre  from  which  educational  progress 
may  radiate. 

So  important  in  my  view  are  the  main  considerations  in 
regard  to  education,  which  it  has  been  the  purpose  of  this 
and  the  preceding  chapter  to  present  to  my  readers,  that  I 
will  venture  briefly  to  recapitulate  them,  lest  they  should  be 
obscured  by  the  minor  matters  of  detail  referred  to.  I  have 
emphasised  the  fact  that  not  only  as  trustees  for  their  ad- 
vancement are  we  pledged  to  afford  to  the  races  of  the  tropics 
the  best  education  we  can  give  to  fit  them  for  an  increasiug 
share  in  governmental  and  municipal  duties,  but  that  the 
irresistible  material  progress  of  the  country  demands  an  ever- 
increasing  supply  of  Africans  with  both  a  literary  and  a  tech- 
nical education — a  demand  which  we  ourselves  have  created, 
and  one  which  may  be  the  greatest  and  most  potent  factor 
for  good  if  rightly  used ;  for  evU,  and  ultimate  disaster,  if 
the  basis  of  our  structure  be  founded  on  wrong  principles. 
Moreover,  great  as  are  the  claims  of  the  minority,  from  whose 
ranks  the  demands  of  Government  and  commerce  are  suppUed, 
they  must  not  obscure  those  of  the  great  majority  who  are 

and  approved  by  the  Governor-General.  Non-ratepayers  are  charged  23.  per 
month.  The  fees  at  Government  primary  schools  are  £4,  28.  per  annum  ;  at 
Gordon  College  £7,  10s.,  and  for  boarders  £20  per  annum. 


460  EDTJCATION. 

content  to  live  the  life  their  fathers  have  lived  in  their  vil- 
lages. 

The  coloured  races  of  the  world  are  awakening  to  self- 
consciousness  under  Western  influences.  In  Africa  tribal  rule 
is  disintegrating.  On  the  form  which  the  new  aspirations 
take  will  depend  the  future  relations  of  these  peoples  with  the 
white  races  of  the  world.  Are  the  foundations  being  truly- 
laid  ?  Is  the  education  provided  by  our  schools  such  as  to 
guide  those  aspirations  into  the  channels  best  adapted  for  the 
evolution  of  individual  character  and  racial  progress  ?  This 
is  the  great  problem  upon  which  incalculable  results  may — 
nay,  must — depend. 

My  aim  has  been  to  urge  that  these  results  may  best  be 
achieved  by  placing  the  formation  of  character  before  the 
training  of  the  intellect,  and  to  make  some  few  suggestions 
as  to  how  this  may  be  done — ^by  boarding-schools  ;  by  an 
adequate  British  staff ;  by  so  framing  the  grant  code  and 
regulations  as  to  enlist  the  co-operation  of  the  Mission  Societies, 
and  extend  the  control  of  Government  over  all  educational 
agencies ;  and  finally,  by  the  encouragement  of  moral  and 
religious  instruction.  And  by  this  I  do  not  mean  any  particular 
system  of  philosophy  or  of  creeds.  "  I  speak  of  the  controlling 
force  and  guiding  principle  which  ministers  through  creeds 
,  and  systems  of  philosophy  to  spiritual  needs — the  force  which 
inspires  a  man  to  a  sense  of  duty,  to  unswerving  integrity 
a,nd  loyalty,  whether  in  the  public  or  the  private  relations  of 
li^e.  It  is  additional  to  and  greater  than  the  secular  and 
utilitarian  education  of  the  class-room.  It  is  founded  gene- 
rally on  religious  sanctions,  and  finds  its  highest  expression  in 
tie  noblest  of  creeds.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  the  environ- 
ment and  atmosphere  of  any  institution  fit  to  train  and  edu- 
cate a  nation."  ^ 
/ 

'  Speech  at  the  opening  of  the  Hong-Kong  University,  11th  March  1912. 


461 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

TEANSPOET. 

Cheap  transport  a  necessity — Necessity  for  railways^Selection  of  routes — 
Pioneer  lines — Methods  of  construction  :  (a)  contractors  ;  (6)  "  the 
departmental  system  "  ;  (e)  by  the  Local  Government ;  (d)  by  private 
enterprise — Application  of  railway  revenues — Location  of  central 
workshops  —  Standardisation  —  Narrow  -  gauge  development  lines — 
Tramways — Mechanical  transport — Animal  transport — Boads  and 
carts. 

In  Africa,  even  more  than  in  most  other  countries — owing 
to  the  great  distance  of  its  interior  regions  from  the  seaboard, 
and  to  the  comparatively  low  value  of  raw  materials  in  pro- 
portion to  their  bulk  and  weight, — cheap  transport  is  a  vital 
necessity  for  the  development  of  trade  and  commerce. 

For  uncounted  centuries  the  African  has  been  his  own 
beast  of  burden,  and  a  simple  calculation  shows  that  the 
cost  of  land  transport  by  such  means,  with  a  wage-rate  of 
9d.  a  day,  is  about  3s.  per  ton  vaile.^  This  is  somewhat  re- 
duced by  the  use  of  pack-animals  in  those  districts  where 
they  can  be  employed — as  in  the  far  interior  in  the  west, — 
but  they  cannot  traverse  belts  infested  by  the  tsetse  fly,  or 
survive  in  the  coast  regions,  and  were  unknown  in  Uganda 
and  Nyasaland. 

It  foUows  that  produce  worth  £30  a  ton  at  the  port  of 
shipment  wiU  have  cost  its  fuU  value  to  transport  over  a  dis- 
tance of  less  than  200  miles,  leaving  nothing  for  original  cost 
of  production  and  profit  to  the  producer.  The  distance  there- 
fore over  which  produce  can  be  conveyed  by  human  transport 

1  A  man  carrying  65  lbs.  for  a  distance  of  12  miles  per  diem  for  six  days 
in  the  week  would  at  9d.  a  day  cost  2s.  6d.  per  ton  mile.  To  this  must  be 
added  subsistence  money  on  the  return  journey,  and  a  margin  for  sickness  and 
supervision,  so  that  2s.  6d.  a  ton  mile  is  less  than  the  actual  cost  for  long  dis- 
tances. The  rate  per  ton  mile  for  long  distances  may  be  put  at  four  times 
the  daily  wage  of  the  labourer.     For  bulky  loads  the  cost  is  much  more. 


462  TRANSPORT. 

in  competition  with  that  of  regions,  in  Africa  or  elsewhere, 
situated  nearer  to  the  coast,  or  to  a  navigable  waterway  or 
railway,  is  extremely  limited. 

Moreover,  the  native  producer  can  in  such  circumstances 
only  obtaiQ  a  very  small  profit  (if  he  can  sell  at  aU),  and 
has  therefore  no  money  wherewith  either  to  buy  imports  or 
to  pay  a  tax,  and  can  only  pay  it  ia  kind,  which  the  Govern- 
ment, for  Kke  reasons,  is  unable  to  realise.  With  meagre 
imports  (and  therefore  no  customs  dues)  and  with  no  direct 
tax,  the  revenue  must  be  so  small  that  it  can  devote  no 
funds  to  development  works.  The  vicious  circle  is  com- 
pleted by  the  excessive  cost  of  the  machinery  of  administra- 
tion— ^not  in  money  alone  but  in  human  life, — ^for  the  cost 
of  conveying  food  supplies  and  building  material  is  so  great 
that  officials  are  neither  housed  nor  fed  as  the  chmate  demands 
to  maintain  health.  These  facts  are  now  recognised  as  the 
axioms  of  African  administration.  If  they  had  been  accepted 
earlier,  very  many  lives  might  have  been  saved,  and  also 
much  of  the  taxpayer's  money, — spent  in  grants-in-aid  which 
were  no  remedy. 

It  is,  however,  now  recognised  that  the  construction  of 
arterial  railways  and  the  development  of  waterways,  though 
involving  subsidies  or  loans  upon  which  the  country  may  not 
for  some  time  be  able  to  pay  interest,  is  the  truest  economy, 
and  the  postponement  of  such  works  involves  unjustifiable 
waste.^  For  the  development  of  the  African  continent  is 
impossible  without  railways,  and  has  awaited  their  advent. 
Moreover,  they  have  in  aU  cases  proved  to  be  abundantly 
remunerative.^     A  railway  reduces  administrative  expenses 

'  It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  while  Lord  Selborne  was  telling 
an  audience  at  Reading  in  December  1898  that  the  delay  in  starting  the 
Uganda  railway  was  responsible  for  the  Fashoda  crisis,  Monsieur  Leroy 
Beaulieu  pointed  out  in  the  Debats  that  France's  delay  in  constructing  the 
trans-Saharan  line  had  cost  them  the  Fashoda  rebuff.  Had  this  line  been  built, 
he  argued,  France  could  have  seized  Sokoto  and  Kano  by  sending  60,000  men 
from  Algeria,  and  could  have  held  Northern  Nigeria  as  a  hostage. 

Just  as  the  precipitate  haste  of  the  Powers  to  acquire  territorial  sovereignty  in 
Africa  compelled  us  eitectively  to  occupy  districts  which  might  otherwise  have 
been  developed  by  a  more  gradual  process,  so  the  activity  of  our  rivals  in  railway 
construction,  with  the  object  of  forestalling  us  and  capturing  the  trade  of  our 
hinterlands,  has  compelled  us  to  push  forward  in  the  same  direction,  unless  we 
were  prepared  to  lose  the  markets  we  had  secured. 

2  There  is  no  need  to  urge  these  facts  in  the  present  day,  as  there  was  in  1892, 
when  I  advocated  the  building  of  the  Uganda  railway.  Of  that  line,  which  so 
many  stigmatised  at  the  time  as  a  waste  of  public  money,  Mr  Lloyd  George, 


BENEFITS   OP  RAILWAYS  Df   AFRICA.  463 

in  the  transport  of  stores,  and  in  the  time  of  officials  ia  reach- 
ing their  work ;  it  saves  the  lives  and  health  of  officers  ;  it 
reduces  the  number  and  cost  of  the  troops  required  for  policing 
the  country  by  increasing  their  mobility ;  it  renders  direct 
taxation  possible  by  affording  a  market  for  produce,  and 
increasing  the  wealth  of  the  people  ;  it  opens  up  new  markets 
for  British  trade ;  it  has  killed  the  slave-trade ;  it  liberates 
labour  engaged  in  transport  for  productive  work ;  and  by 
proper  methods  of  construction  it  forms  the  most  valuable 
of  educational  agencies  for  a  free  labour  supply.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  one  railway  train  of  average  capacity  and 
engine-power  will  do  the  work  of  13,000  carriers  at  one- 
twentieth  the  cost. 

Arterial  Unes  of  communication  are,  moreover,  a  neces- 
sary precursor  of  roads,  for,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  neither 
mechanical  nor  animal-draught  transport — ^for  which  they 
are  constructed — can  be  of  any  great  service  for  the  develop- 
ment of  interior  regions,  except  as  feeders  to  a  railway  or 
navigable  waterway. 

A  railway  should,  of  course,  when  possible,  have  some  definite 
objective,  as  the  Uganda  railway  had  in  the  Victoria  Lake, 
to  the  shores  of  which  (extending  for  800  or  1000  miles)  the 
produce  of  the  surrounding  countries  can  be  brought,  and 
hence  transported  by  water  to  the  railway  port.  Or  the 
objective  may  be  a  mineralised  area  like  the  tin-fields,  or  the 
coal  deposits  of  Mgeria  or  Gwelo,  or  the  copper  mines  of 
Katanga.  Or  the  railway  may  connect  some  great  centre 
like  Khartum  or  Kano  with  the  sea,  or  link  two  navigable 
sections  of  a  river  with  each  other,  as  the  Matadi  line  on  the 

speaking  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  25th  June  1912,  said  :  "  In  1902-3  Uganda 
exported  nothing.  In  1907-8  it  exported  17,000  cwt.  of  cotton.  In  1910-11, 
83,000  cwt.,  and  this  year  it  is  expected  that  105,000  cwt.  will  be  exported. 
In  1902  there  were  three  or  four  trains  in  each  direction.  Now  there  are  fifty  or 
sixty  in  the  course  of  the  week,  and  the  traffic  is  bursting  all  bounds."  Nearly 
half  the  revenue  of  East  Africa  is  derived  from  the  earnings  of  the  railway. — 
Economic  Report,  loo.  cit.,  p.  7. 

Nigeria  offers  an  even  more  striking  instance.  The  railway  to  Kano  was  only 
completed  some  ten  years  ago.  Its  revenue  (with  the  short  lines  to  Udi  and  to 
the  tin  mines)  was  £1,622,212  in  1920,  about  17  per  cent  on  capital  cost,  including 
harbour  works.  It  has  ousted  the  trans-Saharan  trade.  In  1897,  2345  camels 
left  Tripoli  alone  for  Sokoto,  carrying  £115,000  of  goods. — Depeche  Coloniale, 
27th  July  1908. 

Lord  Morley  in  his  Indian  budget  speech  (21st  July  1906)  stated  that  he 
railways  had  doubled  their  revenue  iu  five  years. 


464  TEANSPOET. 

Congo,  the  Keyes-Bamako  on  the  Upper  Mger,  or  the  Sudan 
railway  on  the  Nile.^ 

But  failing  such  definite  objectives  as  these,  which  formed 
the  first  inducements  to  railway  construction  in  Africa,  any 
railway  built  reasonably  cheaply  through  a  populous  country 
is  bound  to  be  remunerative,  and,  as  East  Africa  has  proved, 
it  may  be  equally  successful,  in  rare  instances,  in  inducing 
settlers  to  develop  a  sparsely-populated  region  with  a  good 
climate.  The  main  object  is  to  tap  trade-routes  and  connect 
populous  cities.  But  before  the  trace  is  pegged  out  it  is  of 
essential  importance  (a)  that  the  general  railway  policy  and 
arterial  system  should  be  well  thought  out,  so  that  each  link 
may  fit  into  the  system,  and  (&)  that  a  thorough  survey 
should  be  made  so  that  the  best  possible  route  may  be 
selected.^ 

Sir  Guildford  Molesworth  has  observed  that  capital  cost  is 
too  frequently  increased  by  adherence  to  "  the  traditional  ex- 
cellence of  railway  construction."  In  constructing  a  pioneer 
line  in  Africa,  the  one  and  only  object  should  be  to  get  the 
track  through  somehow,  and  begin  to  earn  receipts.  Con- 
struction must  begin  from  every  point  to  which  it  is  possible 
to  transport  material  cheaply,  or  where  earthworks  can  be 
undertaken  in  anticipation.  Any  work  of  magnitude,  such 
as  the  crossing  of  a  great  river,  must  be  postponed,  and  a 
substitute,  such  as  a  train-ferry,  must  be  used,  or  bulk  broken.^ 

'  The  Cape  to  Cairo  railway  can  only  be  justified  in  so  far  aa  each  section  has 
a  definite  objective,  which  offers  reasonable  prospects  of  being  remunerative. 
Railways  in  Africa  must  lead  by  the  shortest  route  to  the  seaport,  and  not 
along  its  length.  The  estimates  both  as  to  distance,  time,  and  cost  of  construc- 
tion given  in  the  'Times'  of  11th  February  1899  were  so  fallacious  as  to  lead 
the  sceptical  to  conjecture  that  the  real  object  was  to  tap  cheap  labour  supplies 
for  South  African  mines. 

'  I  do  not  here  discuss  the  probable  railway  development  of  the  future  in 
West  Africa,  but  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  bear  the  following  facts  in  mind. 
Nigeria  is  by  far  the  largest  and  most  densely-populated  of  our  "West  African 
dependencies.  The  present  terminus  of  the  line  is  at  Kano,  a  great  collecting 
centre  for  the  hides,  skins,  and  produce  of  the  nomad  cattle  tribes  to  north  and 
east.  Kano  is  712  miles  from  the  port  of  Lagos,  and  thence  4000  by  sea  to 
England.  Bornu,  bordering  Lake  Chad,  is  another  possible  centre  of  cotton 
development,  and  of  hides.  If  linked  up  with  the  Kano  line,  its  distance  from 
the  sea  would  not  be  less  than  1000  miles.  From  these  places  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean in  a  direct  line  is  about  1200  miles  (to  Tripoli).  France  talks  of  a 
railway  to  Agadir  and  thence  to  Timbuktu  and  Chad  (connecting  eventually 
with  a  Camerun  line).  Italy  talks  of  reviving  the  Tripoli-Chad  trade.  In 
time  of  war,  if  not  in  peace,  the  desert  route  by  railway  would  supersede  that 
to  the  Guinea  coast. 

*  The  Ganges  bridge  was  not  constructed  for  thirty  years  after  the  railway 
crossed  the  river.    The   Brahmaputra   bridge  has  not  yet  been  built.     The 


METHODS   OP  CONSTEUCTION.  465 

Terminal  reclamations  and  accommodation,  if  they  interfere 
with  progress,  must  wait.  All  above-rail  works  which  are  not 
absolutely  essential — and  even  baUastiag  unless  the  material 
is  on  the  spot — should  be  deferred.  The  telegraph  and  the 
block  system  must  do  the  work  of  railway  signals.  Triangles 
can  replace  turn-tables  ;  platforms,  waiting-rooms,  and  other 
buildiags  eventually  necessary  to  a  railway  can  be  postponed. 
It  must  suffice  if  the  traia  can  travel  by  day  only  and  at 
twelve  miles  an  hour ;  aU  the  improvements  can  come  later, 
when  the  railway  is  already  begtaning  to  earn  and  to  reduce 
administrative  charges.  In  permanent-way  material  (weight 
of  rail  and  number  of  steel  sleepers),  however,  and  in  the 
quality  and  adequate  supply  of  roUing-stock,  economy  must 
not  predomiuate.  These  were  the  principles  on  which  Sir 
Percy  Girouard  built  the  Nile  railway,  and  Sir  J.  Eaglesome 
the  Baro-Kano  line  in  Mgeria,  and  the  results  amply  justified 
them. 

EaUways  in  Africa  have  either  been  built  by  contract  or 
by  "  the  departmental  system,"  or  (in  the  case  of  those  in 
the  Sudan  and  in  Nigeria)  by  the  local  Government.^  The 
first  method  is  hardly  practicable  ia  the  tropics,  for  the  un- 
known factors  are  so  many,  and  the  contractor  must  so 
largely  depend  on  the  assistance  of  the  local  Government 
for  procuring  labour,  &c.,  that  the  margin  for  contiagencies 
and  profit  which  he  must  allow  to  cover  his  risks  is  pro- 
hibitive. 

The  presence  of  a  considerable  body  of  Europeans  inde- 
pendent of  government  control,  though  handling  large  bodies 
of  natives,  probably  in  districts  as  yet  little  accustomed  to 
Europeans,  is  likely  to  create  difficulties,  both  as  regards 
Government  officials  and  the  native  population.  Moreover, 
the  new  information  which  is  continually  being  acquired,  and 
the  development  of  policy  in  a  new  country,  result  in  changes 
of  design,  and  in  additional  works,  which  may  vitiate  the 
terms  of  the  contract,  and  so  render  inoperative  the  penalty 
clauses  as  to  time  and  cost,  which  are  the  chief  attraction  in 
the  contract  system. 

The  terms  offered — ^whether  to  railway  contractors  or  to  a 

Uganda  railway  instead  of  traversing  Busoga  stopped  short  at  the  lake,   and 
made  its  connection  by  160  miles  of  waterway.     Though  the  Niger  bridge  was 
perhaps  constructed  prematurely,  and  before  adequate  investigation  had  been 
made,  the  river  was  crossed  for  some  time  by  a  train-ferry. 
^  For  the  official  description  of  these  systems  see  Cd.  2325  of  1904. 

2  G 


466  TRANSPORT. 

company — have  in  some  cases  included  the  alienation  of  rights 
in  land  and  minerals,  and  a  share  in  profits,  which  have  pro 
rata  mortgaged  the  future  of  the  country,  or  have  interfered 
with  native  rights.^  A  right  of  expropriation  by  Government 
on  reasonable  terms  should  in  all  cases  be  carefully  preserved. 

Where  local  contracts  are  made,  whether  for  railways  or 
other  large  works,  it  is  generally  advisable  to  make  a  single 
contract  for  the  whole,  unless  the  work  is  easily  and  clearly 
divisible  into  separate  units,  for  it  is  otherwise  difiBcult  to 
fix  responsibility.  It  is  also  advisable  to  stipulate  against 
the  subletting  of  portions  by  the  contractor.  He  should 
also  be  prohibited  from  subletting  the  whole,  except  with 
the  consent  of  Government,  for  it  is  obvious  that  in  that 
case  his  profits  are  a  superfluous  charge  on  the  work,  and  the 
sub-contractor's  profits  must  be  cut  so  fine  as  to  invite  bad 
work  or  failure. 

Too  great  care  cannot  be  taken  in  drawing  up  the  contract, 
not  only  to  avoid  subsequent  controversy  and  litigation,  but 
also  so  as  to  make  it  as  elastic  as  possible,  to  admit  of  altera- 
tion and  enlargement  if  desired  later.  Where  the  work  is 
such  as  readily  to  admit  of  a  contract  with  competitive 
tenders  of  resident  contractors,  the  system  has  many  ad- 
vantages. 

Under  the  "  departmental  system  "  consulting  engineers 
are  appointed  by  the  Crown  agents.  They  carry  out  the 
preliminary  survey,  and  appoint  a  resident  engineer,  who 
controls  the  work  on  their  behalf.  He  and  his  staff  are  nomi- 
nally under  the  local  Government,  but  he  corresponds  direct 
with  the  consulting  engineers,  whom  he  naturally  regards 
as  his  real  employers.  The  consulting  engineers  are  bound 
by  no  contract,  either  as  to  cost  or  time.  They  usually  submit 
a  preliminary  estimate,  safeguarded  by  many  reservations  as 

^  The  contractors  for  the  abortive  Suakim-Berber  railway  in  1885  employed 
English  navvies  on  exorbitant  rates  of  pay,  in  the  fierce  heat  of  the  desert. 
Those  who,  like  myself,  were  there  can  vividly  recall  the  sequel  of  drunkenness, 
insubordination,  and  mutiny  which  followed.  The  constructors  of  the  Bechuana. 
railway  were,  I  believe,  given  every  alternate  mile  of  laud  (including  mineral 
rights),  a  Government  subsidy  of  £20,000,  and  a  lien  of  12^  per  cent  on  net 
profits. — 'Times,'  11th  February  1899. 

The  French  decree  of  1901,  which  conceded  the  construction  of  the  Dahomey 
railway  to  Monsieur  Borelli,  allowed  an  annual  subsidy  of  £80  per  kilometre  for 
8  years,  and  special  tariffs,  with  tracts  of  land  aggregating  1150  square  miles, 
including  mineral  rights.  These  terms  evoked  a  protest  from  French,  British, 
and  German  merchants,  on  the  grounds  that  it  made  the  colony  the  property  of 
a  commercial  syndicate. 


THE       DEPAETMENTAl  SYSTEM."  467 

to  contingencies  which  they  cannot  foresee  or  control.  There 
is  no  incentive  to  keep  the  estimate  low,^  and  every  reason 
to  avoid  the  odium  of  exceeding  it,  but  in  my  experience  it 
has  always  been  exceeded.  Their  profits  are  subject  to  no 
risk.  Materials  are  ordered  through  the  Crown  agents,  who 
receive  a  percentage  on  the  cost  of  all  supplies.  The  local 
Government  has  to  pay  the  bill  with  the  very  minimum  of 
control  over  expenditure  which  it  is  possible  to  conceive. 

The  high  standing  and  unimpeachable  integrity  of  the 
consulting  engineers  and  of  the  Crown  agents  are  its  only 
protection.  Against  errors  and  needless  expenditure  by 
the  resident  engineer,  or  enhancement  of  the  labour-rate  to 
the  permanent  detriment  of  the  colony,  it  has  none,  for  it 
is  practically  impossible  for  the  local  Government  to  change 
the  resident  engineer,  even  though  satisfied  as  to  his  incom- 
petency or  unsuitability.  Such  a  system  must  needs  be  ex- 
pensive, and  must  needs  cause  friction.  In  my  own  experi- 
ence its  results  have  not  been  happy,  while  the  strictures 
passed  by  Colonel  Waghom — an  Indian  expert  who  inspected 
the  Lagos  railway — ^formed  a  condemnation  of  the  system. 
The  rate  of  progress  was  stated  by  Mr  Churchill  to  be  twenty- 
five  mUes  a  year  for  the  Sierra  Leone  railway,  and  thirty- 
one  for  the  Lagos  hne,  which,  however,  was  said  to  have 
"  many  defects  owing  to  hasty  construction !  "  ^ 

^  In  Nigeria  an  estimate  for  a  light  line,  3  ft.  6  in.  gauge,  was  reduced  by 
consulting  engineers  from  £7000  to  £3000  per  mile,  when  a  policy  of  independent 
construction  was  advocated.  The  cheaper  estimate  of  course  involved  the 
elimination  of  most  of  the  above-rail  works,  and  presupposed  cheap  contracts 
for  sea  and  river  freight,  but  these  possibilities  did  not  come  to  light  until  the 
estimates  were  challenged  by  the  alternative  method  of  construction. 

'■'  Sir  P.  Swettenham  gives  a  graphic  description  of  the  "  established  system  " 
for  the  construction  of  railways  in  Crown  colonies.  ' '  The  system  is  that  the 
consulting  engineers  to  the  Crown  agents  (and  no  dependency  is  allowed  to 
choose  its  own  consulting  engineers)  undertake  the  whole  job."  They  survey 
the  line,  appoint  as  many  engineers  as  they  like,  on  salaries  fixed  by  themselves, 
decide  the  weight  of  the  rails,  the  type  of  the  bridges  and  rolling-stock,  and 
purchase  the  whole  of  the  materials,  and  the  colony  pays  the  bill.  "  Neither 
the  colony's  chief  engineer,  nor  its  governor,  nor  its  executive  or  legislative 
council  have  any  real  responsibility  for  the  work,  even  though  it  takes  twice  as 
long  to  construct  as  the  time  originally  estimated,  and  costs  twice  as  much.  .  .  . 
The  work  is  executed  thousands  of  miles  away  from  the  people  who  are  responsible 
for  it,  who  very  probably  have  no  personal  knowledge  of  .  .  .  climate  and  rain- 
fall, labour  conditions,  local  prices,  and  local  materials. "  The  engineer  in  charge 
has  probably  to  buy  his  experience  at  the  cost  of  the  colony.  "No  one  is 
responsible.  The  Secretary  of  State  only  insists  on  the  system  .  .  .  the  Crown 
agents  have  clearly  nothing  to  do  with  it,  the  whole  business  only  gives  them 
trouble.  The  consulting  engineers  cannot  be  held  responsible  "  if  local  conditions 
and  prices  are  not  what  they  expected.     "  Worst  of  all,  the  consulting  engineers 


468  TEANSPOBT. 

The  home  Government  under  this  system  assumes  through 
the  Crown  agents  a  direct  control,  and  is  responsible  for  the 
proper  and  economical  expenditure  of  the  funds,  whether  as 
trustee  to  the  British  taxpayer  for  an  Imperial  subsidy 
or  to  the  local  taxpayer  for  colonial  funds.  Every  line  so 
constructed  should  therefore  be  inspected  by  an  independent 
authority — preferably  from  India — and  his  report  made 
public.  The  present  tendency,  I  am  told,  is  to  employ  con- 
sulting-engineer-contractors,  who  deal  direct  with  the  mami- 
facturers,  and  are  responsible  for  both  design  and  execution. 

There  remains  the  system  of  construction  by  the  local 
Government.  To  ensure  success  the  engineer-in- charge  must 
be  a  man  of  high  reputation.  He  and  his  staff — temporarily 
increased  for  the  purpose — are  the  direct  employees  of  the 
local  Government,  and  stand  or  fall  by  the  residts  of  their 
work.  The  Government  selects  its  consulting  engineers,  to 
whom  it  refers  for  advice  regarding  any  large  bridge,  &c. 
For  the  port  terminus  it  can  employ  separate  consultants,  as 
experts  in  harbour  works,  wharves,  and  terminal  facilities. 
If  there  is  a  competent  man  ia  the  colony,  consulting  engineers 
are  no  more  required  for  ordinary  railway  construction  than 
for  buildings  or  roads,  but  for  such  special  constructions  as 
harbour  works,  moles,  &c.,  in  which  a  mistake  cannot  be 
subsequently  rectified,  consulting  engineers  are  essential. 
Their  employment  ensures  continuity  of  responsibility  when 
the  colonial  staff  has  disappeared.  The  whole  resources  of 
Government  are  invoked  for  the  work.  Administrative  officers 
engage  and  look  after  the  interests  of  the  labourers.  Govern- 
ment steamers  assist  in  transporting  material.  Troops  (and 
also  convicts)  may  help  in  the  construction.  When  once  the 
system  has  been  started  the  first  object  should  be  to  maintain 
a  regular  construction  staff. 

The  Northern  Mgeria  railway,  bmlt  by  Sir  P.  Girouard 
and  Sir  J.  Eaglesome  imder  this  system  (which  I  had  strongly 
recommended),   was   considered   to   be   the   cheapest,   most 

disappear  as  such,  and  are  replaced  by  construction  engineers,  who  pass  the  work 
of  their  own  man,  or  of  the  contractors  they  employ."  He  thus  concludes : 
"  Therefore  whatever  the  kind  of  work  put  in,  the  Government  has  to  accept  it ; 
whatever  the  bill,  the  Government  has  to  pay  it ;  however  the  time  of  construction 
is  exceeded,  the  public  must  bear  it  patiently ;  because  this  is  the  established 
system  under  which  railways  are  made  in  Crown  colonies.  It  might  almost  be 
added  that  unless  a  man  believe  in  the  system  faithfully  he  cannot  be  saved." 
—'Malaya,' pp.  281-283. 


STATE  OWNERSHIP  AND  MANAGEMENT.  469 

rapid,  and  in  every  way  the  most  satisfactory  line  hitherto 
constructed  in  tropical  Africa.^  If  the  local  Government 
cannot  imdertake  the  work,  it  should  at  least  have  control 
over  all  local  expenditure  on  labour,  &c.,  and  the  railway 
staff  should  be  responsible  to  it. 

The  earliest  Indian  railways  were  constructed  by  private 
enterprise,  under  a  Government  guarantee  of  about  5  per 
cent  and  a  share  of  profits  in  excess  of  5  per  cent.  Experience 
has  shown  this  method  to  be  unsatisfactory,  and  the  private 
companies  are  now  nearly  all  expropriated.  The  general 
opinion,  said  Lord  Morley,  is  that  for  India  a  system  of  con- 
struction by  Government  and  working  by  private  enterprise 
is  the  best,  and  this  system  was  adopted  in  respect  of  52  per 
cent  of  the  mileage  of  Indian  railways.^  The  great  aggregate 
profits  made  by  Indian  railways,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
many  were  constructed  for  f amiae  relief,  or  for  strategic  pur- 
poses, and  not  expected  to  be  remunerative,  affords  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  State  ownership  in  such  countries.* 

I  strongly  share  Mr  Chamberlain's  opinion  that  railways  in 
our  African  dependencies  must  be  owned  and  maiatained  by 
the  Government.  It  alone  should  be  responsible  for  the 
acquisition  of  the  land,  the  provision  of  labour  for  construc- 
tion, the  training  of  skilled  labour  in  the  workshops,  and  the 
control  of  subordinates — too  apt  to  take  advantage  of  an 
ignorant  people — ^when  the  line  is  in  running  order.  The 
administration,  moreover,  is  itself  too  dependent  on  the  rail- 
way to  admit  of  its  being  in  other  hands.  The  local  revenue, 
and  not  the  foreign  investor,  should  benefit  from  the  profits 

^  The  railway  built  later  to  the  coal-mines  in  Nigeria  under  the  same  system 
has  been  an  equal  success.  The  first  experiment  (preceding  the  Baro-Kano 
railway)  consisted  of  a  light  2  ft.  6  in.  line,  22  miles  long.  Sanction  was  obtained 
in  the  spring.  The  rails  were  rolled  in  England  in  June,  and  the  first  train 
reached  its  destination  by  Christmas.  The  cost  was  £1480  per  mile,  which 
had  been  declared  to  be  impossible.  The  railways  in  the  Malay  States,  con- 
structed in  the  same  way,   were  equally  successful. — 'Malaya,'  p.  281. 

^  The  system  of  management  by  companies  domiciled  in  England  was 
unanimously  condemned  by  the  Committee  of  Inquiry  appointed  by  the  Indian 
Government  in  October  1920. — Cmd.  1512  of  1921.  Half  the  members  recom- 
mend management  by  the  State,  the  other  half  prefer  management  by  companies 
domiciled  in  India. 

5  The  Committee,  whose  expert  authority  must  carry  great  weight,  do  not 
question  the  principle  of  State  ownership,  but  they  point  out  that  the  estimate 
of  profits  is  vitiated  by  the  failure  to  write  off  depreciation  of  wasting  assets,  such 
as  bridges,  rails,  and  rolling-stock,  so  that  their  original  cost  should  have  been 
refunded  from  revenue  by  the  time  their  useful  life  has  expired.  This  absence 
of  "commercial  accounting  methods,  in  a  commercial  undertaking"  extends,  I 
think,  in  some  of  the  African  dependencies  to  marine  vessels  and  plant. 


470  TRANSPORT. 

realised,  or  it  may  be  desirable  in  the  interests  of  the  country 
to  forgo  or  to  decrease  the  profits  from  a  railway.  An  ex- 
ception may  occasionally  be  made  in  the  case  of  a  short 
branch  to  develop  a  particidar  mine  or  industry  if  the  right 
of  expropriation  on  payment  of  capital  cost  and  interest  be 
reserved. 

It  should,  in  my  view,  be  a  recognised  principle  that  rail- 
ways must  not  be  regarded  as  directly  revenue-earning.^ 
After  paying  their  running  expenses  and  depreciation,  interest 
on  capital  cost,  and  a  small  contribution  to  a  sinking  fund  for 
the  extinction  of  the  debt,  all  profits  should  be  devoted  to 
the  improvement  of  the  line  (including  workshops  and  rolling- 
stock),  and  to  reduction  in  freight  rates.  As  an  indirect 
agency  in  increasing  trade,  they  are  the  greatest  of  revenue- 
earners. 

There  is  perhaps  a  tendency  in  Africa  to  place  the  central 
workshops  at  or  near  the  coast  terminus.  Modem  experience 
is  averse  to  this.  The  North-Western  Eailway  of  India  has 
its  shops  at  Lahore,  not  at  Karachi.  The  Bengal-Nagpur  and 
East  Indian  Eailway  workshops  are  at  Jabalpore,  not  at 
Calcutta,  and  the  same  holds  for  aU  English  railways.  Work- 
shops near  the  coast  are  in  a  more  vulnerable  position  ia 
case  of  war,  and  if  seriously  damaged  might  paralyse  the  whole 
Une.  But  in  Africa  there  is  an  additional  reason  for  this 
principle,  since  the  coast  climate  is  enervating  and  usually 
malarial,  and  the  seaport  offers  greater  temptations  to  the 
European  and  African  staff  alike.  The  workshops  afford  im- 
rivalled  schools  for  the  training  of  native  apprentices,  and  it 
is  a  short-sighted  policy  to  expose  them  to  avoidable  iafluences 
for  evil,  even  were  it  shown  that  there  was  some  material 
advantage  in  such  a  location. 

The  cost,  both  of  construction  and  maintenance  of  railways 
in  the  tropics,  could  be  very  appreciably  decreased  by  a 
system  of  standardising  the  requirements  in  equipment  and 
roUing-stock,  including  bridging  and  wharflng  material,  con- 
structional iron- work  for  buildings,  signalling  and  electrical 
installations,  pumping  plant,  &c.     The  system  of  indents, 

'  Most  of  the  African  dependencies  adopt  this  vicious  principle,  and  so  retard 
development.  East  Africa  derived  48  to  49  per  cent  of  its  revenue  from  railway 
profits  (Economic  Report,  p.  7),  a  system  lately  abandoned,  and  the  Sudan  about 
35  per  cent. — (Handbook  98,  p.  158).  The  Indian  Committee  insists  that  railways 
should  have  "a  separate  budget,  and  be  responsible  for  earning  and  expending 
their  own  revenue."     See  note,  p.  99. 


NAEEOW-GATJGE  LINES.  471 

according  to  the  particular  views  and  designs  of  each  engineer, 
involves  unnecessary  drawing-office  work,  inspection,  and  cost 
in  manufacture,  as  well  as  delay  in  execution.  Standard  types 
should  be  fixed  by  a  committee  of  men  with  actual  African 
experience,  assisted  by  one  or  more  experts,  who  would  bring 
new  inventions  to  their  notice.  "  There  was,"  says  the  Indian 
Industries  Eeport,  "  a  totally  unnecessary  diversity  in  orders 
for  the  same  class  of  articles,  instead  of  standard  types,  only 
to  be  deviated  from  where  there  are  express  reasons  for  doing 
so."  1  British  engineering  trade  in  Chiaa  has  suffered  greatly 
in  the  competition  with  the  United  States  from  the  same 
•defect. 

Opinions  differ  as  to  the  advisability  of  constructing  narrow- 
gauge  railways  (2  ft.  or  2  ft.  6  in.  gauge)  as  feeder  lines. 
If  it  is  intended  eventually  to  replace  such  a  line  by  one  on 
the  standard  gauge,  the  initial  saving  is  chiefly  limited  to 
permanent  way  material  and  rolling-stock,  for  the  cost  of 
survey  and  alignment  is  no  less,  and  bridges  and  culverts 
must  be  built  wide  enough  and  strong  enough  to  carry  the 
eventual  standard-gauge  line.  Freights  in  proportion  to  train 
mileage  are  reduced,  and  the  maintenance  staff  is  not  appre- 
ciably less.  Above  all,  the  complication  of  gauges  prevents 
interchanges  of  roUing-stock,  and  involves  breaking  of  bulk. 
It  necessitates  separate  workshops,  while  there  is  a  tempta- 
tion to  use  heavier  engines  than  the  rails  will  bear.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  no  expectation  of  a  development  of 
traffic  sufficient  for  a  standard-gauge  line  later  on,  the  cost 
would,  of  course,  be  somewhat  reduced,  but  would  rarely 
be  justified. 

I  am  inclined  to  the  conclusion  that  a  line  of  less  than 
the  standard  gauge  should  only  be  built  when  for  financial 
reasons  it  is  impossible  to  build  a  standard-gauge  line  ;  when 
there  is  a  reasonable  expectation  that  it  wiU  eventually  be 
replaced  by  a  standard-gauge,  and  the  narrow-gauge  rails 
can  be  taken  up  and  used  elsewhere ;  when  the  length  is 
sufficient  to  compensate  in  some  degree  for  the  duplication 
of  ^gauges,  and  to  make  the  saving  in  construction  cost  appre- 
ciable— say,  100  miles  ;  and  when  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that,  while  production  will  be  increased,  the  traffic 
wiU  not  exceed  the  capacity  of  the  narrow-gauge  line  for  a 
considerable  period — say,  fifteen  years — as  in  the  case  of  areas 

1  Cmd.  51  of  1919,  p.  126. 


472  TEANSPOET. 

newly  taken  up  by  settlers,  where  bulk  freights  cannot  be 
expected  until  experimental  plantations  have  been  tested 
and  come  into  bearing.  Or  again,  in  the  case  of  an  unproved 
mineral  field,  or  where  the  best  route  to  be  followed  by  a 
permanent  line  is  in  the  circumstances  difi&cult  to  determine. 
There  is,  I  think,  an  almost  imanimous  opinion  against  shorter 
and  more  temporary  feeder  lines  on  a  narrow  gauge.  If  in  any 
circumstances  they  are  constructed  they  should  be  worked 
on  the  principle  of  a  tramway — without  stations  or  station 
staffs,  &c. — rather  than  on  that  of  a  railway. 

These  remarks  do  not,  of  course,  apply  to  any  form  of  light 
line  on  which  the  haulage  is  not  done  by  locomotives.  Light 
Decauville  2  ft.  lines,  and  mono-rails  (where  the  haul  is  not 
against  the  gradient),  may  be  laid  for  any  temporary  purpose 
with  great  advantage,  and  taken  up  again  when  the  purpose 
is  achieved,  the  trucks  being  propelled  by  hand,  or  by  animal 
traction.  1  The  "  loco-tractor  "  or  "  road-raU  "  system,  in 
which  the  waggons  and  the  guiding  wheels  of  the  locomotive 
run  on  narrow-gauge  rails,  but  the  driving-wheels  of  the  loco- 
motive, bearing  most  of  its  weight,  run  on  a  pair  of  narrow 
macadam  tracks  laid  beside  the  rails,  may  prove  to  be  the 
best  and  most  economical  form  which  such  a  method  of  trans- 
port can  assume,  since  it  claims  to  be  independent  of  bridges, 
culverts,  and  gradients.  The  Under-Secretary  stated  to  the 
House  that  extensive  trials  were  being  conducted  in  Uganda, 
the  result  of  which  has  not  yet  been  made  public. 

Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  the  initial  cost  of 
railways  is  high,  while  their  running  and  maintenance  ex- 
penses are  low  compared  with  road  transport,  so  that  if 
there  is  a  prospect  of  sufficient  volume  of  traffic  developing 
within  a  reasonable  time  over  which  the  initial  costs  can  be 
distributed,  a  railway  is  the  most  economical  form  of  trans- 
port. Its  running  expenses  are  reduced  proportionally  to  a 
greater  degree  than  in  the  case  of  road  traffic  by  the  develop- 
ment of  passenger  traffic.  The  freight  rates  can  at  first  be 
fixed  high,  and  yet  offer  considerable  reductions  on  the  form 
of  transport  which  it  supersedes.  A  railway  develops  the 
trade  of  a  district  more  rapidly  than  any  other  method,  and 

'  Such  short  temporary  lines,  laid  alongside  a  road  for  animal  traction,  may- 
prove  to  be  the  cheapest  method  of  conveying  cotton  or  other  produce  from  a 
producing  centre  to  a  central  market  or  the  railway,  where  there  are  no  severe 
gradients,  and  no  bridging  is  required. 


MECHANICAL  ROAD   TRANSPOET.  473 

thus  indirectly  increases  the  revenue  derived  from  customs 
duties,  &c.  On  the  other  hand,  while  the  whole  cost  of  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  roads  falls  on  the  Government, 
it  derives  no  revenue  from  private  traffic  except  such  licences 
on  vehicles  as  it  may  impose,  and  these  act  in  restraint  of 
development,  and  are  unlikely  to  produce  any  substantial  sum. 

The  use  of  mechanical  road  transport  has  made  great  pro- 
gress in  Africa  of  late  years,  but  it  has  serious  limitations. 
Calculations  of  cost  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of  the  heavy  expendi- 
ture incurred  in  construction  and  maintenance  of  the  metalled 
roads  necessary  for  any  continuous  and  heavy  traffic  of  this 
nature.  Light  vans  may  indeed  run  for  a  few  months  of  the 
dry  season  on  immetalled  roads,  but  continuous  traffic,  even  of 
light  vehicles,  soon  chums  the  surface  into  deep  dust  or  sand. 

If  a  fuU  load  can  be  secured  both  ways  the  cost  of  run- 
ning may  be  as  low  as  Is.  per  ton  nule  when  the  return 
journey  can  be  accompUshed  in  a  single  day  ;  but  for  greater 
distances,  when  liquid  fuel  must  be  stored  in  advance  depots, 
and  garages  and  repair  shops  provided,  the  cost  rapidly  equals 
that  of  human  or  animal  transport,  and  the  gain  is  only  in 
the  saving  of  time.  Moreover,  in  order  to  keep  the  costs 
anywhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Is.  per  ton  mile,  native 
drivers  must  be  employed,  and  since  they  are  not  competent 
to  execute  any  but  the  lightest  running  repairs,  the  vehicles 
must  rettim  each  night  to  headquarters,  and  can  therefore 
cover  no  more  than  an  outward  journey  of  about  twenty-five 
miles. 

To  avoid  the  heavy  cost  of  metalling  and  maintaining 
roads,  "  roller-track  "  vehicles,  which,  being  without  wheels, 
create  instead  of  destroying  the  roadway,  offer  attractions. 
The  system  has  been  made  famihar  by  pictures  of  "  tanks  " 
during  the  war.  The  revolving  sleepers  present  so  large  a 
surface  and  so  distribute  the  weight  that  the  pressure  on  the 
groimd  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  loose  sand  or  swamps 
present  no  difficulties.  There  are  several  types.  One  of 
them,  the  "  Ped-raU,"  is  fitted  with  an  ingenious  "  ankle- 
joint,"  which  enables  it  to  turn  in  a  narrow  radius,  and  by 
minimising  the  road  resistance,  the  draw-bar  pull  is  so  re- 
duced that  a  couple  of  men  can  push  or  puU  a  ton  load  on  the 
level  without  difficidty.  It  is  claimed  that  tractors  of  100 
B.H.P.  drawing  trailers  with  a  load  of  twenty  tons  can  be 
worked  very  economically,  while  smaller  vehicles  of  one  or 


474  TEANSPOET. 

two  tons  can  be  drawn  over  any  kind  of  ground  by  draught 
animals.  To  discuss  the  subject  of  mechanical  road  transport 
in  any  adequate  way  would  demand  more  space  than  I  can 
afford.    It  is  dealt  with  more  fuUy  in  my  report  on  Nigeria.^ 

It  is  the  immemorial  custom  of  Africa  for  man  (with  a 
load  on  his  head),  equally  with  the  wild  game,  to  follow  in 
single  file  a  narrow  path,  twisting  now  to  the  right  and  now 
to  the  left,  as  some  obstacle,  long  siace  passed  away,  may 
have  dictated.  The  invaders  from  the  north  introduced  the 
camel,  the  horse,  the  ox,  and  the  ass,  to  share  as  pack  animals 
in  the  burden  of  transport,  and  where  they  are  in  use  the 
immemorial  path  has  become  widened,  but  no  effort  is  ever 
made  to  remove  obstacles  or  snags. 

The  utility  of  these  animals  is  limited  to  the  dry  zone  in 
the  west,  but  they  should  be  available  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  East  Africa.  Mechanical  road  transport  must  take 
their  place  in  those  regions  in  which  they  do  not  thrive,  or 
where  the  tsetse-fly  exists.  Human  carriers  may  have  to  be 
used  occasionally  on  military  expeditions,  or  in  close,  pre- 
cipitous, roadless  districts  ;  but,  as  I  said  in  the  chapter  on 
labour.  Government  should  set  the  example  of  abandoning 
this  archaic  and  wastefid  form  of  transport.  ^ 

Oxen  are  specially  valuable,  since  most  of  the  tribes  under- 
stand their  management.  They  are,  of  course,  much  more 
useful  as  draught  than  as  pack  animals.^    The  draught  ox 

'  Cd.  468  of  1920,  appendix  vii.'sThe  "Tubo"  also  appears  to  be  a  useful 
type.  Though  the  i?ed-rail  train,  and  the  small  vehicles  for  animal  traction, 
appear  useful  for  their  respective  purposes,  they  do  not  meet  the  need  of  a 
mechanically-propelled  vehicle  capable  of  carrying  a  load  of  2  to  4  tons. 

The  question  of  the  best  and  most  economical  substitutes  for  petrol  for 
internal  combustion  engines  for  road  transport  has  lately  received  much  atten- 
tion. The  Colonial  Economic  Development  Committee  speaks  favourably  of 
"  Natalite  " — which  consists  of  denatured  alcohol  mixed  with  a  proportion  of 
ether, — and  also  of  "producer  gas."  The  latter  appears  to  have  great  possi- 
bilities, and  experiments  are  being  made  with  it  in  both  East  and  West  Africa. 
It  is  claimed  that  petrol-driven  engines  can  be  converted  for  its  use,  and  that 
the  saving  is  equivalent  to  the  use  of  petrol  at  3d.  a  gallon.  It  is,  however,  at 
present  in  the  early  experimental  stage,  and  is  not  spoken  of  so  hopefully  by 
others.     See  note,  p.  513,  re  "power-alcohol." 

^  Unknown  to  the  employer,  hardship  may  be  caused  by  the  impressment  of 
men  who  are  unused  to  the  work  but  unable  to  bribe  a  village  chief.  Prompt 
payment  should  be  made  when  their  task  is  done,  and  villagers  employed  as 
carriers  should  not  be  taken  against  their  will  more  than  a  day's  march.  On 
the  other  hand,  care  is  necessary  to  see  that  they  do  not  rob  villages  en  route  in 
the  name  of  the  white  man — an  offence  at  one  time  common.  The  French 
found  that  main  routes  were  often  deserted  for  this  reason. 

'  A  native  chief  in  Nigeria  aptly  described  the  plough  and  the  cart  as  "  the 
white  man's  slaves." 


EOADS  IN  AEEICA.  475 

is  the  most  valuable  animal  in  ordinary  cotmtry,  the  camel 
ia  loose  sand,  and  the  mule  in  steep  country  intersected  by 
ravines.  But  the  use  of  the  wheel  has  remained  unknown  ia 
Africa,  even  among  the  Hamitic  negroids  in  the  northern 
tropical  belt,  and  is  only  now  being  slowly  iutroduced.  Where 
the  use  of  animals  is  possible  the  first  lesson  for  the  African 
is  to  learn  to  employ  the  country-cart  of  India  and  China 
(which  can  be  repaired  ia  any  village,  and  requires  no  metalled 
roads),  and  to  abandon  a  method  of  transport  suited  only  to 
the  precipitous  gradients  of  the  Himalayas. 

The  African  does  not  excel  in  the  care  of  animals.  He  wUl 
Idll  them  by  overwork,  and  sore-back  them  by  atrocious 
pack-saddles.  He  fails  to  realise  such  elementary  facts  as 
that  an  animal  ia  hard  work  needs  a  grain  ration,  or  that 
oxen  (which  will  not  graze  at  night)  must  be  given  adequate 
time  to  feed  by  day. 

There  are  those  who  have  condemned  roadmakiag  in  Africa 
because  roads  do  not  assist  the  human  carrier.  But  roads  are 
intended  to  abolish  human  transport,  to  faciMtate  the  use  of 
country  carts  where  draught  animals  are  possible,  and  of 
mechanical  transport  where  they  are  not,  and  so  to  act  as 
feeders  to  a  railway. 

Where  traffic  is  heavy  and  a  road  is  likely  to  develop  into 
a  metaUed  track  and  even  iato  a  tramway  or  narrow-gauge 
hne,  it  is  worth  the  time  and  cost  of  a  good  surveyor  to  lay 
it  out,  so  that  imnecessary  gradients  may  be  avoided,  and  it 
may  be  serviceable  aU  the  year  round.  A  detour  of  twenty 
times  the  vertical  height  may  be  taken  as  generally  permissible 
to  ease  an  ascent,  with  ruling  gradients  of  1  in  20  for  distances 
over  100  yards,  and  1  in  10  for  short  ramps.  A  common  error 
is  to  make  the  road  too  broad,  and  so  to  deprive  it  of  shade. 
A  24-ft.  track — 12  ft.  of  metal  if  required — ^is  ample.  Best- 
houses  and  native  camps  must  be  provided  at  suitable  dis- 
tances where  water  is  obtaiaable. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  first  importaace  to  interest  the  native 
administrations  ia  road-construction,  and  to  train  native 
road-makers  who  should  be  capable  of  directiag  the  work 
under  occasional  supervision,  leaving  the  bridgiag  to  be  done 
by  the  public  works  department.  BaUast,  where  necessary, 
can  be  collected  and  broken  by  villagers,  and  placed  in  readi- 
ness along  the  roadside,  being  paid  for  by  the  cubic  yard. 

As  with  the  pioneer  railway,  so  with  the  road — "  le  mieux 


476  TRANSPORT. 

est  rennemi  du  bien."  It  is  better  to  run  a  rough  road  from 
point  to  point  along  the  surveyed  alignment,  with  stumps 
and  snags  cleared,  and  improve  it  later  by  bridging  and 
draining,  than  to  complete  a  few  hundred  yards  of  first-class 
metalled  road  for  the  same  cost  and  time,  which  effects  no 
definite  purpose,  and  arouses  no  emulation  in  the  native 
administration. 

Eoads,  as  I  have  said,  being  ancillary  to  railways,  should 
be  constructed  as  feeders,  and  not  parallel  to  them,  so  as  to 
compete  for  freights.  With  regard  to  carts,  it  is  usefxd  to 
remember  that  the  greater  the  diameter  of  the  wheel  the  more 
easily  will  it  surmount  loose  sand,  and  that  a  narrow  tyre 
offers  less  resistance  than  a  broad  one — a  lesson  I  learnt  by 
practical  experience  when  crossing  the  Kalahari  desert. 


477 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


TBADE. 

Nature  of  trade  in  Africa — The  fixing  of  price — Monopoly  and  combina- 
tion— The  middleman — The  native  trader — The  native  merchant — 
British  v.  native  merchants — The  Indian  trader — Government  and 
trade — Government  and  private  enterprise — Concessions — Concessions 
for  oil- mills  —  The  principles  involved — Produce  inspection — Cash 
trade  v.  barter  —  Currency — A  trade  department  —  An  Economic 
Board — French  Chambers  of  Commerce — Trade  commissioners  and 
home  agencies — The  Crown  agents — Criticisms  of  the  system. 

The  object  of  trade  may,  I  presuine,  be  defined  as  the  ex- 
change of  the  commodities  of  one  country  for  those  of  another, 
with  mutual  benefit  to  each,  while  the  function  of  a  Govern- 
ment is  to  facilitate  the  operation,  so  far  as  may  be  in  its 
power,  and  to  see  that  the  benefit  is  reciprocal.  Trade  in  the 
African  tropics  assumes  at  present  its  most  simple  form — 
the  exchange  of  raw  produce  for  manufactured  goods.  In 
most  countries  of  the  world  the  producer,  in  order  to  obtain 
a  livelihood,  is  compelled  to  go  on  producing  as  long  as  there 
is  the  barest  margra  of  profit.  In  Africa,  however,  as  a 
general  rule,  owing  in  part  to  the  sparsity  of  its  population, 
in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  native  has  few  needs,  and  in  part 
to  favourable  conditions  of  climate  and  soU,  the  producer  is 
not  under  any  compulsion  to  produce  for  sale  or  exchange, 
while  he  can  at  the  same  time  produce  more  cheaply  than 
in  most  other  countries. 

Since  the  wants  of  the  African  are  few,  it  would  seem  at 
first  sight  natural  that  any  considerable  rise  in  the  price  of 
imported  goods  would  result  in  a  decrease  of  production. 
Enhancement  of  the  price  of  the  goods  he  desires  may  indeed 
result  in  a  temporary  inclination  to  hoard  his  money,  which 
in  itself  is  not  altogether  undesirable,  since  it  adds  to  his 


478  TRADE. 

capital  reserves,  but  the  African  is  more  influenced  by  the 
price  obtainable  for  his  produce  than  by  the  price  he  has  to 
pay  for  his  purchases. 

If  the  price  obtainable  for  his  produce  is  a  liberal  one, 
even  though  relatively  less  than  the  increased  price  of  im- 
ports, he  will  continue  to  produce,  and  the  increased  price 
of  imported  goods  does  not  affect  the  quaUty  of  the  produce 
offered  for  sale ;  while  a  decreased  price  for  produce,  though 
reducing  its  quantity,  will  operate  to  improve  its  quality, 
for  the  demand  being  less,  the  better  quaUty  is  more  likely 
to  find  a  purchaser.^ 

It  has  been  argued  that  the  profits  derived  by  the  native 
producer,  when  competition  is  unfettered,  are  in  some  cases 
unduly  large,  and  would  be  more  properly  distributed  among 
the  agencies  which  have  made  such  profits  possible,  as  for 
instance,  when  the  price  paid  for  ground-nuts  at  Kano  rose 
from  £2  or  £3  a  ton  to  £50.  Provided,  however,  that  increased 
prices  do  not  have  the  effect  of  checking  production — a  result 
which  may  happen  among  primitive  tribes  when  the  vendor 
of  produce  only  requires  a  limited  sum,  and  ceases  to  sell  as 
soon  as  he  has  acquired  it, — ^the  rule  operates  in  Africa,  as 
in  other  countries,  that  the  greater  the  price  the  merchant 
can  afford  to  pay,  and  the  larger  the  profit  made  by  the 
native  vendors,  the  greater  is  the  prosperity  of  the  country, 
and  the  greater  its  wealth.  The  wealthier  the  native  producer 
becomes,  the  more  he  spends  on  the  purchase  of  imported 
goods,  which  in  turn  adds  to  the  profit  and  wealth  of  the 
merchant.  The  wealth  of  its  native  population  tends  to  the 
rapid  development  of  the  country.  Even  the  increased  wealth 
of  the  foreign  merchant,  whose  capital  is  embarked  in  the 
country,  tends  to  the  same  result.  Nor  must  we  overlook  the 
fact,  that  even  the  peasant  producer  does  not  wholly  escape 
from  the  increased  cost  of  living,  which  is  a  concomitant  of 
development,  or  that  he  shares  his  profits  with  the  middle- 
man. The  absurdly  low  prices  paid  for  produce  a  few  years 
ago  may  conceivably  have  been  relatively  almost  as  bene- 
ficial to  the  peasant  producer  under  the  conditions  then 
prevaUiag  as  the  higher  prices  of  a  later  period  under  changed 
conditions. 

Since,  as  Adam  Smith  says,  it  is  the  object  of  the  merchant 

'  This  opinion  is  endorsed  by  Mr  J.  H.  Batty,  who  speaks  with  unrivalled 
experience. 


MONOPOLIES  AND    "COMBINES."  479 

in  every  age,  and  of  every  nationality,  to  buy  in  the  cheapest 
market  and  to  sell  in  the  dearest,  the  object  of  a  trade  com- 
bine or  trust  is  to  oust  competition,  and  so  to  cheapen  com- 
modities— ^viz.,  to  reduce  prices  to  the  producer.  Unless, 
however,  monopoly  is  supported  by  State  aid,  it  is  difficult 
to  establish,  for  the  monopolist  must  be  continually  buying 
out  the  independent  trader,  or  underselling  him,  which  means 
increasing  the  purchase  price,  even  up  to  the  point  when  no 
profit  remains. 

I  have  already  in  chapter  xui.  discussed  one  aspect  of  the 
question  of  monopoly,  and  there  is  no  need  to  restate  the 
arguments  here.  Experience  has  shown  that  whether  the 
monopoly  is  national,  as  estabMshed  by  the  old  navigation 
laws,  or  State-aided  like  those  of  the  chartered  companies, 
or  created  by  private  firms,  they  have  alike  proved  inimical 
to  the  expansion  of  trade.  The  tendency  in  modern  no  less 
than  in  ancient  times  has  nevertheless  been  towards  co- 
operative societies,  "  combines,"  and  "  trusts,"  by  means  of 
which  the  powerful  group  has  sought  to  exclude  the  smaller 
merchant,  and  to  enhance  profits  at  the  expense  of  either  the 
producer  or  the  consumer.  The  State,  as  the  guardian  of 
the  public,  has  usually  sought  to  oppose  these  monopolies, 
and  to  encourage  competition  by  anti-trust  laws,  &c.,  though 
Lord  Balfour's  Committee  records  the  opinion  that  "  every 
encouragement  should  be  given  by  Government  to  the  forma- 
tion of  combinations  of  manufacturers,  and  others  concerned, 
to  secure  supplies  of  materials."  ^ 

"  I  will  give  the  native  producer  a  fair  price,"  says  the 
monopolist,  "  suflBicient  to  encourage  production  (which  ex- 
cessive profits  retard).  The  extra  profits  I  make  shall  be 
carried  to  reserves,  which  wiU  enable  me  to  take  risks,  and 
incur  losses  in  opening  up  new  markets.  Moreover,  by 
eUminattng  competition,  I  shall  avoid  putting  up  the  price 
of  labour,  and  thus  retarding  development,  and  hampering 
the  Government."  By  such  arguments,  no  doubt,  the  Mger 
Chartered  Company  would  have  defended  its  action  in  amal- 
gamating the  competing  European  trading  interests  on  the 

1  Cd.  9035  of  1918,  paragraph  175,  p.  37.  Compare  Herr  Demburg,  German 
Colonial  Minister  :  "  The  production  of  raw  materials  is  more  and  more  being 
included  in  the  operations  of  great  foreign  industrial  enterprises,  syndicates,  and 
trusts,  which  tend  to  eliminate  the  middleman  and  to  concentrate  in  their  own 
hands  every  process  of  particular  industries  from  the  field  or  mine  to  the  finished 
product."—'  Times,'  14th  January  1907 


480  TRADE. 

Niger,  and  establishing  a  virtual  trade  monopoly  which  en- 
abled it  to  secure  Nigeria  for  the  Empire.  *  Similar  arguments 
would  no  doubt  be  used  by  modern  combinations  in  West 
African  trade.  The  temptation  to  reduce  the  purchase  price 
when  it  depends  solely  on  the  wiU  of  the  purchaser  is  great ; 
but  in  practice,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  doubtful  whether  a 
monopoly  can  be  maintained,  unless  State-aided,  or  unless 
it  controls  shipping,  especially  when  the  profits  to  be  made 
are  large.  The  form  of  monopoly  which  is  of  all  the  most 
intolerable  and  injurious,  is  one  in  which  the  State  partici- 
pates, as  imder  the  former  Congo  regime,  or  the  proposals 
of  the  Empire  Eesources  Development  Committee,  which  I 
have  already  discussed. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  as  a  result  of  unrestricted  competi- 
tion, the  native  producer  seems  for  a  time  to  make  unreason- 
ably large  profits,  his  standard  of  living  will  rise,  and  the 
imports  which  he  requires  will  increase.  So  far  as  the  home 
consumer  is  concerned,  the  price  of  African  produce  is  regu- 
lated not  by  the  price  paid  in  Africa,  but  by  the  world's 
supplies  and  prices,  which  the  output  of  any  particular 
region  in  Africa  is  rarely  large  enough  to  modify  appreciably. 

The  native  producer,  we  have  seen,  gains  by  a  competitive 
market,  but  the  profit  does  not  all  go  to  him,  for  much  bt  it 
is  absorbed  by  the  middleman.  In  the  case  of  Nigerian 
ground-nuts  it  was  aflSrmed  that  he  received  three-fifths  of 
the  price,  and  the  producer  only  two-fifths.^  In  so  far  as  he 
is  a  mere  unproductive  exploiter  of  the  labour  of  the  peasant, 
the  middleman  is  without  justification,  and  can  only  be  an 
ephemeral  incubus  untU  the  producer  learns,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Government,  to  do  without  him.  When,  however, 
as  he  generally  does,  the  middleman  performs  a  useful  func- 
tion as  a  small  trader,  opening  new  fields  for  trade,  he  is 

^  Amalgamation  of  interests  in  the  circumstances  of  the  Royal  Niger  Company 
was  also  necessary  for  purposes  of  mutual  defence,  and  to  overcome  foreign  State- 
aided  competition. 

^  The  Kano  Resident  reported  that  a  large  number  of  middlemen  arrive  at 
that  centre  of  the  ground-nut  trade  at  the  season  when  the  crop  is  ready  for  the 
market.  They  picket  the  roads,  and  induce  or  compel  the  producer  to  accept  the 
price  they  offer,  and  return  south  when  the  season  is  over.  The  Government 
had  to  take  action  in  the  interests  of  the  producer,  and  the  Emir  forbade  the 
sale  of  produce  outside  the  authorised  market. 

The  same  phenomenon  presents  itself  in  India.  "The  export  trade  from 
country  districts  (says  the  Industrial  Report,  p.  9)  generally  suffers  from  the 
existence  of  an  undue  number  of  middlemen,  who  .incept  a  large  share  of  the 
profits." 


THE  AFRICAN  AS  A  TEADEK.  481 

entitled  to  his  galas.  As  commumcations  improve  he  is 
driven  farther  afield  to  open  up  new  markets.  The  merchant 
is  glad  to  employ  him  to  distribute  his  goods,  and  to  bring 
exportable  produce  in  return.  Here  again  a  "  cut-throat 
competition "  may  prove  a  deterrent  to  legitimate  trade. 
In  West  Africa,  especially  among  the  German  merchants, 
the  desire  to  secure  the  services  of  middlemen  took  the  form 
of  affording  unjustifiable  credits  to  them,  with  the  object  of 
creating  monopolies.^ 

If  the  export  trade  suffers  from  a  superabundance  of  middle- 
men who  intercept  profits,  the  remedies  would  seem  to  be 
that  British  merchants  should  get  in.  closer  touch  with,  and 
as  far  as  possible  buy  direct  from,  the  producer,  and  that  the 
producer  should  be  encouraged  to  adopt  a  better  system  of 
marketing  by  co-operative  seUing. 

The  African,  as  I  have  known  him,  is  a  keen  and  expert 
trader.  I  speak  more  particularly  of  Mgeria,  and  of  the 
Hausa  and  Yoruba  races — each  nimabering  several  millions 
— and  of  the  coast  population,  educated  or  illiterate.  The 
native  traders  bring  produce  to  the  export  merchant  and 
distribute  his  goods  either  by  head-carriage  or  by  caravans 
of  donkeys  and  pack-oxen  in  the  north,  and  by  canoes  on  the 
waterways  in  the  south, — ^imported  textiles  and  hardware 
for  hides,  palm-produce,  seed-cotton,  and  other  exportable 
goods.  Or  they  exchange  the  products  of  one  region  for 
those  of  another — salt,  kola-nuts,  natron,  live-stock,  and  skins 
— ^for  the  cloths  and  leather  goods  of  Kano  and  other  cities. ^ 
Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  weekly  or 
bi-weekly  markets,  often  held  by  night,  are  attended  by 
thousands  of  vendors,  who  obtain  much  of  their  supplies 
from  the  itinerant  trader. 

The  r61e  of  the  latter  is  entirely  useful,  and  tE  in  the  past 
he  has  sometimes  been  convicted  of  extortion,  personation, 
and  spreading  false  reports,  of  combining  slave-dealing  with 

'  A  prominent  West  African  merchant  remarked  to  me  that  the  abuse  of  the 
system  of  giving  credit  to  native  middlemen  was  the  curse  of  South  Nigeria. 
He  had  been  present  in  court  when  a  case  was  heard  in  which  a  native  with  a 
borrowed  canoe  and  labour,  who  on  his  own  showing  had  never  possessed  £5,  was 
found  to  be  owing  four  different  firms  a  sum  of  about  £700  for  goods  supplied 
without  any  guarantee  whatever.  I  was  told  that  the  outstanding  credit  at  a 
single  port  was  fully  £200,000.— See  Cmd.  468/1920,  p.  41.  As  regards  the  Gold 
Coast,  see  Handbook  93,  p.  34. 

"  The  trade  of  Eano  for  many  centuries  consisted  of  manufactured  articles — 
cottons,  shoes,  leather,  &c. — chiefly  ii\  exchange  for  salt,  slaves,  and  kolas. 

2h 


482  TBADE. 

his  legitimate  trade,  and  of  spreading  venereal  disease,  these 
are  matters  susceptible  of  improvement  with  the  progress 
of  the  times,  and  already  to  a  large  extent  obsolete. 

The  native  traders  on  the  coast,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
engaged  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  as  principals  in  the  import 
and  export  trade.  The  most  wealthy  employ  middlemen, 
who  penetrate  through  the  network  of  creeks  and  rivers  in 
canoes,  exchanging  their  goods  for  palm-oil,  palm-kernels, 
and  other  produce. 

As  an  exporter  the  native  merchant  trades  at  an  advantage 
over  his  European  rival,  for  he  has  had  no  excess  profits  duty 
and  no  income  tax  to  pay.  During  the  war  he  was  loud  in 
his  protests  if  the  European  shipping  companies  did  not 
accord  him  ample  cargo  space.  He  does  not,  as  a  rule,  care 
for  the  risk  of  opening  up  new  markets,  and  is  content  to 
compete  in  those  opened  by  his  rivals.  Many  native  mer- 
chants have  in  these  conditions  amassed,  I  am  told,  con- 
siderable fortunes. 

As  the  native  trader  learns  the  advantage  of  association, 
and  as  individuals  acquire  the  command  of  increased  capital, 
they  win  become  more  serious  competitors  with  the  British 
trader,  who,  however,  in  spite  of  his  home  taxes,  has  always 
been  able  to  hold  his  own  by  better  business  methods  and 
a  larger  command  of  capital.  It  was,  I  beUeve,  only  during 
the  abnormal  conditions  created  by  the  war  that  the  native 
export  merchant  became  a  serious  rival  and  made  large 
profits,  with  a  resulting  tendency  to  combination  among  the 
foreign  merchants,  so  that  they  might  command  their  own 
shipping.  It  would  probably  be  advantageous  that  every 
trading  company  should  be  compelled  to  register  in  the 
country  in  which  it  operates. 

I  claim  no  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  trade  in  the 
eastern  group  of  our  African  dependencies,  but  I  conceive 
that  these  remarks  also  apply,  generally  speaking,  to  the 
Indian  trader  and  merchant.  As  a  petty  trader  the  Indian 
shares  the  praise  and  the  dispraise  of  the  Hausa  and  Yoruba. 
He  opens  up  new  markets,  but  his  methods  are  not  above 
criticism.^  As  a  merchant  his  standard  of  living,  his  assiduity, 
and  his  frugality  enable  him  to  a  greater  degree  than  the 
native  trader  in  the  west  to  reduce  his  establishment  charges 
to  a  minimum,  and  undersell  the  European.    By  remitting 

'  See  note,  p.  321. 


HOW   GOVERNMENT   CAN   ASSIST   TKADE.  483 

money  out  of  the  country,  he  minimises  the  benefit  of  trade 
to  the  district  of  origin. 

IsTot  only  is  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  a  country  de- 
pendent upon  its  trade,  but  it  is  obvious  that  it  can  only  pay 
for  its  administration  and  for  its  development  works  by  its 
exports  and  the  results  of  its  industry.  It  is  manifest  there- 
fore that  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  a  Government 
should  do  everything  in  its  power  to  promote  and  encourage 
commerce.  Some  of  the  principal  ways  in  which  this  can 
be  effected  are  the  following  : — 

{a)  By  promoting  scientific  research  a  Government  may 
prove  the  suitability  of  the  climate  and  soil  for  introduced 
products,  improve  the  quality  of  existing  ones,  and  check 
animal  and  plant  diseases. 

(b)  While  refraining  from  competition  with  private  enter- 
prise, a  Government  can  pioneer  the  way  and  prove  the 
possibility  of  remunerative  imdertakings.  It  can,  for  instance, 
run  a  service  of  lorries  or  a  line  of  river  steamers  for  the 
transport  of  produce,  imtil  private  enterprise  is  ready  to 
undertake  it. 

(c)  It  can,  as  I  have  said,  afford  some  protection  to  the 
producer  and  the  small  trader  from  the  coercion  of  ^the  com- 
bine on  the  one  hand,  or  a  fraudulent  middleman  on  the 
other. 

(d)  It  can  assist  commerce  and  industry  by  educating 
clerks,  accountants,  mechanics,  and  others  required  in  the 
transaction  of  business. 

(e)  It  can  avoid  all  taxation  in  restraint  of  trade,  and  take 
every  care  that  the  necessary  taxes  fall  as  lightly  as  possible 
on  it. 

if)  It  can  provide  facUities  for  transport  and  communica- 
tion by  railways,  improved  waterways,  and  roads,  by  ship- 
ping, and  by  an  effective  postal  and  telegraphic  service. 

(g)  It  can  improve  the  quality  of  produce  by  inspection 
and  rejection  of  inferior  qualities  at  the  port  of  shipment, 
and  by  stringent  laws  against  fraudulent  adulteration. 

{h)  It  can  provide  and  maintain  an  adequate  coin  currency, 
and  promote  its  use  in  many  ways. 

That  a  Government  should  not  be  a  competitor  against 
private  enterprise  is  admitted,  and  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the 
chief  objections  to  chartered  company  government.  It  has, 
however,  been  suggested  that  a  Government  may  with  advan- 


484  TRADE. 

tage  liarticipate  in  such  enterprise,  and  so  secure  a  share  of 
the  profits  for  the  pubhc  revenue,  provided  that  by  so  doing  it 
enjoys  no  preference  or  advantage  which  competitors  do  not 
share. 

The  principle  appears  to  me  both  unsoimd  and  dangerous. 
If  the  undertaking  is  one  beyond  the  scope  of  private  enter- 
prise, or  one  in  which  it  is  so  impossible  to  forecast  the  con- 
ditions and  profits  that  a  private  firm  would  not  engage  in 
it  unless  offered  very  substantial  inducements  by  Govern- 
ment,— as  in  proving  a  coalfield,  which  can  only  be  opened 
up  by  the  construction  of  a  railway  and  port, — it  is  better 
for  the  Government  to  take  the  initiative  on  its  sole  respon- 
sibility. If,  as  in  a  case  of  oil-boring  within  my  experience, 
a  company  asks  for  financial  assistance,  the  Government  is 
not  justified  in  accepting  a  speculative  risk  which  financiers 
will  not  incur.  If,  again,  the  venture  is  one  in  which  private 
enterprise  is  already  engaged,  such  as  the  schemes  fore- 
shadowed by  the  Eesources  Development  Committee,  par- 
ticipation by  Government  must  inevitably  create  conditions 
unfair  to  competition.  Even  the  investment  of  surplus  funds 
in  well-estabUshed  local  concerns  may  give  rise  to  sus- 
picions of  preference,  however  unjustified.  It  is  in  every 
way  more  desirable  that  such  funds  should  be  invested  in 
new  development  works  undertaken  by  Government  itself, 
such  as  railways  and  harbours.  The  inherent  objection  to 
the  participation  of  the  State  in  speculative  enterprise  is 
that  the  Government  cannot  become  bankrupt,  and  hence 
if  its  action  proves  ill-advised  the  taxpayer  must  redeem 
the  position.!  Competition  in,  or  participation  in,  enterprises 
for  profit  is,  of  course,  a  very  different  matter  from  encourage- 
ment of  nascent  industries  by  Government  (see  p.  499). 

When   speaking  of  monopoUes  I  referred  to  the  grant  of 

^  The  East  African  Economic  Commission  elaborates  in  some  detail  a  project 
for  a  "development  bank"  under  Government  control — half  its  directors  being 
officials.  The  capital,  which  must  in  that  case  be  chiefly  or  entirely  found  by 
Government  (though  it  is  stated  that  ' '  Government  itself  is  unable  to  execute 
urgent  reforms  of  certain  economic  utility  for  want  of  funds  "),  would  be  applied 
to  financing  promising  schemes  "on  the  security  of  their  potential  value,"  and 
the  bank  would  float  companies,  in  which  it  would  take  shares,  and  appoint 
officials  and  others  as  directors. — Loc.  dt.,  p.  28. 

The  Congress  of  the  International  Chamber  of  Commerce,  sitting  in  London, 
passed  a  resolution  on  1st  July  1921,  declaring  "that  Government  control  of  or 
participation  in  industry  and  commerce  discourages  individual  initiative,  and 
renders  trade  conditions  uncertain  and  artificial,  and  that  it  should  be  dis- 
couraged." 


CONCESSIONAIRES.  485 

"  concessions  " — a  term  susceptible  of  various  meanings. 
Under  the  regime  of  King  Leopold  in  the  Congo,  the  State,  it 
is  said,  claimed  all  "  vacant  lands,"  and  compelled  the  natives 
to  collect  the  produce  under  a  system  of  "  labour  taxes," 
whether  directly  for  the  State  or  for  the  concessionaires,  to 
whom  vast  blocks  of  land  were  leased.  In  four-iifths  of  the 
country,  remarked  a  German  newspaper,  all  ivory  and  rubber 
belong  to  the  State,  and  a  European  who  buys  them  is 
looked  on  as  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods.  Under  the  wise  and 
liberal  rule  of  King  Albert  this  system  has  been  abolished. 
The  French  adopted  a  similar  regime  in  their  Congo 
territories. 

This  system  has  not  been  tolerated  in  British  tropical 
Africa,  though  we  read  of  concessions  to  collect  rubber  in 
areas  of  two  square  miles  in  Uganda,  and  enormous  blocks 
of  tmiahabited  land  have  been  granted  to  concessionaires  in 
East  Africa.  Concessions  on  the  Gold  Coast  have  been  based 
on  a  system  the  very  antithesis  of  that  on  the  Congo — viz., 
on  a  recognition  of  the  right  of  native  chiefs  to  dispose  of 
lands,  minerals,  and  even  of  the  sole  privilege  of  collecting 
sylvan  produce,  ostensibly  in  the  name  of  the  tribe.  The 
subject,  in  so  far  as  the  Gold  Coast  is  concerned,  is  exhaus- 
tively dealt  with  in  Sir  H.  Belfleld's  report,  to  which  I  have 
already  referred  at  some  length.^  Viewed  solely  from  the 
economic  standpoint,  the  one  system,  if  carried  to  the  same 
lengths  as  the  other,  would  be  equally  effective  in  creating 
monopolies  detrimental  to  sound  development.  The  term 
"  concession  "  is  unknown  in  Nigeria. 

Applications  have  been  made  for  a  concession  of  a  very 
different  kind — viz.,  for  the  sole  right  to  erect  oil-miUs  iti 
a  given  area.  Their  object  is  to  obtain  the  fruit  of  the  oil- 
pabn  while  fresh  and  free  from  the  fatty  acids  which  cause 
rancidity,  and  rob  it  of  50  per  cent  of  its  most  valuable 
contents,  rendering  it  fit  only  for  making  soap  instead  of 
margarine.  The  monopoly  is  asked  for  in  order  to  protect 
the  mill-owner  from  the  risk  of  a  rival  miU  benefiting  by  the 
development  effected  at  his  expense.  The  proposal  has 
attractive  features.  It  suggests  a  vision  of  the  forest  of  wild 
palms  reduced  to  an  ordered  plantation,  the  improved  varieties 
of  trees  properly  spaced  and  tended,  so  that  the  maximum 
yield  per  acre  should  be  obtained,  anH  the  fruit  collected  by 

1  Cmd.  6278  of  1912.     Vide  supra,  pp.  305-309. 


486  TRADE. 

means  of  light  tramways  intersecting  the  plantation.^  The 
native  would  not  be  deprived  of  his  rights  in  the  land  or  its 
produce,  and  fair  prices  woidd  be  assured,  since  there  would 
be  no  compulsion  to  sell  to  the  mill.  As  a  practical  proposi- 
tion, however,  it  would  be  dii3£icult  for  the  mill-owner  to  secure 
the  guarantees  he  desires.  He  could  only  do  so  by  separate 
agreements  with  the  owners  of  the  land — whether  tribal  or 
individual — that  they  would  not  allow  the  erection  of  a  rival 
null  within  the  agreed  area  for  a  term  of  years,  and  enforce 
a  like  stipulation  on  any  land  alienated  by  them.  Others 
have  demanded,  not  protection  against  a  rival  mill,  but  that 
the  natives  shall  be  prohibited  from  seUing  to  any  one  other 
than  the  concessionaire,  and  compelled  to  bring  in  the  fruit 
while  fresh — a  type  of  concession  inconsistent  with  British 
policy. 

The  opponents  of  concessions  fear  lest  the  acquisition  of 
any  form  of  exclusive  rights  should  lead  to  the  gradual  acquisi- 
tion of  the  land  itself,  so  that  the  natives  should  eventually 
be  reduced  to  the  status  of  paid  labourers.  To  prevent  any- 
thing of  the  kind  must  be  the  first  duty  of  those  who  are 
charged  with  the  protection  of  native  rights.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  introduction  of  capital  and  organising  ability,  by 
increasing  output  and  improving  quality,  is  a  benefit  not 
only  to  the  country,  but  to  mankind.  Intelligent  apprecia- 
tion of  the  world's  progress  and  needs  compels  us  to  recognise 
with  Lord  Leverhulme  ^  that  vast  areas  of  exceptionally  fer- 
tile land  cannot  for  aU  time  remain  as  unreclaimed  jungle, 
and  large  quantities  of  a  commodity  of  great  value  as  food 
be  allowed  to  rot  ungathered,  at  the  caprice  of  primitive  races 
who  lack  the  incentive  to  make  the  most  of  nature's  gifts. 
In  one  district,  says  Mr  Parquharson,  the  natives  when  shown 
how  to  make  biscuit  rubber  cut  down  their  para  trees  because 
it  was  too  much  trouble.  The  native  is  growing  kolas,  he 
says,  because  they  require  even  less  labour  than  cocoa,  and 
the  jungle  fire  he  kindles  to  prepare  the  land  for  his  shifting 
cultivation  destroys  oU-palms  and  the  humus  of  the  soil. 

The  education  of  the  natives  in  scientific  agriculture  and 
improved  products  can  be  promoted  (as  I  said  in  chapter  xiv.) 
by  the  grant  to  Europeans  of  small  agricultural  estates,  even 

^  See  Mr  Smart's  evidence,  Edible  Nuts  Committee. — Cmd.  8247  of  1916,  pp. 
111-125. 

^  Paper  at  Royal  Colonial  Institute,  7th  April  1919. 


PEBPAEATION  OF  PRODTTCE  FOR  EXPORT.       487 

in  a  country  where  European  settlement  is  not  possible,  for 
they  are  iavaluable  as  models  for  the  native  cultivator  to 
emulate,  and  as  an  ocular  demonstration  of  what  scientific 
culture  can  produce.  On  this  subject  I  shall  have  more  to 
say  ia  the  next  chapter.  Large  "  concessions  "  are  not  neces- 
sary for  this  purpose.  He  is  no  true  friend  to  the  African 
who  would  deprive  him  of  the  incentive  which  an  object- 
lesson  can  alone  bring  home  to  his  intelligence.  The  problem 
is  to  avoid  the  evils  of  the  concessionaire,"^  while  ensuring 
the  proper  and  adequate  development  of  natural  resources, 
and  the  example  of  the  European-owned  plantation  will 
assist  ia  its  solution. 

But  it  is  of  even  greater  importance  in  those  countries 
where  the  native  must  be  the  producer,  to  ensure  that  the 
produce  he  grows  for  export  is  shipped  in  the  best  possible 
condition.  The  quality  of  cocoa  is  greatly  enhanced  by 
proper  grading,  drying,  and  uniform  fermentation ;  palm-oU 
should  not  contain  more  than  10  per  cent  of  fatty  acids,  and 
should  be  extracted  from  the  fresh  fruit  and  not  kept  tiU  it 
is  rancid ;  palm-kernels  should  show  at  least  48  per  cent  of 
oil ;  2  oil  should  be  brought  to  market  "  soft,"  and  not 
"  hard,"  by  the  expenditure  of  a  little  extra  trouble  ;  rubber 
should  be  marketed  as  "  biscuit  "  and  not  "  lump  "  ;  hides 
can  be  better  flayed,  more  imiformly  stretched,  and  denuded 
of  superfluous  offals,  which  add  to  their  weight  and  bulk ; 
cotton  from  distant  villages  can  be  reduced  to  a  third  of  its 
bulk  and  weight  by  hand-ginning  and  crude  presses,  and  its 
quaUty  improved  by  careful  sorting ;  gums  need  to  be 
graded — one  might  go  on  indefinitely  to  show  how  the  quality 
and  value  of  raw  produce  can  be  increased  by  proper  pre- 
paration. 

It  goes  without  sayiag  that  it  is  of  the  first  importance 
to  the  trade  of  a  country  that  its  exports  should  bear  a 
high  reputation  for  quality,  and  command  a  high  price  in 
the  world's  markets.    If  the  reputation  for  a  particular  article 

^  A  concessionaire's  rights  under  British  law  are  at  best  precarious,  as  was 
shown  in  the  case  of  Messrs  Cook  v.  Sigcau,  when  Pondoland  was  transferred  to 
the  Crown.  It  was  admitted  that  the  concessionaire  had  given  good  value,  but 
on  appeal  the  Privy  Council  upheld  the  cancellation,  mainly  on  the  ground  that 
"the  concessions  created  no  legal  obligation,  because  their  execution  depended 
solely  upon  the  will  of  the  paramount  chief,  and  there  existed  no  possible  means 
of  enforcing  them." 

•^  Letter  of  Mr  Robert  Miller  to  the  West  African  Press,  22nd  October  1919, 
from  which  most  of  these  percentages  are  taken. 


488  TEADE. 

from  a  particular  country  be  bad,  it  is  difficult  for  an  indi- 
vidual producer,  or  a  discriminating  merchant,  to  obtain  full 
value  for  the  exceptional  quality  of  his  exports,  and  pro- 
gressive deterioration  is  likely  to  result. 

Stringent  laws,  strenuously  enforced,  against  fraudulent 
adulteration  must  be  supplemented  by  fixing  a  standard  of 
purity  for  exports  ia  collaboration  with  the  merchants,  and 
by  prohibiting  shipment  of  produce  which  does  not  comply 
with  the  tests.  The  Government  of  Nigeria  held  the  view 
that  the  Government  inspection  should  take  place  prior  to 
shipment  only — viz.,  after  purchase, — and  that  it  was  the 
function  of  the  merchant  to  discriminate  as  to  quality  by 
giviag  a  better  price  for  a  good  article.  The  Governments 
of  India  and  of  Natal  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.^  The 
view  which  has  been  advanced,  that  the  merchant  is  in  theory 
concerned  only  with  the  exchange  of  commodities,  and  not 
with  their  quaUty,  would  in  practice  be  not  unlikely  to  result 
in  difficulty  ia  disposing  of  stocks,  and  the  eventual  loss  of 
his  market. 

Some  merchants,  on  the  other  hand,  have  desired  the 
appointment  of  Government  inspectors  in  the  native  markets 
prior  to  purchase.  Such  a  system  obviously  affords  oppor- 
tunities for  peculation  and  extortion  on  the  part  of  the  sub- 
ordinate native  officials  employed  on  the  work,  which  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  detect  and  check.  Nor  does  it  appear 
justifiable  to  make  it  an  offence  to  offer  inferior  produce  for 

^  A  Committee  on  this  subject  appointed  by  the  Government  of  India 
reported  that  the  most  effective  method  for  securing  a  good  standard  was  by 
combination  among  buyers.  The  issue  of  certificates  of  purity  would  involve 
a  large  staff  of  inspectors,  to  which  the  Committee  was  "emphatically  opposed." 
"  Control  at  the  port  of  export,  and  refusal  to  allow  the  export  of  produce  below 
a  minimum  standard  of  purity,  fixed  in  consultation  with  the  trade,"  was,  they 
considered,  the  best  system.  It  should  be  carried  out  by  the  Customs  Depart- 
ment, and  a  small  charge  made.  While  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
protect  the  cultivator,  "  the  Government  of  India  has  (they  declare)  time  and 
again  decided  that  it  is  not  for  them  to  take  any  steps  in  the  matter,  and  the 
remedy  lies  with  the  trade." — ('  Indian  Trade  Journal,'  19th  April  1918.)  These 
views  are  endorsed  by  the  Indian  Industrial  Commission. — (Cmd.  51  of  1919, 
p.  143.) 

In  Natal  the  quality  of  maize  for  export  had  fallen  to  a  very  low  standard,  when 
the  Government  found  it  necessary  to  intervene  by  grading  and  marking,  and 
the  rejection  of  all  below  a  fixed  standard.  The  inspection  was  carried  out  at 
the  port,  any  other  method  being  found  impossible,  and  an  enormous  improve- 
ment resulted.  The  French  on  the  Ivory  Coast  instituted  an  "office  guinfen" 
for  the  inspection  of  rubber  at  the  port  of  shipment,  rejecting  all  that  was  not 
up  to  standard.  Rejections,  at  first  25  per  cent  to  30  per  cent,  soon  fell  to 
3  per  cent.     Shippers  held  buyers  responsible  for  the  loss. 


PEODTJCE   INSPECTION.  489 

sale,  provided  that  there  is  no  fraudulent  intent.  The 
Government,  moreover,  cannot  accept  responsibility  for 
the  results  of  inspection  conducted  in  a  distant  market 
without  any  check  on  subsequent  deterioration  or  adultera- 
tion. 

The  increase  in  West  Africa  in  the  number  of  small  native 
exporters  who  have  no  business  reputation  to  lose,  and  whose 
profits  are  not  greatly  affected  by  the  colony's  standing  in 
the  produce  market,  increases  the  urgency  of  the  need  for 
Government  intervention.  The  first  necessity  is  for  merchants 
to  employ  expert  buyers  and  middlemen.^  They  reply  that 
it  is  very  difficult  in  the  conditions  of  West  Africa  to  get 
expert  buyers,  for  their  British  staff  is  constantly  changing. 
It  should,  however,  be  no  more  difficult  for  merchants  to  find 
expert  and  honest  native  buyers  than  for  Government  to 
find  the  qualified  inspectors  who  would  be  necessary  if  pro- 
duce were  inspected  before  shipment.  Two  of  the  most  ex- 
perienced witnesses  before  the  Edible  Nuts  Committee  con- 
demned the  system  of  produce  inspection  by  Government 
prior  to  purchase,  while  others  supported  it.^  Government 
through  its  Agricultural  Department  can  assist  in  educating 
the  producer.  Export  duties — since  they  are  levied  equally 
on  inferior  as  on  valuable  produce — exert  an  influence  in  the 
right  direction. 

A  difficulty  no  doubt  arises  in  regard  to  inspection  prior  to 
shipment  at  small  ports,  and  complaints  may  arise  as  to 
delays  caused  by  inspection  at  large  ports,  where  the  volume 
of  exports  is  great.  The  latter  could  perhaps  be  met  by 
granting  exemption  to  a  shipper  whose  consignments  had 
been  found  for  a  specified  period  to  be  invariably  well  above 
the  standard,  provided  that  he  satisfied  the  Government  that 

^  The  late  Mr  Farquharson,  of  the  Nigerian  Agricultural  Department,  observed 
that  the  employment  of  low-paid  buyers,  with  ready  reckoners  and  a  flat  rate, 
instead  of  skilled,  highly-paid  men  with  special  knowledge  of  produce,  had  led  to 
deterioration.  Kubbish,  he  remarked,  should  not  be  allowed  to  occupy  cargo- 
space  when  shipping  is  scarce. 

^  Captain  (now  Major- Gen  era!)  Gray,  with  very  long  local  experience,  stated 
that  when  buying  kernels  he  could  tell  the  percentage  of  shell  and  dust  within 
1  per  cent  or  2  per  cent,  and  "any  man  who  deals  in  the  business  should  be  able 
to  do  the  same. "  Inspection,  he  insisted,  "  is  a  matter  for  the  merchants  them- 
selves to  arrange."  Mr  Trigge,  of  the  Niger  Company,  with  long  experience  of 
the  home  markets,  was  equally  emphatic. — Report  of  Edible  Nuts  Committee, 
Cmd.  8247  of  1916,  questions  1409  and  1681-82.  For  the  evidence  of  merchants 
—for  and  against— see  questions  819,  1409,  1679,  1887,  2593,  4909,  5493.  (Also 
818,  5443,  and  5492  re  the  practice  in  Dahomey.) 


490  TRADE. 

his  uninspected  shipments  had  realised  the  standard  prices 
at  their  destination. 

The  Uganda  Produce  Protection  Ordinances,  1913  and  1918, 
empower  the  Governor  to  make  rules  for  licensing  buyers, 
dealers,  and  growers  of  produce.  I  am  not  aware  how  this 
ordinance  has  worked  in  practice,  but  as  a  general  principle 
I  think  that  the  less  Government  interferes  in  trade,  and  the 
fewer  the  number  of  licences,  the  better. 

A  feature  of  African  trade  which  merits  a  passing  refer- 
ence is  the  tendency  to  direct  barter,  under  the  mistaken 
notion  that  a  double  profit  is  thus  secured,  since  the  vendor 
of  produce  must  buy  where  he  seUs.^  It  is  a  short-sighted 
policy  opposed  to  the  true  principles  of  trade.  The  inex- 
perienced agent  may  think  that  he  is  doing  a  smart  stroke  of 
business  in  foisting  unsaleable  stock  upon  the  ignorant  native, 
and  that  by  refusing  to  pay  cash  he  prevents  his  purchasing 
in  a  rival  store,  or  he  makes  the  mistake  of  offering  goods 
ostensibly  one-third  more  in  value  than  the  cash  price,  in- 
stead of  inviting  purchase  by  variety  and  cheapness.  The 
result  is  to  discourage  trade,  as  those  have  found  who  have 
adopted  a  more  liberal  and  far-sighted  pohcy.  The  concensus 
of  reports  is  to  the  effect  that  trade  has  increased  greatly 
wherever  cash  has  been  introduced.^  It  may  even  be  con- 
sidered justifiable,  by  a  "  Truck  Act,"  to  give  the  vendor 
of  produce  the  right  to  claim  payment  in  cash,  at  a  rate  equal 
to  that  of  the  goods  offered,  and  the  right  to  purchase  for 
cash  goods  offered  for  public  sale. 

Nor  must  the  trader  in  distant  regions  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  his  interests  are  largely  identical  with  those  of  the 
administration,  and  it  is  to  his  advantage  to  assist  the  Govern- 
ment, as  far  as  he  is  able,  by  promoting  the  circulation  of 
currency.    Since  a  portion  of  the  output  of  the  country  must 

^  Mr  Neville,  of  the  Bank  of  British  West  Africa,  who  claims  personal  know- 
ledge of  West  Africa  since  1874,  writes  that  "  British  merchants  aa  a  body,  prior 
to  the  establishment  of  regular  banking,  showed  a  decided  disinclination  for  cash 
dealings,  believing  the  barter  system  to  be  more  profitable,  and  it  was  left  to  the 
Germans  at  Lagos  in  particular  to  import  British  silver,  freight  and  insurance 
being  paid  by  the  British  Mint.  This  cash  advantage,  in  conjunction  with  a  large 
supply  of  Hamburg  gin,  gave  them  a  practical  monopoly  of  the  produce  trade." 
— '  African  Societies'  Journal,'  June  1917. 

^  In  Nigeria  it  is  reported  that  a  peasant  bringing  goods  for  sale,  and  requiring 
cash  to  pay  his  tax,  or  to  buy  some  special  article,  has  in  some  districts  been  paid 
in  goods  he  does  not  want.  These  he  sells  in  the  local  market  for  what  they  will 
fetch,  and  imported  goods  may  thus  often  be  bought  more  cheaply  in  the  native 
market  than  in  the  neighbouring  store. 


COIN  CXTREENCY.  491 

go  to  pay  for  its  administration  and  development  works,  and 
be  collected  ia  the  form  of  a  tax  (whether  at  the  coast  as 
cnstoms  dues,  or  ia  the  interior  as  a  direct  tax),  it  is  for 
him  to  assist  in  converting  it  iato  a  form  ia  which  it  can  be 
readily  collected  for  revenue,  and  transmitted  in  payment 
of  iadebtedness  at  home.  The  Government  on  its  part  is 
able  to  afford  him  substantial  assistance  in  return  by  cashing 
his  bills  or  vice  versa  in  distant  trading  posts. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  observe  that  the  introduction  of  a  coin 
currency  is  an  immense  aid  to  trade.  Primitive  currencies 
such  as  cowries,  brass  rods  or  rings,  "  maniUas,"  &c.,  being 
heavy  and  bulky,  increase  in  value  the  farther  they  have  to 
be  carried  into  the  interior,  so  that  there  is  no  stable  rate  of 
exchange.^  Cowries  can  soon  be  eliminated  by  prohibiting 
their  import — ^for  they  rapidly  break  and  disappear, — but  to 
forbid  their  use  so  long  as  they  exist  would  be  unjust  to 
owners.  They  remain  in  use  in  India  to  this  day,  but  are 
reported  to  have  entirely  disappeared  in  the  trade  centres 
of  Zaria  and  Kano  in  Mgeria. 

It  is  important  that  the  lowest  values  should  be  represented 
— ^tenths  of  a  peimy  are  a  convenient  unit, — ^for  prices  rise  if 
the  unit  is  large.  The  Currency  Board,  under  the  able  chair- 
manship of  Sir  G.  Fiddes,  introduced  a  local  coinage  into 
West  Africa — ^though  in  the  interests  of  a  universal  Empire 
currency  one  could  wish  it  had  been  possible  to  retain  the 
British  coins,  whole  securing  the  mint  profit  to  the  colony.^ 
East  Africa  is  unfortunate  in  sharing  the  fluctuations  of  the 
Indian  rupee.  Notes  are  not  adapted  for  use  by  a  primitive 
people,  and  destroy  confidence.  Being  constantly  exposed 
to  the  weather,  they  are  soon  reduced  to  pulp,  and  they  are 
often  torn  in  half  to  be  shared  between  two  persons. 

The  subject  of  trade  departments  or  boards  in  the  colonies, 
and  of  home  agencies  for  the  dissemination  of  commercial 
intelligence,  is  one  which  demands  attention.  The  African 
dependencies,  owing  to  their  great  size,  have  special  need 

'  In  the  early  days  in  Nigeria  it  was  necessary  to  stabilise  the  value  of  the 
cowrie  by  forming  Government  reserves  at  different  centres.  Difficulty  was 
experienced  for  some  time,  for  a  soldier  could  not  understand  why  his  shilling 
was  only  worth  1200  cowries  at  one  station  and  2000  in  another,  though  its 
purchasing  value  in  food  might  be  greater  in  the  first  than  in  the  second. 

^  The  Board  was  established  in  1913,  and  in  four  years  (deducting  British  coins 
repatriated)  shipped  silver  coin  to  the  face  value  of  over  four  million  sterling.  The 
assets  of  the  Board  on  30th  June  1917  stood  at  £1,867,000,  an  average  of  £497,000 
per  annum.— Cd.  8883  of  1917. 


492  TRADE. 

of  a  department  to  co-ordinate  the  mass  of  information  on 
commercial  subjects  derived  from  various  sources,  internal 
and  external ;  to  supply  information  both  to  the  local  Govern- 
ment and  to  the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  Overseas  Trade 
Department ;  to  conduct  correspondence  with  the  Imperial 
Institute  and  Kew  regarding  the  commercial  value  of  potential 
products  ;  to  reply  to  inquiries,  and  to  examine  applications 
in  regard  to  new  enterprises.  For  this  purpose  a  special 
department  or  a  commercial  branch  of  the  secretariat  is 
required. 

It  woidd  be  the  business  of  the  officer  in  charge  of  such 
a  department  to  compile  information  "as  an  expert  for 
experts,  as  bases  for  an  active  poUcy,  and  not  merely  to  ex- 
plain changes  years  after  they  have  occurred."  He  should 
be  famiMar  with  the  publications,  the  pertinent  legislation, 
and  the  development  of  other  tropical  dependencies,  and 
have  an  expert  knowledge  of  and  touch  with  the  home  and 
foreign  markets,  and  be  competent  to  report  on  the  prospects, 
and  the  needs  as  regards  transport,  &c.,  of  any  district  (or 
any  special  product)  which  appears  to  offer  opportunities  for 
development. 

The  issue  of  a  trade  journal  or  supplement  to  the  '  Gazette,' 
with  useful  extracts  from  local  and  other  reports,  and  the 
prompt  publication  of  an  annual  trade  report,  could  not  faU 
to  be  of  value  to  merchants,  and  to  promote  the  trade  of  the 
colony.  The  latter  should  include  information  as  to  railway, 
river,  and  ocean  freight  rates,  postal  and  telegraphic  services 
and  charges,  and  terms  of  leases  of  lands  and  minerals,  as 
well  as  a  review  of  each  line  of  commerce  and  industry. 

An  Economic  Board,  such  as  exists  in  the  Sudan,  might 
usefully  be  instituted  in  all  the  African  dependencies,  espe- 
cially if  it  included  unofficial  members,  and  so  assisted  in 
bringing  together  officials  and  producers.  It  would  assemble 
from  time  to  time,  to  consider  any  important  proposals  re- 
garding trade  and  development,  and  advise  the  Government. 
It  could  meet  at  various  places  in  the  coimtry,  so  as, to  hear 
local  opinion  and  study  the  economic  needs  on  the  spot. 
The  report  of  the  East  African  Economic  Commission,  to 
which  I  have  frequently  referred  as  an  authoritative  state- 
ment of  the  views  of  the  European  community  in  that  colony, 
devotes  much  space  to  recommendations  in  this  connection, 
but  the  wide  executive  and  financial  powers  which  the  Com- 


FRENCH  CHAMBERS  OF  COMMERCE.  493 

missioners  would  confer  on  the  Economic  Board  would  seem 
— ^in  spite  of  tlieir  disclaimer — to  invite  conflict  with  the 
Government  and  Legislative  Council.^  Such  powers  would 
certainly  be  unadapted  to  West  Africa. 

The  French,  it  is  said,  refer  all  questions  relating  to  trade 
and  commerce  to  the  local  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  their 
action  has  been  held  up  as  a  model  for  British  imitation.  So 
far  as  my  experience  goes,  however,  British  Governments 
have  been  only  too  anxious  to  avail  themselves  of  the  expert 
advice  of  the  local  Chamber  ;  but  owing  to  the  fact  (on  which 
I  have  elsewhere  commented)  that  the  principals  of  firms 
are  not  themselves  resident  in  British  Africa,  and  decline  to 
aUow  their  representatives  to  speak  with  authority,  the  reply 
to  any  reference  from  Government  is  often  colourless, 
and  any  matter  of  importance  is  referred  home  by  the 
Chamber. 

A  French  Chamber  of  Commerce  differs,  moreover,  very 
essentially  from  a  British  Chamber.  It  is  formed,  not  by  the 
merchants  themselves,  but  by  the  Government  under  an 
Order  of  the  Council  of  Administration,  which  prescribes  the 
number  of  French,  foreign  ("  European  and  such-like  "),  and 
native  members,  with  elaborate  definitions  of  the  electorate 
and  the  conditions  of  the  annual  election.  The  Chamber  re- 
cently created  at  Lom^  is  constituted  under  thirty-seven 
articles.  Even  "  corresponding  members  "  (without  a  vote) 
must  be  qualified  under  the  commercial  code,  and  their  elec- 
tion is  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Commissaire  de  la 
E^publique.  It  receives  a  subsidy  from  Government  in  the 
form  of  an  addition  to  the  Ucence  fees  and  customs  dues,  and 
it  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  municipal  body  in  that  it  can, 
with  the  approval  of  the  Commissaire,  incur  debts,  and  collect 
taxes  or  rates  for  the  erection  of  buildings,  &c. 

I  venture  to  think  that  the  British  system  of  dividing 
these  duties  and  powers  between  a  Municipal  Council  and  a 
Chamber  whoUy  and  entirely  appointed  by  the  merchants 
themselves,  and  free  from  Government  control,  is  more  in 
accord  with  British  sentiment  and  practice.  The  question 
of  native  membership  is  then  left  for  their  own  decision. 
An  Economic  Board  such  as  I  suggest  would  ia  no  way  inter- 
fere with  the  local  Chamber,  though  its  unofficial  members 
would  no  doubt  be  drawn  from  the  Chambers  of  Commerce 

^  Report,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  23,  24. 


494  TEADB. 

and  of  Mines.  Its  merit  would  lie  in  the  fact  that  both 
oflBcials  and  unofflcials  would  be  better  able  to  tender  useful 
advice  to  Government  after  hearing  each  other's  views. 

The  report  of  the  East  African  Economic  Commission  re- 
commends that  the  proposed  trade  commissioner  for  East 
Africa  should  have  a  corresponding  agency  in  London.^  80 
far  as  the  requirements  of  the  European  settlers  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  perhaps  open  to  question  whether  an  agency 
under  private  control — which  might  possibly  include  the  func- 
tion of  disposing  of  produce  for  individual  shippers — might  not 
prove  more  useful,  and  less  Ukely  to  give  rise  to  controversy 
than  one  under  the  control  either  of  the  Board  of  Trade  or 
the  local  Government.  The  need  for  commercial  intelligence 
would  to  some  extent  be  met  by  the  suggestions  made  in 
chapter  ix.  (pp.  188-89). 

So  far  as  West  Africa  is  concerned,  the  annual  report  of 
the  London  Chamber  of  Commerce  states  that  "  it  was  unani- 
mously agreed  that  owing  to  the  totally  different  methods 
employed  in  the  carrying  on  of  business  by  merchants  in 
the  British  West  African  colonies,  as  compared  with  other 
dominions  and  colonies,  the  appointment  of  a  trade  com- 
missioner for  those  colonies  is  unnecessary,  and  would  be  of 
no  advantage."  2  The  Sudan  Government  maintains  an 
agency  in  London,  but  the  business  requirements  of  all  other 
African  dependencies  under  the  control  of  the  Colonial  Office 
are  now  transacted  by  the  Crown  agents. 

The  work  of  the  Crown  Agents'  Department  is  not  directly 
concerned  with  colonial  trade,  but  I  will  digress  for  a  moment 
to  discuss  the  subject,  since  it  has  some  bearing  on  the 
question  of  overseas  agency  and  the  market  which  the 
dependencies  afford  to  the  manufacturers  of  the  United 
Kingdom. 

The  system  has  been  vigorously  attacked  both  by  Governors 
of  colonies  and  by  the  colonial  press.*    Towards  the  close  of 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  29,  30. 

^  Report  of  May  1921.  The  trade  of  West  Africa  differs  from  that  of  most 
other  places,  as  pointed  out  by  the  Liverpool  Merchants'  Association  (October 
1921),  in  that  manufacturers  do  not  consign  direct  to  local  buyers.  Probably 
90  per  cent  of  both  import  and  export  trade  is  conducted  between  British  firms 
and  their  branch  houses.  There  is  very  little  if  any  c.i.f.  sale  of  exported 
produce  in  West  Africa. 

^  Sir  H.  Johnston  writes  that  "  the  out-worn  institution  of  the  Crown  agents 
must  disappear"  after  the  war. — 'African  World,'  17th  August  1918.  Mr  Morel 
speaks  of  them  as    "an  anomaly  which  ought  to  disappear,"  and  quotes  Sir 


THE   OEOWN   AGENT   SYSTEM.  495 

his  administration  of  the  Colonial  Offlce,  Mr  Chamberlain 
circularised  the  Crown  colonies  asMng  for  any  specific  com- 
plaints, and  left  it  on  record  that  ia  his  view  the  number  of 
these  was  small,  and  not  serious  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  colonies,  and  that  "  the  existing  system  had  beyond  ques- 
tion worked  weU  for  the  colonies,"  a  view  which  his  successor 
— ^Mr  Lyttelton — endorsed,  while  at  the  same  time  introducing 
some  modifications  with  the  object  of  making  the  Crown 
agents  more  directly  responsible  to  the  colonial  Governments.^ 
Criticism  and  complaint  has  not,  however,  been  silenced, 
though  it  cannot,  I  think,  be  denied  that  in  the  course  of 
years  the  agency  has  grown  in  efficiency,  and  the  old  com- 
plaints of  delay,  «&io.,  have  now  little  or  no  justification. 
The  chief  objections  which  are  taken  to  the  system  may 
perhaps  be  summarised  as  follows  : — 

(1)  That  colonial  Governments  are  compelled  imder  colonial 
regulations  to  obtain  aU  their  requirements — whether  they 
be  materials  costing  millions  for  railway  or  harbour  construc- 
tion, or  small  articles  costing  only  a  few  pounds — through 
the  Crown  agents,  and  are  precluded  from  calling  for  local 
tenders,  except  for  local  produce.  Some  relaxation  of  this 
rule  has  been  urged  in  the  interests  of  private  enterprise 
in  the  colonies,  but  the  general  principle  undeniably  has  the 
advantage  of  placing  in  very  competent  and  experienced 
hands  the  greater  part  of  the  capital  expenditure  of  colonial 
revenues.  It  also  ensures  a  preference  to  the  home  market, 
if  it  can  supply  the  goods  required — a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  United  Kingdom. 

(2)  That  though  in  the  words  of  Mr  Chamberlain  "  the 
able,  upright,  and  single-minded  service  "  rendered  by  the 
Crown  agents — ^who  are  paid  fixed  salaries  and  have  no 
pecuniary  interest  in  the  agency — ^is  absolutely  unquestioned 
and  unquestionable,  the  system  is  not  in  accord  with  business 
principles.  Colonial  criticism  of  materials  and  stores  pur- 
chased by  the  Crown  agents  can,  it  is  said,  only  be  directed 
to  quality  and  not  to  price,  since  the  colonial  Government 
has  no  means  of  knowing  the  range  of  home  and  foreign 

W.  Macgregor  in  support  of  hia  views. — '  Affairs  of  West  Africa,'  p.  31.  On  the 
other  hand,  Sir  C.  Bruce  ia  enthusiastic  in  their  praise. —  '  Broad  Stone  of  Empire,' 
vol.  ii.  chap.  xxi. 

^  Cd.  1944  of  1904.  In  view  of  the  frequent  questions  in  the  House,  Lord 
Crewe  appointed  a  Committee  in  1908  under  the  chairmanship  of  Colonel  Seely 
to  inquire  into  the  allegations.     Their  report  was  entirely  favourable. 


496  TRADE. 

prices,  and  does  not  see  the  tenders  made.  There  is  there- 
fore, the  critics  allege,  an  inevitable  and  natural  bias  on  the 
part  of  the  Crown  agents  towards  limiting  the  Ust  of  firms 
from  whom  tenders  are  invited  to  a  comparatively  few  of 
the  highest  standing,  with  prices  corresponding  to  their  re- 
putation (in  some  cases  wholesale  dealers  and  not  manu- 
facturers), and  to  incur  imduly  heavy  charges  for  inspection, 
&c.  One  per  cent  commission  is  charged  on  all  stores  obtained 
through  the  Crown  agents.  It  is  asserted  that  the  list 
of  tenderers  is  too  exclusive,  that  opportunities  for  purchasing 
bankrupt  stock  are  not  fully  utUised,  and  that  these  methods 
do  not  make  for  economy. 

(3)  Another  complaint  is  that  if  a  mistake  is  made  for 
which  the  supplying  firm  cannot  be  held  responsible,  or  if 
the  goods  are  not  suitable,  the  colony  must  bear  the  loss, 
since  the  Crown  agents  accept  no  financial  liability,  and  that 
such  mistakes — though  in  my  experience  they  are  rare — 
might  be  minimised,  were  the  services  of  expert  officers  of 
the  requisitioning  department  more  fully  utDised.  Indeed 
the  remedy  for  both  this  and  the  last-mentioned  complaint 
lies  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  colonial  Governments,  which 
should  direct  their  departmental  officers  to  keep  in  closer 
touch  with  the  Crown  agents  when  in  England.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  extensive  business  of  the  Crown  agents  some- 
times enables  them  to  dispose  of  unsuitable  stores  elsewhere. 

(4)  That  the  colonies  pay  a  substantial  sum — ^in  the  assess- 
ment of  which  they  have  no  voice — ^for  the  transaction  of 
their  business  (apart  from  commission,  inspecting  charges, 
&c.),  and  may  reasonably  ask  for  a  fuller  statement  of  the 
way  in  which  this  amount  is  assessed,  and  the  disposal  of 
interest  on  current  balances,  including  salaries  of  officers  on 
leave. 

Business  agencies  in  the  execution  of  contracts  and  orders, 
and  the  exercise  of  large  patronage,  are,  it  is  argued,  liable, 
in  case  of  failure  to  give  satisfaction,  either  to  the  termina- 
tion of  the  agency,  or  to  pecuniary  UabUity,  or  to  censure ; 
but  a  colonial  Government  can  exercise  no  option,  and  Parlia- 
ment has  no  right  of  scrutiny,  since  the  fimds  are  not  voted 
by  it,  unless  a  grant-in-aid  is  involved.  The  accounts  are, 
however,  audited  by  the  Comptroller  and  Auditor-General, 
and  in  theory  at  any  rate  are  passed  by  the  Secretary  of 
State. 


GREATER  LOCAL   LATITtTDE   DESIRABLE.  497 

To  that  section  of  the  Crown  agents'  business  which  deals 
with  railway  construction,  and  has  provoked  the  greatest 
criticism,  I  have  referred  in  the  last  chapter. 

Such  are  the  criticisms  to  which  the  Crown  agents'  Depart- 
ment as  an  institution  of  the  Empire  has  been  exposed. 
That  it  has  been  worked  with  singular  ability,  with  unvarying 
courtesy,  and  with  single-minded  devotion  by  the  Crown 
agents  themselves,  who  are  not  responsible  for  any  defects 
in  the  system  they  administer,  no  one  will,  I  think,  deny. 
In  all  banking,  and  operations  connected  with  the  issue  of 
loans,  they  have  earned  universal  approbation. 

The  Memo,  of  1904  states  that  the  Crown  agents  transact 
the  business  of  forty-four  colonies,  exclusive  of  various  mili- 
tary forces,  &c.  But  the  expenditure  of  single  dependencies 
Uke  Mgeria  or  Malaya  (including  loans)  would  to-day  repre- 
sent a  very  great  part  of  the  aggregate  expenditure  of  twenty 
years  ago,  and  their  general  business  has  proportionately 
increased.  It  would  seem  open  to  consideration  whether  in 
such  cases  more  latitude  to  colonies  in  the  transaction  of 
their  business  would  not  be  advisable.  The  Indian  Industrial 
report  criticises  adversely  the  parallel  system  of  the  Stores 
Department  of  the  India  Ofi&ce.^ 

1  Cmd.  51  of  1919,  pp.  126-130. 


21 


498 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

Necessity  for  economic  development — State-aided  enterprise — Railways — 
Research  and  propaganda — Functions  of  the  technical  departments  : 
{a)  Laboratory  research ;  (6)  Experimental  research ;  (c)  Propa- 
ganda and  instruction — The  native  staff — Practical  application  of 
research  results — The  Imperial  Institute — Advantage  of  free  native 
cultivation — Specialisation  in  dealing  in  products — The  evolution  of 
industrialism — The  indictment  against  Indian  policy — First  steps  in 
Africa  :  (a)  Preparation  and  semi-manufacture  of  exports  ;  {b)  Local 
substitutes  for  imports ;  (c)  New  local  manufactures — Employment 
of  native  capital — Industries  not  inimical  to  British  trade. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  record  the  statistics 
of  the  phenomenal  progress  achieved  by  our  tropical  African 
dependencies  in  the  last  two  decades,^  but  rather  to  offer 
with  diffidence  some  few  suggestions,  which  may  or  may  not 
commend  themselves  to  those  who  now  guide  imperial  poUcy, 
whether  officially  or  as  magnates  of  commerce.  I  had  hoped 
to  inaugurate  some  of  them  in  Mgeria  had  not  the  war  ren- 
dered all  such  projects  out  of  the  question. 

Writing  after  the  war  in  a  circular  despatch  to  colonial 
Governors,^  Lord  Milner  observed  that  "  it  is  more  than  ever 
necessary  that  the  economic  resources  of  the  Empire  should 
be  developed  to  the  utmost,"  in  view  of  the  depletion  of  raw 
materials,  and  the  financial  burdens  left  by  the  war.  Much 
of  the  existing  deficiency,  he  adds,  could  be  produced  by  the 
tropical  colonies  if  their  great  potential  resources  were  ade- 
quately developed.* 

>  The  table  and  note  on  p.  45  shows  that  the  total  trade  of  British  tropical 
Africa  had  increased  in  this  twenty  years  nearly  seven-fold,  from  under  llj  to 
over  764  millions  sterling. 

2  Despatch  of  11th  June  1919. 

3  The  potentialities  of  the  African  tropics  for  the  supply  of  raw  materials  and 
food  were,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the  chief  cause  of  the 
partition  of  Africa  among  the  nations  of  Europe.     Other  nations  have  proceeded 


STATE   AID   TO   ENTEEPEISE.  499 

The  Indian  Industrial  Commission  discusses  the  desirability 
of  GoTernment  "pioneering"  of  industries— viz.,  "the  in- 
ception by  Government  of  an  industry  on  a  small  commercial 
scale,  in  order  to  ascertaia  and  overcome  the  initial  diffi- 
culties, and  discover  if  the  industry  can  be  worked  at  a  profit, 
when  private  enterprise  is  not  forthcoming."  i  In  Jamaica 
we  read  that  the  priaciple  of  State  aid  for  enterprises  has 
been  accepted  "  with  the  object  of  inculcating  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  the  principle  of  co-operation  ia  every  phase  of 
industry."  Large  areas  of  land  have  been  acquired  by  the 
Government,  divided  into  holdings,  and  sold  to  the  peasantry, 
who  are  encouraged  to  improve  them  by  facilities  offered  by 
agricultural  loan  banks.  Such  iaducements  may  be  needed  in 
the  new  effort  to  develop  industrial  enterprise  in  India  (vide 
infra),  or  they  may  be  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  West 
Indies,  where  one  of  the  objects  in  view  is  to  check  emigra- 
tion (200,000,  we  are  told,  have  gone  from  Jamaica  to  the 
United  States  and  Cuba  in  the  past  two  years).  Moreover, 
the  education  afforded  by  the  advanced  system  of  agricultural 
colleges,  &c.,  has  presumably  evolved  a  more  scientific  method 
of  peasant  cultivation  than  at  present  obtains  ia  Africa. 

As  we  have  seen,  however,  ia  the  chapter  on  land,  there  is 
no  need  for  the  State  to  acquire  land  for  peasant  proprietors 
in  Africa,  and  the  commercial  banks  are  prepared  to  afford 
them  such  assistance  as  the  conditions  justify.  In  the  larger 
operations' of  commerce,  enterprising  and  wealthy  companies 
with  abundant  capital  are  ready  in  West  Africa  to  explore 
every  avenue  of  trade  and  development,  and  ask  for  no 

in  a  more  systematic  way  than  England.  When  the  United  States  assumed 
control  of  the  Philippines,  the  Chicago  University  commissioned  Mr  AUeyne 
Ireland  to  study  British,  Dutch,  and  French  methods  in  the  Far  East. 
Governor-General  Roume  in  French  West  Africa  sent  special  missions  to  England 
to  study  the  organisation  of  commercial  ports,  to  America  to  study  production 
and  trade  in  oils,  to  Belgium  and  Holland  to  study  commercial  exhibitions, 
and  to  Indo-China  to  study  political  problems.  The  German  Association  of 
Merchants  and  Manufacturers  (Kolonial  Wirtschaftliches  Komittee),  with 
Government  support,  sent  out  botanical  and  agricultural  expeditions  to  German 
and  other  colonies  to  report  on  economic  possibilities,  and  how  native  industries 
could  be  improved  and  increased  by  scientific  methods.  The  conference  between 
British  and  French  merchants  in  April  1920,  at  which  every  kind  of  subject  of 
mutual  interest  was  discussed,  and  standing  Committees  for  preparing  questions 
for  future  conferences  appointed,  was  a  new  and  practical  departure.  The  usual 
British  panacea  is  a  Royal  Commission  of  Enquiry,  as  advocated  recently  in 
Parliament  (August  1919).  The  results  of  their  immense  labours,  and  the 
examination  of  a  host  of  witnesses,  are  buried  in  the  pages  of  a  voluminous 
blue-book. 
1  Report,  p.  135. 


500  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

State  assistance  other  than  the  development  of  transport 
facilities  ;  adequate  educational  estabUshments,  both  general 
and  technical,  for  the  training  of  native  subordinates  ;  effi- 
cient research  departments  in  agricidture  and  forestry ;  an 
adequate  currency ;  and  co-operation  in  the  normal  sphere 
of  Governjnent  functions.  Private  enterprise  in  all  these 
branches,  including  banking  and  shipping,^  is  ready  enough 
to  provide  capital  or  service  if  the  prospects  justify  the  ven- 
ture, and  where  this  is  the  case  the  less  State  interference — 
whether  imperial  or  colonial — the  better. 

The  participation  by  Government  in  commercial  enterprise, 
whether  justified  in  order  to  pioneer  the  way,  or  in  such  excep- 
tional cases  as  those  referred  to  on  page  484  (coal-mines,  water 
transport,  &c.)  is,  however,  an  entirely  different  matter  from 
the  ioitiation  by  Government  of  development  works  such  as 
railways,  harbours,  irrigation,  and  roads,  which  fall  within  its 
proper  sphere.  In  the  less  wealthy  dependencies — and  even  in 
augmentation  of  the  resources  of  those  whose  financial  position 
is  strong — Imperial  guarantees  will  assist  the  mother  country 
by  enabling  the  colonies  to  undertake  such  remunerative 
development  projects,  which  otherwise  would  have  been  de- 
ferred, and  though  their  cost  may  be  enhanced  by  present- 
day  prices  of  materials,  the  benefit  of  immediate  construction 
win  be  reciprocal.^  I  shall  therefore  confine  myself  to  those 
matters  in  which  it  is  the  undoubted  function  of  the  local 
Government  to  co-operate  with  private  enterprise,  and  to 
suggestions  by  which  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  the  co- 
operation, as  I  think,  can  be  made  most  effective. 

In  the  first  place,  I  would  reiterate  that  the  foremost  of 

'  The  Commissioners  who  presented  the  Economic  Report  of  1919  on  East 
Africa  ask  that  "  the  United  Kingdom  in  her  own  interests  should  foster  certain 
products  by  arranging  ...  for  improved  shipping  facihties."  They  propose  the 
creation  of  a  chartered  bank  with  £2,000,000  capital,  financed  by  and  under 
Government  control ;  and  they  ask  that  the  capital  required  for  the  development 
of  the  main  trunk  system  of  railways  should  be  provided  from  Imperial  funds 
free  of  interest  for  fifteen  years.  Tliese  proposals  are  individual  to  Kenya  colony, 
and  since  they  are  fully  described  in  the  report,  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  them 
further  here.— Report,  pp.  26,  28,  35,  41,  and  42. 

^  Since  these  pages  went  to  the  press,  Mr  Churchill,  with  the  same  foresight 
and  imagination  which  guided  his  great  predecessor  at  the  Colonial  Office — Mr 
J.  Chamberlain — has  urged  the  development  of  the  Crown  dependencies  as  the 
best  way  of  meeting  the  present  crisis  in  trade  and  industry.  Loans  to  the 
amount  of  £20,000,000  will  be  floated  on  their  own  security,  and  the  Prime 
Minister  has  announced  (19th  October  1921)  that  Imperial  guarantees  will  be 
given  where  needed  for  further  loans.  This  policy,  says  the  city  editor  of  the 
'  Times,'  meets  with  the  cordial  approval  of  commercial  men. 


EAILWATS   AND   EESEAECH.  601 

all  requirements  for  material  development  in  Africa  is  rail- 
ways. Everything  else — even  research — ^is  subordinate  to  this 
prime  necessity.  Much  progress  has  been  made  in  these  two 
decades,  but  even  the  arterial  systems  are  still  incomplete. 
A  railway  in  Africa  is  bound  to  be  remunerative,  generally 
in  a  very  short  time — indeed,  sometimes  almost  before  it  is 
completed.  As  the  Under-Secretary  observed  in  a  debate 
on  the  Colonial  Oflftce  vote,  thousands  of  miles  of  railways 
are  built  in  the  Dominions  through  waste  and  unpopulated 
lands,  but  you  cannot  lay  100  miles  of  line  in  Africa  but 
it  pays  in  a  few  months.  In  the  Dominions  there  is  a  mUe  of 
railway  for  every  220  of  the  population ;  in  the  Crown  colonies 
and  protectorates  the  ratio  is  only  one  for  every  7700.^ 

The  financial  standing  of  most  of  our  African  protectorates 
is  sufficient  guarantee  for  large  loans,  the  interest  on  which  is 
a  first  charge  on  revenue.  An  imperial  guarantee  may — as  in 
the  case  of  the  new  ISTyasa  railway — ^be  granted  if  desired. 
It  wiQ  cost  the  British  taxpayer  nothing.  Wherever  there  is 
an  objective,  wherever  there  is  population,  railway  construc- 
tion will  pay.  One  great  difficulty  is  the  supply  of  the  neces- 
sary subordinate  staff — a  matter  to  which  I  have  referred  in 
the  chapter  on  education.  If  railways  are  built,  feeder  roads 
with  auxiliary  transport  will  grow  of  themselves. 

The  second  main  line  of  development  is  by  research — 
which  shall  "  systematise  experience  and  place  it  at  the  dis- 
posal of  private  enterprise  " — and  propaganda.  These  are 
functions  of  Government.^  The  agricultural,  forestry,  and 
veterinary  departments  need  to  be  greatly  strengthened  and 
brought  into  closer  and  more  fruitful  co-operation  with  each 
other  and  with  other  departments — administrative  and  educa- 
tional— on  the  one  hand,  and  with  commercial  agencies  on  the 
other,  so  that  they  may  increase  residts  by  combined  effort  in- 
stead of  overlapping,  and  keep  abreast  of  progress  in  the  home 
institutions  such  as  the  Imperial  Institute,  and  the  bureaux 
of  entomology  and  of  mycology,  and  the  home  universities.^ 

^  Colonel  Amery  in  debate  of  August  1919. 

'  Colonel  Amery,  in  a  letter  to  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce,  suggested 
that  they  should  supplement  the  work  of  Government  by  organising  research  work 
on  their  own  account,  and  either  endow  chairs  for  agriculture,  geology,  &c.,  at  the 
University,  or  form  a  Research  Association  under  the  Government  Industrial 
Research  Department. 

'  I  have  before  me  the  reply  of  the  Leeds  University  (dated  1st  February  1921) 
to  ' '  Lord  Milner's  suggestion  that  fuller  and  more  systematic  use  may  be  made 
of  the  scientific  and  technological  departments  of  the  British  Universities  in 


502  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  District  Officer,  in  turn,  should  ever  be  collecting 
data  as  to  the  resources  and  possibilities  of  his  proviace, 
submitting  samples  and  iastructing  the  people,  not  pressing 
the  cultivation  of  any  particular  crop,  but  informing  them 
of  the  demand  and  price,  and  assisting  the  technical  depart- 
ments in  making  known  the  elementary  truths  regarding  bush 
fires,  shifting  cultivation,  deforestation,  isolation  of  disease 
and  the  Uke,  and  in  outlying  stations  keeping  a  record  of 
meteorological  observations. 

The  objects  in  view  are  to  increase  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  the  economic  resources  of  the  country  by  new  discoveries, 
by  raising  the  standard  of  cultivation,  by  scientific  animal 
and  plant  breeding,  and  by  preventing  loss  and  destruction 
— ^whether  by  disease  or  by  wasteful  methods.  The  results 
obtained  by  research  in  India  are  stated  to  "  have  added 
enormously  to  the  productive  capacity  of  the  country."  To 
the  three  technical  departments  which  I  have  named  may 
be  added  the  geological  survey  now  being  undertaken  in  most 
colonies  for  research  in  miaerals. 

The  work  of  these  departments  faUs  into  three  more  or 
less  distinct  spheres  of  activity,  between  which  a  somewhat 
greater  discrimination  may  be  advisable,  as  weU  as  a  clearer 
appreciation  of  the  precise  object  in  view,  in  the  courses  of 
instruction  given  to  natives. 

The  first  branch  of  work — ^laboratory  research — is  con- 
cerned, as  Lord  Milner  says,  with  objects  whose  practical  end 
is  not  immediately  obvious  ;  with  the  investigation  of  the 
chemical  and  bacteriological  properties  of  different  soils,  and 
the  means  of  increasing  their  fertility ;  with  analysis  of  the 
qualities  and  possible  uses  of  new  products ;  with  the  assay 
of  mineral  ores  ;  and,  above  all,  with  ascertaining  the  cause 
and  checking  the  spread  of  disease  both  of  animals  and  plants, 
"  by  which  literally  millions  of  pounds  are  lost  each  year." 

carrying  out  researches  for  the  benefit  of  the  colonies  and  protectorates,  and  in 
recruiting  the  number  of  trained  investigators  required  for  that  purpose,  both  in 
tliis  country  and  abroad."  In  both  directions  the  University  promises  its  hearty 
co-operation.  By  the  invitation  of  the  Vice-Chanoellor  (Sir  M.  Sadler),  I  have 
myself  been  privileged  to  vievp  its  well-equipped  laboratories  for  research.  It  is 
recommended  that  research  studentships  should  be  endowed,  and  that  after 
completing  a  post-graduate  course  candidates  for  scientific  posts  in  the  colonies 
should  be  selected  by  a  system  of  nomination  rather  than  by  competitive 
examination.  "As  years  went  on  the  departments  of  the  University  would 
accumulate  a  wider  experience  of  the  conditions  of  the  various  colonies  .  .  . 
and  an  intimate  connection  would  be  maintained  between  scientific  investigators 
in  the  colonies  and  those  at  the  universities  at  home." 


EXPEEBHENTAL  EESEAECH.  503 

In  this  task  the  Empire  Cotton  Corporation  proposes  to 
assist  by  adding  to  the  local  staff  a  few  scientific  investigators, 
who  will  specialise  in  their  own  particular  line  while  remain- 
ing imder  the  control  of  Government.  Nothing  could  be 
better,  and  I  trust  that  many  large  firms  will  follow  their 
example.  The  supply  of  trained  investigators  is  by  no  means 
too  large,  and  their  time  should  not  be  wasted  in  lecturing 
to  boys,  or  merely  in  demonstrations  from  the  practical 
utility  standpoint.  For  this  pure  research  work,  the  African 
dependencies  do  not,  and  will  not  in  the  near  future,  supply 
native  candidates.  Eeference  libraries  and  study-leave  are 
matters  of  great  moment  to  the  branch. 

The  second  sphere  of  activity  in  the  technical  departments 
is  concerned  with  experimental  research  by  means  of  planta- 
tions, where  improved  varieties,  and  types  resistant  to  disease 
and  suited  to  the  climate  and  soU,  may  be  tested  over  a 
series  of  years,  indigenous  types  improved  by  selection  and 
by  hybridisation,  and  the  best  varieties  converted  into  species 
which  shall  breed  true  to  type  and  combine  the  various  im- 
provements ;  ^  or,  on  the  other  hand,  by  means  of  Uve-stock 
farms  for  experimental  treatment  of  disease,  culture  of  serums, 
improvement  of  stock,  and  so  on. 

The  central  institution,  necessary  alike  for  the  pure  re- 
search branch  and  for  continuous  supervision  of  experimental 
work,  should  be  located  where  the  greatest  variation  in  soil 
and  other  conditions  affecting  agriculture  and  forestry  are 
obtainable,  and  for  Uve-stock  where  the  best  opportunities  are 
available  for  the  veterinary  department. 

The  senior  staff  must  consist  of  highly-trained  specialists, 
working  in  collaboration  with  the  laboratory  investigators, 
and  themselves  conducting  practical  tests.  The  subordinate 
European  staff  need  not  have  the  same  scientific  knowledge, 
but  they  must  be  capable  of  recognising  and  diagnosing  dis- 
ease in  animals  and  plants,  of  arranging  and  supervising  ex- 
periments, of  imparting  instruction  in  practical  agriculture, 
forestry,  and  the  care  of  animals,  and  in  the  preparation  of 
produce  (whether  of  crops  or  of  hides,  &c.)  for  the  market. 

The  third  branch  of  work  of  these  departments  is  intimately 

'  Excellent  results  have  been  obtained  in  Nigeria  by  the  introduction  of 
improved  varieties  of  sugar-cane,  tobacco,  maize  ("Hickory-King"),  and  cotton, 
and  local  crops  have  been  improved  by  seed  selection.  There  is  an  eager 
demand,  and  the  native  is  learning  no  longer  to  reserve  his  worst  produce 
for  seed. 


504  ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

associated  with  the  second,  and  consists  in  propaganda,  and 
instruction — locally  by  means  not  only  of  the  British  staff 
(including  the  administrative  and  educational  officers),  but 
also  by  trained  native  instructors  touring  through  the  country, 
and  by  the  preparation  of  leaflets  deahng  in  simple  language 
with  each  special  subject ;  outside  the  colony  by  fuU  and 
adequate  reports  for  the  information  of  private  enterprise 
and  commerce.  This  branch  of  the  work  utilises  the  experi- 
mental plantations  and  the  live-stock  farms  as  object-lessons, 
where  the  results  obtaiaed,  and  the  lessons  to  be  learnt  from 
them,  may  be  conveyed  by  demonstration  in  new  methods 
and  improved  implements,  in  seed  selection,  preparation  for 
the  market,  manuring,  pruning,  grafting,  and  drainage,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  management  and  improvement  of 
stock  and  the  practical  treatment  of  diseases  on  the  other. 

Small  "  model  farms  "  are  maintained  at  various  centres 
throughout  the  country,  and  visited  periodically  by  the  staff, 
for  the  Like  purpose,  and  as  nurseries  for  the  distribution  of 
seeds  and  seedUngs.  Private  estates  conducted  on  scientific 
principles  and  under  skilled  European  direction  are  hardly 
less  valuable  as  models  for  natives,  and  private  stock  farms 
or  ranches  serve  a  Uke  purpose. 

It  is  particularly  desirable  to  interest  the  native  adminis- 
trations in  such  matters,  and  to  induce  them  to  institute 
similar  instructional  farms  for  themselves.  Indian  experience 
attests  the  value  of  practical  lectures  and  demonstrations — 
adapted  to  the  particular  district — ^but  regards  the  effect 
as  ephemeral.  Plantations  which  show  the  actual  results 
obtained  by  the  methods  advocated,  and  the  increased  money 
value  realised  by  a  successful  neighbour,  have  a  more  lasting 
effect  and  produce  a  demand  for  seed  distribution. ^ 

Agricultiiral  and  stock  shows  also  excite  interest,  and  help 
to  stimulate  co-operation  by  organised  bodies,  such  as  the 
seed  unions  of  Madras.  Prizes  can  be  given  not  only  for  the 
best  exhibits,  but  for  the  best  kept  and  equipped  plantations. 

This  branch  (viz.,  propaganda  and  instruction)  should  be 
supplemented  by  the  largest  possible  number  of  Africans 
who  have  passed  one  of  the  higher  school  standards,  and  have 
specialised  in  the  continuation  classes — ^in  one  or  the  other  line. 
At  this  stage  they  would  be  transferred  to  the  department 

^  Report  on  agriculture  in  India,  1916,  p.  66  et  seq.  ;  and  Indian  Industrial 
Commission,  Cmd.  61  of  1919. 


TEAINING  OF  NATIVE  STAFF.  505 

concerned  for  a  three  years'  course  as  paid  apprentices.  The 
value  of  this  class  cannot,  I  think,  be  too  highly  estimated, 
either  as  subordinates  in  charge  of  model  plantations  (agricul- 
tural or  forestry),  and  stock  farms,  or  as  instructors  accom- 
panying the  British  staff  on  tour,  and  imparting  instruction 
in  their  own  language,  or  as  technical  teachers  in  the  schools. 

The  attempt  to  attach  half-educated  schoolboys,  who  have 
evinced  no  special  aptitude  or  likiag  for  the  work,  to  those 
departments  as  "  learners  "  has  not,  in  my  experience,  proved 
a  generally  useful  one.  In  many  cases  they  resented  manual 
work,  and  were  too  ill-educated  to  be  able  to  benefit  by 
instruction  in  theory.  It  is  not  untU  a  youth  has  manifested 
some  incUnation  towards  the  work,  and  has  acquired  an 
elementary  knowledge  of  the  subject,  that  it  is  worth  while 
to  pay  him  as  an  apprentice,  or  to  spend  the  valuable  time 
of  the  scientic  staff  on  his  instruction.  A  special  class,  last- 
ing for  a  few  days  only,  to  a  gathering  of  headmasters  and 
teachers  of  schools  during  vacation,  may  have  very  useful 
results,  and  encouragement  is  afforded  by  granting  certificates 
of  proficiency  which  qualify  the  holder  for  a  small  increase 
of  pay. 

Continuity  on  these  lines  would,  I  hope,  in  course  of  time, 
by  the  creation  of  a  demand  for  agricultural  training  of  a  more 
advanced  type,  render  possible  the  formation  of  an  agricul- 
tural college,  but  such  an  institution  would  at  present  be 
premature  in  most,  if  not  in  aU,  of  our  African  dependencies. 
With  the  aU-important  question  of  elementary  and  practical 
teaching  of  agriculture,  forestry,  &c.,  in  the  primary  and  the 
village  schools  I  have  dealt  briefly  in  the  chapter  on  educa- 
tion. The  subject  should,  I  think,  be  a  compulsory  one  in 
Government  and  aided  schools  alike. 

Eesearch  and  its  practical  application  should  between  them 
include  a  systematic  survey  of  natural  resources,  and  their 
results  should  increase  the  diversity  of  the  commercial  pro- 
ducts, so  that  a  country  may  not  risk  disaster  by  being 
dependent  on  a  single  staple.  By  the  expansion  of  the  export 
of  ever-improving  raw  materials,  or  by  their  utilisation  in 
organised  local  industry,  the  prosperity  of  the  people  and 
the  revenues  of  the  State  may  be  enhanced.^    "  The  type  of 

^  A  good  example  of  the  results  which  may  be  obtained  by  organised  scientific 
investigation,  and  its  practical  application,  may  be  seen  in  the  flax  industry  of 
East  Africa  :  "In  1911  an  expert  in  flax  was  appointed,  and  his  work  during  the 


506  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

mind  best  qualified  to  undertake  scientific  research  is  pro- 
bably least  adapted  to  deal  with  commercial  matters,"  so 
that  a  link  is  required  to  connect  research  and  successful 
commercial  undertakings.  This  may  probably  be  found  in 
the  suggested  department  of  trade  and  industry,  whose  r61e 
it  would  be  to  place  the  results  of  scientific  inrestigation 
before  the  industrialist,  and  to  secure  for  them  the  test  of 
practical  applications.  The  agricultural  and  the  forestry 
economist,  and  agricultural  and  forestry  engineers,  are  no 
less  essential  for  practical  development  than  the  work  of  the 
laboratory  or  of  the  forest  conservator. 

In  the  Imperial  Institute  the  tropical  protectorates  have 
an  invaluable  agency,  which  combines  the  functions  of  re- 
search with  those  of  inquiry  as  to  commercial  utility,  demand, 
and  prices  in  the  home  markets.  The  scientific  departments 
abroad  can  work  in  close  collaboration  with  it,  submit  samples 
for  analysis  and  report,  and  refer  any  special  problem  for 
concurrent  or  independent  investigation. 

Its  able  director  would,  however,  be  the  first  to  insist  on 
the  vital  necessity  for  research  on  the  spot,  where  the  con- 
ditions necessary  for  commercial  success  can  be  studied  with 
abundant  material.  It  is  through  the  local  department  that 
samples  should  be  submitted  to  the  Institute,  with  carefully 
verified  data,  and  to  the  local  department  should  be  sub- 
mitted for  local  confirmation  the  results  obtained  in  England 
before  publication.  India,  the  Commissioners  consider,  has 
outgrown  the  uses  of  the  Imperial  Institute,  but  the  Insti- 
tute can  keep  in  touch  with  progress  in  India  for  the  benefit 
of  Africa. 

"  No  sound  policy  has  yet  been  formulated,"  says  Dr 
Barker,  echoing  the  dictum  of  Benjamin  Kidd,  "  to  ensure 
the  development  of  tropical  lands  in  the  interest  of  Europe, 
while  safeguarding  the  rights  of  the  native."  The  formula 
we  suggest  in  reply  is  :  "  Develop  resources  through  the  agency 
of  the  natives  under  European  guidance,  and  not  by  direct 
European  ownership  of  those  tropical  lands  which  are  un- 
suited  for  European  settlement."    As  in  the  sphere  of  political, 

next  three  years  clearly  showed  that  flax  culture  could  be  made  very  profitable. 
Pre-war  prices  for  British  East  African  flax  averaged  about  £50  a  ton,  but  vpith 
improved  knowledge  on  the  part  of  growers,  higher  prices  may  be  anticipated — in 
fact  a  recent  consignment  sent  home  realised  £220  a  ton,  this  being  the  current 
price  for  the  higher-grade  flax  on  the  home  market  at  the  time. " — East  African 
Report,  1916-17. 


PEASANT  PEODUCEKS  V.   ALIEN  ESTATES.  507 

80  also  in  that  of  material  progress — teach  the  native  to  man- 
age his  own  affairs  and  better  his  own  methods.  "  The  tropics 
will  never  be  developed  by  the  natives  themselves,"  says 
Kidd,  and  he  shows  how  the  mistaken  idea  that  the  British 
tropics  if  left  to  themselves  would  begin  to  exploit  their  own 
resources,  and  develop  into  modern  States,  resulted  in  the 
decrease  of  trade  in  the  West  Indies  and  Guiana  from  fifteen 
to  six  million  sterling.^  The  development  must  be  under 
British  guidance,  without  encroaching  on  native  rights,  or 
reducing  the  African  to  a  state  of  serfage. 

I  said  in  chapter  xiv.  that  as  a  cultivator  of  his  own  land 
the  African  will  work  harder  and  produce  more  than  he  wiU 
as  a  hired  labourer,  and  the  progress  made  wiU  be  the  more 
rapid  and  permanent,  and  the  output  cheaper,  while  labour 
difficulties  do  not  arise.  There  are,  however,  those  who  hold 
a  contrary  view.  The  late  Mr  Parquharson,  Acting  Director 
of  Agriculture  in  Southern  Nigeria,  whose  opinions  I  have 
already  quoted  as  those  of  an  able  and  original  thinker,  con- 
sidered that  the  labour  employed  on  native-owned  cocoa 
estates  was  inadequate  to  maintain  even  an  ordinary  standard, 
and  the  soil  was  exploited  and  impoverished.  Undue  profits 
were  made  and  spent  on  luxuries  instead  of  on  the  land. 
Large  blocks  of  land  acquired  by  coast  traders  were  left  to 
the  care  of  an  ignorant  headman,  the  labour  was  underpaid, 
and  the  owner  was  indifferent  as  to  the  quaUty  of  the  produce. 
Cocoa-growing  thus  tended  to  become  an  industry  in  the 
hands  of  large  owners,  and  not  of  peasant  proprietors.  The 
real  remedy  against  "  these  greatest  enemies  of  agriculture  " 
was,  in  his  view,  the  introduction  of  European  enterprise,  as 
proved  by  the  higher  prices  which  the  cocoa  of  the  Cameruns 
and  San  Thom^  could  command.^  In  his  opinion  education 
was  useless,  and  only  compulsion  would  effect  reform. 

The  Olustration  supplies  the  answer.  The  methods  of  San 
Thom^  and  the  Cameruns  are  too  well  known  to  need 
description  here.     Large  European  estates  cannot  be  worked 

'   '  Control  of  the  Tropics,'  pp.  35,  39,  and  52,  &c. 

^  It  ia  stated  that  native-owned  plantations  of  cocoa  in  the  Cameruns  are 
much  better  kept  than  those  in  British  protectorates,  and  that  the  cocoa  is  of 
better  quality,  since  the  natives  had  at  some  time  been  compulsorily  employed 
and  taught  on  the  German  estates.  The  German  policy  is  of  course  the  reverse 
of  that  for  which  I  contend  (see  notes,  pp.  391  and  397).  On  the  East  Coast  for 
miles  inland,  in  the  low-lying  tropical  belt,  and  in  the  West  on  the  slopes  of 
the  Camerun  mountain  and  in  the  coastal  regions,  permanent  German-owned 
plantations  were  formed. 


508  ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

without  recourse  either  to  imported  or  to  compulsory  labour. 
Estates  owned  by  native  absentee  landlords  who  have  no 
interest  in  agriculture,  and  acquire  them  by  foreclosing  on 
mortgages,  differ  essentially  from  the  principles  of  the  free 
cultivator  working  for  his  own  benefit  on  his  own  land.  The 
evils  of  such  a  system  as  Mr  Farquharson  described  are  not, 
however,  taherent  iu  native-owned  plantations  of  the  type 
to  which  I  have  referred  elsewhere,  under  the  supervision  of 
their  native  owners. 

But  no  one  will,  I  think,  deny  that  small  well-managed 
estates  in  European  ownership  are  invaluable  as  object-lessons 
to  supplement  the  efforts  of  Government ;  and  it  is,  as  Colonel 
Amery  declared,  to  the  advantage  of  Africa  that  they  should 
be  encouraged,  in  order  to  set  a  high  standard  in  centres  of 
native  population.  The  European  owner  can  often  co-operate 
with  and  assist  the  small  native  cultivator  by  purchasing  his 
crop,  grading,  packing,  and  preparing  it  for  market,  and 
transporting  it  with  his  own,  thus  affording  a  useful  object- 
lesson  to  the  native. 

The  advantage  of  speciaUsation  in  one  or  two  commodities 
is  worthy  of  the  consideration  of  merchants.  The  specialist 
would  select  areas  whose  soil  and  climate  favour  a  particular 
product,  and  confine  his  attention  to  them,  to  the  exclusion 
of  districts  less  favourable,  buying  all  of  the  product  which 
the  area  could  produce,  offering  prices  according  to  quaUty, 
and  taking  a  personal  interest  in  its  improvement  and  the 
increase  in  the  quantity  offered  for  sale.  The  Cotton-grow- 
ing Corporation  will  lead  the  way  in  this  field  of  speciaUsation 
— an  example  which  may  prove  invaluable  to  the  economic 
progress  of  Africa.  The  same  arguments  for  selection  and 
specialisation  apply  to  hides. 

Turning  from  these  questions  of  the  improvement  of  the 
exports  from  Africa,  let  us  consider  the  matter  from  the 
larger  standpoint  of  African  progress.  Since  we  have  accepted 
the  task  of  guiding  the  people  along  that  path,  we  must  con- 
template the  time  when  they  too  wiU  desire  to  manufacture 
for  themselves,  instead  of  remaining  dependent  on  the  fac- 
tories of  Europe,  and  we  have  seen  that  the  African  is  capable 
of  becoming  an  efficient  and  skilled  mechanic.^ 

1  The  Industrial  Commission  says  of  India:  "Her  labour  is  inefficient,  she 
relies  almost  entirely  on  foreign  sources  for  foremen  and  supervisors,  and  her 
educated  people  have  yet  to  develop  a  right  tradition  of  industrialism  "  (p.  4). 
The  words  apply  with  added  force  to  Africa. 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF  rNDUSTRIALISM.  509 

In  the  natural  evolution  of  industrial  progress  a  country 
begins  by  exporting  raw  materials  ia  exchange  for  manu- 
factured goods,  later  improving  its  exports  by  better  prepar- 
ation and  semi-manufacture,  and  finally  becoming  itself  a 
manufacturing  community.  The  self-governing  Dominions 
offer  strildng  illustrations  of  this  process,  but  India,  of  course, 
as  a  tropical  dependency  under  British  control,  offers  a  closer 
parallel. 

Whether  the  African  races  are  capable,  like  Japan  and 
other  races  of  the  Bast,  of  some  day  rivalling  Europe  and 
America  in  manufactures  requiring  the  highest  skill,  it  is  for 
the  distant  future  to  determine,  and  we  may  safely  leave 
posterity  to  deal  with  the  problem,  if  and  when  it  arises. 
Our  present  task  is  clear.  It  is  to  promote  the  commercial 
and  industrial  progress  of  Africa,  without  too  careful  a  scrutiny 
of  the  material  gains  to  ourselves,  that  we  may  not  incur  the 
accusation  of  having  inflicted  upon  Africa  "  the  grave  economic 
wrong  "  for  which  our  commercial  poUcy  in  India  is  alleged 
to  have  been  responsible  in  that  country. 

In  the  younger  dependencies  in  Africa  we  are  shaping 
policies  for  the  future,  and  if  in  the  material,  no  less  than  in 
the  moral  and  political  sphere,  we  have  benefited  from  the 
experience  of  the  past  and  enlarged  our  ideals,  the  principles 
upon  which  these  policies  are  framed  must  accord  with  our 
larger  horizons.  Our  reward  may  probably  be  misrepresentation 
and  dislike,  for  though  the  individual  benefactor  may  some- 
times meet  with  gratitude,  the  national  benefactor  never  does. 

The  indictment  against  British  commercial  policy  in  India 
is  formulated  by  the  Hon.  Pundit  Malaviya,  a  member  of 
the  Indian  Industrial  Commission,  and  supported  by  weighty 
arguments  in  his  addendum  to  the  report.^  It  has,  he  says, 
been  our  poUcy  to  encourage  the  export  of  raw  materials, 
and  to  improve  their  quality,  to  promote  trade  and  com- 
merce, but  not  manufacture  and  industry.  Instead  of  making 
India  strong  and  self-supporting,  we  have  in  our  own  interests 
as  a  manufacturing  nation  retarded  her  industrial  progress, 
which  had  already  reached  a  high  development  when  Europe 
was  uncivilised.  2    We  have  made  her  dependent  on  ourselves 

^  Report  of  the  Indian  Industrial  Commission,  1916-1918. — Cmd.  51  of  1919, 
pp.  245-300.  This  chapter  will  not  be  without  utility  if  it  avails  to  invite  the 
attention  of  those  who  have  not  read  it  to  this  report,  which  the  '  Times '  (10th 
December  1919)  describes  as  of  "epoch-marking  importance." 

^  It  must  be  remembered  that  Kano  in  Nigeria  has  also  for  1000  years  been  a 
manufacturing  city  trading  its  cloth,  &c. ,  for  raw  materials.     Its  sheep  and  goat 


510  ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

for  manixEactTired  goods,  and  undtily  dependent  on  agricul- 
ture, with  resulting  famines,  though  we  may  claim  to  have 
ameliorated  their  severity  by  railways  and  a  superb  organi- 
sation. 

The  Commissioners  deplore  "  the  laissez-faire  Government 
tradition  in  industrial  matters,  which  has  rendered  India 
liable  to  foreign  penetration  in  time  of  peace,  and  to  serious 
dangers  in  time  of  war."  This  has  been  due  in  part  to  "  the 
erroneous  idea  that  tropical  countries,  with  their  naturally 
fertile  lands  and  trying  cUmate,  were  suited  to  the  produc- 
tion of  raw  materials  rather  than  to  manufactures."  ^ 

But  though  we  may  admit  that  in  the  last  century  the 
industrial  progress  of  India  was  not  as  rapid  as  it  might 
have  been,  and  that  commerce  prospered  too  well  for  Govern- 
ment to  give  proper  thought  to  industry,  recent  years  have 
seen  considerable  developments  in  her  mills  and  power- 
plants,^  and  the  output  of  manufacttired  goods,  while  the 
lessons  of  the  war  and  the  poUcy  outlined  for  the  future  point 
to  the  opening  of  a  new  chapter. 

In  Africa  the  profits  to  be  made  by  the  production  of  raw 
materials  and  foodstuffs  are  so  large,  the  majority  of  the 
people  are  so  Uttle  advanced,  and  the  means  of  transport  and 
the  fuel  supplies  for  industrial  undertakings  so  little  developed, 
that  we  are  not  as  yet  called  upon  to  consider  the  question 
from  the  Indian  standpoint,  and  may  regard  the  futtire  of 
Africa  for  some  decades  to  come  as  chiefly  concerned  with 
the  development  of  her  agricultural,  pastoral,  and  mineral 
resources. 

The  time  has,  however,  already  arrived  in  some  of  the 
more  prosperous  protectorates  to  take  the  first  steps,  by 
seeing,  as  I  said  in  the  last  chapter,  that  the  raw  materials 
are  brought  to  the  most  finished  state  possible  before  export, 
with  the  object  of  increasing  their  value,  avoiding  waste  in 

skins,  beautifully  tanned  and  dyed  red,  had  become  famous  under  the  name  of 
"Morocco  leather"  (since  they  were  exported  by  sea  from  that  country),  and 
had  been  an  important  article  of  trade  for  centuries.  (Compare  the  "  ram-skms 
dyed  red  "  which  Moses  required  for  the  tabernacle. — Exodus  xxv.  5. ) 

1  Ibid.,  p.  6.  ,    .  J  ., 

2  See  the  Indian  Progress  Report  (No.  143  of  1919),  pp.  22,  105,  &c.,  and  the 
Report  for  1920  (No.  202),  pp.  96,  97.  The  Tata  Iron  and  Steel  works  alone 
produced  in  1917-18  nearly  |  million  tons,  and  saved  the  situation  m  the  war, 
exporting  to  Mesopotamia  and  Palestine  1800  miles  of  railway  track,  13,000  ft. 
of  bridging,  200  engines,  and  6000  vehicles.  Sir  V.  Chirol  ('  Times,'  19th  March 
1921)  tells  how  the  founders  had  to  look  to  American  assistance  for  the  inaugura- 
tion of  this  enterprise  in  the  face  of  British  apathy. 


FmST   STEPS   IN   AFEICA.  511 

preparation,  utilising  by-products,  and  decreasing  bulk  and 
so  saving  cost  in  transport  both  by  land  and  sea.  With 
these  objects  in  view  mUls  have  already  been  erected  locaUy 
to  crush  palm-kernels,  and  so  secure  a  better  quality  and 
nearly  double  the  quantity  of  oU.  Similar  miUs  for  dealtug 
with  ground-nuts  would  greatly  decrease  transport  charges, 
for  the  value  of  the  oil-cake  in  England  is  less  than  the  extra 
cost  of  transporting  the  undecorticated  nuts  from  districts 
like  Kano  in  the  interior.  The  oil  should  be  transported  in 
casks,  or  preferably  ia  tank  waggons  and  steamers. 

Railways  in  Africa  have  to  carry  excessive  loads  going 
seawards,  which  necessitates  empty  or  half-loaded  up-traias, 
and  so  adds  to  freight  charges.  Labour  would  also  be  saved, 
for  at  present  the  nuts  must  be  decorticated  by  hand,  or 
shipped  imdecorticated,  since  they  are  broken  by  machinery, 
and  deteriorate  unless  the  oU.  is  expressed  at  once.  The 
value  of  the  oU-cake  for  manure  or  fuel,  and  especially  for 
cattle  food,  would  be  considerable,  for  in  the  tropics,  towards 
the  end  of  the  dry  season,  the  village  herds  are  reduced 
almost  to  starvation,  while  the  large  nomad  herds  have  to 
traverse  great  distances,  and  congregate  in  the  marsh  lands 
to  find  subsistence,  with  consequent  increase  of  epizootic 
disease. 

Giimeries  for  separating  the  Unt  from  the  seed  cotton, 
and  hydraulic  presses  for  baling,  have  also  been  erected. 
Local  tanneries  for  the  partial  preparation  of  hides,  Uke  the 
"  East  India  Kips  "  from  Madras,  and  similar  treatment  for 
skins,  would  decrease  their  bulk  and  freight  charges.  By 
the  introduction  of  simple  industrial  processes,  aided  by 
machinery,  almost  aU  the  raw  produce  exported  from  Africa 
could  be  improved  in  quality,  and  labour  and  transport  charges 
reduced.  Many  products  at  present  neglected  could  also  be 
placed  on  the  home  market,  especially  from  West  Africa, 
which  is  only  about  half  the  distance  of  Calcutta  or  the 
Straits  from  England,  and  has  no  canal  dues  to  pay.^ 

'  To  the  African  merchant,  as  to  the  old  East  India  Company,  it  ia  not  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  whether  the  goods  he  exports  are  raw  materials  or 
manufactured  articles.  Vested  interests  in  England,  however,  declared  that  it 
was  a  mistaken  policy  on  the  part  of  the  East  India  Company  to  export  the 
latter.  The  new  departure  was  inaugurated  in  1905  by  the  creation  of  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce  and  Industry,  but  was  again  resented  by  the  European 
community  of  Madras,  as  being  an  interference  with  private  enterprise.  The 
"Swadeshi"  movement  was  directed  to  secure  for  India  some  of  the  profits 
accruing  from  the  manufacture  of  her  raw  materials. 


612  ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

By  the  adoption  of  the  same  principles  of  self-help,  these 
countries  should  be  able  to  render  themselves  independent 
of  many  of  the  articles  at  present  imported  at  great  cost  from 
overseas,  thereby  saving  their  revenue  for  internal  develop- 
ment. Hitherto  it  has  been  a  pernicious  tradition  to  order 
everything  from  England.  The  mother  country  has  no  need 
to  fear  a  diminution  of  her  market  by  such  a  policy,  as  I 
shall  presently  endeavour  to  show.  On  the  contrary,  the 
consequent  extension  of  railways,  irrigation  works,  &c.,  in- 
creases it,  and  even  the  older  markets  merely  change  the 
nature  of  their  demands. 

I  have  in  my  report  on  Nigeria  indicated  a  number  of  such 
local  industries.^  Cement — of  which  thousands  of  tons  are 
imported  annually,  a  demand  which  increases  with  the  ex- 
tension of  ferro-concrete  work  for  bridge-building,  piers, 
houses,  &c. — should  be  locally  made,  where,  as  in  Nigeria, 
lime,  clay,  and  coal  are  available.  Brick  and  tile  making 
in  properly  constructed  kilns  should  save  the  importation  of 
much  building  material,  and  improve  the  quality  and  per- 
manency of  the  houses.  Sawmills  and  carpenter  shops,  fitted 
with  up-to-date  power-driven  machinery,  should  utilise  the 
local  timbers,  and  render  unnecessary  the  import  of  shocks 
for  oil-casks,  doors,  window-frames,  and  furniture,  &c.,  while 
the  export  of  sawn  and  seasoned  timber  should  replace  that 
of  unwieldy  logs.  Simple  machinery  for  the  preparation  of 
fibres  should  result  in  an  enormous  saving  by  the  local  manu- 
facture of  twine  and  of  sacks,  of  which  millions  are  at  present 
imported. 

It  may  even  be  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  inaugurating  the 
local  manufacture  of  some  of  the  articles  in  demand  by  the 
natives.  Experiments  are  already  reported  from  Nigeria  in 
the  making  of  soap  and  candles  from  ground-nut  oil.  Already 
in  1914  Zanzibar  was  manufacturing  75,000  lbs.  of  soap 
a  month,  and  exporting  cocoa  -  nut  oil  to  Madagascar.^ 
Sugar  in  smaU  quantities  has  been  made  ia  Nigeria  by  West 
Indians  attached  to  the  Missions.  Improved  varieties  of  cane  ' 
have  been  introduced  and  done  well.^     Soda,  fire-clay,  and 

1  Cmd.  468  of  1920.  App.  VI.  gives  cost  of  local  tiles  in  contrast  with  other 
roofing  materials. 

2  Report  for  1914,  Cd.  7622  of  1915,  p.  11. 

'  Indian  reports  say  that  sugar-beet  yields  20  tons  of  white  sugar  as  compared 
with  15  tons  from  cane,  requires  six  months  instead  of  nine  to  mature,  needs 
only  a  fifth  of  the  irrigation,  and  no  manuring. 


ENCOUEAGEMENT  OF  LOCAL  INDTTSTRIES.  513 

sand  are  all  obtainable  in  abundance  for  the  manufacture 
of  glass  bottles.  It  will  not  be  till  later,  as  in  India,  that 
the  manufacture  of  cheap  textiles,  of  paper  from  bamboo 
and  other  wood  pulp,  and  even  the  production  of  "  power- 
alcohol,"  ^  will  become  practical  propositions  in  the  industrial 
development  of  Africa. 

The  encouragement  of  progress  in  manufacturing  industry 
is  the  counterpart  of  free  trade  in  commerce,  and  brings  its 
own  reward  in  extended  markets  for  higher  -  class  goods. 
The  attempt  to  suppress  local  industries  by  excise  duties  or 
otherwise  is,  on  the  other  hand  (like  a  restricted  market  for 
exports  of  raw  materials),  a  short-sighted  policy,  unjust  to 
the  people  for  whose  development  we  have  assumed  respon- 
sibility, and  one,  moreover,  which  fails  to  achieve  its  selfish 
object.^  These  industrial  developments  in  the  tropics  are  the 
more  necessary  under  present  conditions  of  labour  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  the  increasing  cost  of  transport.  They 
must  necessarily  be  initiated  by  Europeans,*  and  we  have 

'  The  Committee  which  reported  on  this  subject  in  June  1919  (see  also  the 
Beport  of  the  Australian  Committee  of  1917)  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
outstanding  and  fundamental  attraction  of  alcohol  as  motor  fuel  lies  in  the  fact 
that  since  some  of  its  chief  sources  are  found  in  the  vegetable  world  the  supplies 
are  continuously  renewed,  and  can  be  greatly  expanded  without  encroaching  on 
food  supplies.  These  sources  are  products  which  contain  {a)  sugar,  (6)  starch,  or 
(c)  cellulose.  Of  the  first,  the  flowers  of  the  mahua  tree  {Bassia  latifolia)  yield 
90  gallons  of  alcohol  to  the  ton,  as  against  20  from  potatoes.  The  tree  grows  all 
over  India,  and  should  do  well  in  Africa.  Of  the  second,  the  sweet  potato 
(Batatas  edulis)  and  yams  (Dioscerea),  maize  {Zea  mays)  and  casava  {Mainhot 
utUiitima),  are  all  common  African  products,  which  can  be  grown  in  unlimited 
quantities.  Of  the  third  the  supply  is  illimitable,  not  only  in  the  waste  of  the 
saw-mills,  but  in  the  scrub-growth  of  untilled  lands.  The  Committee  recorded 
its  opinion  that  "  so  far  as  vegetable  sources  of  raw  material  for  the  manufacture 
of  power-alcohol  are  concerned,  we  must  rely  mainly,  if  not  indeed  entirely,  on 
increased  production  in  tropical  and  semi-tropical  countries. " 

^  The  right  of  a  local  Government  to  impose  such  import  duties  as  it  may  see 
fit  in  its  own  interests  was  in  principle  challenged  by  the  opponents  of  the  Indian 
cotton  goods  tari£E.  The  British  Government,  they  argue,  refused  to  permit  the 
Bombay  manufacturers  to  establish  the  tariff  for  their  own  private  benefit,  in  the 
belief  that  free  trade  would  best  promote  India's  prosperity,  and  Indian  consumers 
thereby  obtained  their  goods  more  cheaply.  Their  opponents  maintain  that 
though  the  Indian  consumer  may  temporarily  have  to  pay  a  higher  price  while 
Indian  mills  are  in  their  infancy,  he  will  eventually  buy  more  cheaply  ;  that  the 
temporary  enhancement  in  price  is  more  than  compensated  by  the  encouragement 
afforded  to  Indian  industry  and  employment ;  and  that  the  tariff  was  undeniably 
imposed  in  the  interest  of  Lancashire  and  not  of  India,  as  proved  by  the  imposition 
of  an  excise  on  Indian-made  goods,  and  the  circumstances  in  which  the  tariff  was 
imposed  and  maintained  against  Indian  opinion. 

*  Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  getting  managing  directors  to  reside  in  the  country 
long  enough  to  give  the  necessary  continuous  supervision,  large  "  agency  firms  " 
grew  up  in  India,  consisting  of  several  partners,  who  took  turns  in  managing  the 

2k 


514  ECONOMIC   DEVELOPMENT. 

already  seen  that  the  desirability  of  "  pioneering  "  them  in 
India  is  recommended  by  the  Industrial  Commission. 

The  replacement  by  local  manufacture  of  goods  in  demand 
by  the  natives  (e.g.,  soap,  sugar,  &c.)  does  not,  however, 
increase  wealth  as  the  better  preparation  of  exports  does,  or 
save  revenue  and  so  lighten  taxation  and  increase  fuotids  for 
development,  as  does  the  local  manufacture  of  Government 
necessaries  at  present  imported  {e.g.,  furniture,  tiles,  cement, 
&c.).  Discrimination,  moreover,  must  be  exercised  ia  order 
to  avoid  deflecting  labour  which  would  be  more  profitably 
employed  in  growing  or  collecting  raw  materials  for  export 
than  in  competing  with  the  output  of  organised  industry 
and  power- driven  machinery  in  civilised  countries. 

It  would  be  the  object  of  a  progressive  industrial  pohcy 
to  interest  African  capitalists — and  there  are  not  a  few  who 
have  made  considerable  fortunes  in  trade — ^ia  enterprises  such 
as  these,  instead  of  hoarding  their  money  or  expropriating 
the  small  landholders  by  usury.  The  Government  would  seek 
to  induce  the  educated  classes  to  take  an  increased  share  in 
such  developments,  and  would  place  expert  technical  advice 
at  their  disposal.  It  would  train  native  foremen  for  positions 
of  responsible  charge,  and  would  encourage  local  industry 
by  local  purchase  after  eflficient  inspection  as  to  quaUty, 
irrespective — as  the  Indian  report  urges — of  whether  such 
purchases  might  compete  with  an  established  external  trade. 
If  our  object  be  to  employ  native  capital  in  native  under- 
takings, in  productive  industry  instead  of  exclusively  in 
trade,  and  to  overcome  the  aversion  from  industrial  pursuits 
which  characterises  the  educated  African  no  less  than  the 
Indian,  the  practical  system  of  education  which  I  have  advo- 
cated elsewhere  must  be  reinforced  by  adequate  opportunities 
for  industrial  enterprise,  larger  and  more  iadependent  than 
that  afforded  by  Government  workshops.  Progress  will  be 
slow,  and  there  is  no  occasion  to  hasten  it  unduly. 

WiU  our  captains  of  industry  in  England  to-day  take  the 
same  narrow  view  that  their  predecessors  did,  or  do  they 
realise  more  fully  their  responsibility  for  the  progress  of 
subject  races  ;  and  has  experience  taught  them  that  the 
due  discharge  of  that  responsibility  is  not  antagonistic  to 
their  own  interests  ? 

business  in  India  and  in  London. — Indian  Report,  pp.  12,  13.  It  would  be 
advantageous  if  African  merchants  did  the  same. 


LOCAL  INDUSTEIES  NOT  INIMICAL  TO  BRITISH  TKADE.    515 

The  development  of  industrialism  in  Africa  would  seem 
at  first  sight  to  deprive  us  of  our  markets,  and  to  Umit  our 
supplies  of  raw  materials,  but  experience  has  shown  that 
the  result  has  only  been  to  change  the  character  of  the  trade. 
The  creation  of  cotton-miUs  iu  India  deprived  Lancashire 
of  an  enormous  market  for  cheap  calico,  not  only  ia  India 
but  in  East  Africa ;  but,  as  a  leading  Manchester  merchant 
told  me  many  years  ago,  the  loss  had  been  made  good  by 
the  demand  for  textiles  of  a  better  quaUty  and  design,  to 
the  benefit  of  the  trade. 

When  factories  are  established  to  manufacture  the  cheaper 
articles,  which  formed  the  staples  of  their  earlier  needs,  our 
customers  have  required  in  their  place  the  specialised  tools, 
machinery  and  belting  for  these  new  factories,  and  the  iron- 
work for  buildings,  &c.  With  increasing  wealth,  and  an 
improved  standard  of  comfort,  they  require  fabrics  of  cotton 
and  wool  of  a  higher  class  than  they  can  themselves  produce. 
Imports  of  all  kiads  increase  with  prosperity  and  the  growth 
of  industrialism.  Our  trade  with  Japan  is  over  eight  times 
greater  than  it  was  twenty-eight  years  ago,  and  that  with 
the  United  States  is  two  and  a  half  times  its  volimie  in  1880. 
In  spite  of  the  industrial  progress  of  India,  she  still  exports 
large  quantities  of  raw  materials  to  this  country,  and  her 
trade  with  us  to-day,  though  differing  in  kind,  is  greater 
than  it  has  ever  been.^ 

'  In  the  half-century  from  1865  to  1918  India's  imports  increased  from  about 
25  to  110  millions  sterling,  and  her  exports  from  about  35  to  163  millions ;  her 
total  trade  from  about  60  millions  to  273.  The  import  of  cotton  piece  goods 
in  1917-18  stood  at  38  per  cent  of  the  total,  the  next  largest  being  only  10 
per  cent.  Of  these,  the  pre-war  average  from  the  United  Kingdom  was  98  per 
cent  in  grey  and  white  goods  and  93i  per  cent  in  coloured.  Her  exports  to  the 
United  Kingdom  were  26  per  cent  (to  the  Empire  53  per  cent,  pre-war  average 
42  per  cent)  in  1917-18.— [Progress  Report  143  of  1919,  pp.  99, 100.]  The  recently- 
issued  Report  for  1920  (No.  202)  gives  the  latest  figures.  The  import  of  cotton 
goods  has  fallen  to  28  per  cent  (the  lowest  since  1866),  but  of  these  the  United 
Kingdom  supplied  89'8  per  cent  (an  increase  on  1919  of  12J  per  cent),  Japan 
coming  second  with  7  per  cent  only.  The  share  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the 
total  imports  had  increased  from  45  per  cent  to  51  per  cent  (to  whole  Empire 
61  per  cent).  The  exports  to  the  United  Kingdom  had  increased  to  30  per 
cent  (to  Empire  44  per  cent) — (pp.  86-89). 


516 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  (Continued). 

The   economy   of  labour — Domestic   animals— Mechanical   appliances 

Irrigation — Reclamation  of  desert — Natural  power— Saving  of  waste 
—Staple  products— Oil-nuts— Cotton— Cocoa— Hides— Timber— The 
task  of  the  forest  officer — Destruction  of  forests — Measures  for  pro- 
tection— Reserves — Reasons  for  conservation — The  object  in  view  : 
co-operation — Other  methods — Other  products  and  possible  products 
— Ranching  and  stock-raising — Tsetse-fly — Preservation  of  game. 

I  HAVE  dealt  in  a  previous  chapter  with  the  subject  of  the 
labour  supply  in  Africa,  and  the  means  by  which  it  can  be 
augmented,  and  I  propose  ia  this  chapter  to  make  some  few 
suggestions  as  to  how  the  existiug  supply  can  be  better  utilised 
and  economised,  and  how  the  produce  of  the  tropics  can  be 
increased  in  quantity  and  value  by  the  resources  of  science 
and  the  saving  of  waste.  I  will  take  a  few  of  the  principal 
staples  as  illustrative  of  these  suggestions. 

Agriculture  is  the  most  essential  of  iudustries,  and  increase 
of  output  means  improvement  of  social  conditions,  and  a 
larger  demand  for  articles  of  comparative  luxury.  At  present 
the  yield  of  the  staple  crops  of  Africa  is  poor,  and  probably 
even  less  than  the  yield  in  India.  ^ 

In  the  economy  of  human  labour  the  use  of  domestic  animals 
stands  foremost.  I  have  already  dwelt  on  the  value  of  the 
ox  for  transport,  but  the  people  of  tropical  Africa  have  stiU 
to  learn  his  value  in  agriculture.  It  is  probably  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  half  the  population  of  the  East  would  starve 
if  deprived  of  the  use  of  the  ox  in  the  operations  of  field  culti- 

'  Sugar-cane  in  India  10  tons  per  acre  ;  Java  40  tons.  Ginned  cotton  in  India 
98  lbs.  per  acre ;  United  States  200  lbs. ;  Egypt  450  lbs.  Rice  in  India,  half  that 
of  Japan.  Wheat  in  Indi»  814  lbs.  per  acre ;  England  1919  lbs. — Indian  Industrial 
Report,  p.  53.  i 


ECONOMY  OP  LABOtTR.  517 

vation.  Since  men  alone  tend  oxen  in  Africa,  the  result,  as  I 
have  elsewhere  said,  will  be  to  replace  female  labour  in  the 
fields  to  a  large  extent.  When  the  ox  takes  the  place  in 
Africa  which  he  has  occupied  for  centuries  both  in  agriculture 
and  transport  in  Asia,  a  very  large  number  of  men  will  be  set 
free  for  productive  work. 

The  utilisation  of  domestic  animals  for  these  purposes 
obviously  depends  upon  the  simultaneous  introduction  of 
simple  appliances  known  for  at  least  3000  years  in  the  East, 
but  of  which  the  primitive  tribes,  and  even  the  advanced 
communities  of  Africa,  are  strangely  ignorant.'^  Of  these, 
the  plough  for  earth  work,  the  windmill  and  the  Persian 
water-wheel  {saMa)  for  Ufting  water  for  irrigation,  are  the 
most  ancient  and  simple.  They  may  be  supplemented,  and 
the  latter  perhaps  superseded  by  more  modern  methods  and 
appliances.  The  use  of  simple  mechanical  appliances  can  also 
be  extended  to  other  operations,  such  as  grinding  com,  crack- 
ing or  decorticating  nuts,  expressing  oU,  and  many  other 
tasks,  at  present  laboriously  performed  by  hand. 

Lord  Leverhulme  teUs  us  that  in  civilised  countries  the 
capital  invested  in  machinery  represents  more  than  90  per 
cent  of  the  cost  of  production,  and  human  labour  only  10  per 
cent.  In  Africa  the  proportions  are  reversed,  and  the  problem 
of  labour  education  is  how  to  reduce  this  proportion,  so  as 
to  make  greater  use  of  the  labour  supply. 

Of  imported  mechanical  appliances,  the  windmill  (already 
largely  used  in  European  gardens)  and  pumps  supplied  on  the 
hire-purchase  system  for  testing  before  purchase,  small  sugar- 
mills,  hand-gins  for  cotton,  and  continuously  operated  screw- 
presses  for  oil  extraction,  are  aU  within  the  compass  of  the 
peasant's  intelligence.  The  craftsman  should  in  like  manner 
benefit  by  the  use  of  synthetic  dyes,  of  mill-yarn,  of  sheet- 
metal,  and  of  sewing-machines,  and  many  other  aids  and 
appliances  for  his  "  cottage  industries  "  ;  but  I  am  here 
primarily  concerned  with  the  development  of  the  exportable 

1  We  read  of  the  plough  in  Deuteronomy  (xxii.  10),  1450  B.C.  Though  prac- 
tically unknown  in  tropical  Africa,  it  is  in  constant  use  by  the  Abyseinians. 
The  "  Meston  "  plough  has  been  found  the  most  useful  type  in  India.  Mr  Lamb 
(Director  of  Agriculture,  Northern  Nigeria)  is  however  sceptical  as  to  the  value 
of  the  plough  in  Africa — citing  Egypt  in  illustration — and  sees  no  great  future 
for  the  use  of  European  agricultural  implements.  The  use  of  the  plough  has 
become  very  popular  in  Uganda,  and  a  ploughing  school  has  been  established, — 
(Annual  Report,  1918-19.) 


518  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

resoiiTces  of  the  cotuitry,  and  these,  so  far  as  the  native  is 
concerned,  are  agricnltural,  and  for  this  in  the  tropics  the 
essential  factor  is  the  water-supply. 

It  is  estunated  that  there  are  in  India  3,000,000  irrigation 
weUs,  by  which  some  16,000,000  acres  are  brought  under 
cultivation.  But  the  African  cultivator — elsewhere  than  in 
the  Sudan,  where  he  has  to  some  extent  copied  the  methods 
of  Egypt— is  singularly  backward  in  this  respect.  With  the 
exception  of  the  weighted  lever  {shaduf),  by  which  water  is 
raised  5  or  6  ft.,  he  is  ignorant  of  any  mechanical  appliances 
for  irrigation,  the  benefit  of  which  in  the  arid  regions  subject 
to  drought  would  be  incalculable.  By  the  use  of  animal 
power,  with  the  Persian  wheel  or  with  rope  and  bucket  as 
ID  India  and  China,  by  deepening  existing  wells  and  digging 
new  ones,  by  imported  pumps,  by  boring  for  artesian  water, 
or  by  tube-weUs  (viz.,  pipes  driven  to  water-level),  the 
area  of  production  might  be  greatly  extended,  the  fertiUty 
of  the  land  increased,  and  many  a  crop  saved  in  the 
drought.^ 

Throughout  Asia  permanent  irrigation  channels,  led  by 
carefully-adjusted  gradients  from  the  higher  reaches  of  a 
neighbouring  stream,  often  many  miles  distant,  traverse  the 
cultivated  lands,  from  which  each  field  draws  its  supply  when 
needed.  They  have  existed  from  time  immemorial,  and 
often  stand  between  the  cultivator  and  famine.  In  Africa 
this  system  is  almost  entirely  lacking,  and  needs  to  be  in- 
troduced.^ 

The  Governor  of  Sierra  Leone  lately  intimated  that  funds 
had  been  provided  for  the  purpose  in  the  estimates  of  that 
colony  for  the  current  year,  and  the  extremely  sensible  course 
of  bringing  two  instructors  from  India  "  to  teach  the  simple 
processes  of  irrigation  in  use  by  the  peasantry  in  the  Bast " 
had  been  adopted.  "  Later,"  he  added,  "  it  may  be  possible 
to  make  reservoirs  and  canals  to  bring  large  tracts  under 
cultivation."  *  The  Governor  of  Nigeria  has  also  foreshadowed 
some  possibility  of  expenditure  on  irrigation  in  the  provinces 
of  Sokoto  and  Bomu.    I  have  already  mentioned  the  keen 

1  See  "  Note  on  Well-boring,"  by  W.  M.  Sohutte,  Bulletin  (of  Bombay)  68  of 
1914,  and  "Well  Waters  of  Western  India,"  Mann,  No.  74  of  1915. 

^  The  tribes  around  Lake  Baringo  (East  Africa)  form  an  exception,  and  have  a 
well-organised  system  of  irrigation  ;  there  is  also  a  simple  form  in  the  Taita  and 
Voi  districts. — Adm.  Handbook,  'Kenya,'  pp.  248  and  395. 

'  Speech  to  Legislative  Council,  25th  December  1920. 


BECLAMATION  BY  IRRIGATION.  519 

interest  of  the  Sultan  of  Sokoto  in  artesian  well-boring.  There 
are  immense  possibilities. 

The  creation  of  storage  reservoirs  may  in  some  cases  also 
provide  a  piped  water-supply  of  pure  water  for  large  cities, 
thereby  not  only  adding  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  the  people, 
and  decreasing  water-borne  diseases,  but  also  saving  labour 
in  the  carrying  of  water.^ 

How  even  the  arid  desert  itself  may  be  reclaimed  and  con- 
verted into  highly  productive  land  has  been  illustrated  by 
the  canal  colonies  of  the  Punjab,  and  the  extension  of  irri- 
gated land  in  Egypt.  The  same  results  cannot  be  realised  in 
the  greater  part  of  the  desert  tracts  of  Africa,  which  are  not 
traversed  by  mighty  snow-fed  rivers  like  the  five  great  streams 
from  which  the  Punjab  derives  its  name.  But  the  Nile  crosses 
the  Eastern  Sahara,  and  the  northern  bend  of  the  Niger 
touches  its  southern  fringe  in  the  west,  while  the  Okavango 
and  Cunene  may  yet  be  employed  to  fertilise  the  Northern 
Kalahari.  It  is  for  such  projects  that  the  services  of  the 
agricultural  engineer  and  irrigation  oflBcer  are  needed. 

French  schemes  for  impoundiag  the  flood-water  of  the 
Niger  iu  Lake  Fagabini  and  surrounding  depressions  near 
Timbuktu  are  estimated  to  result  in  a  water  surface  of  some 
500  square  miles,  irrigatiag  750,000  hectares  (2900  square 
miles)  for  cotton  cultivation.*  What  may  be  done  ia  a  small 
way  has  been  shown  by  the  results  achieved  by  an  observant 
District  OfiBcer — ^Mr  Edwards — ^in  the  Sokoto  province  of 
Nigeria,  which  borders  the  Sahara  desert. 

He  observed  that  the  mouths  of  the  various  tributaries  of 

^  Such  a  reservoir  for  supplying  the  city  of  Kano  from  the  Chalowa  river  was 
planned  before  the  war,  but  had  to  be  deferred  (p.  208). 

^  The  scheme  ia  stated  to  consist  of  "  a  barrage  across  the  river  and  the  digging 
of  a  canal  on  the  right  bank,"  at  a  cost  of  250,000,000  francs.  Such  a  scheme 
must  necessarily  have  a  very  serious  effect  on  the  navigability  of  the  lower  Niger, 
which  for  the  last  700  miles  flows  entirely  through  British  territory,  and  forms 
an  artery  of  communication  by  river-steamers  on  which  commercial  firms  have 
invested  much  capital.  Great  Britain  was  appointed  custodian  of  the  Niger 
navigation  under  the  Berlin  Act,  and  though  that  Act  is  abrogated  by  the  new 
Convention  of  10th  September  1919  (except  as  regards  Article  1  of  that  Conven- 
tion, which  establishes  the  principle  of  free  trade  within  an  area  therein  defined), 
the  principles  of  the  navigation  clauses  of  the  Berlin  Act  are  re-enacted,  with  the 
general  object  of  facilitating  the  navigation  of  the  Niger  and  Congo. 

One  seems  to  recollect,  at  the  time  of  the  British  conquest  of  the  Sudan,  that 
the  French  protested  against  the  possibility  of  restrictions  of  the  supply  of  the 
Nile  water  to  Egypt,  and  were  the  position  reversed  there  is  little  doubt  that  the 
French  would  take  exception  to  the  claim  of  a  Power  controlling  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  Niger  to  construct  a  barrage,  and  deflect  so  large  a  volume  of  water. 


520  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

the  Sokoto  river-bed  had  become  blocked  by  detritus,  and 
the  resulting  lakes  had  in  turn  become  filled  with  sediment 
and  finally  dried  up,  so  that  the  river  level  was  higher  than 
surrounding  areas  of  land.  By  cutting  a  series  of  short  chan- 
nels only  a  few  hundred  yards  long,  he  reflooded  these  de- 
pressions, creating  reservoirs  totalling  3000  acres,  with  a 
storage  of  20,000,000  cubic  yards  of  water,  to  the  immense 
benefit  of  agriculture.^ 

The  seriousness  of  this  problem  of  irrigation  is  enhanced 
by  the  increasing  desiccation  of  the  continent,  and  the  en- 
croachment of  the  desert  on  the  cultivated  lands.^  This 
disastrous  retrogression  from  productive  output  is  no  doubt 
assisted  by  the  ruthless  destruction  of  forest  trees,  which  has 
decreased  the  rainfaU.  Some  years  ago  Mr  Theodore  Bent 
attributed  the  desiccation  of  the  Eastern  Sudan  to  "  the 
Arab  and  his  axe  " — viz.,  the  indiscriminate  felling  of  trees 
for  camel  fodder.  ^ 

The  utilisation  of  natural  power  belongs  to  a  later  stage 
of  industrial  progress,  but  it  is  not  too  soon,  as  Lord  Milner 
has  pointed  out,  for  each  Government  to  make  a  survey  of  its 
resources  in  water-power,  and  rough  estimates  of  the  cost  of 
utilising  such  waterfalls,  natural  or  artificial,  as  would  supply 
power  by  electric  transmission,  especially  for  existing  railway 
and  other  workshops. 

In  seeking  to  develop  the  economic  resources  of  a  country, 
the  efforts  of  Government  will  be  directed  not  only  to  in- 
creasing productivity,  but  to  saving  waste.  The  native  culti- 
vator will  be  taught  the  value  of  by-products,  and  the  neces- 

'  '  Geographical  Journal,'  August  1918,  March  1919,  and  December  1920. 

'^  "  The  evidence  is  held  to  be  incontestable  that  the  Sahara  desert  within  the 
historic  period,  and  the  Kalahari  much  more  recently,  were  weU  watered  and 
thickly  populated." — Ibid.,  February  1919.  I  have  myself  witnessed  the  rapid 
encroachment  of  the  desert  in  both  cases.  The  Resident  of  Sokoto  (Mr  Arnett) 
writes  :  "  Whether  we  consider  merely  what  we  have  seen  from  year  to  year  with 
our  own  eyes,  or  examine  what  has  been  happening  during  past  decades  or  past 
centuries,  there  are  the  same  processes  in  operation, — the  drying  up  of  rivers, 
streams,  and  lakes,  the  diminishing  rainfall,  the  dying  out  of  large  forests  and 
their  replacement  by  poor  scrub,  the  increase  in  area  where  crops  will  not  grow, 
and  the  gradual  decline  in  yield  on  the  best-watered  parts ;  lastly,  the  never-ceasing 
movement  of  races,  tribes,  families  and  individuals  from  north  to  south."  There 
is  ample  evidence  that  all  of  the  Central  African  lakes  are  shrinking,  and  traces  of 
ancient  beaches  can  be  found  far  inland  at  much  higher  levels. — See  Handbook, 
'  Kenya,'  p.  122,  &c. 

'  In  Nigeria  stringent  regulations  prohibit  this  practice.  Forest  reserves  of 
over  1000  square  miles  have  been  created  in  the  Sokoto  province  alone,  and  artesian 
boring  is  to  be  tried. 


PEEVENTION   OF  WASTE.  521 

sity  for  conserving  fuel  supplies.  I  have  in  this  connection 
referred  to  the  destructive  processes  of  "shifting  cultiva- 
tion" (p.  299),  to  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil  by  bush 
fires,  to  preventible  diseases  in  live-stock  (from  which  it  is 
estimated  that  £1,000,000  is  lost  yearly  in  East  Africa),^ 
to  plant  diseases,  to  the  waste  in  methods  of  preparation  of 
produce  for  export,  and  to  the  neglect  of  by-products.  All 
these  and  many  others  which  affect  the  animal  and  vegetable 
products  of  AMca  call  for  thought  and  remedial  action,  by 
education  of  the  natives  through  Government  agencies  in 
co-operation  with  merchants,  and  especially  by  interesting 
and  instructing  the  native  administrations. 

In  the  exploitation  of  minerals  the  terms  of  leases  and 
licences  must  ensure  that  wasteful  methods  are  not  employed, 
by  the  exhaustion  of  the  richest  "  pockets  "  of  alluvial  fields 
— "  picking  the  eyes  out  of  the  country,"  as  the  phrase  is — 
which  ought  to  pay  for  the  systematic  working  of  the  whole 
area,  and  that  adequate  development  work  is  done  by  those 
whose  profits  are  considerable.  If  properly  qualified  men  are 
employed  by  the  mining  companies  ;  if  licences  and  leases  are 
granted  on  short  terms,  renewable  for  good  work ;  if  short- 
term  simple  leases,  unlDurdened  by  onerous  conditions,  are 
obtainable  by  the  small  capitalist ;  and  if  the  Government 
Inspectorate  Staff  is  adequate  and  capable — ^much  will  have 
been  done  to  ensure  the  careful  exploitation  of  an  alluvial 
mine-field. 

I  have  neither  space  nor  am  I  competent  to  discuss  in 
detail  the  chief  products  of  tropical  Africa  and  the  means 
by  which  the  quality  of  each  might  be  improved.  In  this 
paragraph  I  will  merely  recapitulate,  in  illustration  of  the 
ways  in  which  waste  may  be  avoided  and  output  increased, 
some  of  the  suggestions  already  made  regarding  them. 

Eecent  discoveries  regarding  the  hardening  of  oil  by  hydro- 
genation,  while  increasing  the  value  of  certain  vegetable 
oils  by  rendering  them  suitable  for  the  manufacture  of  mar- 
garine, has  accentuated  the  competition  of  inferior  fish-oils 
for  the  same  purpose.  The  fatty  acids  increase  when  im- 
purified  oil  is  kept,  and  they  reduce  the  glycerine  content  and 
the  value  of  the  oil.  Only  the  oil  extracted  from  the  kernels 
("  kemel-oU  ")  has  hitherto  been  used  for  edible  purposes, 
but  recent  processes  of  refining  have  rendered  the  oil  from 

1  Economic  Report,  loc.  cit,  p.  20. 


522  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

the  fruit  itself  ("  palm-oil ")  available  for  margarine.^  The 
world's  competition  for  fresh  oils  for  edible  purposes,  as  well 
as  for  soap-maMng,  candles,  and  lubricants,  is  likely  to 
become  increasingly  keen,  and  Africa  must  adopt  improved 
methods  t£  she  means  to  hold  her  own.  Properly-organised 
plantations  of  oil-palms  must  replace  the  haphazard  collection 
of  the  wild  forests,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  rubber. 
The  Dutch  are  making  a  vast  experiment  in  the  intensive 
culture  of  the  oil-palm  in  the  East  Indian  Archipelago,  and 
already  claim  to  produce  more  cheaply  than  West  Africa. 
Local  mills  for  expressing  the  oil,^  the  use  of  hand  appli- 
ances for  cracking  the  nuts,  and  in  districts  distant  from 
means  of  transport  the  use  of  hand-presses,  should  result  in 
improved  quality,  in  economy  of  labour,  and  of  bulk  and 
weight,  while  providing  cake  for  feeding  local  stock  and  for 
manure.  In  the  report  of  the  Edible  Nuts  Committee  will 
be  found  a  very  great  deal  of  useful  information  on  this 
subject.^  Legislation,  strictly  enforced,  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent the  tapping  of  the  stem  for  liquor — a  more  lucrative 
product  than  the  oil  when  transport  charges  are  heavy.* 
The  value  of  this  product  is  very  great. ^ 

Biardly  less  important  than  palm  products — ^in  the  future 
if  not  in  the  present — ^is  cotton.  The  bibliography  of  Empire- 
grown  cotton  is  already  becoming  portentous,  as  a  reference 
to  the  list  of  publications  on  p.  59  of  the  exhaustive  report 
of  the  Empire  Cotton  Committee  will  show.^  The  main 
problem  in  the  development  of  cotton-growing  for  export 
is  to  ensure  that  it  shall  be  at  least  as  lucrative  a  crop  to  the 

'  Mr  Tingey,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  Rubber  Exhibition  in  June  1921,  atates 
that  if  the  fatty  acids  exceed  10  per  cent,  palm-oil  cannot  be  profitably  used  for 
edible  purposes  ;  at  present  they  may  be  anything  from  14  per  cent  to  70  per  cent. 

2  The  chief  difficulty  lies  in  getting  adequate  supplies  of  fresh  fruit  to  keep  a 
mill  going.  To  supply  5  tons  a  day  for  200  days  in  the  year  is  estimated  to 
require  30,000  trees,  covering  at  least  400  acres,  and  a  large  and  regular  labour 
supply.  Native  methods  only  extract  about  12  per  cent  of  the  17  per  cent  to 
20  per  cent  of  oil  contained  in  the  fruit. — '  Imperial  Institute  Bulletin,'  September 
1917,  &c. 

3  Cd.  8248  of  1916.     See  also  the  many  references  given  in  the  bulletin  quoted. 
*  The  process  is  known  as  "  cabbage  tapping,"  and  is  opposed  to  native  lav?  and 

custom.     Tapping  by  an  incision  in  the  flower-stalk  does  not  injure  the  tree. 

>  The  quantity  of  palm-oil  and  kernels  exported  from  Nigeria  alone  in  1919  was 
318,000  tons,  valued  at  £9,200,000.  Between  1900  and  1913  exports  increased 
from  IJ  to  5  million  sterling. — Foreign  Office  Handbook  94,  p.  45. 

8  Cmd.  523  of  1920.  See  also  Appendix  B  of  the  Indian  Report  (Cmd.  51, 
1919).  These  two  reports  form  landmarks  in  the  history  of  Empire  cotton-grow- 
ing, and  formulate  a  policy. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  COTTON.  523 

cultivator  as  ground-nuts  and  other  exportable  products 
which  are  attended  with  less  risk  of  failure  from  climate  or 
disease.  This,  as  Mr  M'Connell  pointed  out  in  his  excellent 
paper  at  the  Eoyal  Colonial  Institute,^  can  be  achieved  by 
growing  the  varieties  which  command  the  best  price  and 
yield  the  highest  percentage  of  Mnt ;  by  obtaioing  the  largest 
possible  output  per  acre  ;  and  by  reducing  charges  in  con- 
nection with  transport  and  marketing.  The  two  former  are 
matters  of  research  and  experiment ;  the  latter  may  be 
effected  by  the  adoption  of  some  of  the  suggestions  I  have 
already  made  regarding  labour  and  transport.  I  add  a  few 
further  tentative  suggestions  in  regard  to  this  particular  crop. 

In  districts  which  offer  every  inducement  for  cotton- 
growing  except  population,  a  scheme  of  colonisation  by  im- 
migration from  congested  districts  might,  under  the  auspices 
of  a  powerful  organisation  such  as  the  Empire  Cotton  Cor- 
poration, prove  of  value,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  local 
Government.  A  deputation  of  village  headmen  having  ap- 
proved the  site,  free  transport  and  temporary  food  suppUes 
woidd  be  provided  for  the  immigrants,  with  the  requisite 
cotton-seed. 

Ginneries  and  pressing  machinery  should  be  estabhshed  in 
the  centre  of  cotton-producing  areas,  and  not  on  the  railway, 
with  a  view  to  minimising  transport,  since  the  seed  cotton  is 
more  than  three  times  the  weight,  and  perhaps  a  hundred 
times  the  bulk,  of  the  pressed  bales  of  Unt.  These  can  easily 
be  carried  by  mechanical  transport  from  the  ginnery  to  the 
railway,  thus  saving  time  and  cost  to  the  cidtivator,  while 
the  seed  has  not  to  be  retransported  back  again.  The  ginnery 
should,  if  possible,  be  driven  by  water-power. 

Imported  cloth,  if  cheap  and  strong,  decreases  the  demand 
for  raw  cotton  for  local  weaving.  Hew  incentives  to  the 
cultivation  of  cotton  would  be  afforded  by  faculties  for  in- 
suring the  crop  against  disease  and  drought,  so  as  to  reduce 
the  risk  to  the  cultivator.  This  might  perhaps  be  effected 
through  the  local  banks. 

Eisks  from  drought  may  be  further  reduced  by  the  partial 
irrigation  of  rain-grown  cotton — viz.,  by  irrigation  only  in 
the  driest  weeks,  to  save  the  crop  in  case  of  prolonged  drought. 
This  can  be  done  by  the  methods  and  appliances  I  have  sug- 
gested, and  the  knowledge  that  he  had  such  means  at  his 

^  See  'United  Empire'  for  April  1921. 


524  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

disposal  for  saving  his  crop  would  no  doubt  do  much  to 
popularise  the  cultivation  of  cotton  with  the  peasant  culti- 
vator. Cotton  already  enjoys  the  advantage  of  being  a  later 
crop  than  the  main  staples,  so  that  the  cultivator  is  able  to 
turn  his  attention  to  it  when  they  are  already  harvested. 
Arrangements  for  collecting  direct  from  the  growers,  so  as  to 
exclude  the  middleman's  profit— for  which  he  often  renders 
Uttle  or  no  equivalent  service — are  advisable.  For  this  pur- 
pose I  think  the  hand-propelled  ped-raU,  which  I  have  de- 
scribed in  the  chapter  on  transport,  would  be  very  useful — 
for  its  pressure  when  loaded  is  only  6  lb.  to  the  square  inch, 
and  it  can  be  taken  over  growing  crops  without  injuring 
them. 

Since  the  peasant  cultivator  is  more  influenced  by  the 
success  of  his  neighbour  than  by  any  amount  of  advice,  it 
may  be  useful  to  guarantee  a  few  selected  planters  against 
loss  if  they  wiU  grow  improved  varieties  under  prescribed 
conditions.  In  Nigeria  the  native  administrations  have  been 
encouraged  to  pass  by-laws  prohibiting  the  sowing  of  any 
but  the  authorised  seed  in  specified  districts,  in  order  to 
prevent  hybridisation,  and  deterioration  of  a  successful  exotic 
variety.^  It  is  most  essential  that  the  cultivator  should  be 
guaranteed  a  minimum  price  over  a  period  of  time,^  and  that 
he  should  be  assured  of  a  market  at  that  price  for  all  the 
cotton  he  can  grow.^ 

'  As  regards  Nigeria  some  suggestions  will  be  found  in  my  report  (Cmd.  468, 
1920).  The  Chad  region  offers  great  possibilities  for  irrigation.  The  Shuwa  Arabs 
are  very  intelligent,  and  understand  something  of  irrigation.  Their  higher 
standard  of  life  is  an  incentive  to  earn  money.  Their  ex-slaves  are  now  casual 
labourers.  The  extension  of  the  railway  to  Chad  is  under  consideration.  There 
are  extensive  areas  in  this  district  suitable  and  available  for  cotton,  and  a  tolerably 
good  labour  supply.  Zaria  is  the  headquarters  of  the  cotton  industry.  Irrigation 
from  the  Chalowa  and  Hadeija  rivers  should  increase  the  yield.  "  Allen's  "  variety 
has  been  introduced,  and  the  quantity  exported  has  increased  very  rapidly.  It 
should  gradually  supersede  all  native  cotton.  Sokoto  cotton  is  mostly  carried  to 
Zaria,  246  miles.  The  completion  of  the  main  trunk  road  will  render  wheeled 
transport  possible,  and  lorries  can  obtain  a  load  both  ways — thus  greatly  reducing 
cost — since  there  are  large  cities  along  the  route.  The  provinces  of  Kontagora 
and  Borgu  afford  large  areas  suitable  for  cotton,  but  the  difficulty  here  is  lack  of 
population  and  labour  owing  to  the  slave-raiding  of  the  past.  The  eradication  of 
venereal  disease,  and  a  greater  yield  of  foodstuffs  per  acre,  by  improved  varieties 
and  labour-saving  methods,  are,  as  I  have  said,  the  remedies. 

^  For  lint  cotton  which  commands  a  price  of  5d.  per  lb.  in  Liverpool,  Id.  per 
lb.  (seed  cotton)  can  be  given  in  Nigeria,  and  so  in  proportion. 

'  Complaints  are  made  that  although  the  natives  have  been  urged  to  grow 
cotton,  Lancashire  is  not  willing  to  purchase  it  if  American  cotton  is  plentiful. 
Sir  H.  Leggett  states  that  out  of  50  000  bales  of  the  Uganda  crop  of  1920  only 


IMPORTANCE  OP  INOEEASING  THE  OUTPUT.      525 

With  the  important  question  of  directing  the  crop  to  British 
markets  I  have  dealt  in  chapter  xiii.  (pp.  271-72).  The  most 
promising  solution  seems  to  be  that  adopted  in  the  Sudan 
with  the  Gezireh,  Kassala,  and  Tokar  cotton  crops,  where  a 
system  of  tripartite  profit-sharing  has  been  introduced  with 
success  between  the  Government,  which  provides  the  water 
for  irrigation,  private  enterprise  which  furnishes  the  capital, 
and  the  natives  who  undertake  the  labour.  Cotton-growing 
is  essentially  a  native  industry,  and  the  best  results  have  been 
obtained  where  this  is  recognised.^  In  Uganda  the  Cotton 
Ordinance  prohibits  the  purchase  of  cotton  in  specified  dis- 
tricts, except  at  the  standard  price  and  at  licensed  buying 
posts.  ^  It  has  not  been  found  necessary  in  Nigeria  to  interfere 
with  the  liberty  of  the  individual  to  sell  his  produce  to  whom 
and  at  what  price  he  prefers.  The  importance  of  encouraging 
this  industry  caimot  be  over-estimated.^ 

The  gravamen  of  the  remarks  which  I  have  made  in  chapter 
xix.  in  regard  to  the  cocoa  industry  is,  that  greater  attention 
on  the  part  of  the  cultivator  is  needed  in  clearing  the  ground, 
removing  diseased  trees  and  stumps,  which  breed  fungoids — 
in  short,  more  labour  and  care,  if  the  yield  and  quality  are  to 
come  up  to  a  reasonable  standard,*  and  plantations  must  not 

8000  had  been  bought  up  to  date,  and  asked  that  preference  should  be  given  to 
Empire-grown  cotton  at  equal  prices  for  equal  quality.  The  Corporation  will 
see  to  this. — '  United  Empire,'  April  1921,  p.  245. 

'  This  is  the  case  in  Uganda  (Coryndon,  '  United  Empire,'  June  1920)  and  in 
Nigeria.  In  Nyasaland  76  per  cent  is  grown  on  European  estates,  and  only  24 
per  cent  by  natives. — Foreign  Office  Handbook  95,  p.  49. 

'  In  the  Sudan  ginneries  and  the  importation  of  cotton-seed  are  subject  to  licence. 
A  scheme  is  adopted  for  enclosing  the  warehouses  in  which  cotton  is  stored 
with  gauze  netting,  so  as  to  catch  and  destroy  the  boll-worm  moth  when  it 
emerges.  All  cotton  is  graded  and  sealed  by  Government. — Handbook  98,  pp. 
99,  100. 

'  Of  the  total  export  of  manufactured  goods  from  the  United  Kingdom, 
valued  at  £411,000,000  in  1913,  £125,000,000  consisted  of  cotton  goods. 
A  capital  of  £500,000,000  is  employed,  and  it  is  estimated  that  not  fewer  than 
10,000,000  people  in  this  country  are  directly  or  indirectly  engaged  in  the 
industry.  The  total  requirements  of  the  United  Kingdom  are  put  at  four 
million  bales  of  500  lbs.  each  per  annum.  Of  this,  3,200,000  comes  from  the 
United  States,  leaving  800,000  to  be  found  from  other  sources  within  and 
without  the  Empire.  The  Empire  output  is  over  5J  millions,  but  85  per  cent  is 
unsuitable  for  Lancashire.  It  is  therefore  very  essential  to  increase  the  Empire- 
grown  supply  of  long-staple  varieties,  since  Mr  M'Connel  states  that  the  United 
Kingdom  is  dependent  at  present  for  75  per  cent  of  its  requirements  on  foreign 
countries. — Cotton  Beport,  loc.  cit.,  appendix  ii.  and  p.  54. 

^  It  is  asserted  that  the  average  yield  per  tree  in  native-owned  plantations 
on  the  Gold  Coast  is  under  1  lb.  on  the  best  land,  while  on  Government  planta- 
tions on  inferior  land  it  is  8  lbs. —Nigerian  'Pioneer,'  18th  February  1918. 
Dr  Unwin  states  that  the  Gold  Coast  cocoa  is  "the  lowest  grade  put  on  the 


526  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

be  overcrowded.  I  have  emphasised  also  the  importance  of 
paying  a  price  according  to  quality.  At  present  it  is  stated 
that  the  farmer  who  takes  the  trouble  to  prepare  his  beans 
properly  can  obtain  no  better  price  than  his  neighbour  whose 
plantation  is  neglected.^ 

Since  the  cocoa  must  be  fermented  on  the  spot  to  avoid  the 
necessity  of  carrying  the  bulky  pods  to  a  central  fermenting 
and  drying  station,  uniformity  in  fermentation  can  only  be 
secured  by  educating  the  native  to  dry  and  ferment  the  beans 
himself,  the  merchant  completing  the  process  so  as  to  ensure 
the  cocoa  reaching  the  European  market  without  deterioration. 
Such  a  system  is  more  consonant  with  the  self-reliant  tradi- 
tions of  British  trade,  and  less  "bureaucratic,"  than  the 
demand  that  Government  should  employ  expert  cocoa  sam- 
plers in  every  village,  and  prohibit  purchase  except  of  certifi- 
cated cocoa.  Model  plantations  run  by  Government  as 
object-lessons  are  needed.  This  crop  forms  the  main  staple 
of  the  Gold  Coast,  and  is  rapidly  increasing  in  importance  in 
Nigeria. 

As  regards  hides,  freight  charges  may  be  reduced  by  de- 
creasing balk  as  the  result  of  partial  preparation.  Natives 
may  be  instructed  in  better  methods  of  flaying  and  of  drying 
the  hides,  discarding  ofEals,  &c.  The  Indian  report  contains 
a  useful  appendix  on  tanneries.^  Africa  possesses  many  ex- 
cellent tanning  materials.  The  excellence  of  the  tanned  goat- 
skins of  Kano  (see  note,  pp.  609-10)  proves  the  high  efficiency 
of  their  methods.  I  have  myself  furniture  upholstered  with 
this  leather,  which  is  almost  as  good  to-day  as  when  done 
twenty  years  ago. 

The  preservation  and  control  of  the  forests  of  Africa  is 
a  matter  of  such  vital  economic  importance  that  it  demands 
more  than  the  brief  references  which  I  have  already  made  to 
it.*  The  forest  of&cer  is  concerned  both  with  the  afforestation 
of  areas  denuded  of  forest  and  with  the  preservation  of  exist- 

world'e  markets,"  and  commands  only  half  the  price  of  better  grades.  He 
advocates  a  tax  on  each  tree  according  to  its  healthiness. — 'West  Africa,'  25th 
December  1920. 

1  Foreign  Office  Handbook  No.  93,  p.  33. 

3  See  Appendix  D,  Cmd.  51,  1919. 

3  It  is  to  Mr  H.  N.  Thompson,  Director  of  Forests,  Nigeria  (late  of  the 
Indian  Forestry  Department),  that  West  Africa  owes  the  proper  recognition  of 
the  importance  of  forestry,  and  these  notes  are  compiled  from  his  teaching. 
His  report  on  the  Gold  Coast  was  published  as  a  Blue  -  book  (Cd.  4993  of 
1910.) 


PRESEEVATION  OP  FORESTS.  527 

ing  forests  and  their  "organisation,"  so  that  different  age 
classes  of  trees  are  evenly  graded,  and  occupy  equal  areas, 
and  the  forest  may  return  its  full  annual  interest  on  the 
timber-producing  capital.  To  efEect  this  the  conservator 
regulates  the  niunber  and  girth  of  trees  to  be  felled  in  the 
reserves,  their  removal  without  damage,  and  their  replace- 
ment by  saplings.  For  an  effective  forest  administration,  a 
continuous  policy,  to  which  the  Government  alone  can  give 
efEect,  is  essential.^  Native  administrations  cannot  take  a 
sufflciently  far-sighted  view,  and  are  apt  to  sacrifice  the 
interests  of  the  future  to  present  needs  ;  but  they  can  be 
associated  with  the  Government  in  carrying  out  its  policy, 
and  entrusted  with  the  largest  possible  share  of  responsi- 
bility and  initiative,  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
native  rule  described  in  chapters  x.  and  xi. 

"Shifting  cultivation,"  which  I  have  fuUy  described  else- 
where (chapter  xiv.,  p.  299),  is  the  most  potent  agent  in  the 
destruction  of  forests.  By  this  system  the  cultivator  takes 
up  from  five  to  nine  times  (according  to  the  period  of  rotation) 
the  acreage  annually  cropped.  Primeval  forest  is  thus  replaced 
by  secondary  and  inferior  growth,  in  which  useless  trees 
predominate,  and  eventually  by  grass,  with  consequent  jungle 
fires,  tUl  the  land  is  quite  exhausted. 

The  chief  measures  for  the  preservation  of  forests  are  : 
(a)  a  better  system  of  agriculture  ;  (b)  the  creation  of  forest 
reserves  (see  chapter  xv.,  p.  315) ;  and  (c)  the  protection  in 
unreserved  areas  of  the  more  valuable  species,  by  prohibiting 
felling  for  sale,  except  by  licence.  All  forests  in  the  upper 
catchment  areas  of  rivers  should  be  reserved,  and  areas 
should  be  reserved  for  afforestation  where  forests  do  not  exist. 
Mr  Thompson  states  that  the  area  placed  imder  reserve  in 
different  countries  varies  from  15  per  cent  to  67  per  cent, 
and  he  considers  that  33  per  cent,  as  in  India,  is  the  miniTrmnn 
in  a  well-populated  tropical  country,  and  the  proportion  should 
be  greater  in  less-populated  regions. 

The  objects  of  forestry  reserves  are : — 

1.  To  supply  forest  produce  continuously  for  local  use 
(railways,  buildings,  and  native  requirements)  and  for  export, 
and  to  add  to  revenue. 

'  This  is  recognised  even  in  countries  with  the  most  advanced  forestry 
organisation.  In  France  and  Germany,  municipal  and  even  private  forests  are 
under  Government  supervision. 


528  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

2.  To  conserve  tlie  water-supply  and  control  the  "  run-off  " 
from  the  hills,  thus  regulating  waterfalls  for  power,  main- 
taining irrigation  and  the  flow  of  springs,  ensuring  a  higher 
level  in  the  rivers  in  the  dry  season,  and  preventing  floods, 
which  deposit  large  quantities  of  barren  soil  in  the  valleys, 
and  ruin  them  for  agriculture. 

3.  To  increase  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere,  and  so 
promote  the  growth  of  crops.  Experiments  in  Europe  prove 
that  forests  increase  rainfall  by  28  per  cent. 

4.  To  prevent  landslides  and  erosion,  silting  of  rivers,  and 
shifting  sands. 

5.  To  act  as  barriers  against  the  spread  of  insect  and 
fungoid  pests  from  one  cultivated  area  to  another. 

6.  To  conserve  and  improve  the  qualities  of  the  soil,  until 
required  for  cultivation  by  the  increase  of  the  population. 

7.  To  form  a  sanctuary  for  game,  and  provide  grazing  in 
time  of  famine. 

The  law  should  empower  the  Governor  to  create  reserves 
compulsorily  (if  agreement  with  native  communities  claiming 
ownership  is  not  possible)  on  lands  "  in  respect  of  which  it 
appears  that  the  extinction  of  forests  is  diminishing,  or  likely 
to  diminish,  the  water-supply,  or  injuring  the  agricultural 
conditions  of  neighbouring  lands,  or  imperilling  the  continuous 
supply  of  forest  produce  to  the  village  communities  contiguous 
to  such  lands." 

Where  forests  are  recognised  as  tribal  property,  a  "  settle- 
ment "  is  made  with  the  native  grantors,  in  which  all  native 
rights  (imless  extinguished  by  purchase)  are  protected,  in- 
cluding the  right  to  take  forest  produce  for  domestic  require- 
ments. Produce  for  sale  or  export  is  controlled  by  Govern- 
ment, the  tribal  authorities  receiving  a  royalty  upon  it.  Except 
as  regards  the  rights  recorded  in  the  "  settlement  "  the  reserve 
become^  an  estate  exclusively  subject  to  forest  law,  on  which 
trespass  may  be  prohibited. 

Advanced  native  communities  have  in  some  cases  in  Nigeria 
been  entrusted  with  the  entire  charge  of  a  reserve,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  forest  officer.  In  most  cases  they  partici- 
pate in  its  control,  and  share  its  profits.  The  forest  officer 
looks  after  the  planting  and  care  of  seedlings,  the  maintenance 
of  fire-traces,  the  regulation  of  grazing,  and  other  technical 
work  in  a  reserve,  instructs  the  natives,  and  sees  that  the 
law  and  the  terms  of  the  settlement  are  observed.    In  some 


AFFORESTATION.  529 

eases  it  may  be  desirable  to  fire  the  reserve  annually,  early 
ia  the  year,  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  later  fires  at  the 
end  of  the  dry  season,  which  destroy  all  young  trees,  espe- 
cially if  there  is  an  accumulation  of  combustible  material. 

Partial  protection  in  unreserved  areas  is  afforded  by  pro- 
hibiting, except  under  licence,  the  felling  of  protected  trees 
of  special  value,  until  such  time  as  sufficient  reserves  have 
been  created.  Plantations  are  maiutained  for  the  supply  of 
seedlings,  includiug  exotic  trees  of  value  such  as  teak,  and 
also  to  provide  fuel  near  large  cities.  Newly-afforested  areas 
require  much  protection  from  fires  and  from  cattle.  The 
planting  of  economic  trees,  such  as  oU-palms,  kolas,  cocoa- 
nuts,  and  fruit-trees  on  cultivated  lands  is  encouraged.  Gum- 
bearing  acacias  are  protected  by  special  legislation  in  the 
Sudan. 

Particular  attention  is  needed  to  prevent  the  wholesale  de- 
struction of  trees  for  steamer  fuel,  or  iu  the  vicinity  of  mines 
for  pit-props  and  other  purposes.  The  supply  to  natives  at 
cost  price  of  cheap  angle-iron,  or  rod-iron,  for  hut-building 
will  decrease  the  annual  destruction  of  saplings.  The  example 
of  Government  in  improved  methods  of  exploitiug  a  forest, 
and  establishing  a  market  for  the  less-known  classes  of  timber, 
may  afford  a  useful  lesson.^ 

In  the  more  arid  regions,  where  extensive  forests  do  not 
exist,  the  trees  require  protection  agaiast  the  axe  of  the 
nomad,  who  lops  off  the  limbs  to  afford  fodder  to  his  camels, 
and  leaves  the  stump  to  die.  The  afforestation  of  such  regions 
in  order  to  check  the  encroachments  of  the  desert,  to  act  as  a 
break  to  dry  and  scorching  winds,  to  increase  rainfall,  and  to 
provide  fuel  and  timber,  is  a  work  of  immense  benefit  and 
importance. 

The  development  of  plantation  rubber  has  of  late  years 
received  so  much  attention  that  there  is  no  need  of  any 
remarks  on  this  head.  In  Africa  the  native  must  be  better 
traiaed  ia  methods  of  tapping  and  of  coagulatiag  the  latex. 

In  making  these  brief  and  somewhat  crude  suggestions 
regarding  some  of  the  chief  staples  of  tropical  Africa,  I  have 
not  attempted  to   discriminate  between   the   share  of   the 

'  Such  an  experiment  was  undertaken  iu  Nigeria  under  the  able  control  of 
Mr  Thompson,  and  an  industry  worth  some  £250,000  (including  the  forest)  was 
built  up  in  six  years,  "which  was  from  every  point  of  -view  a  complete  success." 
It  was  estimated  that  500,000  cubic  feet  of  timber  would  be  cut  in  1920. — 
Dr  Unwin,  Forest  Consultant,  in  '  West  Africa,'  12th  June  1920. 

2l 


530  EOONOMIO  DEVELOPMENT. 

Government,  the  merchant,  the  native  administration,  or 
the  individual  native  cultivator  in  giving  effect  to  the  object 
in  view — the  increase  in  quantity  and  quality  of  African 
exports.  For  it  is  essentially  a  task  which  invites  and  depends 
upon  co-operation.  The  Government,  by  means  of  its  technical 
departments,  by  improved  transport,  and  in  the  other  ways 
upon  which  I  have  dwelt  elsewhere,  leads  the  way  and  assists 
the  efforts  of  others,  and  endeavours  to  awaken  the  interest 
and  excite  the  emulation  of  the  native  administrations.  The 
merchant  has  it  in  his  power  to  prove  to  the  natives  the  prac- 
tical benefit  of  the  methods  suggested,  by  offering  good  prices 
for  improved  products,  and  in  some  cases  by  himself  co- 
operating with  Government  in  providing  the  object-lessons 
required.  The  native  rulers  can  exert  their  influence,  with 
immense  benefit  to  the  people,  by  popularising  by  example 
and  precept  the  teaching  of  the  new  methods  where  they  are 
opposed  to  the  conservative  customs  of  primitive  cultivation. 
By  such  co-operation  material  prosperity  will  be  assured. 

The  African  tropics  afford  a  vast  and  fascinating  field  for 
experiment  in  the  acclimatisation  of  new  products,  with  a 
view  to  broadening  the  basis  of  industry,  and  for  the  improve- 
ment of  those  products  which  are  indigenous.  The  Indian 
agricidtural,  forestry,  and  veterinary  publications  are  full  of 
suggestion  and  experience  for  Africa.^ 

In  the  domain  of  vegetable  products  one  may  instance  the 
need  of  investigation  into  the  question  of  fodder  grasses,  and 
the  storage  of  grass  as  hay  or  ensilage.^  Fibres  are  chiefly 
important  in  the  barren  lands  near  the  east  coast,  since  they 
will  not  bear  heavy  transport  charges  from  the  interior ;  and 
as  the  Director  of  Agriculture  on  the  Gold  Coast  observes, 
they  cannot  compete  with  "  cocoa  grown  with  the  minimum 
expenditure  of  capital  and  energy  and  the  maximum  financial 
return."    Sisal,  ramie,  and  piassava  *  have  received  attention. 

1  See  '  General  Catalogue  of  Government  of  India  Publications '  (Government 
Printing  Office,  Calcutta). 

^  Guinea-grass  and  alfafa  have  both  received  some  attention,  and  the  former 
promises  well.  Bersem-grass  and  shaftal  (Trifolium  aZex  and  resvpinatum), 
highly  praised  in  India,  merit  experiment.  ("Bersem  as  a  new  fodder  crop," 
Bulletin  No.   66  of  1916,  Calcutta). 

'  The  fibre  of  the  common  food-plant  "  okro  "  is  said  to  be  better  than  that  of 
jute  ('  Board  of  Trade  Journal,"  7th  October  1909,  p.  26).  We  read  of  a  company 
being  formed  at  the  Cape  to  exploit  the  baobab  tree  {Adansonia  digitata),  and 
a  leading  commercial  firm  reports  that  "  it  is  probably  the  finest  paper-material 
without  exception  to  be  found  in  Nature." 


VARIOUS  POSSIBLE  PEODXJCTS.  531 

It  is  reported  that  jute  grows  well,  and  flax  (which,  of  course, 
stands  in  a  class  apart)  has  lately,  as  I  have  narrated,  proved 
a  valuable  crop  in  East  Africa.^  In  the  interior,  rope,  string, 
and  especially  bags  for  produce  may,  as  we  found  during  the 
war,  be  profitably  manufactured  as  "  cottage  industries  "  by 
primitive  tribes. 

Maize,  if  grown  for  export,  requires  bulk  carriage  by  rail 
and  sea,  and  storage  and  discharge  by  elevators.  The  Germans 
had  prepared  for  a  large  ripe-banana  export,  the  fruit  being 
prepared  in  drying  sheds.  This  industry  should  promise  well. 
The  dried  fruit  makes  an  excellent  stew,  and  tastes  like  dried 
figs.  Pine-apples  of  great  size  and  very  delicious  flavour  were 
grown  in  the  Government  gardens  in  Mgeria,  and  could  be 
canned  for  export.  Banana-flour,  ginger,  and  limes  offer 
possibilities.  The  latter  grow  and  fruit  most  freely  in  West 
Africa ;  the  juice  or  citric  acid  coidd  be  prepared  from  it 
locally.  The  cultivation  of  vegetables  has  been  neglected 
in  West  Africa,  though  the  French  have  set  us  an  example.^ 

In  favourable  localities  the  curing  and  fermentation  of 
high-class  tobacco  may  offer  a  valuable  export,  as  has  been 
proved  in  Nyasaland.  The  sunflower  yields  a  valuable  oil 
and  cake,  which  is  largely  exploited  in  Eussia.  The  castor- 
oil  plant  gives  good  results  in  French  Dahomey.  Economic 
trees,  such  as  the  kola,  the  cocoa-nut  (which  is  little  liable  to 
disease  and  easily  harvested),  the  giim-bearing  species,  timber- 
trees  Uke  the  teak,  fruit-trees  like  the  mango,  aU  call  for 
increased  attention.  It  is  worth  remembering  that  South 
Africa,  being  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  offers  particular 
advantages  as  a  source  from  which  to  obtain  yoimg  plants  of 
fruit-trees  and  other  economic  species,  since  they  can  be 
transplanted  at  the  most  favourable  season,  and  introduced 
into  tropical  Africa  just  before  the  rains. 

The  field  for  enterprise  is  no  less  in  the  animals  and  the 
animal  products  of  Africa.     Cattle,  goats,  sheep,  and  swine 

^  The  Agricultural  Department  of  Nyasaland  reports  on  a  wild  product, 
"buaze"  (Secwridaca  longipedunculata),  as  being  in  every  way  superior  to  flax. 
It  is  said,  however,  to  be  difficult  to  cultivate,  and  the  gum  it  contains  renders 
it  hard  to  separate  the  fibre. — Handbook  95,  p.  54. 

'  On  the  Bauchi  plateau  in  Nigeria  the  cultivation  of  potatoes  has  been  eagerly 
adopted  by  primitive  tribes,  and  they  can  now  be  bought  in  the  native  markets. 
We  read  of  vegetables,  sun-dried  and  compressed  into  bricks,  being  exported 
from  India  to  Mesopotamia,  and  found  indistinguishable  from  fresh.  —  See 
'The  Sun-drying  of  Vegetables,'  by  G.  Howard.  Bulletin  No.  8  of  1917, 
Calcutta. 


532  ECONOmO  DEVELOPMENT. 

can  all  be  unproved,  whether  for  meat  or  hides,  by  crossing 
with  imported  stock,  by  castration  of  males,  and  provision 
of  stud  animals  for  service  of  females  of  approved  standard. 
The  possibilities  of  stall-feeding  instead  of  or  in  addition  to 
grazing,  of  cattle  fodder  and  cake,  of  inoculation  and  other 
preventive  measures  against  disease,  invite  fuUer  investiga- 
tion. Ostrich-farming,^  bee-keeping  (a  lucrative  industry  in 
India), ^  the  domestication  of  the  elephant,  eland,  and  zebra,^ 
and  the  breeding  of  zebroid  mules — all  these  and  a  himdred 
other  problems  offer  inducements  to  the  scientific  investigator. 

Thousands  of  tons  of  dried  fish  are  imported  yearly  to 
West  Africa,  though  the  sea  teems  with  every  variety,  which, 
with  the  use  of  steam  trawlers,  proper  curing  estabUshments, 
and  refrigerators,  could  be  made  available  for  food,  and  the 
offals  for  valuable  manure. 

The  day  of  the  nomad  pastoral  must  before  long  pass  in 
Africa  as  it  has  passed  in  other  countries,  and  give  place  to 
viUage-owned  herds.  Already  in  Ehodesia  movement  beyond 
defined  areas  is  prohibited  without  a  veterinary  officer's 
permit.  The  northern  provinces  of  Nigeria  and  the  northern 
territories  of  the  Gold  Coast  have  been  said  by  experts  to  be 
at  least  as  well  suited  for  cattle-rearing  as  Ehodesia  or  North 
AustraUa,  and  they  have  the  great  advantage  that  their 
proximity  to  Europe  enables  the  meat  to  be  sent  to  the  home 
market  within  the  number  of  days'  for  which  "chilled"  car- 
cases will  keep. 

In  those  regions  of  British  tropical  Africa,  however,  where 
water  and  fodder  are  foimd,  foreign  enterprise  in  ranching  is 
generally  already  forestalled  by  the  indigenous  population 
and  its  cattle.  In  such  districts  there  is  no  room  for  the 
ranch  properly  so-called,  but  the  European  stock-breeder  on 
a  limited  holding  should  not  only  be  able  to  find  profit,  but 
by  the  object-lesson  which  his  methods  afford  to  the  native, 
and  by  the  purchase  of  surplus  native  stock,  he  may  be  of 
the  greatest  value  to  the  country. 

'  In  West  Africa,  the  French  have  experimented  largely  in  ostrich-farming, 
and  claim  success.  The  cost  is  estimated  at  £i  per  bird  per  annum  (Revue 
Coloniale,  1901).  In  East  Africa,  the  indigenous  bird  under  proper  care  is 
reported  to  produce  feathers  almost  equal  to  the  South  African. 

2  Calcutta  Bulletin,  No.  46  of  1915. 

s  The  zebra  is  reported  to  have  done  well  in  harness  in  South  Africa,  and  to 
be  immune  to  horse-sickness.  The  experiments  of  Baron  de  Parana  in  Brazil 
in  the  breeding  of  zebra  mules  appear  to  be  extremely  successful. — 'Times,' 
13th  November  1899. 


VALUE  OF   OBJECT-LESSON  IN   STOCK-EAISING.  533 

If  it  be  our  aim  to  teach  the  natives  how  to  develop  the 
resources  of  their  couatry  themselves  ia  the  most  efficient  way, 
there  is  perhaps  no  sphere  of  industrial  activity  in  which  an 
object-lesson  is  more  essential  than  in  that  of  stock-raising. 
For  there  is  no  class  more  conservatively  ignorant  than  the 
pastoral  races  of  Africa,  whose  methods  have  not  changed 
since  the  time  of  Abraham.  To  such  people  no  means  of 
education  other  than  ocular  demonstration  is  of  any  use 
whatever. 

The  educative  value  of  an  object-lesson  in  the  treatment 
of  the  common  diseases,^  isolation  against  contagion,  selection 
for  breeding,  the  flaying  of  hides,  and  fattening  for  market, 
&c.,  cannot  be  overrated.  But  the  application  of  modem 
science  can  do  more  than  this.  By  artesian  well-boring,  and 
raising  water  by  mechanical  appliances  and  irrigation,  by 
importing  stock  and  cross-breeding,  by  introducing  new  fodder 
grasses  and  scientific  methods  of  storing  them,  by  utilising 
local  oil-cake  for  fattening,  and  by  creating  a  steady  market, 
a  trade  of  great  value  may  be  built  up.  The  wild  nomad 
pastorals  of  to-day  may  become  the  stock-raisers  of  to- 
morrow, and  the  yearly  increment  of  the  herds,  instead  of 
perishing  by  epizootic  disease  and  the  starvation  of  the  dry 
season,  may  provide  food  for  the  industrial  classes  of  Europe, 
who  in  turn  will  raise  the  standard  of  comfort  of  the  natives 
by  their  manufactured  goods.  We  have  seen  the  process 
at  work  aU  over  the  world  ;  it  is  no  longer  the  fanciful  picture 
of  the  enthusiast. 

This  form  of  enterprise  seems  indeed  to  offer  such  oppor- 
tunities for  genuine  development  as  to  merit  every  encourage- 
ment, even  if  the  non-native  lessee  encroaches  somewhat 
on  the  grazing  lands  of  the  pastorals.  The  area  granted  must, 
of  course,  depend  on  what  is  available,  and  will  form  an 
adequate  inducement.  A  few  square  miles  of  ordinary  graz- 
ing land  with  water  might  be  attached  to  a  larger  block 
of  100  or  even  200  square  nules  of  land  at  present  useless. 
The  conditions  of  the  lease  should  be  liberal,  for  the  task  of  the 
lessee  is  to  convert  arid  waste  into  profitable  pasture  lands.^ 

^  Rinderpest  and  East  Coast  fever,  of  which  the  germ  is  conveyed  from  animal 
to  animal,  and  not  like  anthrax  or  tetanus  contained  in  the  soil,  are  preventible 
diseases  comparatively  easy  to  stamp  out. — Tanganyika  Report,  1921,  p.  58. 

^  Land  can  be  acquired  in  Rhodesia  at  a  distance  of  25  miles  and  upwards  from 
the  railway,  for  5s.  an  acre  and  upwards ;  5  per  cent  of  the  purchase  price  is 
paid  on  allotment,  and  the  balance  in  nineteen  instalments.  —  British   South 


634  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT. 

Among  the  desiderata  of  the  future  few  projects  are  of 
greater  importance  than  the  extirpation  of  the  tsetse-fly, 
alike  for  the  eradication  of  "  sleeping-sickness  "  (of  which  it 
carries  the  bacillus),  and  the  corresponding  disease  (trypani- 
somiasis)  among  cattle  and  other  live-stock.  The  achievement 
of  Colonel  Gorgas  in  his  campaign  against  the  mosquito  in 
Panama  has  shown  that  there  is  no  reason  to  despair  of 
success  against  the  tsetse-fly  by  the  methods  adopted  in  San 
Thom6  Island,  where  it  has  been  accomplished. 

The  task,  colossal  though  it  be,  is  facilitated  by  the  fact 
that  the  "  fly-belts  "  are  for  the  most  part  well  defined, 
and  often  not  extensive.  The  first  step  is  to  map  these  accu- 
rately— a  task  for  which  I  collected  material  for  many  years 
in  Nigeria.  Guinea-fowl,  which  feed  on  the  pupse  (as  well 
as  on  grasshoppers,  ticks,  &c.),  should  be  protected.  Inci- 
dentally the  pea-fowl  and  the  jungle-fowl,  so  common  and  so 
picturesque  in  the  forests  of  India  and  Burmah,  should  be 
introduced  into  Africa. 

The  society  for  the  preservation  of  the  fauna  of  Africa  (of 
which  I  have  the  honour  to  be  an  original  member)  has  done 
much  to  preserve  the  big  game  of  the  continent,  and  has 
devoted  special  care  to  the  elephant.^  Viewed,  however, 
from  the  economic  standpoint,  the  wild  elephant  must  share 
with  monkeys  and  wild  pigs  the  charge  of  being  terribly  de- 
structive to  native  crops.  He  soon  learns  that  he  is  immune 
from  serious  assault,  and  defies  the  peasants'  efforts  to  drive 
him  off.  The  wanton  destruction  wrought  by  a  herd  in  a 
banana  plantation  or  a  young  forest  is  terrible.  The  number 
of  elephants  in  each  herd  should  be  known,  and  licences  to 
shoot  a  proportionate  number  of  mature  males  each  year  can 
be  issued,  so  as  to  afford  the  cultivators  some  protection. 
The  best  means,  on  the  other  hand,  of  preventing  the  ruthless 
extermination  of  the  elephant  for  ivory  is  to  prohibit  the 
export  of  aU  tusks  under  a  minimum  weight,  and  to  make  it 

African  Pamphlet,  'Rhodesia,'  p.  22.  The  size  of  ranches  in  Australia  (where 
areas  of  1500  square  miles  have  been  granted)  bears,  of  course,  no  comparison,  for 
the  country  had  no  indigenous  population. 

'  The  massacre  of  elephants  for  ivory  used  to  be  very  great  indeed  some  years 
ago.  Published  figures  of  ivory  exported  from  German  East  Africa  and  the  Congo 
are" as  follows:  in  1893-94  from  German  East  Africa,  13,923  tusks  weighing 
242", 494  lbs. ;  in  1894-95,  14,692  tusks  weighing  317,777  lbs.— viz.,  28,615  tusks 
or  14,300  elephants  ;  average  tusk  under  20  lbs.  In  1892  from  the  Congo  183J 
tons,  say  10,300  elephants.  Total  elephants  killed  in  these  two  areas  alone, 
24,600  per  annum. 


PBESEEVATION   OF   FAUNA.  535 

an  offence  to  attempt  to  export  or  to  offer  such  tusks  for 
sale. 

The  game  laws  of  British  dependencies  in  Africa  now  afford 
protection  to  the  beautiful  fauna — the  mata  desiderata  are  to 
institute  a  close  season,  and  for  the  larger  game  a  sanctuary  ; 
to  protect  some  of  the  rarer  species,  and  the  females  and 
immature  males  of  all ;  to  prohibit  the  destruction  of  game 
by  unfair  means,  such  as  nets,  game-pits,  poisoned  arrows, 
and  hunting  with  dogs  ;  and  to  offer  rewards,  as  in  India, 
for  hyenas  and  snakes. 


536 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE  LAW  AND  THE  COXJETS  OF  JUSTICE. 

The  law  in  African  dependencies— Ordinances— Regulations— The  courts 
—The  Supreme  Court— Merger  of  judicial  and  executive  functions- 
Disadvantages  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  the  sole  tribunal — The  pro- 
vincial courts — Contrast  between  the  two  systems — Some  advantages 
of  provincial  courts — Legal  practitioners  in  courts — Special  procedure 
re  plea  and  oath — Collective  punishment— Reconciliation — Native 
debts— Value  of  native  courts— The  objects  in  view — Native  custom- 
ary law — Constitution  and  powers  of  native  courts — Supervision  of 
native  courts. 

The  fundamental  law,  applicable  alike  to  Europeans  and  na- 
tives in  all  our  African  tropical  dependencies,  is  the  common 
law  and  doctrines  of  equity,  administered  concurrently,  and 
the  statutes  of  general  application  which  were  in  force  in 
England  at  the  time  the  administration  was  created.  "•  This 
body  of  law  is  modified  (a)  by  any  law  made  by  the  Imperial 
Parliament  which  is  declared  to  extend  to  any  or  all  of  these 
dependencies, 2  and  by  orders  of  His  Majesty  ia  Council ;  and 
(6)  by  local  ordinances. 

This  fundamental  law,  in  so  far  as  it  is  applicable  to  natives, 
is  modified  by  the  proviso  that  British  courts  shall  in  civil 
cases  affecting  natives  (and  even  non-natives  in  their  con- 
tractual relations  with  natives)  recognise  native  law,  religion, 
and  custom  when  not  repugnant  to  natural  justice  and 
humanity,  or  incompatible  with  any  local  ordinance,  especially 
in  matters  relating  to  land,  marriage,  and  inheritance.  The 
native  courts  administer  native  law.    Thus  in  a  Moslem  State 

1  In  some  colonies,  where  a  European  code  existed  prior  to  the  assumption  of 
British  rule,  the  fundamental  law  existing  at  the  time  was  not  changed — e.g., 
part  of  Canada  and  Mauritius  retain  the  Napoleonic  code,  and  the  Cape  retains 
the  Roman  Dutch  law. 

^  Parliament  does  not  usually  legislate  direct  for  the  colonies. — '  Taring,'  p.  407. 


ORDINANCES  AND  REGULATIONS.  537 

such  as  Zanzibar,  or  the  Emirates  of  Mgeria,  British  courts 
recognise  the  Koranic  law  in  dealing  with  natives,  and  it 
constitutes  the  fundamental  law  of  the  native  courts,  subject 
to  the  provisos  mentioned. 

It  is  one  of  the  first  preoccupations  of  a  British  Administra- 
tion in  newly-occupied  territories  to  check  with  a  strong 
hand  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  acts,  whether  by  Europeans, 
official  or  unofficial,  or  by  native  chiefs  without  the  authority 
and  safeguards  provided  by  the  courts  of  law. 

Ordinances — except  on  certain  subjects  reserved  in  the 
Royal  Instructions,  which  require  prior  reference  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State — are  enacted,  after  pubUcation  in  the  '  Gazette,' 
by  the  Legislative  Councils  of  the  Colonies,  and  when  assented 
to  by  the  Governor  become  law,  subject  to  disallowance  by 
His  Majesty.  Ordinances  for  the  protectorates  are  enacted 
by  the  Governor-in-Council,  and  unless  urgent  must  be  pub- 
Ushed  in  the  "  Gazette '  for  two  months  prior  to  enactment, 
so  as  to  give  ample  time  for  any  suggestions  or  criticisms. 
In  some  cases  the  Colonial  Legislative  Council  is,  or  was, 
empowered  to  enact  laws  for  the  protectorates  attached  to 
the  colony,  as  well  as  for  the  colony.  The  Executive  Council 
considers  aE  draft  Bills.  In  order  to  simplify  the  criminal 
law,  and  to  enable  every  person  to  know  what  are  offences 
in  law,  and  the  degree  of  pimishment  attached,  most  de- 
pendencies have  a  criminal  code,  in  which  the  English  criminal 
law  is  codified  with  some  minor  local  adaptations.^ 

Most  ordinances  empower  the  Govemor-ia-Council  to  make 
regulations  with  limited  penalties,  and  also  Orders  in  Council 
having  the  force  of  law.  In  some  cases  a  municipality,  or  a 
native  administration  or  other  authority,  is  empowered  to 
make  rules  or  by-laws,  subject  to  approval  and  publication 
ia  the  '  Gazette.'  Eegulations  can  be  made  and  altered  with- 
out the  formalities  and  delays,  or  the  congestion  of  the  Statute- 
book,  involved  by  frequent  amending  ordinances.  They  can 
deal  in  great  detail  with  complicated  matters,  which  are  un- 
suited,  or  indeed  impossible,  to  embody  in  a  statute,  and 
which  may  be  applicable  only  to  a  particular  district. 

A  strong  and  effective  Legislative  Council  is  apt  to  chafe 
under  this  partial  transfer  of  legislative  power  to  the  Governor 
and  his  Executive  Council,  and  to  demand  that  all  regulations 
shall  be  submitted  to  it  for  final  approval.    This  would  to  a 

'  In  East  Africa  the  Indian  penal  code  is  adopted  with  modifications. 


538  THE  LAW  AND  THE  COtTRTS  OF  JUSTICE. 

large  extent  introduce  delay  and  formality,  and  would  overtax 
the  time  of  the  Legislative  Council,  the  xmofiBcial  members  of 
which  have  their  own  business  to  attend  to,  upon  which 
attendance  at  the  council  makes  no  small  inroads. 

The  Executive  Coimcil,  consisting  of  the  heads  of  the  prin- 
cipal departments  and  the  Attorney-General,  is  a  body  weU 
constituted  to  scrutinise  and  amend  regulations  intended  to 
give  effect  to  a  law,  and  members  of  the  Legislative  Council 
have  always,  of  course,  the  power  to  criticise  them  by  way  of 
motion.  The  occasion  for  these  protests,  which  one  reads 
from  time  to  time  in  the  debates  of  all  colonies,  would,  how- 
ever, be  decreased,  if  the  structural  regulations  under  a 
skeleton  ordinance  (viz.,  one  which  does  little  more  than  em- 
power the  Governor  to  make  regulations),  together  with  other 
regulations  of  special  importance,  were  submitted  to  the 
council  before  coming  into  operation,  and  if  all  other  regula- 
tions and  Orders-in-Council  were  laid  on  the  table — as  indeed 
they  usually  are. 

It  is  of  importance  that  amendments  to  regulations  should 
convey  a  clear  meaning  without  the  necessity  of  reference. 
The  busy  man  has  no  time  to  ascertain  what  is  the  purport 
of  an  announcement  that  "  regulation  ...  is  amended  by 
inserting  (or  omitting)  the  words  ..."  It  is  also  very  desir- 
able that  all  regulations  and  Orders  -  in  -  Council  published 
during  the  year  should  be  available  in  a  bound  volume  (and 
issued  to  aU  who  have  to  administer  them),  and  that  they 
should  be  reprinted  as  amended  every  three  or  four  years. 
I  have  known  a  case  in  which  no  volume  of  regulations  had 
been  issued  for  a  generation  at  least,  and  even  the  law  officers 
were  uncertain  in  regard  to  them. 

The  highest  tribunal  in  an  African  dependency  is  the 
Supreme  Court,  which  exercises  all  the  local  jurisdiction, 
civil  and  criminal,  vested  in  His  Majesty.  It  consists  of  a 
Chief  Justice  and  Puisne  Judges,  including,  it  may  be,  those 
of  a  neighbouring  colony.  The  full  court,  consisting  of  the 
Chief  Justice  and  two  or  more  judges,  forms  a  Court  of  Appeal 
from  the  decisions  of  the  Divisional  Courts,  and  a  further 
appeal  lies  to  the  Privy  Council,  in  claims  over  £500  in  value, 
or  if  a  question  of  pubUc  importance  is  involved.  The  Boyal 
prerogative  of  pardon  or  commutation  is  exercised  by  the 
Governor  alone. 

The  area  under  the  Supreme  Court  jurisdiction  is  usually 


MERGER  OF  JXTDICIAIi  AND  EXECUTIVE  POWERS.        539 

formed  into  divisions  or  circuits,  and  Assizes  are  held  periodi- 
cally in  each  division,  and  at  any  place  the  Chief  Justice  may 
appoint.  Special  courts  are  also  held  at  the  discretion  of 
the  divisional  judge.  The  bidk  of  the  work  of  the  Supreme 
Court  is,  however,  done  by  courts  of  limited  jurisdiction, 
under  magistrates  or  ex  officio  commissioners  (viz.,  adminis- 
trative or  police  officers),  who  deal  with  cases  within  the 
powers  assigned  to  them,  or  commit  them  for  trial  to  the 
Divisional  Court. 

In  countries  of  great  size,  like  the  African  dependencies 
and  India,  it  is  obviously  unavoidable  that  judicial  and 
executive  powers  should  be  exercised  by  the  same  officer, 
and  that  some  of  the  officers  who  exercise  small  judicial 
powers  should  not  possess  recognised  legal  qualifications. 
The  separation  of  these  functions  would  seem  unnatural  to 
the  primitive  African,  since  they  are  combined  in  his  own 
rulers,  and  a  system  which  involved  the  delay  caused  by 
reference,  even  in  minor  cases,  would  be  detested.  The 
people  Uke  to  bring  such  cases  to  a  man  whom  they  know, 
who  can  often  effect  settlement  without  litigation.  He  would 
usually  have  more  experience  of  native  motives,  and  hence 
of  the  degree  of  criminality — a  point  of  view  to  which  I  shall 
refer  again  presently.  As  a  judicial  officer  he  can  maintain 
closer  touch  with  the  native  courts,  which  he  has  to  super- 
vise, and  whose  cases  he  occasionally  transfers  to  his  own 
court.  Moreover,  in  a  country  recently  brought  under  ad- 
ministration, and  in  times  of  political  difficulty,  occasions  may 
arise  when  the  strictly  legal  aspect  must  give  way  to  expe- 
diency— as  we  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  slavery.  I  am 
convinced  that,  even  were  it  possible,  the  separation  of  the 
judicial  and  executive  functions  held  by  the  District  Officer 
would  not  be  for  the  good  of  the  country.^ 

'  "  I  do  not  consider,"  says  Chief  Justice  Osborne,  "  that  the  merger  of  judicial 
and  executive  functions  in  the  same  officer  works  badly  in  West  Africa."  Sir  E. 
Speed,  Chief  Justice  of  Nigeria,  points  out  that  the  law  administered  is  largely 
native  law,  and  with  this  and  with  the  native  language  the  Administrative  Officer 
should  be  more  familiar  than  the  Assize  Judge,  who  may  be  new  to  Africa  or  to 
the  colony.  The  same  inevitable  exercise  of  dual  functions  obtains  in  India,  and 
in  other  dependencies. 

By  Ordinance  I.  of  1st  January  1902  of  the  Gold  Coast  Legislature  (enforcing 
the  Royal  Order-in-Council  of  26th  September  1901)  the  Chief  Commissioner 
of  Ashanti — an  executive  (and  legally  unqualified)  officer — was  vested  with  the 
powers  of  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  except  in  matrimonial  cases.  Appeals 
lay  to  the  Governor — not  to  the  Supreme  Court — by  whom  sentences  exceeding 
five  years  were  confirmed.     District  and  Provincial  Commissioners,  not  neceBsarily 


540  THE  LAW  AND  THE  COXJETS  OF  JUSTICE. 

Though  the  Supreme  Court  is  well  adapted  for  the  needs  of 
an  old-established  colony,  and  of  those  commercial  centres 
where  non-natives  and  educated  natives  chiefly  reside,  it 
labours  under  certain  disadvantages  as  the  sole  British  tribimal 
in  a  country  like  Africa,  where  distances  are  great  and  means 
of  transport  deficient,  where  the  people  are  addicted  to 
endless  litigation  regarding  tribal  boundaries  and  the  posses- 
sion of  land,  and  where  there  is  a  multiplicity  of  languages. 
The  restricted  powers  of  the  Commissioners,  and  the  natural 
tendency  to  remand  cases  for  trial  at  Assize,  must  in  the 
circumstances  cause  delays,  and  result  in  cases  being  heard 
at  great  distances  from  the  place  where  they  originated,  with 
hardship  to  witnesses,  who  must  be  forcibly  detained,  and  in 
waste  of  time  by  the  reopening  of  land  disputes  long  since 
settled  by  the  executive  officer.  The  subject  is  discussed  at 
much  length  in  the  report  on  the  amalgamation  of  Mgeria.^ 

"  Delay,"  wrote  the  Chief  Justice  of  Nigeria,  discussing  the 
judicial  system  of  the  Southern  Nigeria  Protectorate,  "  is  the 
greatest  enemy  of  efficient  administration  of  criminal  law,  and 
delay  is  inherent  in  the  Supreme  Court  system,  ...  it  has, 
in  my  opinion,  proved  a  failure."  Mr  Osborne,  late  Chief 
Justice  of  Southern  Nigeria,  writes  :  "  The  Supreme  Court 
is  not  the  most  suitable  tribimal  for  new  territories  in  the 
opening  stages  of  civilisation.  ...  It  is  not  so  much  the 
establishment  of  the  tribunal  itself  which  is  unsuitable  as  its 
inevitable  consequences — viz.,  the  influx  of  ahen  practitioners." 
He  adds  that  the  civil  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court 
should  not  be  extended  to  newly-administered  districts  until 
the  people  are  thoroughly  familiarised  with  British  methods, 
and  "  only  when  the  tribal  and  communal  boundaries  have 
been  poUticaUy  settled,  so  that  they  cannot  form  the  subject 
of  litigation." 

Both  Chief  Justices,  after  long  experience  in  West  Africa, 
supported  by  a  strong  body  of  expert  opinion,  thus  condemn 

possessed  of  professional  qualifications,  exercised  varying  powers,  with  an  appeal 
to  the  Chief  Commissioner's  Court.  A  circuit  judge  was  appointed  in  1919. — 
'A  Vanished  Dynasty,'  Sir  F.  Fuller,  pp.  214  and  221. 

Mr  F.  H.  Migeod,  an  officer  of  the  Gold  Coast  Government,  who  recently 
visited  the  Congo  in  his  journey  across  Africa,  relates  that  he  found  warlike 
operations  on  a  considerable  scale  in  progress  there.  He  attributes  the  outbreak 
partly  to  "the  separation  of  judicial  from  administrative  functions,"  for  the 
judicial  officers  were  apt  to  work  against  the  political  officers,  whose  power  and 
influence  has  thus  been  undermined. — 'West  Africa,'  14th  May  1921. 

1  Cmd.  468,  1920,  pp.  20-25  and  75-78. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  COtTRTS.  54] 

the  extension  of  the  Supreme  Court  jurisdiction  to  newly- 
acquired  territories,  on  the  grounds  that  it  involves  unneces- 
sary delays  and  hardships  on  litigants,  prisoners  awaiting 
trial,  and  witnesses  (with  a  consequent  inducement  to  conceal 
crime) ;  ^  because  it  introduces  alien  practitioners,  who  foment 
litigation  for  their  own  gain ;  does  not  effectively  punish 
crime ;  and  creates  needless  friction  with  the  executive, 
whose  carefully-adjudicated  decisions  in  land  cases  may  be 
called  in  question,  with  a  consequent  weakening  of  their 
influence  and  authority  in  the  maiatenance  of  law  and  order  ; 
while  the  work  of  the  court  becomes  congested  by  the  fre- 
quency of  appeals.  These  are  important  conclusions,  which 
no  doubt  have  a  wider  application  than  Nigeria. 

The  alternative  known  as  the  "  Proviacial  Court  System  " 
was  set  up  by  me  in  Northern  Nigeria  at  a  time  when  the 
Treasury  grant  admitted  of  only  a  single  judge,  who  could 
not  possibly  have  held  Assizes  throughout  a  country  more 
than  five  times  the  size  of  England  —  putting  aside  other 
aspects  of  the  question.  Under  the  close  supervision  of  the 
Governor  and  Chief  Justice  the  system  had  worked  well  for 
fifteen  years,  and  with  the  approval  of  the  Chief  Justices 
of  both  north  and  south  it  was  extended  to  the  whole  of 
Nigeria  on  amalgamation. 

The  system  has  been  criticised  by  some  who  have  had  no 
practical  experience  of  it,  and  has  been  warmly  praised  by 
others  who  have  seen  it  in  operation.  A  full  discussion  of  the 
matter  may  be  found  in  the  report  referred  to.  I  will  endeav- 
our briefly  to  indicate  how  it  has  dealt  with  the  difficulties 
I  have  described,  omitting  minor  controversial  details — such 
as  who  should  be  confirmtag  officer,  or  whether  the  powers 
of  transfer  to  the  Supreme  Court  should  be  exercised  con- 
currently or  solely  by  the  Governor  or  Chief  Justice,  &c. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  restricted  terri- 
torially imder  this  system  to  those  "local  limits"  to  which 
it  is  best  adapted,  and  which  are  capable  of  indefinite  ex- 
pansion as  the  development  of  the  territory  proceeds  and 
circumstances  require,  but  it  exercises  full  jurisdiction  in  aU 
proceedings,  civil  and  criminal  in  the  coimtry,  to  which  a 

'  The  peasant  prefers  to  suffer  oppression  rather  than  leave  his  farm  and  his 
family  for  an  indefinite  time,  for  he  is  uncertain' whether  he  will  find  them  un- 
harmed on  his  return.  It  becomes,  therefore,  almost  impossible  to  procure 
witnesses,  and  the  least  that  can  be  done  is  to  maintain  them,  and  to  give  liberal 
compensation  for  detention. 


542  THE  LAW  AND  THE  COURTS  OF  JUSTICE. 

non-native  is  a  party.  In  each  province — there  are  twenty- 
one  in  Nigeria — ^a  Provincial  Court  is  set  up,  with  unlimited 
powers  and  concurrent  jurisdiction  over  non-natives,  except 
in  the  local  Umits  of  the  Supreme  Court — ^within  which  District 
Officers  or  other  magistrates  become  commissioners  of  that 
court.  The  Provincial  Court  is  thus  relieved  of  the  bulk  of 
judicial  work  which  is  not  directly  concerned  with  the  native 
administration. 

The  Eesident  of  the  Province,  as  President,  alone  exercises 
full  powers  ex  officio,  and  aU  administrative  officers  are  Com- 
missioners of  the  court,  with  powers  varying  according  to 
their  legal  knowledge  and  proved  capacity,  irrespective  of 
their  rank.  Judicial  ability  counts  for  promotion.  Police  offi- 
cers and  others  may  be  similarly  appointed  by  the  Governor. 
All  criminal  cases  in  which  a  penalty  of  six  months  imprison- 
ment or  its  equivalent  is  infficted,  and  civil  suits  in  which  a 
judgment  of  £50  and  upwards  is  awarded,  require  confirma- 
tion by  the  Governor,  who  in  practice  delegates  his  powers 
to  the  Chief  Justice,  or  it  may  be  to  a  Lieut.-Govemor 
assisted  by  his  legal  adviser.    It  is  usually  sent  by  telegraph. 

The  returns  of  the  cases  tried,  usually  called  the  "  Cause 
Lists  "  of  the  Eesident,  and  through  him  those  of  the  Com- 
missioners, are  transmitted  to  the  Governor  or  his  delegate, 
and  they  operate  automatically  as  appeals,  and  ensure  some 
uniformity  in  sentences.  There  is  no  other  appeal  in  criminal 
cases,  but  an  appeal  lies  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  civil  suits 
over  £50.  Capital  sentences  must  be  confirmed  by  the  Chief 
Justice  before  final  review  by  the  Govemor-in-Council.  The 
confirming  officer  can,  on  judicial  grounds,  reduce  or  annul 
a  sentence,  or  order  a  rehearing  before  the  Supreme  or  Pro- 
vincial Court. 

It  would  at  first  sight  seem  as  though  there  were  little 
difference  between  the  "  Provincial  Court  system  "  and  the 
"  Supreme  Court  system,"  since  the  same  law  is  administered 
by  the  same  men  in  both  cases,  and  there  is  the  same  obUga- 
tion  to  take  cognisance  of  native  customary  law.  In  the 
Provincial  Court  system,  however,  a  larger  initiative  and  more 
extended  powers  are  conferred  upon  experienced  officers.  If 
fully  quaUfied — and  apart  from  practical  experience  (which  is 
the  best  training)  there  are  many  barristers  and  solicitors 
among  the  administrative  staff — a  district  officer  may  be 
allowed  to  exercise  the  fuU  powers  of  the  court,  subject  to 
the  rules  for  confirmation.    If  without  professional  qualifica- 


SAFEGUAE.DS  PEOVTDED.  543 

tion,  every  administrative  ofiBcer  is  required  to  pass  a  simple 
test  in  law  and  evidence,  suited  to  the  restricted  powers  he 
exercises.^  The  verdict  of  the  judicial  oflacers  after  a  long 
experience  in  reviewing  and  conflrmiag  the  sentences  of  these 
courts,  has  been  that  they  have  progressed  steadily  in  effi- 
ciency, and  the  work  has  been  carefully  and  satisfactorily 
done. 

Under  this  system  no  cases  come  automatically  before  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  the  procedure  is  summary  and  simple. 
Any  case,  especially  a  technical  or  compUcated  civil  suit, 
or  a  murder  case  where  there  is  a  conflict  of  evidence,  can  be 
transferred  to  the  Supreme  Court,  either  by  the  Chief  Justice 
or  at  the  request  of  one  of  the  parties,  or  of  the  Provincial 
Court  with  his  consent.  A  British  subject  may  originate 
proceedings  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  if  summoned  by  a 
Provincial  Court  may  demand  trial  in  the  Supreme  Court, 
though  in  practice  few  such  demands  have  been  made. 

In  order  to  cope  with  the  work  before  provincial  courts  were 
created,  very  large  powers  were  conferred  in  the  Southern 
Nigerian  Protectorate  on  native  courts,  which  consisted  of  a 
large  number  (as  many  as  sixty  in  some  cases)  of  illiterate 
chiefs  of  the  most  primitive  communities.  Any  District 
Officer,  however  junior,  sat  as  President,  and  ia  this  anomalous 
position  could  exercise  larger  powers  than  as  a  Commissioner 
of  the  Supreme  Court.^ 

It  is  claimed  for  the  Provincial  Court  system  that  it  re- 
stricts the  powers  of  the  junior  officer,  and  surrounds  him 
with  safeguards  to  prevent  injustice.  All  minor  cases  pass 
through  the  hands  of  the  Eesident  (who  can  transfer  any  case 
from  a  Commissioners'  Court  to  his  own),  and  are  reviewed 
by  the  legal  adviser.  The  Eesident  is  the  officer  with  the 
largest  experience  of  native  administration.    Important  cases, 

^  Memoranda  on  judicial  procedure  and  points  of  law,  noting  any  miscon- 
ceptions or  errors  brought  to  light  by  the  cause  lists,  have,  since  the  creation  of 
the  system,  been  issued  to  administrative  officers  in  Northern  Nigeria.  These 
officers  at  first  attended  the  Supreme  Court,  and  were  personally  instructed  by  the 
Chief  Justice,  but  the  courts  have  now  their  own  tradition,  and  such  methods 
are  no  longer  necessary. 

^  Mr  Chamberlain,  9th  April  1900,  replying  to  a  question  in  the  House,  stated 
that  a  District  Commissioner  in  Sierra  Leone,  sitting  with  native  chiefs,  could 
hear  and  determine  capital  cases.  There  was  no  right  of  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  but  the  death  sentence  requires  the  warrant  of  the  Governor.  Counsel 
were  allowed  to  appear  in  a  District  Officer's  Court,  but  they  could  not  appear 
when  he  sat  with  native  chiefs  or  assessors,  except  in  capital  cases  or  by  leave  of 
the  District  Commissioner.  No  test  of  legal  knowledge  was  demanded  from  these 
officers. 


544  TECE  LAW  AND   THE   COURTS   OF  JUSTICE. 

on  the  other  hand,  are  tried  by  qualified  ofBcers  with  a  know- 
ledge of  native  law  and  custom,  and  often  of  the  native  lan- 
guage also.  Their  judicial  work  adds  to  their  store  of  know- 
ledge regarding  land  tenure,  flshiag,  hunting,  and  forestry 
rights,  &c.,  while  the  Assize  Judge  is  probably  ignorant  of 
local  customs,  and  very  much  in  the  hands  of  his  interpreter. 
Serious  cases  are  tried  on  the  spot  with  less  delay,  and  less 
chance  of  suborniug  witnesses,  and  the  sentence  or  judgment 
is  subjected  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  confirming  officer.  The 
influence  of  the  District  Officer,  which  is  of  vital  importance 
in  the  interest  of  good  government,  is  increased  instead  of 
being  lessened,  and  by  putting  an  end  to  litigation  regarding 
land,  friction  with  the  Supreme  Court  is  abolished,  and 
frivolous  and  costly  litigation  decreased. 

There  is  a  consensus  of  official  opinion  that  the  courts  are 
popular  with  the  people,  since  justice  is  brought  within  the 
reach  of  all  and  delay  avoided,  but  they  are  unpopular  with 
the  educated  natives.  This  class  is  almost  entirely  confined 
to  the  limits  of  the  colony  proper,^  and  large  commercial 
centres,  which  remain  under  the  Supreme  Court  jurisdiction, 
and  they  have  therefore  little  or  no  personal  experience  of  the 
Provincial  Courts.  Their  ground  of  objection  is  that  legal 
practitioners  are  excluded  from  them,  and  from  appearing 
in  appeals  from  them  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  civil  suits, 
except  by  leave  of  the  Chief  Justice  when  a  question  of  law 
is  involved. 

In  Africa,  as  in  India,  the  legal  profession  has  a  strong 
attraction  for  the  native,  and  is  overcrowded — ^in  Nigeria 
largely  by  aliens  from  other  colonies.  Its  members  and  their 
friends  are  very  clamant;  but  both  Chief  Justices,  and 
(according  to  Sir  E.  Speed)  "  every  single  officer,  judicial  or 
administrative,  who  has  had  any  experience  of  districts 
recently  brought  under  control,  has  emphatically  pronounced 
against  the  right  to  be  represented  by  cotmsel."  ^  They  state 
that  the  touts  of  native  lawyers  have  constantly  fomented 
Utigation  among  the  illiterate  people  of  the  interior,  ever- 

^  The  colony  proper  is  l/240th  part  of  the  area  of  Nigeria. 

2  Sir  E.  Speed  adds  that  the  Yorubas  and  Bgbas — the  most  progressive  tribes 
in  the  south — expressly  stipulated  that  no  lawyers  should  have  audience  in  the 
courts  in  their  territories — though  usually  speaking  their  language, — and  this 
demand  has,  I  believe,  recently  been  reaffirmed  by  the  latter.  See  also  the 
reference  to  Sierra  Leone  practice  in  the  last  footnote  (p.  543),  and  to  Indian  con- 
ditions at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


LEGAL  PRACTITIONEES  IN  PEOVINCIAL  COURTS.  545 

ready  to  reopen  land  disputes — most  of  which  were  not 
hona-fide  questions  of  individual  or  family  ownership  of  land, 
but  disputes  as  to  tribal  or  other  boundaries — ^which  had  been 
settled  after  thorough  investigation  by  the  District  Oflacer. 
They  point  out  that  the  native  lawyer  is  probably  a  complete 
stranger  to  the  country,  and  certainly  has  nothing  in  common 
with  these  tribes,  of  whose  language  and  customs  he  is  ignorant, 
and  among  whom  he  has  only  comparatively  recently  dared 
to  penetrate  under  British  protection  for  professional  gain. 

These  charges  were  not  denied  by  the  native  members  of 
council — ^themselves  barristers  of  high  standing.  But  the 
opponents  of  the  system  appealed  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
and  to  sympathetic  societies  in  England,  largely  on  the 
ground  that  a  man  accused  on  a  capital  charge  had  a  right 
to  be  defended  by  counsel.  The  judges,  however,  afllrm  that 
native  barristers  rarely  attended  crimiaal  trials,  which  were 
not  sufficiently  lucrative,  and  confined  themselves  chiefly  to 
the  recurrent  appeals  in  land  cases,  from  which,  as  Chief 
Justice  Osborne  observed,  the  "  fat  fees  "  accrue. 

This  specious  argument  might  have  been  met  (with  little 
satisfaction  to  themselves)  by  allowing  counsel  to  appear  in 
capital  trials,  but  Chief  Justice  Speed  was  averse  to  such  a 
course,  and  held  that  existing  safeguards  (including  the  power 
of  transfer  to  the  Supreme  Court)  were  ample,  and  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  judge  to  watch  the  interests  of  the  accused.  For 
the  rest,  he  showed  that  there  was  ample  commercial  business 
in  which  counsel  could  find  legitimate  employment.  Thus 
Indian  experience  repeats  itelE  in  Nigeria,  and  doubtless  in 
other  African  dependencies.^ 

'  Sir  Francis  Fuller,  in  his  book,  '  A  Vanished  Dynasty '  (chapter  xii.  p.  220), 
gives  an  account  of  present-day  administration  of  justice  in  Ashanti :  "  The  close 
touch  and  constant  intercourse  between  commissioners  and  natives  have  en- 
gendered feelings  of  mutual  regard  and  respect.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  add  that 
this  sympathy  has,  in  many  instances,  amounted  to  real  affection.  Litigation  is 
beloved  by  the  Ashantis,  and  land  disputes  form  a  large  proportion  of  court  cases, 
owing^to  the  accruing  value  of  the  soil  for  planting  purposes.  Litigants  are  only 
too  ready  to  take  their  complaints  to  the  Commissioners,  who,  they  well  realise, 
will  mete  out  strict  justice  at  but  slight  cost  to  the  parties.  Appeals  lie  from 
the  Commissioner's  decision  to  the  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  Colony,  but  this 
last  procedure  is  seldom  resorted  to. 

"By  wise  decree  lawyers  cannot  plead  in  the  dependency,  for  such  a  litigious 
people  would  fight  to  the  bitter  end  and  ruin  themselves  in  payment  of  ex- 
orbitant fees.  One  of  the  secrets  of  their  present  contented  state  may  be 
ascribed  to  this  rule.  .  .  .  The  penalties  which  may  be  inflicted  by  the  Com- 
missioners vary  according  to  rank  from  a  maximum  of  six  months'  imprisonment 
allowed  to  District  Commissioners,  to  one  year  in  the  case  of  a  Provincial 

2  M 


546  THE  LAW  AND  THE  COXJB.TS   OP  JUSTICE. 

Nothing  except  education  can  compare  in  importance  with 
the  administration  of  justice  in  British  colonies,  and  this 
must  be  my  apology  for  so  lengthy  a  discussion  of  this  matter, 
for  the  issues  are  not  confined  to  Nigeria.  Sir  Edwin  Speed, 
lately  Chief  Justice  of  Nigeria,  whose  views  are  shared  by  his 
able  successor,  and  others  who  have  maintained  these  prin- 
ciples in  the  face  of  a  very  vocal  and  occasionally  opprobrious 
agitation,  deserve  the  gratitude  of  the  silent  and  ignorant 
millions  whose  welfare  is  affected.  I  am  indeed  convinced 
that  those  native  gentlemen  who  have  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  native  barrister  have  done  so  in  ignorance  of  the  real 
issues  at  stake. 

Turning  now  to  matters  of  procedure,  a  plea  of  not  guilty 
is  recorded  on  behalf  of  an  illiterate  accused,  and  in  capital 
cases  the  evidence  must,  generally  speaking,  be  sufficient  for 
conviction  irrespective  of  his  own  assertions.  In  other  cases, 
if  the  accused  adheres  to  his  plea  of  guilty,  he  would  be  con- 
victed unless  the  evidence  was  such  as  to  throw  strong  doubt 
on  his  guilt.  I  recoUect  the  surprise  of  a  Chief  Justice  new 
to  Africa,  when  an  accused  man  pleaded  guilty  to  having 
turned  himself  into  a  hyena  by  night  and  devoured  children, 
because  there  was  a  consensus  of  village  opinion  that  he  had 
done  so.  Or  when  another,  who  manifestly  could  not  have 
committed  the  murder  of  which  he  was  accused,  pleaded 
guilty  because  his  friends  had  told  him  it  would  save  trouble 
if  he  did  so. 

It  is  regarded  as  insulting  by  a  Moslem,  and  as  a  misuse  of 
the  Koran,  to  be  required  to  swear  an  oath  that  he  will  not 
give  false  evidence,  or  to  statements  of  detail,  though  he  is 
willing  to  swear  if  his  evidence  is  challenged,  or  if  the  matter 
is  one  which  is  vital  to  the  issue ;  for  the  rest  he  is  willing  to 
affirm.    Pagans  are  sworn  on  the  knife  or  bayonet. 

There  is  a  type  of  judicial  iaquiry,  iudispensable  among 
primitive  and  barbarous  communities,  which  we  have  of  late 

Commissioner,  and  finally  five  years  in  the  Chief  Commissioner's  Court.  All 
sentences  exceeding  five  years  must  be  confirmed  by  the  Governor.  Up  to  1919 
the  Chief  Commissioner  heard  all  important  cases,  but  in  that  year  a  Circuit 
Judge  was  appointed  to  relieve  him  of  these  duties. " 

The  Nigerian  system  appears  to  differ  from  this  only  in  that  confirmation  is 
required  for  every  case  over  six  months'  imprisonment  instead  of  five  years  ;  that 
the  powers  exercised  by  Commissioners  are  graduated  according  to  legal  know- 
ledge and  proved  capacity  instead  of  by  rank  alone,  and  that  the  duty  of 
reviewing  sentences  is  in  practice  delegated  by  the  Governor  to  the  Chief 
Justice.     Ashanti  is  "annexed  territory"  enjoying  the  status  of  a  "colony." 


COLLECTIVE  PUNISHMENT.  547 

seen  applied  in  principle  in  Ireland.  When  it  is  apparent 
that  a  community  has  taken  part  in,  or  connived  at,  an 
outrage — murder,  riot,  or  arson — and  voluntarily  accepts 
responsibility  for  it,  or  refuses  to  give  evidence,  and  know- 
ingly harbours  the  criminals,  possibly  aggravating  the  offence 
by  opposing  the  poUce  or  military  forces,  the  Governor  is 
empowered  by  special  ordinance  to  cause  a  judicial  inquiry 
to  be  held,  at  which  the  chiefs  and  notables  are  afforded  an 
opportunity  of  exonerating  themselves  and  their  people.  If 
they  are  recalcitrant,  or  if  the  charge  is  proved,  a  collective 
fine  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Governor,  be  imposed, 
and  if  not  paid  may  be  collected  by  distraint.  It  need  not 
be  collected  in  full,  and  the  village  can  be  "  bound  over," 
the  balance  standing  as  security,  and  being  remitted  unless 
the  peace  is  again  broken.^  This  procedure — "  binding  over  " 
— ^is  very  useful  in  cases  of  "  political "  disturbance  due  to 
the  assumption  by  a  chief  of  powers  which  do  not  belong  to 
him,  or  to  the  intrigues  of  one  who  has  forfeited  his  position. 

British  courts  are  directed  to  promote  reconciliation  in 
avoidance  of  htigation  when  possible,  and  the  administrative 
officer,  in  his  dual  judicial  and  executive  capacity,  is  well 
able  to  give  effect  to  this  direction.  District  Officers  are,  of 
course,  constantly  occupied  in  hearing  informal  complaints 
and  petitions,  which  can  be  settled  advantageously  without 
recourse  to  the  courts.  A  debt  by  a  native  to  a  European 
may  not  be  enforced,  if  it  is  reasonably  probable  that  the 
debtor  did  not  understand  the  nature  of  the  obhgation  and 
the  consequences  of  defaidt. 

The  profound  importance  of  the  administration  of  British 
justice  in  British  courts  in  our  dependencies  needs  no  emphasis 
by  me,  but  in  my  view,  if  oulT  aim  be  to  raise  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  Africa  to  a  higher  plane  of  civilisation,  and  to  devote 
thought  to  those  matters  which  (though  less  picturesque  than 
the  construction  of  large  pubhc  works,  or  a  large  surplus 
revenue)  most  intimately  affect  their  daily  life  and  happiness, 
there  are  few  of  greater  importance  than  the  constitution  of 
the  native  courts.  These  must  be  based  on  a  system  which 
contains  the  elements  of  steady  growth  and  evolution,  pari 

'  Sir  J.  D.  Rees,  formerly  British  Resident  in  the  native  States  of  the 
Malabar  coast,  speaking  of  the  Moplahs,  says  that  similarly  "special  acts  were 
passed  in  1854  providing  for  penal  fines  in  the  district  in  which  outrages  are 
committed."— 'Times,'  26th  August  1921. 


548  THE  LAW  ANB  THE  COXIRTS  OF  JUSTICE. 

passu  with  the  growth  of  village  education.  Among  the 
most  primitive  of  human  commxmities,  it  is  in  the  adjudica- 
tion of  tribal  and  family  disputes,  in  the  punishment  by  com- 
mon consent  of  the  violation  of  accepted  rules  of  conduct, 
and  in  the  authority  vested  in  chosen  members  of  the  com- 
munity to  give  effect  to  the  popular  will,  that  the  germ  of 
progress  and  evolution  is  to  be  found.  This  is  the  very  "  eye  " 
of  the  seed  whose  spontaneous  and  natural  growth  means 
healthy  development. 

It  may  perhaps  hardly  seem  worth  while  to  set  up  a  crude 
tribunal  consisting  of  primitive  pagans,  who  can  hardly  be 
called  chiefs,  and  have  but  a  limited  control  over  a  few 
families,  but  from  such  small  beginnings  alone  is  it  possible 
to  create  the  rudiments  of  law  and  order,  to  inculcate  a  sense 
of  responsibihty,  and  evolve  among  a  primitive  community 
some  sense  of  discipline  and  respect  for  authority.  A  Eesident 
in  such  cases  will  doubtless  feel  that  it  would  be  much  less 
trouble  to  do  the  work  himself  than  to  place  even  the  smallest 
reliance  upon  so  ineffectual  an  instrument ;  but  even  though 
the  judicial  work  be  not  so  weU  done  as  it  would  be  by  him- 
self, it  is  only  by  the  patient  training  of  such  a  court  that 
better  tribunals  can  be  evolved  and  real  progress  achieved. 
The  close  supervision  of  such  a  court,  and  the  personal  educa- 
tion of  its  members,  will  involve  more  labour  and  personal 
effort  than  direct  administration,  but  it  is  surely  worth  the 
effort. 

If  the  native  courts  are  to  become  an  integral  part  of  the 
machinery  of  Government — in  which  they  will  take  an  in- 
creasingly important  share  as  they  increase  in  efficiency — in 
accordance  with  the  system  of  encouraging  the  native  com- 
munities to  manage  their  own  affairs,  to  which  I  have  alluded 
in  a  former  chapter,  then  as  it  seems  to  me  the  following 
must  be  among  the  aims  which  the  Eesident  will  set  before 
himself  and  his  staff  : — 

(a)  To  provide  for  the  ISTatives  tribunals  which  fully  under- 
stand their  own  customs  and  modes  of  thought,  and  command 
their  confidence. 

(6)  To  create  an  adequate  number  of  courts,  so  that  each 
unit  may  have  its  own,  and  complainants  may  be  able  to 
obtain  redress  without  travelling  prohibitive  distances,  and 
the  difficulties  of  summoning  witnesses  may  be  reduced. 

(o)  To  foster  their  influence,  and  to  make  them  effective 


OBJECT  OF  NATIVE  COTJETS.  549 

instruments  of  justice,  by  teaching  them,  and  by  enforcing 
strict  impartiality  and  integrity. 

{d)  To  develop  independence  of  judgment,  initiative,  and 
a  sense  of  responsibility,  while  maintaining  a  close  super- 
vision, and  avoiding  unnecessary  interference. 

(e)  To  put  a  stop  to  the  adjudication  of  cases  elsewhere 
than  in  a  duly  constituted  court. 

{/)  To  promote  co-operation  between  the  native  executive 
authority  and  the  courts.  In  the  more  advanced  communities 
the  courts  would  look  to  the  native  officials  to  effect  arrests, 
and  to  see  that  the  sentence  or  judgment  of  the  court  was 
didy  executed,  including  the  payment  of  fines.  They  in  turn 
would  support  the  executive  authority  against  the  alien 
native  middleman  and  other  disintegrating  influences,  includ- 
ing that  of  fetish  in  pagan  districts. 

(g)  To  promote  co-operation  between  the  provincial  and 
native  courts  as  component  parts  of  a  single  judicial  system, 
and  to  relieve  the  former  of  work  which  can  better  be  done 
by  the  natives  themselves.  With  this  object  the  native  court 
can  upon  occasion  undertake  a  preliminary  investigation,  or 
its  members  can  sit  as  assessors  in  the  Provincial  Court  to 
advise  regarding  native  law  and  custom. 

Such  a  system,  in  which  the  judges  and  members  of  a  court 
receive  adequate  salaries  but  no  personal  share  of  the  fines 
inflicted — ^which  formerly  constituted  a  large  part  of  their 
income, — ^is  an  integral  part  of  an  organised  native  administra- 
tion. The  court  receipts  are  paid  into  the  native  Treasury, 
from  which  the  court  ofiBcials,  like  all  others,  receive  their 
salaries.  Since  the  native  staff  is  not  necessarily  so  limited 
in  numbers  as  the  European,  a  gradual  discrimination  between 
those  charged  with  judicial  or  with  executive  responsibility 
respectively  becomes  feasible,  by  the  training  of  a  body  of 
selected  native  judges,  distinct  from  the  district  headmen, 
and  wholly  independent  of  the  earnings  of  the  court  for  their 
emoluments. 

The  jurisdiction  of  native  courts  is  limited  to  natives,  and 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  specified  ordinances  which  they 
are  empowered  to  enforce — such  as  those  relating  to  taxation 
and  to  native  authority — they  administer  native  law  and  cus- 
tom only,  modified  or  added  to  by  such  by-laws  as  may  be 
made  by  the  Native  Authority  to  give  effect  to  local  ordi- 
nances.    The  native  customary  law  must,  of  course,  be  ad- 


550  THE  LAW  AND  THE  COURTS   OP  JUSTICE. 

mitted  as  such  by  competent  spokesmen,  and  not  the  mere 
whim  or  ipse  dixit  of  the  chief,  and  it  must  be  that  of  the 
tribe  to  which  the  accused  or  defendant  belongs.  It  must 
also  be  consonant  with  the  dictates  of  humanity  and  of 
natural  justice. 

Thus  a  native  law  which  enforces  the  destruction  of  twins 
would  not  only  be  unenforceable,  but  the  court  must  regard 
the  act  as  an  offence;  such  a  case  would,  however,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  be  tried  in  the  Provincial  Court.  Or  again, 
if  an  ordinance  or  regulation  constitutes  it  an  offence  to 
tap  the  stem  of  the  oil-pahn  for  liquor,  the  native  court,  by 
means  of  a  by-law,  would  recognise  the  act  as  punishable, 
even  if  not  contrary  to  native  law  and  custom. 

Space  precludes  any  attempt  to  review  the  system  of  native 
courts  in  the  various  British  African  dependencies,  and  I 
will  confine  myself  to  a  few  brief  notes  on  those  set  up  in 
Mgeria.i  They  vary  both  ia  constitution  and  powers,  from 
the  Moslem  court  presided  over  by  a  siagle  judge  (sitting  with 
or  without  assessors),  learned  in  law  and  apt  in  precedent, 
to  those  which  I  have  described  as  the  very  germ  of  embryonic 
evolution.  The  former  present  some  points  of  interest,  but 
it  is  the  latter  which  form  the  more  difficult  problem  of 
administration. 

The  courts  are  set  up  by  warrant  (a  version  ia  the  vernacular 
being  printed  in  parallel  columns  for  the  Moslem  courts)  ia 
which  the  powers  they  may  exercise  and  the  limits  of  their 
jurisdiction  are  defined,  and  the  judges  and  members  (if  any) 
are  named.  These  are  settled  by  the  Eesident  in  consultation 
with  the  paramount  chief  if  there  is  one. 

The  courts  are  chiefly  engaged  in  settling  questions  which 
arise  out  of  the  domestic  relations,  such  as  matrimonial  dis- 
putes, petty  debts,  trespass,  assaults,  and  inheritance — ^where 
both  parties  are  natives  subject  to  its  jurisdiction.  Alien 
natives  permanently  residing  in  the  jurisdiction  would  be 
amenable  to  the  court,  but  those  who  are  not  so  resident, 
or  who  are  not  ordinarily  subject  to  native  court  jurisdiction 
— e.g.,  British  subjects  born  in  the  colony — are  only  amenable 
with  their  own  consent.  A  similar  exemption  is  extended  to 
natives  in  the  permanent  service  of  Government,  but  they  are 
encouraged  to  take  their  matrimonial  and  petty  debt  cases 

^  See  note  on  page  199-200  regarding  the  constitution  and  powers  of  the  native 
courts  in  Uganda. 


POWERS   OF  PRIMITIVE  NATIVE  COURTS.  551 

to  the  native  courts,  to  which,  in  fact,  it  is  reported  that  they 
increasingly  resort. 

Powers  are  conferred  upon  the  courts  in  proportion  to  the 
ability  and  integrity  of  its  members.  In  criminal  matters 
those  of  the  lowest  grade  are  naturally  very  small,  for  the 
members  are  too  ignorant,  and  often  too  dominated  by  fetish, 
to  use  them  wisely.  But  I  regard  it  as  essential  that  these 
courts  should  be  genuine  native  courts,  not  hampered  by 
formalities  of  procedure,  or  presided  over  by  a  District  Ofllcer 
with  an  interpreter,  so  that  the  members  become  mere 
dummies.  To  confer  large  powers  on  such  primitive  courts, 
to  demand  Msts  of  cases  (necessarily  without  adequate  notes 
even  in  cases  which  would  in  a  Proviacial  Court  require  con- 
firmation) for  review  by  an  overworked  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  to  allow  appeals  to  the  Supreme  Court,  is  in  my 
view  hopelessly  to  confuse  the  functions  of  a  native  court 
with  those  of  the  British  Commissioner's  Court — as  I  conceive 
them — and  to  reduce  the  former  to  a  caricature  of  the  latter. 
They  are  no  longer  native  courts  in  any  proper  sense  of  the 
term,  they  are  no  longer  educative,  and  "  abuses  are  so  many 
and  so  grievous  "  that  the  country  is  better  without  them.^ 

It  is  essential  that  the  courts  should  be  open  at  all  times 
to  the  District  Officer,  who  can  revise  the  sentence  or  judg- 
ment, or  order  a  rehearing,  or,  if  desirable  (because  there  is  a 
conflict  of  evidence,  or  for  some  reason  it  appears  doubtful 
if  justice  would  be  done),  re-try  the  case  in  his  own  court. 
This  close  supervision  takes  the  place  of  appeals,  which  would 

'  The  courts  which  formerly  existed  in  Southern  Nigeria  (central  and  eastern 
provinces)  were  set  up  to  remedy  the  state  of  chaos  which  is  reported  to  have 
been  brought  about  by  the  breakdown  of  tribal  authority.  This  is  said  to 
have  been  due  partly  to  the  slave-trade,  which  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
middlemen  traders,  who  thus  usurped  the  power  of  the  chiefs,  partly  to  the 
growth  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  coast  chiefs  and  middlemen  at  the 
expense  of  those  in  the  interior,  and  partly  by  the  increasing  power  of  the  Arcs, 
a  tribe  of  professional  slave-dealers,  who  ruled  by  fetish  and  terror  and 
destroyed  the  power  of  the  tribal  chiefs. 

The  object  of  the  native  courts  was  to  re-establish  the  power  of  the  chiefs  after 
the  Arcs  had  been  conquered.  Tribal  authority,  except  through  the  medium  of 
the  native  courts,  was  however  abolished,  for  clause  15  of  the  Ordinance  (No.  15 
of  1906)  enacted  that  "  no  jurisdiction  (other  than  that  of  the  native  court)  shall 
be  exercised  in  the  district  by  any  other  native  authority  on  any  pretext  what- 
ever." A  native  council  (viz.,  a  native  court  other  than  a  "subordinate  court") 
could  inflict  a  sentence  of  imprisonment  for  two  years,  with  or  without  flogging, 
and  determine  personal  suits  up  to  £200  ('Southern  Nigeria  Laws,'  ed.  1908, 
chap.  123).  As  »  consequence  of  Supreme  Court  intervention,  it  was  alleged  that 
frequent  acquittals  on  technical  legal  grounds  of  self-confessed  murderers  had 
destroyed  confidence  and  induced  the  chiefs  to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands. 


552  THE  LAW  AND   THE   COXJUTS   OF  JUSTICE. 

merely  foster  the  tendency  to  litigation,  and  destroy  the 
influence  of  the  court.  This  passion  for  litigation  is  not, 
however,  whoUy  to  be  condemned,  for  it  provides  a  safety- 
valve,  and  supersedes  recourse  to  violence. 

There  can  be  no  more  important  duty  imposed  upon  an 
administrative  officer  than  that  of  keeping  the  closest  touch 
with  the  native  courts — especially  those  of  the  lowest  grade, 
— of  seeing  that  the  sentence  or  judgment  is  that  of  the 
court  itself,  iminfluenced  by  the  clerk  or  by  tribal  partisan- 
ship, that  the  decisions  are  reasonable  and  just  and  within 
the  powers  of  the  court,  and  of  verifying  the  disposal  of  fines 
and  fees.  This  he  can  do  by  frequently  attending  the  sittings, 
and  by  questioning  the  members,  the  clerk,  and  others. 

He  would  impress  on  the  court  the  necessity  of  granting 
a  patient  hearing,  but  avoid  intervention  himself  during  the 
proceedings,  so  as  not  to  lower  the  prestige  of  the  court,  or 
appear  to  try  the  case  himself.  Even  if  the  decision  appears 
wrong  on  the  facts,  it  is  better  to  abstain  from  interference 
at  the  time,  and  to  suggest  modification  later,  since  the  court 
which  heard  the  case  is  the  best  judge,  and  revision  should  be 
as  unobtrusive  as  possible,  in  order  to  preserve  its  influence. 
The  District  Officer  is  not  justified  in  overriding  the  genuine 
opinion  of  the  court  as  to  native  law  and  custom,  which  alone 
it  administers. 

If,  however,  an  unjust  decision  were  given  from  corrupt 
or  perverse  motives,  the  Provincial  Court  would  deal  with 
the  matter.  If  a  complaint  is  preferred  against  a  court,  the 
investigation  should  be  conducted  on  the  spot,  so  that  mem- 
bers can  explain  their  action.  Similarly,  tE  a  judgment  or 
sentence  is  cancelled,  the  reason  should  be  explained  in  open 
court.  The  review  of  their  cases  encourages  the  court  by 
showing  them  that  an  interest  is  taken  in  their  proceedings, 
and  it  is  iastructive  to  the  District  Officer.  The  efficiency  of 
the  native  courts  depends  on  the  adequacy  of  the  British 
staff. 


553 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

COURTS  OF  JUSTICE  (Continued). 

The  evolution  of  native  courts  in  primitive  communities — Clerks  of  native 
courts  —  Higher  -  grade  courts  —  Application  of  ordinances,  &c.,  in 
native  courts — Native  courts  and  slavery — Punishments  by  native 
courts — Imprisonment— Corporal  punishment — Other  punishments^ 
Capital  sentences  —  Punishment  of  women  —  Differences  in  native 
punishments — Witchcraft — Respective  functions  of  British  and  native 
courts — Results  in  Nigeria — Offences  against  natives — The  judge's 
vacation — Magistrates — The  Indian  parallel — Appendix  :  The  French 
system. 

The  object  of  the  lowest  grade  of  native  court  in  a  very- 
primitive  community  is  to  transfer  the  patria  potestas,  exer- 
cised by  the  head  of  a  family,  or  of  a  village  group,  to  a 
tribunal  covering  a  wider  area  of  jurisdiction,  without  destroy- 
ing the  authority  of  the  village  panchayet  (CouncU  of  Elders) 
on  the  one  hand,  or  the  legitimate  executive  authority  of  a 
chief  on  the  other  hand.  Thus  the  decision  of  a  recognised 
tribunal  is  substituted  for  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  individual 
(whether  a  chief  or  a  fetish  priest),  or  the  operation  of  mob- 
law,  and  the  power  of  the  secret  society.  As  the  official 
explanation  of  the  recent  Native  Jurisdiction  Bill  in  the 
Gold  Coast  aptly  expresses  it,  "  the  headman  and  the  village 
chief  will  continue  to  exist,  and  their  customary  right  to 
sit  in  arbitration  for  the  settlement  of  small  local  disputes 
win  not  be  taterfered  with.  They  will,  however,  have  no 
power  to  enforce  their  decisions  as  a  tribunal,  and  persons 
dissatisfied  with  such  decisions  must  apply  for  redress  to 
the  tribimal  of  the  superior  chief.  It  is  only  at  this  stage 
that  it  becomes  necessary  to  facilitate  and  regulate  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  in  the  tribunals." 

Each  clan  must  have  its  court,  or  easy  access  to  one,  and 
since  each  unit  desires  representation,  the  number  of  members 


554  COtTRTS   OP  JUSTICE. 

must  at  first  be  large,  and  the  area  of  jurisdiction  small. 
Only  the  principal  members  need  perhaps  hold  warrants  and 
receive  sitting  fees.  As  each  court  gains  in  self-confidence, 
competence,  and  prestige,  and  members  learn  that  they  are 
not  mere  partisans  of  the  litigants  of  their  own  tribe,  the 
number  of  members  can  be  decreased,  and  the  area  of  juris- 
diction enlarged,  or  new  courts  created  to  deal  with  expanding 
work.  In  order  to  check  frivolous  and  vexatious  litigation, 
the  complainant  in  any  case  dismissed  by  the  court  may 
with  advantage  be  charged  a  fee. 

As  soon  as  may  be,  fixed  salaries  to  members  would  be 
substituted  for  sitting  fees.  The  members  can  i£  desired  be 
elected  by  the  community,  subject  to  approval  (so  as  to  ensure 
that  their  election  has  not  been  due  to  any  wrong  influence, 
and  that  they  are  the  best  men),  but  the  expedient  of  appoint- 
ing an  ahen  as  judge  is  one  I  deprecate.  Though  an  educated 
Moslem,  or  a  Christian  clerk,  may  secure  more  rapid  progress, 
the  principle  of  evolution  on  indigenous  Unes  would  be  re- 
tarded. It  may,  however,  in  exceptionally  difficult  cases  be 
necessary  to  adopt  this  method,  with  assessors  from  the  tribe 
of  each  litigant.^ 

'  My  able  succesaor  (Sir  H.  Clifford),  in  hia  speech  to  the  Nigerian  Council  in 
December  1920,  remarks  :  "  There  is,  I  fear,  only  too  much  reason  to  apprehend 
that  the  wide  judicial  powers  granted  to  a  host  of  '  warrant  chiefs ' — few  of 
whom  have  any  extended  or  natural  jurisdiction  over  more  than  a  small  fraction 
of  the  people  upon  whose  affairs  they  adjudicate — are  too  often  used  as  legalised 
instruments  of  oppression.  In  such  localities  I  think  we  cannot  hope  to  build  up 
native  administrations,  because  the  collective  or  national  instincts  and  senti- 
ments which  are  their  foundation  are  lacking.  ...  It  should  be  our  object  .  .  . 
while  exercising  a  much  closer  supervision  over  the  dispensation  of  justice  by 
the  native  courts,  to  allot  to  the  chiefs  collectively  a  fairly  substantial  share  of  the 
revenues  which  those  courts  collect,  for  expenditure  under  the  supervision  of 
their  Eesidents  upon  local  works  of  visible  utility.  ...  I  hope  to  see  a  return 
to  the  old  system  inaugurated,  subject  to  such  alterations  in  detail  as  changed 
conditions  may  render  necessary." 

The  apprehension  that  wide  judicial  powers  would  be  exercised  oppressively  is 
no  doubt  only  too  well  founded.  The  new  system  curtailed  these  powers  very 
drastically,  and  it  was  the  aim  of  the  administration  (which  was  being  effectively 
carried  out)  to  reduce  the  host  of  "warrant  chiefs"  (as  they  had  been  called)  as 
rapidly  as  circumstances  would  permit  and  to  increase  the  supervision.  The 
principle  of  distributing  among  very  primitive  chiefs  a  portion  of  the  court 
receipts  gives  rise  to  a  fear  lest  heavier  fines  may  be  imposed.  It  is  true  that 
among  the  most  primitive  tribes  the  foundations  of  organised  administration  are 
lacking,  but  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  British  district 
officer  gradually  to  create  that  foundation,  through  and  by  the  tribal  organisa- 
tions, by  which  in  some  cases  the  tribes  have  unaided  evolved  a  higher  status. 

It  was  intended  that  the  system  introduced  should  be  in  the  nature  of  evolution 
and  progress,  and  not  such  as  would  present  to  the  native  mind  any  idea  of  sub- 
versive change.     The  district  officer  no  longer  presides,  the  powers  of  the  courts 


CLEEKS  OF  NATIVE  COXIRTS.  555 

la  order  to  give  effect  to  these  principles,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  procedure  of  a  native  court  should  not  be  modelled  on 
that  of  a  British  court,  or  hampered  by  the  observance  of 
legal  formalities.  Some  degree  of  formaUty  is,  however, 
desirable,  in  order  to  maintain  its  dignity  and  influence,  such 
as  assembly  in  a  regular  court-house,  and  the  preservation 
of  strict  order  and  decorum.  Whether  the  issue  of  a  formal 
summons,  or  a  warrant  of  arrest,  may  or  may  not  be  desirable, 
will  depend  upon  the  degree  to  which  the  community  has 
become  habituated  to  the  procedure  of  the  British  courts. 

But  it  is  obviously  necessary  that  every  court  should 
maintain  a  record  of  its  cases — often  a  mere  entry  of  the 
decision  and  date  is  enough — as  a  check  on  the  receipt  coun- 
terfoils for  the  fines  and  fees  received.  These  entries  act  as 
a  check  on  the  members,  who  fear  lest  an  imrepoited  case 
should  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  district  officer.  In  more 
important  cases — especially  land  disputes — ^unless  there  is  a 
record,  cases  would  be  brought  up  again  and  again.  The 
provision  of  a  reliable  clerk  or  scribe  for  this  purpose  is  one 
of  the  chief  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  setting  up  tribunals 
among  primitive  and  illiterate  people,  who  dislike  and  fear 
court  clerks. 

In  the  lower-grade  courts  of  the  Northern  Provinces  of 
Nigeria,  scribes  capable  of  keeping  simple  records  in  the 
vernacular  were  generally  available  in  the  Moslem  districts. 
Some  pagan  courts  rendered  an  oral  account  weekly  to  the 
District  Officer — a  course  preferable  to  employing  a  Mohame- 
dan  scribe,  who  would  probably  display  a  tendency  to  prose- 
lytise. In  the  south,  half-educated  youths  from  Mission 
schools  could  be  obtained  for  low  salaries ;  but  efficient  and 
reUable  men  were  not  available,  and  there  was  a  danger  lest 
the  clerk  should  dominate  the  court  (as  investigation  proved 
to  be  the  case),  and  would  use  the  glamour  of  his  education, 
and  his  supposed  influence  with  Government,  to  extort  bribes 
and  pervert  justice. 

The  law  administered  under  such  conditions  would  no 
longer  be  native  law  and  custom,  which  would  gradually 

are  curtailed,  the  number  of  members  gradually  reduced,  a  closer  supervision  is 
enjoined,  the  receipts  of  the  courts  are  paid  into  revenue,  the  influence  of  the 
court  clerk  is  controlled,  and  appeals  to  the  Supreme  Court  are  abolished.  We 
have  seen  that  in  the  early  conditions  of  the  country  the  courts  as  established 
were  a  substantial  advance,  but  in  none  of  these  directions,' it  is  to  be  hoped,  will 
the  projected  reversion  to  the  "  old  system  "  be  found  desirable. 


556  COURTS  OP  JTJSTICE. 

be  destroyed,  but  a  hybrid  based  on  English  law  as  known 
to  the  clerk  from  some  elementary  text-book.  The  clerk 
was  placed  in  a  position  of  great  temptation  where  there 
were  no  chiefs  capable  of  exercising  authority,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  many  succumbed  to  it.  It  is  essential  that 
the  members  should  learn  that  the  clerk  is  the  servant,  not 
the  master,  of  the  court,  and  that  he  should  not  be  allowed 
to  interfere  in  any  way  with  its  judicial  work.  The  only 
effective  check  on  such  malpractices  is  constant  supervision 
by  the  District  Ofl&cer  (especially  as  regards  the  disposal  of 
fines  and  fees),  the  gradual  education  of  the  members,  and 
the  periodical  transfer  of  clerks  from  one  court  to  another.   . 

The  powers  of  a  native  court  of  the  highest  grade  in  Nigeria 
may  extend  to  capital  sentences — a  question  to  which  I  shall 
refer  in  a  later  paragraph.  The  court  of  the  head  chief  may 
consist  of  his  principal  officers  with  a  native  judge,  and  be 
constituted  as  a  "  Judicial  Council,"  empowered  by  the 
Governor  to  exercise  executive  functions.  It  would  have 
concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  native  judge's  court,  but  can 
best  deal  with  such  matters  as  offences  or  defaults  by  the 
officials  of  the  native  administration,  land  and  boundary 
disputes  which  refer  to  ancient  titles,  quarrels  between  Mos- 
lems and  pagans,  sedition  by  fanatical  preachers,  breaches 
of  by-laws  made  by  the  native  authority,  and  cases  in  which 
the  action  or  authority  of  the  native  judges  are  called  in 
question.  The  Moslem  ruler  and  his  coimcil  are  guided  by 
equity,  the  native  Kadi  solely  by  "  the  Book."  Much  of 
the  time  of  the  latter  is  occupied  in  the  administration  of 
estates  of  deceased  persons. 

The  court  of  the  chief  native  judge  in  a  province  can  be 
made  an  appellate  court  for  the  lesser  Moslem  courts,  which 
would  submit  their  reports  through  him  for  comment,  and 
any  recommendation  to  the  Eesident.  The  chief  Kadi  would 
call  in  any  native  judge,  if  he  so  desired,  and  discuss  his  cases 
with  him. 

Tribunals  such  as  these  are  capable,  like  British  courts, 
of  modifying  their  fundamental  law  by  giving  due  weight  to 
native  law  and  custom  when  dealing  with  pagans,  and  like 
them  should  sit  with  pagan  assessors  when  dealing  with 
tribal  customs.  The  best  Moslem  judges  are  actuated  by 
enlightened  traditions  as  to  the  equaUty  of  all  persons  before 
the  law.     Some  are  averse  from  the  inffiction  of  fines,  on 


APPLICATION   OF  ORDINANCES  BY  NATIVE  COURTS.      557 

the  groimds  tliat  no  revenue  should  accrue  from  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice.  "  Justice  is  of  God,  and  no  man  should 
derive  profit  from  dispensing  it."  In  accordance  with  Mo- 
hamedan  custom,  the  ruler  must  be  acknowledged  as  supreme 
over  the  judiciary  equally  with  the  executive. 

The  advanced  courts  in  non-Moslem  countries  have  no 
written  code  of  native  law,  with  voluminous  books  of  refer- 
ence, such  as  the  Mohamedan  jurists  possess.  They  admin- 
ister the  unwritten  native  customary  law  of  their  community, 
and  the  simple  principles  of  English  law.  As  opportunity 
permits,  it  would  no  doubt  be  desirable  gradually  to  reduce 
this  mixed  and  unwritten  body  of  principles  to  a  simple 
code,  and  to  train  judges  on  the  parallel  of  the  Moslem  Kadis. 

It  is  important  that  the  advanced  native  communities, 
whether  Christian  or  Moslem  or  pagan,  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  becomiug  acquaiuted  with  the  ordinances  of  Govern- 
ment which  affect  them,  both  with  a  view  to  their  promul- 
gating their  main  principles  in  the  form  of  by-laws  for 
observance  by  native  courts,  and  in  order  to  promote  the 
feeling  of  solidarity  with  Government  which  it  is  so  desirable 
to  foster.  For  this  purpose  a  transcription  of  such  laws  into 
the  simplest  possible  language,  and  the  rendering  of  it  rato 
the  vernacular,  for  distribution  and  explanation  by  District 
Officers,  is,  I  think,  of  great  value,  for  ignorance  of  the  law 
is  a  very  valid  excuse  when  it  is  enacted  in  an  xmknown 
language. 

Such  laws  are  those  relating  to  slavery,  vaccination,  the 
possession  of  firearms  or  of  imported  spirits  ia  prohibited 
districts,  the  forestry  regulations,  the  adulteration  of  produce, 
the  preservation  of  wild  animals,  and  various  clauses  of  the 
criminal  code,  among  others.  These  higher  courts  can  be 
encouraged  to  enforce  by-laws  based  on  these  ordinances, 
and  others  deaUng  with  such  matters  as  sanitation,  markets, 
the  isolation  of  infected  cattle,  the  control  of  middlemen 
touts,  the  checking  of  grass  fires,  and  similar  questions.  The 
object  of  such  a  by-law  is,  on  the  one  hand,  to  make  the 
matter  with  which  it  deals  cognisable  by  a  native  court — 
which,  unless  so  empowered  can  only  administer  native  law 
— and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  inform  the  people  that  a  specified 
act,  or  failure  to  act,  wUl,  in  accordance  with  the  by-law,  be 
dealt  with  as  an  offence  by  the  native  courts.  As  being  the 
lawful  orders  of  the  ruler,  such  by-laws  can  be  enforced  with 


558  COtlRTS  OF  JUSTICE. 

Koranic  sanction.  Lower-grade  courts  can  make  useful  by- 
laws against  fetish  ordeal,  the  worship  of  the  smallpox  fetish, 
shifting  cultivation,  grass  fires,  tapping  palms  for  liquor,  the 
use  of  poison,  and  concerning  the  occupation  of  land  by- 
strangers. 

The  attitude  of  a  native  court  towards  slavery  questions 
has  already  been  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  slavery.  Briefly, 
its  authority  cannot  be  invoked  to  the  detriment  of  any 
person  on  the  grounds  that  he  or  she  is  or  was  a  slave — 
e.g.,  to  assist  an  owner  in  detaining  or  recovering  a  slave — 
nor  can  it  discriminate  as  regards  sentence  or  award  between 
a  slave  and  a  free  man,  but  its  assistance  can  be  invoked  on 
behalf  of  the  slave  by  certifying  to  liberation  and  ransom. 
A  native  court  should,  like  a  British  court,  view  the  relations 
between  the  master  and  a  slave  who  of  his  own  wish  con- 
tinues in  that  status  as  those  between  master  and  servant, 
and  not  between  owner  and  slave. 

Native  customary  law  (even  Koranic  law),  speaking  gene- 
rally, regards  offences  as  having  been  committed  against  the 
individual  rather  than  against  the  community,  and  punish- 
ment therefore  takes  the  form  of  vengeance  and  reprisal. 
An  African  despot  regarded  rebeUion  as  a  crime  against  him- 
self, and  he  resorted  to  burying  or  burning  alive,  to  succes- 
sive mutilations  till  the  victim  expired,  or  to  impalement. 
Witnesses  and  prisoners  were  tortured  to  extort  evidence,  or 
a  confession  of  guilt.  Imprisonment  was  rare,  and  could 
only  be  inflicted  in  a  capital  city  possessing  a  dungeon.  I 
have  described  in  chapter  x.  the  dimgeon  at  Kano. 

The  conception  that  the  suppression  of  crime  for  the  public 
benefit  is  the  function  of  the  State,  and  that  it  can  be  effected 
by  punishments  which  are  deterrent  though  humane,  and  by 
the  reform  of  the  criminal,  while  the  individual  aggrieved 
has  his  own  remedy  in  a  civil  action  for  damages,  is  one 
which  has  to  be  instilled  into  the  rulers  and  the  courts.  The 
punishments  inflicted  upon  the  African  by  his  own  rulers 
were  sufficiently  deterrent,  but  chiefs  complain  that  wherever 
the  white  man  comes  crime  increases,  and  they  are  not  allowed 
to  inflict  punishments  which  will  check  it. 

Imprisonment — a  form  of  pimishment  which  the  un- 
organised commimity  could  with  difiSculty  inflict — becomes 
under  British  rule  the  most  common.  It  has  an  educative 
value,  for  the  community  on  the  one  hand  by  showing  that 


JtTDICIAL  PENALTIES — IMPRISONMENT.  559 

convict  labour  may  be  employed  for  the  public  benefit — ^in 
road-making,  sanitation,  &c., — and,  on  the  other  hand,  for 
the  individual,  who  is  taught  a  trade,  such  as  brick-making, 
or  the  making  of  sacks,  twine,  rope,  mats,  or  baskets.  But 
the  extent  to  which  it  is  deterrent  varies  greatly.  To  some 
the  regular  work  and  good  food  is  not  distasteful.  I  have 
known  a  prisoner  due  for  discharge  prove  triumphantly  that 
he  had  still  a  day  to  serve.  On  the  inauguration  of  the  British 
administration  in  Northern  Nigeria  we  had  no  gaols,  or  even 
houses  other  than  the  grass-mat  shelters  in  which  we  all 
Uved.  Prisoners  lived  in  the  village,  and  reported  them- 
selves for  work  each  morning.  On  one  occasion  a  prisoner 
ran  away.  The  single  constable  in  charge  ran  after  him, 
and  failing  to  capture  him  and  fearing  the  consequences, 
he  laid  down  his  rifle  and  equipment  and  bolted  himself, 
whereupon  a  prisoner  marched  his  fellow-convicts  back  to 
prison,  bringing  the  constable's  arms  with  them. 

Such  incidents  would  seem  to  indicate  that  prison  life,  so 
far  from  being  deterrent,  is  even  popular.  That  it  is  not  looked 
on  as  degrading  may  be  judged  by  the  respectful  salute  paid 
by  a  warder  to  a  prisoner  of  petty  rank,  and  by  the  terms  of 
fellowship  and  equality  which  often  exist  between  the  prisoners 
and  their  guardians. 

Yet  there  are  other  tribes  to  whom  even  a  short  term  of 
imprisonment  means  death.  They  simply  piaed  away  and 
died,  or  made  desperate  attempts  to  escape.  I  have  known 
the  hard-won  confidence  established  with  a  primitive  tribe 
destroyed  in  a  moment  by  the  transfer  to  prison  of  a  convict 
whom  they  considered  had  been  carried  off  as  a  slave.  It 
is  the  District  Officer  who  knows  these  things,  and  can  best 
gauge  the  degree  of  criooinality  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
deterrent  effect  of  the  punishment  on  the  other.  ^ 

Imprisonment  can  be  inflicted  by  British  courts,  and  the 
convict  removed  to  prison ;  but  unless  native  court  prisoners 
are  confined  in  British  gaols — a  course  to  which  there  is 
obviously  strong  objection — it  can  only  be  inflicted  by  native 
courts  at  those  centres  where  a  native  administration  prison 
exists  under  the  close  supervision  of  a  District  Officer,  who 

'  I  once  spent  some  time  among  a  tribe  in  North  Nyasaland  where  apparently 
a  thief  or  burglar  was  considered  to  be  lawfully  entitled  to  the  property  he  had 

stolen and  would  openly  offer  it  for  sale  to  its  original  owner — if  he  chose  to 

take  the  risk  of  losing  his  life  in  its  acquisition. 


560  COTIETS  OF  JITSTICB. 

can  see  that  the  prisoners  are  properly  fed  and  cared  for, 
and  that  accused  persons  are  not  detained  interminably  with- 
out trial,  and  where  a  medical  officer  is  available  to  attend 
the  sick  whom  it  is  undesirable  to  release  to  spread  disease 
in  their  villages.^ 

Since  imprisonment  is  not  always  deterrent,  and  often 
difficult  for  a  native  administration  to  carry  out,  the  native 
courts  have  to  resort  to  corporal  punishment^a  common 
form  of  penalty  ia  African  communities.  There  are  those  in 
England  who  allow  their  anxiety  for  the  gentle  treatment 
of.  the  criminal  to  outweigh  the  claims  of  the  law-abiding 
for  protection,  who  measure  the  deterrent  effect  on  the 
African  by  what  would  be  deterrent  to  themselves,  and 
clamour  to  apply  to  Africa  a  code  which  it  has  taken  us 
many  years  to  reach. 

That  code  should  indeed  be  applicable  to  the  non-negro 
races  of  Africa,  and  to  the  educated  African,  who,  hke  the 
Asiatic,  shares  with  the  European  an  increased  sensibility 
both  to  the  moral  degradation  and  the  physical  pain  of  cor- 
poral punishment,  which  the  primitive  African  does  not  feel.^ 
They  forget  that  only  about  a  himdred  years  ago  sentences 
of  1000  lashes  were  inflicted  for  comparatively  trivial  offences 
in  England :  it  was  a  capital  offence  to  steal  to  the  amount 
of  5s.  from  a  shop,  and  a  chUd  could  be  hung  for  stealing 
5s.  worth  of  apples.  The  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  this 
shockingly  barbarous  law  was  led  by  the  English  bishops  !  ^ 

No  English  gentleman,  least  of  aU  a  lover  of  Africa,  can 
do  otherwise  than  regard  with  detestation  the  methods  of 
Germany,  or  contemplate  the  revival  in  Africa  of  the  bar- 
barous traditions  from  which  we  ourselves  have  so  recently 
emerged.  I  am  glad  to  think  that  I  may  have  assisted  in 
directing  Mr  Chamberlain's  attention  to  the  question  of  arbi- 
trary flogging — ^which  led  to  the  strict  limitation  of  corporal 

'  It  is  somewhat  curious  how  keen  an  interest  the  advanced  native  administra- 
tions in  Nigeria  take  in  these  institutions  in  contrast  with  the  horrors  of  their 
former  dungeons.  The  native  prisons  are  now  surrounded  by  imposing  walls, 
kept  scrupulously  clean,  and  elaborate  prison  books  are  kept  by  the  official  in 


2  I  could  give  some  very  striking  experiences  of  the  insensibility  to  physical 
pain  of  the  African,  but  space  does  not  permit.     , 

'  The  date  was  1811 — within  the  lifetime  of  my  own  father.  See  'Life  of 
Sir  S.  Romilly,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  331  and  380.  At  page  368  an  instance  is  quoted  of  a 
soldier  being  flogged  to  death  for  being  dirty  on  parade,  and  another  of  a  veteran 
of  sixty,  who  bore  an  exemplary  character,  being  given  300  laahes  for  absence 
for  a  day.     See  also  '  Thirty  Years'  Peace, '  Martineau,  vol.  i.  chap.  vii.  p.  98  et  seq. 


COBPOEAi  PTJNISHMENT  AND  CAPITAL  SENTENCES.      561 

punishment  by  Britisli  courts — and  to  the  abolition  of  the 
old  "  chain-gang,"  which  disgraced  British  rule  in  East  Africa 
in  the  early  'nineties. 

But  the  law-abiding  section  of  the  community  has  a  claim 
to  consideration  at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  criminal,  and 
pimishment  must  therefore  be  deterrent.  We  are  somewhat 
apt  to  run  to  extremes.  There  is  nothing  inhumane  in  con- 
secutive floggings,  inflicted  at  considerable  intervals,  with 
every  formaUty  and  precaution  (especiaUy  in  the  case  of  the 
African,  whose  inability  to  anticipate  the  future  I  have  de- 
scribed), or  in  whipping  (as  opposed  to  flogging)  for  repeated 
offences  of  larceny.  E"ative  courts  administering  native  law 
have  more  latitude  in  these  matters,  and  their  penalties  may 
be  greater  or  less  severe  than  a  British  court  would  award 
for  the  same  offence,  provided  they  are  not  contrary  to 
humanity.  It  is  very  desirable  that  summary  punishments 
for  crimes  of  violence  should,  when  possible,  be  carried  out 
at  the  scene  of  the  crime. 

Pines  can  be  more  easily  imposed  when  currency  has  been 
introduced,  and  they  are  suited  for  offences  other  than  crimes 
of  violence,  provided  that  care  is  taken  that  they  are  never 
the  perquisite  of  the  court.  Punishments  involving  derision 
are  particularly  effective  and  deterrent  in  Africa,  such  as 
confinement  in  the  stocks.  I  have  heard  of  prisoners  being 
ordered  by  a  native  court  to  march  round  the  village  pro- 
claiming their  sentence. 

Native  courts  are  often  better  able  to  get  at  the  truth 
than  a  British  court  is,  owing  to  their  more  intimate  know- 
ledge of  native  modes  of  thought.  In  pursuance  of  the  policy 
of  self-government  in  domestic  affairs,  the  power  of  life  and 
death  has  in  Nigeria  been  allowed  to  some  of  the  most 
advanced  Moslem  courts,  presided  over  by  judges  learned  in 
Mohamedan  law.  The  sentence  is  pronoimced  by  the  ruler. 
Such  powers  are  regarded  as  inherent  in  the  ruler  of  a  Moslem 
State.  "  Now  we  know  that  the  Emir  is  Emir  indeed  since 
he  has  the  power  of  Ufe  and  death,"  the  people  of  Hlorin  are 
reported  to  have  exclaimed. 

Such  cases  are  very  carefully  reviewed  by  the  Eesident, 
who  usually  has  some  knowledge  of  Mohamedan  law,  and  his 
report  and  recommendation  must  be  submitted  to  the  Governor 
when  reviewing  the  sentence  in  council.^    Owing  to  the  admis- 

^  See  note  on  p.  543  re  capital  powers  of  native  courts  in  Sierra  Leone. 

2  N 


562  COtTRISS   OF  JUSTICE. 

sion  of  hearsay  evidence,  the  weight  attached  to  the  Koranic 
oath,  and  a  procednre  which  appears  to  us  crude,  it  is  often 
diflScult  to  decide  between  the  desire  not  to  interfere  with 
decisions  which  are  in  accord  with  the  native  law,  and  fully 
accepted  by  popular  opinion  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  fear 
of  concurrence  in  the  execution  of  a  possibly  innocent  man 
on  the  other.  The  Secretary  of  State  considered  that  "  un- 
less the  capital  sentence  has  been  passed  for  an  offence  which 
is  not  punishable  by  death  under  English  law,  or  unless  the 
facts  disclosed  in  the  Alkali's  report  on  the  case,  or  in  that 
of  the  Eesident,  are  such  that  there  is  a  serious  likelihood  of 
a  miscarriage  of  justice  tE  the  sentence  is  carried  out,  the 
Governor  and  the  Executive  CouncU  are  justtfted  in  accepting 
the  verdict  and  sentence  of  a  native  Mohamedan  court  which 
has  passed  a  sentence  within  its  powers,  after  a  trial  carried 
out  in  accordance  with  the  procedure  enjoined  by  the  native 
law,  and  not  obviously  inequitable,  even  though  that  proce- 
dure is  widely  different  from  the  practice  of  EngUsh  criminal 
courts."  Since  the  native  courts  are  integral  parts  of  the 
machinery  of  administration  in  a  British  protectorate,  the 
Governor  cannot  evade  responsibility  for  their  action.  Addi- 
tional evidence  is  therefore  called  for  when  necessary,  and 
the  Eesident  goes  fully  into  every  case  before  recording  his 
recommendation. 

Difficulty  arises  in  dealing  with  female  criminals,  for  unless 
there  are  separate  quarters  in  the  prison,  with  female  ward- 
resses (and  there  may  not  be  a  native  administration  prison 
at  all),  it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  confine  them,  even 
temporarily.  Moslem  judges  in  Africa  are  liberal  ia  their 
treatment  of  women  (who,  under  the  Maliki  law,  may  hold 
and  bequeath  real  and  personal  property  and  contract  debts, 
«&c.),  but  since  the  Koran,  like  the  Mosaic  law,  prescribes 
death  by  stoning  for  the  offence  of  adultery,  they  maintain 
the  necessity  of  substituting  a  light  birching  on  the  shoulders. 

The  person  who  inflicted  the  chastisement  had  to  keep 
some  cowrie-shells  under  his  or  her  armpit,  so  as  to  prevent 
the  raising  of  the  arm  to  strike  with  force.  If  the  cowries 
dropped  the  culprit  was  reprieved.  It  was,  I  believe,  uni- 
versally allowed  to  "  buy  the  lashes,"  if  preferred,  by  paying 
from  Is.  to  |d.  for  each  stroke.  Eepugnant  as  the  infliction 
of  corporal  punishment  on  a  woman  must  be  to  the  mind 
of  a  British  officer,  it  is  questionable  whether  in  the  circum- 


WITCHCEAFT  CASES.  563 

stances  it  could  be  said  to  be  "  repugnant  to  natural  justice 
and  humanity,"  which,  would  justify  intervention.  But  with 
the  improvement  of  native  prisons,  and  the  provision  of 
separate  cells  for  women,  it  has  been  possible  to  prohibit  the 
practice  altogether.  It  has,  of  course,  never  been  inflicted 
by  a  British  court.  * 

In  reviewing  the  findings  of  a  native  court  a  nice  dis- 
crimination is  often  required  between  unnecessary  interfer- 
ence with  native  custom  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  violation 
of  natural  justice  on  the  other.  Thus  the  payment  of  blood- 
money  in  expiation  of  certain  cases  of  homicide  may  not  be 
repugnant  to  natural  justice,  and  when  admissible  xmder 
Moslem  law  it  has  been  ruled  that  interference  is  not  neces- 
sary, though  the  penalty  does  not  accord  with  our  views. 
But  to  demand  it  from  relations  or  fellow-vOlagers,  where  no 
connivance  has  been  shown,  would  not  be  in  accord  with 
justice.  Lifelong  imprisonment  for  debt  would  be  equally 
inadmissible. 

Some  even  of  the  devout  Moslems  who  interpret  the  Koranic 
law  are  not  immune  from  a  lingering  belief  in  the  power  of 
the  "  Evil  Eye,"  and  in  their  endeavours  to  give  due  regard 
to  pagan  custom  are  found  to  differ  considerably  in  their 
treatment  of  witchcraft  cases,  whether  it  be  the  complaint 
of  the  person  bewitched  or  the  murder  of  a  person  supposed 
to  be  a  wizard.  The  same  difficulty  is  presented  in  a  British 
court,  and  confronts  the  Governor  in  his  exercise  of  the 
prerogative.^ 

It  may,  for  instance,  be  in  evidence  that  the  ordeal  by 
poison  was  actuated  by  a  profound  belief  that  it  would 
be  harmless  i£  the  accused  were  innocent.  The  accuser 
may  or  may  not  have  been  actuated  by  maUce,  and  those 

'  The  present  Governor  of  Nigeria  says  that  he  had  caused  exhaustive  inquiry 
to  be  made  on  this  subject,  and  was  satisfied  that  the  "  floggings  "  are  adminis- 
tered with  the  object  of  subjecting  an  adulteress  "to  acute  humiliation  rather 
than  to  any  very  severe  bodily  pain."  He  adds  :  "I  see  no  reason  actively  to 
interfere  with  the  practice  of  the  Mohamedan  courts.  Of  their  own  motion  they 
have  reduced  the  very  severe  punishments  prescribed  for  adultery  in  the  Koran 
to  an  actual  and  more  or  less  publicly-inflicted  humiliation,  accompanied  by 
corporal  punishment  of  an  almost  nominal  description.  I  have  asked  the 
Residents,  however,  to  let  it  be  generally  known  that  the  Government  dislikes 
the  idea  of  women  being  flogged,  and  would  be  glad  to  see  the  practice  die  out. 
To  do  more  than  this,  however,  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  inexpedient  at  the 
present  time." — Speech,  31st  December  1920. 

*  Similar  cases  are  not  infrequent  even  in  Great  Britain.  See  the  amazing 
story  from  the  Channel  Isles  in  the  '  Times '  of  8th  October  1920. 


564  COXOBTS   OF  JUSTICE. 

who  administered  the  ordeal  may  have  had  no  option  but 
to  do  so  when  it  was  demanded,  or  the  accuser  may  have 
killed  the  supposed  witch  in  defence,  as  he  believed,  of  his 
own  Ufe.  Or  twias  may  have  been  murdered,  or  even  human 
sacrifice  perpetrated  to  avert,  as  they  beheved,  disaster  from 
the  village. 

The  degree  of  criminality  is  lessened  by  the  superstitious 
terror  which  prompted  the  crime,  but  the  necessity  for 
stamping  out  such  practices  compels  recourse  to  deterrent 
penalties,  and  since  fear  of  death  was  the  motive,  no  less 
penalty  than  death  will  be  deterrent.  It  appears  to  me,  there- 
fore, that  the  only  course  which  an  administration  can  follow 
is  to  see  that  it  is  thoroughly  understood  ia  every  village 
that  participation  in  such  deeds  wiU  involve  the  death  penalty, 
while  exercising  the  prerogative  in  any  case  in  which  any 
extenuating  circumstances  can  be  shown,  and  discriminating 
between  wizards  who  exercise  their  supposed  powers  benefi- 
cently, or  for  gain  or  revenge. 

As  a  general  rule,  offences  against  the  person  are  appro- 
priately dealt  with  by  a  native  court,  while  offences  against 
public  order  would  be  tried  in  a  British  court.  Competent 
authorities  assert  that  it  is  more  in  accord  with  native  modes 
of  thought  that  the  latter  class  should  be  regarded  as  private 
wrongs,  and  that  actions  for  damages  should  be  encouraged 
rather  than  trials  for  criminal  offences. 

A  British  court  would,  of  course,  deal  with  all  offences 
which  are  not  such  under  native  law,  or  are  not  made  justici- 
able by  a  native  court,  by  virtue  of  a  by-law.  Even  if  thus 
brought  within  the  purview  of  a  native  court,  offences  which 
we  regard  as  serious  may  to  them  appear  venial,  and  in  such 
a  case  they  would  preferably  be  dealt  with  by  a  provincial 
coiirt. 

If  important  evidence  is  inadmissible  in  a  Moslem  court — 
such  as  that  of  a  son  against  his  father  or  a  slave  against 
his  master — and  its  omission  affected  the  issue  of  the  trial, 
the  case  should  obviously  be  transferred.  Similarly,  if  a 
difference  in  religion  was  likely  in  any  way  to  prejudice  the 
chances  of  a  litigant,  or  to  cause  favour  or  disfavour  to  be 
shown  towards  an  accused  person — as,  for  instance,  if  a  Mos- 
lem murderer  were  leniently  treated  because  his  victim  was  a 
non-Moslem  or  a  slave  ;  or  if  the  evidence  of  a  Moslem  was 
held  to  override  that  of  a  Christian  or  pagan ;   or  if  inherit- 


RESPECTIVE  FUNCTIONS  OF  BEITISH  AND  NATIVE  COtTRTS.      565 

ance  by  will  were  denied  to  an  "  unbeliever  "  ;  or  in  cases 
among  primitive  tribes  where  superstition  or  the  position  of 
the  accused  might  affect  the  course  of  justice. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  cases  of  quasi-religious  rebellion, 
such  as  the  frequent  emergence  of  a  "  Mahdi  "  in  the  early- 
days  of  British  rule  in  Mgeria,  the  passing  of  sentence  by 
the  native  ruler,  who  is  also  the  religious  head,  may  serve 
to  convince  the  peasantry  that  they  have  been  misled.  But 
it  is  very  necessary  to  see  that  vindictive  sentences  are  not 
inflicted,  or — such  is  the  native  mind — that  the  idea  does  not 
gain  credence  that  Government  fears  to  try  the  case,  or 
desires  excessive  penalties. 

A  superior  native  court — especially  the  judicial  council  of 
a  ruler — ^may  be  more  competent  to  deal  with  a  disputed  land 
boundary  where  ancient  rights  are  in  question  than  a  British 
court.  It  is  of  importance  that  such  decisions  should  be 
recorded  in  its  archives,  especially  in  the  cases  of  extra- 
territorial allegiance  to  which  I  have  referred  elsewhere. 

The  native  courts  of  Mgeria  which  I  have  endeavoured  to 
describe  are  stiU  in  their  infancy,  and  the  ideals  regarding 
them,  which  the  British  staff  hope  some  day  to  realise,  are 
only  as  yet  partially  achieved.  But  there  is  a  consensus  of 
opinion  both  in  the  north  and  south  that  they  command 
confidence,  that  their  judgments  are  generally  fair  and  just, 
and  their  returns  passably  accurate.  That  they  serve  a  use- 
ful purpose  is  evident  from  the  number  of  cases,  almost 
entirely  civil  disputes,  with  which  they  deal.^  It  is  interest- 
ing to  learn  that  the  by-laws  promulgated  by  the  chiefs  are 
appreciated,  and  in  Sokoto  cattle-owners  appeal  to  the  courts 
against  persons  violating  the  rules  against  the  isolation  of 
diseased  herds. 

The  illiterate  African,  when  clothed  with  power,  is  like  other 
people  apt  to  misuse  it,  and  for  the  better  protection  of  the 
native  population  against  illegal  acts  by  the  soldiery  it  is 
desirable  that  "  civil  offences  "  (viz.,  criminal  offences  by 
persons  subject  to  mihtary  law  against  the  ordinary  law  of 
the  coimtry)  should  be  tried  by  the  civil  courts  to  which  the 
people  are  accustomed  to  look  for  redress. 

^  The  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Northern  Provinces,  in  his  report  for  1919, 
states  that  there  were  407  native  courts,  which  dealt  with  148,255  cases.  There 
were  69  prisons,  and  a  daily  average  of  2512  prisoners  in  a  population  of  nine 
millions. 


566  COTIRTS   OF  JUSTICE. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  offences  to  deal  with — as 
has  also  been  found  in  India — ^is  the  crime  of  extortion  in  the 
name  of  Government,  and  of  lying  reports  brought  against 
those  who  have  failed  to  satisfy  the  blackmailers,  to  which 
I  have  already  referred  (pp.  135  and  252).  The  ignorant 
peasantry  are  easily  misled,  especially  if  the  impostor  is  wear- 
ing part  of  a  soldier's  uniform.  Even  if  aware  of  the  ille- 
gality of  the  demand,  they  may  regard  it  as  a  lesser  evil  than 
having  to  go  long  distances  to  complain,  or  to  defend  them- 
selves against  his  charges,  involving  detention  as  witnesses 
when  their  crops  demand  their  care.  They  fear  the  plausible 
lies  of  the  accused,  and  his  greater  familiarity  with  the  ways 
of  the  white  man. 

Continual  touring  through  the  villages  by  the  District 
Officers,  the  hearing  of  the  complaint  on  the  spot  and  the 
infliction  of  a  floggiag  when  the  offender  is  convicted,  and 
education,  are  the  only  methods  of  checking  this  hateful 
offence,  which  brings  odium  on  the  Government.  As  a 
measure  of  precaution,  it  is  desirable  that  all  bona  fide  mes- 
sengers should  carry  a  badge  of  office ;  that  the  sale  of  dis- 
carded uniforms  should  be  prohibited ;  and  that  payment 
should  never  be  made  through  a  third  person.  The  diffi- 
culty of  finding  honest  subordinates  is  one  of  the  greatest 
causes  of  anxiety  in  tropical  administration.  Forced  presents 
to  those  in  authority,  though  sanctioned  by  custom,  cease 
to  be  legitimate  when  the  recipient  is  a  salaried  officer  of 
Govermnent  or  of  the  native  administration. 

In  the  tropics  there  is  stagnation  during  the  season  of  the 
heavy  rains.  Crime  and  htigation  both  decrease,  while 
travelling  (on  assize)  is  most  difficult.  This  therefore  is  the 
period  fixed  for  the  court  vacation ;  and  in  West  Africa,  where 
officials  have  four  months'  leave  after  completing  a  year  in 
Africa,  it  is  much  to  the  advantage  of  pubhc  work,  as  well 
as  more  popular  with  the  judges  themselves,  that  they  should 
take  their  leave  annually  during  the  court  vacation. 

One  vacation  judge  can  carry  on  the  urgent  work  of  the 
court,  while  the  police  magistrates  in  the  larger  commercial 
centres  deal  with  minor  crime  and  other  business.  These 
officers  in  Nigeria  belong  to  the  judicial  and  legal  department, 
while  the  "  station  magistrates  "  in  the  smaller  centres,  who 
are  engaged  less  with  court  work  than  with  municipal  affairs, 
are  selected  from  the  administrative  staff. 


PARALLEL  CONDITIONS  IN  INDIA.  567 

The  description  of  the  constitution  of  the  new  frontier 
province  in  India  (which  was  inaugurated  by  Lord  Curzon 
in  1901  after  over  twenty  years  of  discussion),  given  by  the 
'  Times  '  correspondent,  is  in  many  respects  so  apposite  to 
the  conditions  of  Africa  that  I  make  no  apology  for  quoting 
a  few  passages.^ 

"  There  is,"  says  the  writer,  "  a  growing  school  of  critics 
who  condemn  our  present  system  of  administration  in  India 
for  .  .  .  the  complicated  legal  machinery  of  the  courts  of 
justice  ;  who  assert  that  .  .  .  the  executive  officers  are  the 
slaves  of  clerical  routine,  and  the  judicial  ones  of  legal  techni- 
calities ;  that  both  alike  have  lost  their  old  touch  with  the 
people,  and  that  the  only  classes  which  benefit  by  this  develop- 
ment are  the  office  babus,  and  the  barristers  and  pleaders, 
parasitic  growths  ahen  to  the  soil  of  India,  but  thriving  on 
the  system  we  have  introduced.  With  this  condition  of  things 
is  contrasted  the  golden  age  of  personal  contact  and  paternal 
Government,  of  rough  justice  and  true  sympathy  between 
the  white  men  and  the  natives  of  the  soil.  .  .  .  The  compU- 
cated  land  tenure  in  the  Peshawar  district  gives  unusual 
opportunities  for  disputes,  and  of  these  the  bona  fide  ones 
can  often  be  settled  out  of  court,  but  those  of  a  bogus  nature 
are  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  gambling,  from  court  to  court, 
in  the  hope  that  victory  may  at  last  be  achieved  by  the 
ingenuity  of  a  pleader  or  the  ignorance  of  a  judge.  .  .  .  The 
jirga  and  the  village  organisation  stUl  exist  (among  the  Balu- 
chis)  in  their  primitive  vigour,  and  by  taking  these  as  their 
basis  the  authorities  have  been  able  to  dispense  with  much 
of  the  judicial  machinery  of  a  larger  province,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  to  keep  down  crime  within  much  narrower  bounds. 
In  all  cases,  civil,  criminal,  and  revenue,  except  serious  offences 
committed  by  European  British  subjects,  a  single  officer  is 
the  final  appellate  authority ;  he  disposes  of  them  with  a 
minimum  of  legal  formalities,  and  he  prohibits  pleaders  except 
by  special  permission  from  practising  in  Baluchistan.  The 
general  principle  is  to  put  pressure  on  the  people,  through 
their  natural  leaders,  to  settle  their  own  disputes,  and  to 
hold  those  leaders  responsible  for  the  good  behaviour  of  their 
village  or  clan." 

The  results,  says  the  writer,  are  admitted  to  be  "  wonder- 
fully good,"  and  he  lays  special  emphasis  on  "  the  restriction 

1  'Times,'  13th  November  1901. 


568  COURTS   OF  JUSTICE. 

of  the  privileges  of  pleaders,  and  the  curtailment  of  appeals." 
The  reforms,  he  tells  us,  are  not  without  their  critics,  and  to 
their  criticisms  must  be  added  the  protests  of  the  pleaders. 

The  judicial  system  adopted  by  the  French  in  their  African 
territories  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest,  and  since  it  is  tersely 
though  comprehensively  described  in  the  Foreign  OfBice  Hand- 
book, recently  issued,^  I  have  added  as  an  appendix  to  this 
chapter  the  account  which  it  gives. 


APPENDIX. 

THE   JTJDIOIAIi   SYSTEM   IN   FRENCH   TEOPIOAL   AFRICA. 

"The  judicial  system  rests  upon  the  decrees  of  November  10,  1903, 
and  of  August  16,  1912,  the  latter  of  which  replaces  the  system  of 
native  courts  provided  for  in  the  former  enactment.  A  complete  dis- 
tinction is  drawn  between  the  sphere  of  authority  of  French  and  native 
courts.  The  former  exercise  jurisdiction  exclusively  in  all  cases  where 
both  parties  are  not  natives  of  French  West  Africa  or  French  Equa- 
torial Africa,  or  of  foreign  possessions  between  these  limits,  and  do  not 
enjoy  in  their  native  places  the  rights  of  Europeans.  The  cases  which 
affect  natives  are  reserved  for  the  native  courts  ;  but  natives  may  agree 
to  submit  their  civil  actions  to  the  French  courts,  in  which  case  French 
law  is  applied  in  determining  their  rights.  If  either  party  is  a 
European,  French  law  is  always  applied  to  the  exclusion  of  native 
law. 

"The  French  courts  form  an  elaborate  hierarchy  of  (1)  Justices  of 
the  Peace  with  very  limited  powers ;  (2)  Justices  of  the  Peace  with 
extended  powers  at  Kayes,  Bamako,  Kankan,  and  Bov6,  and  Tribunals 
of  First  Instance  at  Konakry,  Grand  Bassam,  Kotonou,  Saint  Louis, 
and  Dakar,  with  full  powers  in  civil  and  commercial  matters,  and  con- 
siderable jurisdiction  in  less  serious  criminal  offences ;  (3)  Assize 
courts  to  deal  with  crimes  proper ;  and  (4)  a  Court  of  Appeal,  which 
hears  appeals  from  the  Courts  of  First  Instance  and  from  Justices  of 
the  Peace  with  extended  powers.  Decisions  in  these  colonial  courts 
are  subject  to  revision  by  the  Courts  of  Cassation. 

"  The  native  courts  are  also  arranged  hierarchically.  They  com- 
prise (1)  village  courts  consisting  of  the  chief,  who  may  give  decisions 
in  civil  and  commercial  matters  if  submitted  to  him,  but  whose  de- 
cisions are  not  binding  on  the  parties ;  (2)  the  courts  of  the  sub- 
divisions, composed  of  a  native  president  and  two  native  assessors 
with  deliberative  voices,  selected  by  the  head  of  the  colony  on  the 

1  No.  100  of  1920,  pp.  7-9  and  13. 


THE  SYSTEM  IN  FEENCH  WEST  AFRICA.  569 

recommendation  of  the  head  of  the  division :  these  courts  have  full 
civil  and  commercial  jurisdiction,  and  criminal  jurisdiction  in  such 
matters  as  are  not  reserved  to  the  tribunals  of  the  divisions,  subject  to 
appeal  to  these  tribunals];  (3)  divisional  tribunals,  consisting  of  the 
chief  civil  oflBcer,  assisted  by  two  native  assessors  with  consultative 
voices  only.  The  divisional  tribunal  hears  appeals  from  the  courts  of 
the  subdivision  in  all  civil  and  'commercial  matters,  and  from  decisions 
in  criminal  cases  of  a  grave  character,  including  murder,  dangerous 
wounding,  pillage,  arson,  kidnapping,  poisoning  of  wells,  and  mutila- 
tions ;  it  has  also  an  exclusive  criminal  jurisdiction  in  respect  of 
offences  of  slave-dealing,  crimes  committed  by  native  Government 
agents  or  against  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  duties,  crimes  com- 
mitted by  soldiers  in  union  with  non-soldiers,  usurpation  of  Government 
authority,  offences  against  regulations  affecting  matters  specially 
assigned  to  these  courts,  and  offences  against  the  safety  of  the  State ; 
and  (4)  a  special  section  of  the  Court  of  Appeal,  composed  of  three 
councillors,  two  officials,  and  two  natives,  charged  with  the  duties  of 
homologation  and  annulment.  Any  decision  of  the  inferior  courts 
may  be  submitted  to  it  by  the  Procurator-General ;  and  it  deals  also 
with  every  sentence  of  over  five  years'  imprisonment  or  in  respect  of  a 
slave-trade  offence,  pronounced  by  the  divisional  tribunals,  and  with 
sentences  exceeding  six  months'  imprisonment  or  500  francs  fine 
imposed  on  native  Government  agents. 

"  The  native  courts  apply  native  law ;  in  cases  where  the  parties  are 
subject  to  different  laws  they  follow  the  law  of  the  place  of  conclusion 
in  respect  of  contracts  (including  marriage),  and  in  respect  of  questions 
of  status  that  of  the  defendant's  tribe.  The  penalties  allowed  are 
death,  imprisonment  for  life  or  for  a  term  not  exceeding  twenty  years, 
banishment  for  the  same  period,  and  fines;  penalties  for  breach  of 
contract  are  permitted  if  in  accord  with  native  law.  Europeans  who 
have  disputes  with  natives  may  submit  themselves  to  the  courts,  in 
which  case  native  law  is  applied.  These  rules  are  subject  to  modifica- 
tion both  in  Senegal  and  in  certain  portions  of  Upper  Senegal  and  the 
Niger,  in  the  Niger  Territory,  and  in  Mauretania.  ... 

"  Great  progress  has  also  been  made  in  the  application  to  the  natives 
of  regular  administration ;  and,  though  the  administrators  necessarily 
retain  special  powers  of  taking  repressive  measures  against  natives 
without  bringing  them  before  the  established  courts,  the  Governor- 
General  has  laid  it  down  (circular  of  September  28,  1913)  that,  since 
the  enactment  of  the  decree  of  August  12,  1912,  the  use  of  these 
reserved  powers  should  be  restricted  to  cases  where  political  considera- 
tions render  action  by  the  ordinary  courts  dangerous,  or  at  least  highly 
undesirable." 


570 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

SOME   OTHER  PROBLEMS. 

A.  Municipal  Self-Governmeni. — Disinclination  to  pay  rates — Autonomy 

depends  on  financial  solvency — Nomination  or  election  of  councillors 
— Varying  types  of  municipalities  —  Constitution  and  powers  in 
Nigeria — Distinctive  features  of  townships. 

B.  Armed  Forces  and  their  Employment. — African  races  as  soldiers — 

Points  to  be  noted — Danger  of  discontent  among  troops — The  appli- 
cation of  force — Home 'critics — Methods  of  maintaining  law  and  order 
— The  attitude  of  primitive  tribes — Mistaken  methods — The  avoid- 
ance of  occasions  of  trouble — "Hill-top"  pagans — Method  of  using 
force — Military  operations — Enforcing  the  civil  law — Measures  to 
avoid  conflict— Nature  of  penalty-^Precautions. 

(a)   MUNICrPiX   SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

Throughout  the  foregoing  chapters  I  have  urged  the  wisdom 
of  decentralisation  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand 
of  allowing  the  natives  to  manage  their  own  domestic  affairs, 
in  proportion  to  their  ability.  In  chapter  x.  I  discussed  the 
devolution  of  authority  to  "  native  administrations  "  for  the 
control  of  executive  duties,  and  in  chapters  xxvii.  and  xxviii. 
I  described  how  the  principles  could  be  applied  to  judicial 
work  by  the  creation  of  native  courts  administering  native 
law  and  custom,  and  approved  by-laws. 

The  third  sphere  to  which  this  principle  is  appUcable  is 
that  of  municipal  responsibility.  The  two  former  applied 
to  the  vast  mass  of  the  population,  from  the  primitive  savage 
to  the  "  advanced  community,"  but  this  form  of  devolution 
appUes,  as  I  have  said  in  chapter  iv.,  to  the  educated  class 
of  natives,  and  to  the  unofficial  European  community.  Here 
is  the  opportunity  for  the  educated  African  to  show  that  he 
is  in  earnest  in  his  desire  for  self-government,  by  hearty  co- 
operation in  the  conduct  of  those  affairs  which  most  imme- 


DISINCLTNATION  TO  PAY  BATES.  571 

diately  concern  his  own  interests.  Nor  will  occasion  be  lack- 
ing to  prove  his  ability  to  control  the  welfare  of  those  illiterate 
classes  who  live  under  conditions  more  nearly  resembling 
tribal  life,  for  every  mimicipaUty  has  its  native  town  peopled 
by  these  folk. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  the  strong  movement  towards  muni- 
cipal control,  which  is  so  marked  a  feature  of  social  progress 
in  Europe,  finds  so  little  corresponding  expression  in  those 
large  cities  on  the  West  African  coast,  where  the  educated 
African  and  the  European  unofflcials  are  chiefly  to  be  found  ? 
The  reason  is  that  since  the  fundamental  basis  of  autonomy 
is  financial  independence,  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  a 
municipality  must  be  derived  (as  in  every  civilised  com- 
munity) from  local  rates  and  taxes ;  and,  with  a  few  notable 
exceptions,  the  natives  who  clamour  for  the  right  to  govern 
the  millions  of  the  interior  are  disinclined  to  make  a  con- 
tribution, however  moderate,  to  municipal  fimds  for  the  right 
to  govern  themselves.  They  content  themselves  with  agitat- 
iag  by  the  press  and  platform  that  town  councillors  should  be 
elected  and  not  nominated  by  the  Governor.  It  is  a  mere 
side-issue,  with  which  I  will  presently  deal. 

Manifestly  the  Government,  as  trustee  for  the  governed, 
is  only  justified  ia  allocating  such  a  sum  of  money,  raised  by 
taxation  from  the  people  of  the  interior  (on  whom  falls  the 
bulk  of  the  customs  and  other  taxes),  as  may  seem  to  be 
reasonable  and  equitable  for  the  maintenance  of  the  port  and 
other  facilities  in  which  the  hinterland  is  interested.  For  the 
rest,  the  greater  part  of  the  cost  of  purely  municipal  services 
and  amenities  must  be  provided  by  those  for  whose  benefit 
they  are  maintained. 

So  long,  therefore,  as  the  municipal  funds  are  dependent 
on  a  grant  from  revenue,  complete  local  control  must  be 
deferred,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Governor  to  select  for  the 
proper  supervision  of  those  funds  the  councillors  who  in  his 
judgment  are  best  suited  to  discharge  that  responsibility. 

These  are  nominated  at  the  suggestion  of  those  best  able 
to  advise.  They  are  selected  for  their  local  influence,  their 
experience  of  affairs,  and  their  public  spirit,  nor  do  I  recollect 
any  instance  where  the  nomination  has  given  rise  to  popular 
dissatisfaction.  It  is  also  obviously  desirable  that  any  possible 
friction  between  unofficial  members  of  the  Legislative  Council 
and  the  town  councillors  of  the  capital  city  should  be  avoided. 


572  SOME  OTHER  PKOBLEMS. 

Subject  to  these  provisos  there  can  be  no  objection  to  the 
election  of  the  members  of  the  mimicipal  body,  but  since  the 
European,  Asiatic,  and  native  communities  represent  some- 
what different  though  not  antagonistic  interests,  it  is  desir- 
able that  each  should  elect  its  ovm  members,  and  perhaps 
preferable  that  the  fimctions  of  legislative  and  municipal 
councillor  should  be  combined  in  the  same  individual.  The 
European  community  has,  I  think,  usually  been  satisfied 
with  nomination  by  the  Governor,  nor  has  the  native  com- 
munity shown  any  great  eagerness  to  exercise  the  vote  when 
granted. 

As  with  the  native  administrations,  and  the  native  courts, 
and  indeed  any  and  every  other  institution  in  Africa,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  constitution  and  the  powers  delegated  to  a 
town  council  must  vary  according  to  the  circumstances,  and 
the  degree  of  its  development.  In  some  the  education  and 
intelligence  of  its  native  citizens  may  well  fit  them  to  bear 
an  equal,  and  in  native  affairs  a  predominant,  share  with  the 
European  community,  and  the  council  can  be  entrusted  with 
large  powers  of  civic  responsibihty.  Others  may  claim  a 
large  measure  of  autonomy  on  the  grounds  that  they  are 
financially  seK-supporting.  In  one,  the  policy  of  segregation 
may  have  simplified  many  questions,  and  differentiated  the 
responsibihties  of  European  and  native  members  respectively. 
In  another,  a  survival  of  tribal  authority  may  co-exist  with 
the  progressive  educated  section,  and  claim  its  share  of 
control. 

The  constitution  and  the  powers  of  the  municipal  body 
must  therefore  vary  according  to  the  importance  of  the  com- 
munity, the  measure  of  its  abihty  to  accept,  and  discharge 
satisfactorily,  independent  or  semi-independent  powers,  and 
the  degree  to  which  it  is  able  to  provide  its  own  financial 
requirements. 

The  township  ordinances  and  the  regulations  made  under 
them  in  the  several  African  dependencies  are  very  volumin- 
ous. In  Mgeria  the  general  principle  has  been  adopted  of 
including  aU  matters  directly  connected  with  health  and 
sanitation  ia  a  "Public  Health  Ordinance,"  for  the  proper 
enforcement  of  which  the  medical  and  sanitary  departments, 
and  their  representatives,  on  the  town  councils,  are  respon- 
sible, while  all  matters  of  internal  control  and  finance,  of 
roads,  buildings,  and  lands,  &c.,  are  included  in  a  "  town- 


CONSTirUTION   OP  TOWNSHIPS.  573 

ship's  ordinance."  The  whole  or  any  part  of  the  regulations 
under  these  ordinances  may  be  appHed  to  any  particular 
township,  or  varied  in  their  application  by  special  rules  or 
by-laws. 

Townships  under  the  control  of  a  "local  authority,"  and 
duly  defined  as  to  area,  are  created  by  a  '  Gazette  '  notice. 
They  are  in  Nigeria  of  three  classes.  The  local  authority  in 
the  first  class  is  a  "  town  council  "  consisting  of  official  and 
unofficial  members — ^European  and  native, — the  intention 
being  that  so  soon  as  it  becomes  independent  of  a  grant 
from  revenue  the  imofficials  should  constitute  an  elected 
majority.  It  appoints  its  owa  officers  and  employees,  and  is 
charged  with  the  administration  within  its  area  of  specified 
ordinances  (to  the  extent  prescribed),  such  as  those  relating 
to  motor  traffic,  liquor,  dogs,  water-works,  auctions,  markets, 
pawnbrokers,  and  public  health,  &c.,  and  it  receives  as  revenue 
the  rates,  fees,  charges,  and  fines  which  accrue.  It  is  also 
empowered  to  make  by-laws  (subject  to  approval)  for  giving 
effect  to  these  laws,  and  for  the  good  order  and  control  of  the 
township. 

The  local  authority — usually  a  "  station  magistrate  " — of 
a  second-class  township  is  appoiuted  by  the  Governor,  and 
exercises  the  ordinary  powers  of  a  corporation,  assisted  by 
an  "  advisory  board  "  of  nominated  officials  (including  the 
health  officer)  and  unofficials  including  natives.  The  chair- 
man of  the  board  may  be  senior  in  standing  to  the  local 
authority,  who  is  charged  with  the  execution  of  routine  duties, 
and  the  carrying  out  of  the  decisions  of  a  majority  of  the 
board,  subject  to  the  concurrence  of  the  Lieut. -Governor. 
Eules  and  by-laws  are  made  by  the  Governor,  and  include 
authority  to  administer  such  laws,  and  impose  such  licences, 
&c.,  as  may  be  desirable.  The  local  authority,  working  in 
conjunction  with  the  medical,  public  works,  and  other  depart- 
ments, deals  with  sanitation,  housing,  roads,  markets,  land 
leases,  water-supply,  public  gardens,  &c.,  and  collects  rates, 
rents,  and  licence  fees. 

The  third  class  consists  of  such  small  centres  as  contain 
few  European  or  educated  native  residents.  It  is  an  embryo, 
and  the  local  authority — usually  the  District  Officer — ^is  with- 
out an  advisory  board  or  a  township  fund.  The  township 
estimates  of  revenue  and  expenditure  are  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  Lieut. -Governor. 


574  SOME  OTHER  PEOBLEMS. 

The  essential  feature  of  a  township  is  that  it  is  an  enclave 
outside  the  jurisdiction  of  the  native  authority  and  native 
courts,  which  are  thus  relieved  of  the  diflBcult  task  (which 
is  foreign  to  their  functions)  of  controlling  the  alien  natives 
and  employees  of  the  Government  and  Europeans,  who, 
together  with  natives  engaged  in  ministering  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  township,  constitute  the  native  residents.  Per- 
sons properly  belonging  to  the  native  jurisdiction  are  as  far 
as  possible  excluded,  and  the  local  authority  has  power  to 
eject  undesirable  persons  and  prostitutes,  subject  to  appeal. 
Exceptions,  of  course,  exist,  as  in  many  of  the  old  coast 
towns. 

Townships  of  the  first  and  second  class  are  placed  in  the 
Supreme  Court  jurisdiction,  of  which  court  the  local  authority 
in  a  second-class  township  is  a  commissioner.  British  law 
is  administered,  and  no  resident  may  own  a  slave.  Recreation 
groimds  and  club-houses  are  encouraged  for  social  intercourse. 
General  principles  are  laid  down  as  to  the  size  and  care  of 
"  compounds,"  the  location  of  outhouses,  the  construction  of 
roads  and  avenues,  precautions  against  fires,  the  control  of 
markets  and  hawkers,  the  overcrowding  of  native  residential 
sites,  offensive  trades,  and  similar  matters,  including,  in  par- 
ticular, the  rules  regarding  segregation  with  which  I  have 
dealt  in  a  former  chapter.  New  townships  should  never  be 
located  close  to  a  native  city. 

(6)   ARMED   FORCES   AND   THEIR  EMPLOYMENT. 

In  my  earUest  African  experience  it  feU  to  my  task  to 
engage  levies  of  wild  and  undisciplined  savages  to  withstand 
the  slave-raiders  m  Nyasaland;  later,  to  create  the  first  nucleus 
of  a  disciplined  force  in  Uganda ;  and  finally,  to  raise  the 
West  African  Frontier  Force  in  Nigeria,  which  eventually 
became  the  model  for  the  troops  of  the  West  African  depend- 
encies. I  have  therefore  had  some  experience  of  the  African 
as  a  fighting  man.  The  typical  African  races  may,  as  soldiers, 
be  described  as  keen  and  courageous  fighters,  impulsive, 
obedient,  and  faithful,  with  implicit  trust  in  their  leaders. 
Under  the  best  oflBcers  they  are  capable  of  becoming  excellent 
troops  in  action.  Their  weak  potuts  are,  that  they  lack  a 
sense  of  responsibility,  which  makes  them  undependable  in 
reporting  crime  and  in  exercising  control  as  N.O.O.'s,  and 


SOME  SUGGESTIONS  EEGAEDING  TEOOPS.       575 

unreliable  as  sentries.  These  drawbacks  are  less  manifest  in 
the  negroid  than  in  the  pure  negro  races,  while  the  miotic 
tribes — ^known  as  "  Sudanese  "  and  "  Blacks  " — ^though  not 
intelligent,  are  more  dependable  in  these  respects,  and  the 
Hausas  approximate  to  them. 

The  loyalty  and  gallantry  of  our  native  African  troops  in 
the  war  were  the  pride  and  the  weU-merited  reward  of  the 
officers  who  had  trained  them,  and  who  led  them  in  action. 
It  would,  I  think,  be  untrue  to  say  that  they  gave  their  lives 
to  uphold  the  British  Empire,  for  that  was  a  conception 
beyond  their  understanding,  l^o  doubt  they  hated  what 
they  knew  of  German  rule,  but  their  chief  motives  were,  I 
thiak,  personal  love  of  their  officers,  the  terms  of  pay  offered, 
the  decorations  they  hoped  to  win,  ignorance  of  the  con- 
ditions of  warfare  to  which  they  would  be  exposed,  and  their 
natural  courage  and  love  of  adventure. 

There  are  a  few  points  which  I  think  it  is  worth  while  to 
note  in  connection  with  the  military  side  of  African  adminis- 
tration, and  I  will  put  them  very  briefly  : — 

{a)  Eecruiting  should  not  be  restricted  exclusively  to 
Moslems,  who  may  be  susceptible  to  reUgious  propaganda. 
Diversity  of  language  is  the  chief  difficulty  in  using  pagan 
tribes,  but  they  learn  the  lingua  franca  with  surprising 
rapidity. 

(b)  The  period  of  enlistment  should  be  for  as  long  as  pos- 
sible, and  re-engagement  should  be  encouraged  in  every  way. 
The  cost  and  labour  of  training  men  who  are  later  discharged 
as  unKkely  to  make  good  soldiers  is  thus  saved,  efficiency 
is  increased,  and,  above  aU,  the  danger  of  flooding  the  country 
with  men  trained  to  arms  and  discipline  and  European  methods 
of  warfare  is  lessened.  It  is  true  that  the  material  for  reserves 
is  pro  tanto  decreased — a  matter  which  I  do  not  personally 
regard  as  of  much  importance. 

(c)  The  number  of  troops  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  depends 
partly  on  their  mobility,  partly  on  the  proportion  of  Euro- 
peans to  natives.  It  can  be  reduced  as  railways,  roads,  and 
mechanical  transport  add  to  mobihty.  The  proportion  of 
Europeans  should  not,  I  think,  be  less  than  4  per  cent  in 
peace  and  10  per  cent  or  12  per  cent  in  action.  I  am  strongly 
opposed  to  any  form  of  conscription.^ 

'  In  the  war  Nigeria  was  able  to  recruit  all,  and  more  than  all,  the  troops 
asked  for,  for  service  overseas,  without  any  form  of  conscription,  though  the 


576  SOME  OTHER  PKOBLEMS. 

(d)  To  promote  fellow-feelmg  and  concord,  officers  and 
men  should,  as  far  as  is  compatible  with  their  own  special 
duties,  assist  in  civil  work,  and  be  identified  in  the  general 
aims  and  policy  of  the  administration.  Officers  and  British 
N.C.O.'s  should  be  encouraged  to  learn  the  language,  for  an 
officer  interested  in  the  people  acquires  a  better  understanding 
of  his  own  men,  and  his  time  is  more  fully  employed. 

(e)  The  employment  of  native  levies  in  aid  of  the  troops, 
and  a  fortiori  the  issue  of  arms  to  natives  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  out  reprisals — a  course,  as  we  are  informed  in  a 
consular  report,  which  is  occasionally  adopted  by  the  French 
— is,  in  my  opinion,  a  policy  which  may  lead  to  such  grave 
abuses,  and  is  so  subversive  of  discipline  among  the  troops, 
that  it  should,  I  think,  be  universally  prohibited,  imless  the 
very  existence  of  the  administration  is  at  stake.  ^  ISo  non- 
combatant  natives  other  than  necessary  transport  should 
accompany  a  force  engaged  to  enforce  the  law. 

(/)  The  arms  of  the  force  should  be  kept  in  an  arms  house, 
under  the  close  supervision  of  the  British  N.C.O.'s,  and 
issued  only  when  required  by  the  troops  on  duty  or  at  drill. 

(g)  The  system  of  deferred  pay  is,  I  think,  a  valuable  one. 
It  acts  as  a  check  on  desertion,  and  provides  a  soldier  on 
discharge  with  a  lump  stma  to  start  life  as  a  trader,  thereby 
acting  as  a  great  incentive  to  enlistment. 

(h)  Soldiers  should  not  be  exempt  from  fatigue  work,  which 
is  a  valuable  part  of  their  discipline.  With  the  diminution 
of  purely  military  duties — especially  of  fighting — I  should 
like  to  see  a  considerable  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  our  African 
forces  converted  into  engineer  or  pioneer  corps,  employed  on 
railway  and  road  construction,  and  similar  work,  made  popular 
by  a  small  extra  working  pay.  Such  attempts  as  I  have  seen 
in  this  direction  have  been  wonderfully  successful. 

(j)  Similarly  the   armed   constabulary,   known   as    "  Civil 

Sultans  of  Sokoto  and  Bornu  asked  permission  to  use  compulsion.  Conscription 
wag  established  in  the  French  Colonies  in  Africa  by  the  decree  of  7th  February 
1912.  The  terms  were  four  years'  service  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and 
twenty-eight,  with  liability  for  foreign  service. — Handbook  100,  p.  13.  The 
'Times'  (16th  April  1918)  estimates  that  the  contingents  for  the  war,  including 
labourers,  numbered  700,000. 

1  In  the  'Annual  Report  for  East  Africa,  1909-1910,"  it  is  stated  that  "the 
system  of  issuing  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  rubber  collectors  (in  Tanaland) 
has  proved  most  successful,  as  the  men  have  confidence  that  they  will  get  all  they 
make,  instead  of  as  formerly  having  to  pay  toll  to  the  Somalis  in  food  and  pro- 
duce."— Cd.  6467  of  1911.  The  system  is,  I  think,  one  to  be  deprecated,  if 
indeed  it  is  not  in  violation  of  our  obligations  under  the  Brussels  Act. 


DANGER  OF  THE  WRONG  TYPE  OF  OFFICEE.  577 

Police,"  should,  I  suggest,  be  employed  in  all  townships  and 
organised  districts  as  an  unarmed  force,  and  trained  in  detec- 
tive and  purely  police  duties.  Only  those  small  detachments 
employed  in  out-stations  to  supply  escorts,  guard  prisoners 
and  prisons,  or  to  relieve  the  military  forces,  should  bear 
arms,  so  that  the  latter  may  be  kept  together  in  larger  units 
under  their  own  ofilcers  for  drill  and  discipline. 

Where  a  handful  of  white  men  are  engaged  in  the  difiBcult 
task  of  introducing  peace  and  good  government  among  a 
vast  and  ignorant  population,  the  chief  danger,  as  we  have 
learnt  to  our  cost  in  India,  in  Uganda,  ia  the  Sudan,  Somali- 
land,  the  Gold  Coast,  and  Sierra  Leone,  lies  in  possible  dis- 
affection among  the  troops.  This  has,  I  think,  invariably 
been  due  to  grievances  of  their  own,  and  not  to  political 
causes.  I  have  seen,  alike  among  Indian  troops  in  the  Afghan 
war,  and  in  Nigeria  in  the  advance  on  Kano,  how  the  native 
soldier  identifies  himself  with  the  Government  he  serves,  and 
wiU  march  against  his  co-religionists,  and  even  against  his 
own  village.  Mutinies  may  generally  be  ascribed  to  lack  of 
touch  and  ignorance  of  causes  of  discontent. 

It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
selecting  the  right  type  of  ofOicer  and  British  N.C.O.  Men 
who  have  sympathy  with  and  are  proud  of  their  soldiers  will 
be  followed  with  blind  devotion,  while  the  martinet  who 
despises  his  men,  loses  his  temper,  and  strikes  or  abuses 
them — happily  an  extremely  rare  phenomenon — should  be 
got  rid  of  as  a  public  danger.  I  am  not  in  favour  of  tribal 
companies,  which  lead  to  quarrels  in  barracks,  but  battalions 
or  wings  of  battalions,  composed  of  races  which  have  no 
afianities  with  the  population  of  the  region  in  which  they  are 
serving,  and  even  the  introduction  of  an  alien  battalion  may 
be  a  wise  precaution. 

There  was  a  time — I  am  not  sure  that  it  has  wholly  passed 
—when  it  seemed  the  fashion  for  good  folk  in  England  to 
accuse  the  African  administrator  of  partiahty  to  "  punitive 
expeditions,"  and  to  sneer  at  his  explanations.  The  tone  of 
the  press  and  of  questions  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  accusations  of  certain  societies,  led  the  man  on  the  spot 
to  feel  that  he  was  regarded  as  a  swashbuckler,  ever  ready 
to  carry  fire  and  sword  into  some  peaceful  African  territory, 
that  he  might  lay  claim  to  having  been  the  first  to  hoist  the 
flag,  or  might  gain  some  paltry  decoration.     Miss  Kingsley 

2  0 


578  SOME   OTHEE  PROBLEMS. 

led  the  way,  in  contrast  to  what  she  called  "  the  honourable 
wars  of  conquest  by  the  French,"  and  even  an  African  ad- 
ministrator was  found  to  declare  that  "  there  would  be  fewer 
of  these  Uttle  wars  if  there  were  no  decorations."  ^ 

Now  the  British  military  officer  in  tropical  Africa  is  usually 
a  public-school  boy,  with  the  traditions  of  fair-play  common 
to  that  class.  The  use  of  modern  rifles  against  antagonists 
armed  only  with  archaic  weapons  is  contrary  to  that  sense 
of  fair-play.  He  is,  moreover,  almost  invariably  very  sym- 
pathetic to  primitive  races,  and  regards  them  as  his  own 
special  prot^g^s.  Military  officers,  in  my  experience,  when 
employed  in  administrative  work,  are  perhaps  especially  apt 
to  champion  their  own  charges,  and  to  shield  them  from 
the  penalties  which  their  acts  may  have  merited. 

The  British  officer  is  very  sensitive  to  the  charge  of  reck- 
less disregard  of  native  hfe,  and  resents  it  very  bitterly. 
Not  once  but  very  many  times  I  have  known  an  officer,  with 
an  armed  escort  at  his  heels,  expose  his  life  recklessly  to  a 
shower  of  poisoned  arrows,  a  scratch  from  one  of  which  would 
probably  mean  death,  rather  than  fire  a  shot,  in  the  convic- 
tion that  he  would  presently  be  able  to  settle  matters  without 
bloodshed.  And  I  have  sometimes  wondered  whether  those 
who  without  knowledge  accuse  him  of  carelessness  of  human 
Ufe  would  have  stood  the  test  themselves. 

British  officers  engaged  in  African  work  appreciate  the 
motives  of  those  societies  which  have  constituted  themselves 
the  protectors  of  subject  races,  whether  from  slavery,  liquor, 
opium,  or  maladministration,  for  they  are  championing  the 
causes  which  the  administrative  officer  generally  has  most 
at  heart.  But  he  feels  that  they  are  sometimes  too  ready  to 
beheve  evU  of  others,  and  to  start  with  the  hypothesis  that 
there  is  something  to  conceal.  During  very  many  years  of 
African  administration  it  is  my  experience  that  it  is  more 
often  necessary  to  warn  the  British  officer  against  exposing 
his  own  life  too  freely  than  against  needlessly  sacrificing 
those  of  others. 

The  maintenance  of  law  and  order  depends  in  every  country 
on  the  power  of  coercion  by  force,  and  is  supported  by  force 
if  collectively  defied.  The  ultimate  sanction  for  recourse  to 
the  use  of  armed  force  to  compel  obedience  to  the  law  is 
derived  from  the  same  source  as  the  right  to  inflict  a  judicial 

1  Sir  Chas.  Eliot,  '  The  East  African  Protectorate,'  p.  200. 


THE  MAINTENANCE   OF  LAW  AND   OB.DEK.  579 

penalty.  It  is  inherent  in  the  right  to  govern,  and  that 
Tight  entails  the  obUgation  of  protecting  aU  sections  of  the 
fcommimity  from  outrage  and  violence.  The  Government 
which  is  unable  or  unwiUing  to  do  this  ceases  to  be  worthy 
of  the  name.  Though,  as  Mr  Chamberlain  finely  said  twenty- 
three  years  ago,  the  idea  that  colonies  were  paying  depen- 
dencies had  been  replaced  by  the  idea  of  kinship,  and  the 
sense  of  possession  in  the  tropics  had  given  place  to  that  of 
obligation,  for  "  our  rule  could  never  be  justified  unless  it 
added  to  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  people.  Never- 
theless (he  added)  you  cannot  have  omelettes  without  break- 
ing eggs,  you  cannot  destroy  the  practices  of  barbarism,  of 
slavery,  of  superstition  which  for  centuries  have  desolated  the 
interior  of  Africa  without  the  use  of  force."  ^ 

Judicial  powers  are  exercised  in  accordance  with  the  strict 
interpretation  of  the  law,  which  lays  down  the  method  by 
which  law-breakers  shall  be  brought  to  trial,  and  the  maximum 
penalty  for  each  class  of  offence  ;  but  when  the  law  is  defied 
and  is  temporarily  in  abeyance,  and  cannot  be  enforced  by 
the  ordinary  processes,  the  methods  by  which  recognition  of 
the  law  must  be  restored  are  dictated  by  the  Head  of  the 
executive,  without  appeal  to  judicial  tribunals.  It  is  there- 
fore essential  that  his  personal  approval — or  that  of  the 
Lieut. -Governor  or  other  responsible  officer  to  whom  hmited 
powers  in  this  regard  may  have  been  delegated — should  be 
^ven.  Without  such  approval  the  employment  of  armed 
iorce,  beyond  the  limits  of  legal  sanction,  except  for  self- 
defence,  renders  an  officer  Uable  to  process  of  law. 

In  Africa  you  are  dealing  with  tribes  who,  as  a  general 
rule,  regard  force  as  the  sole  arbiter,  who  are  combative,  and 
value  life  very  lightly  indeed.  Let  me  put  a  case  in  illustra- 
tion. The  yoimg  bloods  of  a  tribe,  confident  in  their  own 
weapons,  and  ignorant  of  the  power  of  the  rifle,  think  maybe 
that  a  "  scrap  "  with  the  white  man,  who  objects  to  their 
raids  on  less  warhke  neighbours,  would  not  be  unattractive. 
Conciliatory  talks  in  such  a  case  are  obviously  useless,  and 
are  oidy  tolerated  by  the  tribe  ia  order  to  gain  opportunity 
to  count  the  number  of  the  escort,  or  to  provide  a  favourable 
occasion  for  a  surprise  attack.  The  British  officer,  hating  to 
"  mow  down  "  the  brave  savages  who  expose  themselves  so 

1  'Proceedings  of  Royal  Colonial  Institute,'  vol.  xxvii.  pp.  236,  237  (1896 and 
1897). 


580  SOME  OTHER  PEOBLEMS. 

unknowingly,  reserves  his  fire,  and  in  the  encounter  only- 
two  or  three  are  killed.  For  the  moment  they  are  cowed,  and 
come  in  to  hear  the  white  man's  terms.  Probably  he  imposes 
a  fine  of  a  few  goats,  and  iasists  that  for  the  future  they  shall 
refrain  from  attacking  their  neighbours.  They  readily  agree, 
and  presently  they  are  all  chaffering  with  the  soldiers  on 
friendly  terms. 

After  the  next  beer-drinkiQg  the  young  men  propose  to 
make  a  foray.  The  elders  remind  them  of  the  compact  with 
the  British  olBcer.  "  What  is  this  white  man,"  they  retort, 
"  that  we  should  fear  him  ?  Had  he  not  fifty  soldiers,  and 
he  only  killed  three  of  us  ?  These  rifles  which  make  such  a 
terrible  noise  are  not  so  deadly  as  our  own  poisoned  arrows. 
But  we  will  make  an  overwhelming  combination  this  time, 
and  be  sure  of  success.  Moreover,  we  will  attack  him  un- 
awares in  a  place  of  thick  jungle."  So  messages  are  sent 
round  the  whole  district — another  fight  takes  place.  This 
time  the  tribesmen,  despising  the  rifle,  charge  recklessly. 
Their  numbers  are  great,  and  the  troops  have  to  fire  in  earnest 
to  avoid  being  overwhelmed.  The  casualties  among  the  tribes- 
men are  very  heavy.  They  count  them  up,  and  decide  that 
the  rifle  is  stronger  than  the  bow  and  arrow,  and  the  game 
is  not  good  enough.  The  ofiflcer's  report  perhaps  reads — 
"  Enemy's  casualties,  50  Mlled ;  ours,  1  killed,  2  wounded." 
"  Mere  butchery  !  "  cries  the  critic. 

This  hypothetical  case  suggests  reflections.  If  in  the  first 
attack  the  officer  had  fired  with  more  deadly  effect,  and 
demonstrated  the  power  of  the  rifle  beyond  doubt,  the  ulti- 
mate loss  of  life  would  have  been  much  less.  The  critic  would 
perhaps  have  asked,  "  Could  you  not  have  beaten  off  the 
attack  with  less  loss  of  life  ?  "  and  receiving  an  affirmative 
reply,  would  suggest  that  here  indeed  was  a  case  of  ruthless 
slaughter  for  the  mere  love  of  killing. 

I  will  take  another  case.  A  friendly  tribe  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  a  British  trading  depot  welcomes  the  advent 
of  the  administration,  and  gladly  pays  the  nominal  tax,  of 
perhaps  6d.  a  head  per  annum,  as  a  token  of  its  intention  to 
keep  the  peace.  Presently  it  is  raided  by  a  neighbour,  and 
it  appeals  for  the  promised  protection.  Perhaps  it  is  quite 
ready  to  undertake  a  vendetta  of  reprisals,  including  the 
carrying  off  of  women,  &c.,  but  is  restrained  by  the  law  of 
the  white  man. 


AVOIDANCE  OP  OCCASIONS  OF  TROUBLE.  581 

The  Government  sends  a  message  to  the  aggressive  tribe, 
inlorming  them  that  it  is  loath  to  resort  to  force,  but  if  they 
will  not  desist  from  attacking  peaceful  neighbours,  there  will 
be  no  alternative.  In  one  such  case  I  received  a  reply  that 
they  had  eaten  every  kind  of  man  except  a  white  man,  and 
they  invited  me  to  come  that  they  might  see  what  I  tasted 
like. 

These  are  instances,  which  it  were  easy  to  multiply,  of  the 
occasions  in  which  an  African  administrator  finds  himself 
compelled  to  resort  to  force.  As  the  power  of  the  Government 
to  enforce  its  prohibition  of  inter-tribal  war  and  the  murder 
and  looting  of  traders  and  enslaving  of  persons  becomes 
known,  and  still  more  as  the  District  Officer  gets  into  closer 
and  closer  touch  with  the  tribesmen,  and  relations  of  mutual 
liking  and  goodwill  are  formed,  the  necessity  of  resorting  to 
force  decreases,  until  it  is  only  necessary  in  the  case  of  bandit 
communities,  with  whom  all  other  methods  have  failed.  To 
avoid  occasions  of  trouble,  turbulent  districts  are  declared 
to  be  "  unsettled,"  and  Europeans  are  forbidden  to  enter 
them.  Government  and  native  court  messengers  are  not  sent 
into  districts  where  they  are  Ukely  to  be  attacked,  and  armed 
natives  are  never  sent  to  effect  arrests  by  force. 

Some  comers  of  tropical  Africa,  however,  resemble  the 
condition  of  predatory  warfare  which  is  characteristic  of 
animal  life  in  the  ocean's  depths.  Centuries  of  slave-raidiag 
and  of  iuter-tribal  warfare  had  driven  some  of  the  pagan 
communities  to  build  their  villages  among  the  boidders  and 
caves,  on  or  near  the  crests  of  the  hills,  where  they  were 
invulnerable  to  attack.  A  little  precarious  cultivation  in  the 
valley  below — ^whence  their  women  daily  toil  up  the  hillside 
with  the  day's  supply  of  water — ^forms  their  livelihood,  with 
the  exception  of  the  loot  of  passing  traders. 

It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Mgerian  Government  to  induce 
these  "  hill-top  pagans,"  as  they  are  called,  to  build  their 
villages  in  the  plain  below,  and  this  has  been  a  condition 
imposed  whenever  their  lawless  actions  have  necessitated 
coercive  measures.  It  is  a  practical  guarantee  of  the  adoption 
of  peaceful  agriculture.     Few  now  remain  in  such  fastnesses.^ 

When,  therefore,  the  law  has  been  defied  by  the  murder  of 
a  Government  agent  or  others,  or  by  the  head-hunting  pro- 
pensities of  a  predatory  tribe,  recourse  must  be  had  to  force, 

'  See  note,  p.  222. 


582  SOME   OTHER  PROBLEMS. 

if  the  community  refuses  to  surrender  the  murderers,  or  to 
allow  their  arrest,  and  accepts  collective  responsibility  for  the 
crime — threatening  the  agents  of  Government  with  violence. 
The  people  of  England  have  of  late  years  had  these  condi- 
tions brought  home  to  them  in  Ireland,  and  can  realise  them 
as  they  did  not  realise  before. 

The  object  which  the  party  of  police  or  soldiers  has  in 
view  is  the  arrest  of  the  original  offenders  and  their  abettors 
for  trial  by  due  process  of  law,  and  the  imposition  of  some 
penalty  on  the  community  under  the  Collective  Punishment 
Ordinance,  to  which  I  have  referred  in  chapter  xxvii.  This 
object  may  sometimes  be  attained  without  bloodshed  by  the 
exhibition  of  a  sufficiently  imposing  force. 

In  Nigeria,  since  the  earliest  days  of  the  administration  in 
the  north,  very  explicit  rules  have  been  in  operation  regarding 
the  conditions  in  which  force,  when  unavoidable,  may  be 
applied,  and  the  respective  duties  of  the  officer  in  command 
of  the  armed  party  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  civil  officer  on 
the  other.  Doubtless  similar  rules  are  in  force  in  all  our 
protectorates,  and  my  reader  who  has  not  had  personal  ex- 
perience of  administration  in  Africa  may  be  interested  to 
know  their  nature. 

In  the  first  place,  a  clear  distinction  is  drawn  between 
military  operations  and  the  support  of  the  civil  power  in 
enforcing  obedience  to  the  ordinary  law.  "  Military  opera- 
tions "  (now  happily  a  thing  ahnost  entirely  of  the  past)  are 
undertaken  when  some  widespread  rising — due  to  the  appear- 
ance of  a  local  Mahdi,  or  the  revival  of  the  cult  of  some 
"  Juju  "  or  other  cause — ^has  taken  place,  accompanied  per- 
haps by  the  murder  of  Europeans  and  Government  employees, 
and  there  are  possibilities  of  the  disaffection  spreading  and 
assuming  dangerous  proportions. 

The  conduct  of  operations  and  the  responsibility  for  the 
measures  taken  rest,  in  this  case,  primarily  on  the  senior 
military  officer,  acting  under  the  direct  instructions  of  the 
Governor.  A  civil  officer  is  attached  to  the  force  to  carry 
out  measures  of  pacification  as  they  become  possible. 

At  the  present  day,  in  Africa,  the  disciplined  and  well- 
armed  forces  at  the  disposal  of  Government  are  generally 
weU  able  to  carry  out  any  necessary  coercive  measures  with- 
out recourse  to  surprise  attacks  on  villages  by  night,  and  fire 
should  never  be  opened  until  the  women — who  are  indistin- 


ENFORCING  THE  CIVIL  LAW.  583 

guishable  from  the  men  even  at  a  short  distance— have  been 
afforded  time  and  a  means  of  escape.  Effective  prohibition 
of  looting,  or  indiscriminate  burning  of  villages — ^which  are 
demoralising  to  the  troops  and  reminiscent  of  the  slave- 
raider— is  invariably  enforced,  and  such  acts  are  sternly 
repressed.  It  may  generally  be  advisable  to  retain  the  troops 
for  a  time  in  a  district  in  which  mihtary  operations  have 
been  necessary,  and  their  presence  has  a  wholesome  effect. 

In  all  other  cases  the  armed  force  is  at  the  disposal  of  the 
civa  officer  for  the  enforcement  of  the  civU  law,  and  upon 
him  rests  the  responsibility  for  its  application,  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  armed  party  being  responsible  only  for  the 
actual  conduct  of  the  offensive  and  defensive  measures,  and 
the  control  of  the  constabulary  or  soldiers. 

When,  therefore,  a  community  has  committed  serious  crimes, 
and  it  is  known  that  armed  opposition  will  be  offered  to  the 
administrative  officer,  an  armed  party  accompanied  by  a 
medical  officer  is  applied  for  by  the  Eesident,  who  explains 
the  reasons  which  necessitate  intervention,  unless  extreme 
urgency  compels  him  to  accept  responsibility  for  immediate 
action. 

The  officer  in  command  of  the  "  patrol  " — who  must  always 
be  a  European — may  not  commence  hostilities  until  required 
to  do  so  by  the  civil  officer,  or  extend  the  area  of  the  opera- 
tions, after  the  first  resistance  has  been  overcome,  without 
his  concurrence,  and  must  justify  his  action  if  he  continues 
them  when  the  civil  officer  has  intimated  that  in  his  opinion 
they  should  cease.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  for  the  officer  in 
command  to  judge  whether  his  force  is  adequate,  to  take 
proper  precautions  for  their  safety,  and  to  control  them  in 
action. 

On  approaching  the  village  the  civil  officer  endeavours  to 
get  into  touch  with  the  people,  informing  them  of  his  demands. 
If  the  threat  is  sufficient  he  proceeds  with  his  escort  to  inter- 
view the  chiefs,  withdrawing  again  temporarily  to  give  them 
time  to  comply  with  his  terms,  and  surrender  the  criminals. 
If,  however,  the  demands  are  ignored,  he  advances  to  occupy 
the  village,  after  giving  time  for  the  non-combatants  to  clear 
out.  Fire  is  not  opened  unless  the  force  is  attacked,  or  there 
is  no  possible  doubt  of  the  intention  to  attack.  The  object 
still  is  to  occupy  the  empty  village  with  as  little  loss  of  life 
as  possible. 


584  SOME   OTHEE  PROBLEMS. 

A  fine  of  live-stock  and  grain  is  collected  and  supplies  for 
the  troops,  and  the  civil  officer  again  endeavours  to  get  in 
touch  with  the  chiefs  and  elders,  informing  them  that  they 
will  not  be  seized  if  they  come  in  to  parley,  but  that  if  they 
do  not,  the  principal  huts  will  be  fired — viz.,  those  of  the 
chiefs,  and  any  which  are  known  to  belong  to  the  criminals. 
If  these  pacific  overtures  have  been  unsuccessful,  the  troops 
remain  in  occupation  until  the  chiefs  make  their  submission, 
which  would  rarely  be  delayed  beyond  a  day  or  two. 

Thus  extreme  measures  are  only  resorted  to  when  the 
tribesmen  refuse  any  other  alternative.  The  punishments  are 
not  unduly  severe,  for  in  Africa  the  burning  of  a  hut,  which 
is  built  of  reeds  and  grass,  and  rapidly  reconstructed,  is  not 
so  heavy  a  penalty  as  confiscation  of  live-stock  and  crops. 
Permanent  crops  (economic  trees,  &c.)  are  never  destroyed, 
and  it  is  preferable  to  seek  out  and  inflict  loss  on  the  fighting 
men  than  to  destroy  food,  thereby  causing  hunger  to  those 
who  are  not  directly  responsible. 

A  penalty  is  provisionally  imposed  after  full  inquiry  under 
the  Collective  Punishment  Ordinance,  and  is  subject  to  the 
Governor's  approval.  If  the  casualties  have  been  heavy,  and 
if  the  criminals  are  surrendered,  it  is  usually  made  as  Mght  as 
possible,  especially  if  the  tribe  had  not  hitherto  been  under 
administrative  control.  It  usually  consists  in  the  surrender 
of  a  number  of  arms  or  bows  and  arrows,  a  smaU  fine,  or  a 
few  days'  work  on  road-making. 

It  is,  of  course,  made  clear  to  all  officers,  civil  and  military, 
that  they  have  no  authority  to  inflict  any  punishment  what- 
ever except  by  due  process  of  law,  or  in  such  cases  as  those 
described  by  special  authority  from  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  then  only  in  conformity  with  the  instructions. 

Great  care  must  be  taken  to  ascertain  that  the  alleged 
crimes  have  actually  been  committed,  and  also  to  ascertain 
whether  they  were  perpetrated  in  reprisal  for  some  outrage 
or  crime  done  by  the  persons  murdered  or  assaulted.  Very 
full  reports  are  required  from  both  the  civil  and  the  military 
officer,  with  careful  estimates  of  all  casualties,  and  an  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  trouble  and  the  measures  taken  to  avert 
hostilities. 

In  the  beginnings  of  African  administration  recourse  to 
the  use  of  force  to  restrain  lawlessness  and  crime,  and  to 
stop  inter-tribal  disputes,  was,  as  Mr  Chamberlain  said  in 


RELUCTANCE  OF  BEITISH  OFFICEES  TO  USE  FORCE.  585 

the  passage  quoted,  often  unavoidable,  but  in  my  experience 
it  has  chiefly  been  due  to  the  inadequacy  in  the  numbers  of 
the  civil  staff.  The  best  officers  hardly  ever  find  it  necessary, 
and  the  way  ia  which  turbulent  and  sometimes  treacherous 
tribes  have  been  converted  into  staunch  friends — ^fairly  law- 
abiding  and  progressive — ^by  the  sympathy  and  personal 
courage  of  the  British  District  Officer,  is  nothing  short  of 
amazing. 


.586 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

SOME  OTHER  PROBLEMS  (Continued). 

C.  Missions. — The  debt  to  Missions— Missions  in  East  Africa — Mission- 
aries and  politics — Missions  in  West  Africa — Evils  of  sectarian  rivalry 
— Polygamy — Missions  and  European  prestige — Social  effects  of  Mis- 
sion work — Missions  in  pagan  districts — Missions  to  Moslems — Lord 
Salisbury's  opinion — Restriction  in  Nigeria  and  the  Sudan — Justifi- 
cation of  restriction — The  Moslem  point  of  view — Concurrence  of 
Government  needed  for  establishment  of  Missions — Mission  spheres 
— Religious  ministrations. 

B. — The  Use  of  Intoxicants. — Import  of  spirits — Origin  of  movement  for 
suppression — The  position  in  West  Africa — Measures  of  restriction — 
Prohibition  by  convention — The  moral  aspect  of  the  traffic — The 
material  aspect — The  present  position  and  policy — Native  liquor — 
Control  of  native  liquor — Distilleries. 

(c)   MISSIONS. 

In  the  chapter  on  education  I  pointed  out  how  great  a  debt 
the  secular  governments  in  tropical  Africa  owe  to  the  efforts 
of  the  missionaries,  by  whom  the  bulk  of  the  subordinate 
native  staff  has  been  trained,  and  I  advocated  a  closer  co- 
operation between  the  Government  and  Missions  in  their 
common  task  for  the  welfare  of  the  people.  It  is  to  the 
devoted  work  of  the  missionary  that  the  educated  African 
owes  his  existence,  for  their  schools  preceded  by  many  de- 
cades the  comparatively  recent  Government  educational  estab- 
lishments. If  it  has  been  said  with  some  truth  that  trade 
preceded  the  flag  in  many  parts  of  tropical  Africa,  it  may  be 
said  with  equal  truth  that  missionary  effort  has  generally 
preceded  either,  and  opened  the  way  for  both.  Missions  have 
been  the  pioneers  of  our  tropical  Empire,  and  the  wives  of 
missionaries  have  done  much  by  example,  as  weU  as  by  patient 
leaching. 
To  the  eminently  practical,  unostentatious,  and  successful 


MISSIONS  IN  EAST  AFRICA.  587 

work  of  Dr  Laws  and  his  colleagues  of  the  Livingstone  Mission, 
and  to  the  other  Scottish  Missions  in  E"ya8aland,  it  has  already- 
been  my  privilege  to  bear  witness.^  Though  that  country 
was,  when  I  knew  it,  unappropriated  by  any  European 
Power,  and  the  scene  of  some  of  the  worst  barbarities  of  the 
slave-raider,  the  Missions,  with  remarkable  restraint,  refrained 
frona  using  their  influence  to  acquire  secular  power,  or  to 
precipitate  the  inevitable  conflict  with  the  aggressive  forces 
of  Islam,  though  they  appreciated  its  aims  (see  p.  359). 

In  Uganda  the  circimistances  were  different.  Here  an 
isolated  Mission  had  been  established,  800  or  1000  miles  in 
the  interior,  without  any  means  of  access  by  waterway,  as 
the  result  of  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm  evoked  by  Stanley's 
appeal.  Protestant  Missions  were  quickly  followed  by  those 
of  the  Eoman  Church.  Islam  had  already  preceded  the 
Christian  Missions,  and  the  adherents  of  the  rival  creeds 
fought  out  their  differences  in  bloody  battles.  Great  numbers 
of  Christian  converts  were  put  to  death,  many  of  whom  were 
burned  alive.  Twenty-two  of  them  have  recently  been 
beatified  as  martyrs.^ 

The  Christians  won,  and  the  Moslems  were  ousted  from 
the  country,  tiU  they  were  repatriated  by  me  after  a  new 
defeat  in  1891.  With  this  common  danger  removed,  the 
rival  Christian  sects  (which,  however,  were  perhaps  more 
political  than  religious,  and  represented  French  and  British 
influence  respectively)  could  no  longer  be  restrained  from 
settling  their  mutual  antagonism  in  the  old  way.  In  a  pitched 
battle  the  Protestants  were  victorious,  and  Cardinal  Lavi- 
gerie's  vision  of  the  revival  of  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Pope  in  an  African  State  vanished  away.^  Uganda,  like 
!N"yasaland,  became  a  British  protectorate. 

In  these  turbulent  times  it  was  difficult  for  the  English 
(Protestant)  Missions  to  refrain  from  participation  in  the 
politics  of  the  country — the  more  so  that  their  Boman  Catholic 
(French)  rivals  frankly  asserted  their  right  to  do  so.  Sir  G. 
Portal  stated  that  the  respective  missionaries  were  the  veri- 
table political  leaders  of  the  two  factions.  Later,  however, 
when  the  head  of  the  British  Mission  declared  to  the  accredited 
representative  of  the  secular  power  that  he  regarded  this 

'  '  Rise  of  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  i.  pp.  68-75. 

2  '  Times,'  7th  June  1920. 

'  '  The  British  East  African  Company.'     P.  Macdermott,  p.  129. 


588  SOME  OTHER  PKOBLEMS, 

participation  in  political  affairs  as  withia  the  ftmetions  of  the 
Missions,  his  view  was  discountenanced  by  the  Home  Com- 
mittee of  the  Church  Missionary  Society.^ 

In  the  West,  missionary  effort  was  largely  identified  with 
the  philanthropic  impulses  which,  following  the  suppression 
of  the  overseas  slave-trade,  led  to  the  founding  of  the  Free- 
town settlement  for  liberated  slaves  at  Sierra  Leone.  These 
Missions,  with  the  exception  of  that  to  the  Hausa  Moslems, 
were  chiefly  confined  to  the  coast  and  adjacent  regions,  and 
to  the  waterway  of  the  Mger,  until  the  extension  of  the 
administration  to  the  interior,  and  the  opening  of  railway 
communication,  gave  access  to  districts  further  afield. 

The  beneficial  effect  of  Mission  work  in  Africa  is  marred 
— no  less  than  religious  work  in  Christian  countries — ^by 
sectarian  rivalries  and  differences  in  teaching.  The  antagon- 
ism between  the  Protestants  and  Eoman  Catholics  which  so 
puzzled  Mtesa  of  Uganda  was  no  doubt  accentuated  by 
national  rivalry,  and  resulted,  as  we  have  seen,  in  actual  war. 
Elsewhere  it  is  often  disguised  under  a  thin  veneer. 

The  special  dogmas  of  the  "  Memnonite  Brothers  in  Christ," 
the  "  Pentecostal  Missions,"  and  many  others,  confuse  the 
African,  and  have  no  doubt  encouraged  that  secessional 
movement  which  in  West  Africa  has  led  to  the  establishment 
of  various  African  Churches  in  which  polygamy  is  recog- 
nised, or  some  other  departure  from  orthodoxy  is  introduced. 

Church  conferences  have  shown  that  there  is  a  minority 
among  those  interested  in  Mission  work  who  regard  poly- 
gamy with  tolerance,  as  an  institution  almost  universal  in 
the  tropics  from  the  earliest  records  of  history.  The  early 
maturity  of  women,  and  the  rapid  evanescence  of  their  sexual 
attractions  in  contrast  with  men ;  the  postponement  of  the 
weaning  of  children  (p.  66)  ;  the  necessity  for  every  woman 
to  have  a  male  protector  in  the  conditions  of  African  life ; 
the  practical  impossibility  of  chastity  among  unattached 
women  ;  the  sanction  of  tradition  and  custom,  are  arguments 
brought  forward  in  defence  of  the  institution. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  urged  that  it  favours  the  wealthy 
and  the  powerful,  and  may  even  deprive  some  few  of  the  poor 
of  the  possibility  of  finding  a  mate  at  all — though  statistics 
show  that  in  most  African  countries  there  is  a  preponderance 
— though  not  a  large  one — of  females.    Whether  polygamy  is 

'  '  Rise  of  East  African  Empire,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  456-458. 


BENATIONALISING  EFFECTS  OF  MISSIONS.  589 

responsible  for  an  increase  or  decrease  in  the  population 
appears  to  be  ia  doubt,  but  it  would  certainly  seem  to  decrease 
prostitution. 

Some  few  Missions  carry  the  ideal  of  the  equality  of  man 
to  a  point  which  the  iuteUigence  of  the  primitive  savage  does 
not  appreciate  in  its  true  significance.  That  a  white  man 
should  come  to  Africa  to  do  menial  work  in  the  furtherance 
of  an  altruistic  ideal  is  not  comprehensible  to  him,  and  the 
result  is  merely  to  destroy  the  missionary's  own  influence  for 
good,  and  to  lessen  the  prestige  of  Europeans,  upon  which 
the  avoidance  of  bloodshed  and  the  maintenance  of  law  and 
order  so  largely  depend  in  Africa. 

The  Colonial  Office  issued  a  regulation  towards  the  close 
of  the  war  that  missionaries  must  obtaiu  sanction  before 
proceediag  to  West  Africa.  Its  object,  no  doubt,  was  not 
primarily  concerned  with  the  financial  position  or  the  physical 
fitness  of  the  applicant  and  his  family  for  life  in  the  tropics, 
but  these  things  merit  attention  too.  We  read  of  the  arrival 
of  a  ship  with  "  several  small  children,  being  taken  by  their 
parents  to  stations  many  miles  from  medical  aid,  there  to 
stay  for  two  or  three  years  "  ;  of  a  missionary  and  his  wife 
whose  joint  salary,  in  these  times  of  excessive  prices,  was 
£160  per  annum — too  poor  to  buy  meat.^  I  recollect  a  case 
of  a  missionary  too  poor  to  take  his  dying  wife  out  of  the 
country.  These  things  do  not  promote  the  cause  of  the 
gospel.     They  do  harm. 

I  have  in  chapter  iv.  discussed  the  influence  of  Christianity 
and  of  Islam  respectively  on  the  social  life  of  their  converts, 
remarkiQg  that  the  former  has  exerted  a  more  denationalising 
effect  than  the  latter — a  result  perhaps  inevitable  from  the 
fact  that  Christianity  has  been  promulgated  by  Europeans, 
and  Islam  by  tribes  naturaUsed  in  Africa.  I  am  not,  I  hope, 
wrong  iu  believing  that  Missions  have  of  late  years  increas- 
ingly recognised  the  desirability  of  discouragiag  the  adoption 
of  European  dress  and  habits  by  natives  where  they  have 
not  already  become  practically  universal — as  in  the  coast 
towns  among  the  educated  classes.  The  "  black  white  man  " 
has  been  scornfully  handled  by  his  own  Press,  and  there  seems 
now  to  be  a  growing  tendency  to  a  race-consciousness  which 
deprecates  the  slavish  imitation  of  European  dress  and  customs. 

1  Letter  from  a  "Tropical  Resident  for  many  Years." — 'West  Africa,'  23rd 
October  1920. 


590  SOME   OTHEE  PROBLEMS. 

On  the  question  of  the  advisability  of  the  establishment  of 
a  Mission  in  a  pagan  region,  a  very  natural  divergence  of 
opinion  may  arise  between  the  missionary  and  the  adminis- 
trator who  is  charged  with  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  good 
order.  The  latter  fears  that  the  advent  of  defenceless  Euro- 
peans in  turbulent  districts,  where  as  yet  the  machinery  of 
Government  has  not  been  set  up,  or  only  partially  intro- 
duced, and  is  unable  to  ensure  adequate  protection  of  life 
and  property,  may  result  ia  some  imtoward  catastrophe 
which  wiU  necessitate  a  punitive  expedition.  In  the  gradual 
extension  of  the  area  of  Government  responsibility,  as  staff 
and  finance  permit,  he  cannot  allow  his  hand  to  be  forced. 
In  most  cases,  therefore,  an  "  Unsettled  Districts  "  ordinance 
empowers  the  Governor  to  prohibit  the  entry  of  Europeans 
— whether  missionaries,  prospectors,  or  too  adventurous 
traders — ^into  such  regions  as  may  be  notified  in  the  '  Gazette.' 
The  missionary,  on  his  part,  declares  that  he  asks  for  no  pro- 
tection, and  will  accept  the  consequences  of  carrying  out  his 
Master's  command  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  person,  and 
he  demands  the  right  to  do  so  in  a  British  protectorate. 

Every  administrator  would,  I  think,  cordially  welcome  the 
establishment  of  Missions  among  pagan  tribes — except,  per- 
haps, that  type  of  Mission  to  which  I  have  alluded,  whose 
actions,  however  well-intentioned,  degrade  the  European  in 
the  eyes  of  the  native.  It  would  only  be  in  extreme  cases, 
where  insulting  treatment,  or  worse,  might  compel  interven- 
tion, and  so  cause  loss  of  life — not  only  of  the  missionaries — 
that  temporary  prohibition  would  be  enforced.^ 

In  some  cases  the  adoption  of  a  nominal  profession  of 
Christianity  by  a  community  has  outrun  the  control  of  the 
heads  of  the  Mission,  and  residted  in  fracas  with  pagan  neigh- 
bours. Traders  who  have  become  Christians  carry  their 
proselytising  zeal  with  them  no  less  than  their  Mohamedan 
compatriots,  and  (as  Bishop  Melville- Jones  explained  to  me) 
the  result  is  an  automatic  spread  of  nominal  Christianity, 
in  which  the  converts  have  not  yet  learned  the  principles  of 
the  faith  they  profess,  and  the  supervising  staff  is  insufficient 
to  meet  the  needs.    The  administration  on  the  other  hand,  of 

^  The  late  Lord  Salisbury  observed  that  formerly  a  missionary  who  courted 
martyrdom  exposed  only  himself.  To-day  he  exposes  the  people  to  reprisals, 
"  because  his  position  is  closely  mixed  up  with  that  of  the  secular  Powers,  who 
cannot  in  justice  to  their  own  subjects  allow  his  death  to  go  unavenged." 


MISSIONS   TO   MOHAMEDANS.  591 

course,  insists  that  the  profession  of  any  creed,  whether  it 
be  Christian  or  Mohamedan,  shall  in  no  way  absolve  the 
convert  from  obedience  to  his  rulers,  or  from  the  observance 
of  native  law  and  custom  when  not  repugnant  to  his  conscience. 

The  case  is  otherwise  when  the  missionary  desires  access  to 
an  advanced  Moslem  State,  where  his  presence  would  be  re- 
sented, and  might  be  regarded  as  a  breach  of  the  pledge  of 
non-interference  with  the  religion  of  the  people,  with  conse- 
quent loss  of  confidence.  "  At  present,"  wrote  the  Special 
Correspondent  of  the  '  Times  '  in  the  Sudan  ia  1900,  "  all 
Englishmen  are  regarded  as  officers  or  representatives  of  the 
Government.  The  tourist  is  everywhere  saluted  in  the  streets 
of  Omdurman.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  Englishman 
to  establish  a  Mission  without  causing  the  belief  that  this  was 
a  department  of  Government.  The  Government  could  not 
disclaim  responsibility.  It  would  be  accused  of  a  breach  of 
faith."  ^  The  correspondent  of  the  same  paper  in  Nigeria 
used  almost  identical  language  in  1911.^ 

And  indeed  the  native  ruler  has  some  grounds  for  consider- 
ing that  exceptional  protection  is  accorded  to  a  European,  or 
even  to  a  native  Christian.  If  a  Moslem  missionary  were 
hustled  out  of  a  pagan  village,  it  is  probable  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  never  hear  of  it,  and  would  only  intervene  if 
murder  or  a  grievous  assault  had  been  committed.  But  the 
native  evangelist  from  the  coast  is  unlikely  to  suffer  ia  silence, 
and  would  receive  the  active  support  of  the  missionaries  in 
his  complaiats.  In  a  Moslem  emirate  in  Mgeria,  it  is  un- 
likely that  violence  would  be  offered,  imtil  smouldering  dis- 
content took  fire  in  the  preaching  of  a  "  Mahdi,"  hostile  aUke 
to  Europeans  and  to  the  native  rulers  who  had  worked  in 
harmony  with  them,  and  had  tolerated  the  Christian  pro- 
paganda. 

On  this  subject  Dr  Blyden  quotes  an  interesting  pronounce- 
ment of  the  late  Lord  Salisbury,  who  was  at  the  time  Foreign 
Minister.^  Speaking  on  19th  June  1900  at  Exeter  Hall  of 
"  the  position  which  this  coimtry,  and  those  who  represent 
its  moral  and  spiritual  forces,  occupy  to  those  great  Mohamedan 
popidations  which  in  so  many  parts  of  the  world  come  into 

1  'Times,'  16th  April  1900. 

^  'Times  '  5th  and  14th  September  1911.     See  also  the  letter  from  Sir  Mack- 
worth  Young  of  22nd  September  1911,  and  a  reply  dated  28th  September. 
3  '  West  Africa  before  Europe,'  p.  71. 


592  SOME   OTHEK  PROBLEMS. 

close  connection  with  our  rule,"  he  said,  "  I  have  pointed  out 
to  you  how  difficult  it  is  to  persuade  other  nations  that  the 
missionary  is  not  an  instrument  of  the  secular  Government. 
It  is  infinitely  more  difficult  in  the  case  of  Mohamedans. 
He  cannot  believe  that  those  who  are  preaching  the  Gospel 
against  the  religion  of  Mahomet  are  not  incited  thereto  and 
protected  therein,  and  governed  in  their  action,  by  the  secular 
Government  of  England,  with  which  they  are  connected. 
.  .  .  And  remember  that  in  these  Mohamedan  countries  you 
are  not  dealing  with  men  who  are  wholly  evil.     You  are 
dealing  with  men  who  have  a  religion,  erroneous  in  many 
respects,  terribly  mutilated  in  others,  but  a  religion  that  has 
portions  of  our  own  embodied  iu  its  system.    Tou  are  dealing 
with  a  force  which  a  sincere  though  mistaken  theism  gives  to 
a  vast  population.    You  wiU  not  convert  them.    I  do  not  say 
that  you  wiU  never  do  so — God  knows,  I  hope  that  is  far  from 
our  fears.    But  dealing  with  events  of  the  moment,  I  think 
that  your  chances  of  the  conversion  of  them,  as  proved  by 
our  experience,  are  infinitely  small,  and  the  danger  of  creating 
great  perils  and  producing  serious  convulsions,  and  it  may  be 
of  causing  bloodshed,  which  shall  be  a  serious  and  permanent 
obstacle  to  that  Christian  religion  which  we  desire  above  all 
things  to  preach,  is  a  danger  that  you  must  bear  in  miud." 

The  "  man  in  the  street "  asks  difficult  questions.  It 
costs,  says  he,  an  ascertainable  sum  to  convert  each  native. 
If  souls  are  of  equal  value  in  the  sight  of  God,  why  establish 
a  Mission  in  a  district  where,  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  railway, 
the  cost  must  be  many  times  as  great  as  in  one  more  accessible, 
and  consequently  the  number  of  souls  saved  in  proportion 
to  the  subscriptions  received  from  supporters  must  be  so  much 
fewer  ?  In  Uganda  the  experiment  was  perhaps  justified, 
because  the  material  upon  which  the  Mission  had  to  work 
was  so  eager.  But  is  it  justified,  he  would  say,  in  the  case 
of  a  Mission  to  Moslems,  of  whom  Lord  Salisbury  said  that 
experience  proved  that  the  chances  of  conversion  are  in- 
finitely small  ?  ^  Would  not  the  money  be  better  employed 
in  Missions  to  pagans,  where  cannibalism,  human  sacrifice, 

'  The  writer  of  the  very  interesting  articles  on  the  "Opening  of  the  Sudan," 
to  which  I  have  referred,  though  sympathetic  to  the  missionary  view,  says  : 
"  Missionaries  have  never  obtained  any  great  success  in  Mohamedan  countries. 
It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  a  genuine  conversion  of  a  genuine  Mussulman  has 
never  taken  place.  He  has  a  traditional  contempt  for  the  dogmas  of  Christi- 
anity." 


B.ESTEICTIONS  IN  NIGEEIA  AND  StTDAN.  593 

and  the  terror  of  fetish  superstition  exercise  a  sway  which 
Islam  has  abolished  where  it  has  taken  root  ? 

Such  discussions  are  outside  the  domaiu  of  the  adminis- 
trator, but  for  the  reasons  which  concern  his  own  respon- 
sibility it  was  found  necessary,  both  by  Lord  Kitchener  in 
the  Sudan  and  by  myself  in  Mgeria,  to  prohibit  for  the  time 
being  the  establishment  of  Christian  Missions  in  Moslem  dis- 
tricts. The  four  Missions  which  hurried  to  Omdurman  after 
the  defeat  of  the  Mahdi  "  all  laboured  under  the  heavy  engage- 
ment laid  upon  them  by  the  late  Governor-General,  of  not 
attempting  to  convert  a  member  of  the  Mohamedan  religion," 
and  were  compelled  to  confine  their  energies  to  medical  and 
educational  work,  and  to  propaganda  among  the  pagans. 

It  was  a  particularly  hard  sentence  in  the  Sudan,  for  the 
pagan  tribes  lay  beyond,  and  not  on  the  way  to  the  Moslem 
centres,  as  in  Nigeria.  It  was,  moreover,  to  atone  for  the 
violence  with  which  the  death  of  Gordon  had  been  avenged, 
"  to  heal  the  feud  and  to  bear  the  reconciling  Christian  mes- 
sage to  the  Mahdists,  that  the  missionaries  sought  to  enter 
the  Sudan.  .  .  .  They  saw  in  the  Arabs  a  people  whose  capa- 
city of  receiving  the  true  faith  may  be  measured  by  their 
capacity  of  dying  for  the  false  one."  ^  Later  the  nile  was 
relaxed,  and  Missions  were  allowed  to  enter  the  Sudan  on 
condition  that  all  members  were  unreservedly  under  the  local 
laws  and  regulations,  and  that  they  should  "  act  only  with 
the  approval  and  permission  of  the  Governor-General,  and 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  local  authorities  of  Government 
in  the  province,"  and  that  "  each  Mission  is  a  separate  body 
under  the  sole  control  of  its  local  head  ia  the  coimtry."  ^ 

Are  these  restrictions  justified  ?  "  The  value  of  mission- 
aries to  a  State  lies  not  in  the  number  of  proselytes  whom 
they  convert,  but  in  the  lives  they  lead."  Are  such  men  to 
be  excluded  and  every  petty  trader  allowed  freedom  to  settle 
where  he  chooses  ?    The  reply  of  the  administrator,  however 

1  Ibid. 

'^  Sir  R.  Wingate  to  Governor  of  Uganda,  30th  November  1905.  The  Foreign 
Office  Official  Handbook  No.  98,  published  in  1920,  says:  "The  policy  of 
the  Sudan  Government  has  always  been  and  remains  that  of  encouraging 
Islam  in  all  its  legitimate  modes  of  expression.  It  has  built  and  maintained 
many  moaques  all  over  the  country.  Christian  churches  and  schools  are  allowed 
only  in  Khartum  city.  .  .  .  Outside  Khartum  no  Christian  missionary  is 
authorised  to  preach  in  any  part  of  the  Northern  Sudan.  .  .  .  The  early  Govern- 
ment pledge  of  non-interference  with  any  man  in  the  exercise  of  his  religion  has 
been  loyally  kept"  (p.  57). 

2p 


594  SOME  OTHER  PEOBLEMS. 

reluctantly  given,  can  only  be  what  it  has  always  been  in 
Nigeria :  that  the  Government  will  offer  no  objection  if  the 
ruling  chief  concurs  ;  that  in  a  matter  solely  concerned  with 
religion  the  Government  does  not  feel  justified  in  compelling 
a  Moslem  ruler  to  grant  permission  which  but  for  Government 
intervention  he  would  refuse  ;  that  access  to  a  Mission-field 
which  is  gained  by  such  means  is  in  doubtful  accord  with  the 
principles  of  Christianity,  and  it  lies  with  the  missionaries 
of  their  own  efforts  in  medical  and  educational  work  to  win 
acceptance,  and  to  change  hostility  into  friendship — a  change 
which  will,  moreover,  be  fostered  by  the  general  spread  of 
education.  This  can  perhaps  be  effected  by  the  object-lesson 
of  their  work  in  neighbouring  pagan  districts,  or  in  those 
regions  not  under  Moslem  rule,  where  Christian  and  Mohame- 
dan  teachers  meet  on  neutral  ground. 

At  present  the  ejection  of  Christian  missionaries  by  a 
native  ruler  could  only  be  regarded  as  an  act  hostile  to  the 
Government  which  had  authorised  their  coming,  and  could 
not  be  tolerated  by  it.  If  a  Moslem  ruler,  in  reply  to  the 
question  whether  he  had  any  objection  to  the  presence  of 
missionaries,  says  that  he  and  his  responsible  chiefs  do  not 
desire  them,  imless  the  Government  orders  otherwise,  there 
is  no  escaping  from  the  conclusion  that  their  presence  depends 
on  the  secular  force  of  the  Government.  The  responsible 
spokesman  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  London  re- 
pudiated the  desire  to  introduce  Missions  on  such  terms. 

It  has  sometimes  been  alleged  that  the  Governments  of 
the  Sudan  and  Nigeria  favour  Mohamedanism.  The  attitude 
which  British  Governments  have  endeavoured  to  assume  is 
that  of  strict  neutrality,  impartiality,  and  tolerance  in  all 
religious  matters — that  "  every  man  should  be  free  to  worship 
God  as  he  chooses."  If,  however,  any  particular  form  of 
religion  sanctions  or  enforces  acts  which  are  contrary  to 
humanity  or  good  order,  the  Government  intervenes  regard- 
less of  religious  sanctions.  Thus  in  the  case  of  Islam,  slave- 
raiding  and  slave-dealing  and  any  exclusive  privilege  of 
Moslems  in  the  Courts  of  Justice  ;  in  the  case  of  fetish  creeds, 
human  sacrifice,  ordeals,  and  twin-murder ;  and  among  Chris- 
tian converts,  any  attempt  to  repudiate  the  authority  of 
chiefs,  or  forcibly  to  interfere  with  the  religious  observances 
of  their  neighbours — or  of  Moslems  to  interfere  with  Christians 
— are  all  alike  prohibited. 


THE  MOSLEM  POINT   OF   VIEW.  595 

The  attitude  of  the  native  Moslem  ruler  is  very  natural. 
He  commands  allegiance  as  the  "Head  of  the  Faith."  The 
Koran  enjoins  implicit  obedience  to  his  commands.  A  wide- 
spread desertion  to  Christianity  would  undermine  his  secular 
no  less  than  his  religious  power.  The  English  missionary, 
and  even  the  native  pastor  from  the  coast  in  European  coat 
and  trousers  (whom  he  dislikes),  would  rob  him  of  authority. 
His  own  devout  followers  would  regard  him  as  a  traitor,  who 
had  opened  the  gate  to  the  enemy. 

Moreover,  the  Mohamedan  law  which  regulates  the  conduct 
of  a  Moslem  as  a  citizen,  is  so  bound  up  with  that  which 
prescribes  his  religious  obligations,  that  to  separate  the  one 
from  the  other  is  a  new  and  difficult  conception  to  his  mind. 
The  itinerating  missionary  preacher  who  teUs  his  hearers  that 
the  claim  of  their  chiefs  to  be  their  rulers  and  guides  equally 
in  spiritual  as  in  the  material  relations  of  life  is  founded  on 
heresy,  seems  to  him  to  differ  little  from  the  preaching  of 
sedition.  The  attitude  of  Mohamedans  towards  the  Christian 
Government  which  has  deprived  them  of  their  dominant 
position,  and  made  their  favourite  pastime  of  slave-raiding 
a  criminal  offence,  has  on  the  whole  been  one  of  tolerance 
and  acquiescence. 

That  the  Moslems  of  Northern  Mgeria,  cut  off  from  access 
to  Tripoli  and  the  Mediterranean  coast,  have  maintained  so 
high  a  standard  of  competence  in  Mohamedan  jurisprudence 
and  literary  ability  ia  Arabic  ;  that  while  retaining  a  dignity 
of  deportment  and  courtesy  of  manners  they  have  resisted 
denationalising  tendencies ;  that  their  influence  over  the 
lower  classes  and  neighbouring  tribes  has  increased  now  that 
their  rule  has  been  purged  of  its  excesses  ;  and  that  the  better 
classes  have  consistently  maintained  their  hostility  to  intoxi- 
cating liquor,  speaks  well  for  the  hold  which  Mohamedan 
culture,  within  its  limits,  had  obtained  over  these  northern 
races. 

For  the  reasons  I  have  given  it  is  necessary  that  the  prior 
concurrence  of  Government  should  be  sought  before  a  Mission 
is  established  in  either  a  Moslem  or  a  pagan  district.  There 
can  be  no  fear  that  a  British  administrator  would  withhold 
consent  unless  for  some  very  cogent  reason.  If  his  reasons 
appeared  insuflacient,  there  is  probably  no  class  which  com- 
mands a  wider  means  of  influencing  public  opinion  through 
the  Press  and  Parliament,  and  can  more  effectively  bring 


596  SOME   OTHEE  PEOBLEMS, 

any  decision  which  it  regards  as  unjust  to  the  bar  of  public 
opinion  in  England,  than  the  missionaries  and  their  sup- 
porters. 

But  these  reasons  do  not  stand  alone.  Cases  have  been 
kQown  where  the  sole  apparent  motive  for  the  extension  of  a 
Mission  was  to  compete  with  an  earlier  arrival.  This  rivalry, 
as  the  story  of  Uganda  and  many  a  minor  field  has  shown, 
is  greatly  to  be  deprecated,  and  justifies  an  administrator 
in  withholding  his  sanction. 

It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  spheres  of  Mission  influ- 
ence should  be  mapped  out,  within  which  each  particular 
sect  should  be  free  to  teach  accordiag  to  its  own  dogmas, 
without  aggression  from  others.  In  Uganda  I  carried  out 
this  principle  after  the  fighting,  and  it  is  more  or  less  in 
operation  in  Northern  Nigeria.  But  in  the  complicated  net- 
work of  Mission  activities  which  I  found  existing  in  Southern 
Nigeria  it  was  difficult  to  effect  an  agreement.  If  the  heads 
of  the  various  Missions  could  come  to  terms  on  this -matter, 
nothing  but  good  would  result.  It  has  been  reported  to  me 
by  administrative  officers  that  the  spectacle  of  the  jealousy 
between  rival  Missions  has  a  very  bad  effect  on  the  people, 
and  increases  the  tendency  towards  indiscipline.^ 

There  is  no  Established  Church  in  our  African  dependencies, 
though  bishops — European  and  African — are  appointed  to 
dioceses,  which  parcel  out  British  tropical  Africa  between 
them.  In  Southern  Nigeria  the  salary  of  a  chaplain  was  pro- 
vided from  revenue,  but  the  Colonial  Office  has  directed  that 
he  shall  not  be  replaced  when  he  retires.  That  the  cost  of 
building  churches  and  the  maintenance  of  a  minister  should 
fall  on  the  very  smaU  group  of  Europeans  and  Christian 
natives  who  can  count  with  any  degree  of  certainty  on  being 
permanently  resident  at  any  place,  is  to  ask  more  than  the 
none  too  large  salaries  at  their  disposal  can  provide. 

Missionaries,  when  asked  to  undertake  religious  services, 
have  in  some  cases  repUed  that  their  duties  did  not  extend 
to  such  work  ;  in  others,  they  have  generously  responded. 
Whether  some  satisfactory  arrangement  could  be  made  is  a 
matter  which  seems  to  deserve  the  consideration  of  the 
societies.    The  absence  of  the  outward  observances  of  religion 

^  In  the  Sudan  among  the  pagan  tribes  in  the  south  "  the  Government 
encourages  Christian  missions,  and  has  allotted  strict  geographical  limits  or 
'  reservations '  to  the  different  churches." — '  Foreign  Office  Handbook,'  p.  58. 


PEELING  AGAINST  THE  LIQUOE  TRAFFIC.  597 

among  European  Christians  is,  I  believe,  a  matter  of  com- 
ment among  Mohamedans,  whose  creed  is  so  insistent  on 
such  public  observances. 


{d)    THE   USE    OF   INTOXICANTS. 

The  horrors  of  the  overseas  slave-trade  from  West  Africa 
were  succeeded  by  the  steady  growth  of  a  trade  in  cheap 
spirits  for  sale  to  the  natives.  The  facts,  brought  to  light  by 
the  Colonial  Congress  of  the  Temperance  League  in  1886, 
and  the  data  recorded  in  a  pamphlet  by  Eev.  H.  Waller, 
reinforced  the  startling  reports  of  Burton,  Thomson,  and  other 
eminent  African  explorers  regarding  the  demorahsation  of 
the  native  races  by  the  liquor  traffic.  Public  opinion  was 
considerably  stirred,  and  on  30th  March  1887  a  very  in- 
fluential meeting  was  held  in  London,  followed  on  1st  April 
by  another  ia  the  conference-room  of  the  House  of  Commons  ; 
and  on  27th  April  a  Committee  was  formed  under  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Duke  of  Westminster  and  the  chairmanship 
of  the  Bishop  of  London,  on  which  a  large  number  of  Mission 
and  other  societies  were  officially  represented,  for  the  pre- 
vention of  the  traffic.  The  Committee  pubhshed  quarterly 
papers,  and  an  annual  report.  A  debate  in  the  Commons 
took  place  in  March  1888,  and  an  influential  deputation  to 
the  Foreign  Minister  (Lord  Salisbury)  was  organised  in  Decem- 
ber 1888,  and  elicited  his  strong  support.  A  further  debate 
took  place  in  May  1889  in  the  House  of  Lords.  As  a  result 
of  these  efforts,  the  subject  was  included  in  the  work  of  the 
Brussels  Conference  of  1889. 

By  the  Brussels  Act — ^ratified  in  1892 — the  Powers  agreed 
(Articles  91-94)  that  total  prohibition,  except  for  non-natives, 
should  be  enforced  in  that  part  of  Africa  lying  between 
N.  lat.  20°  and  S.  lat.  22°,  in  which  the  use  of  distilled  liquor 
did  not  exist  or  had  not  been  developed,  and  that  elsewhere 
a  specified  duty  should  be  imposed  as  a  minimum,  subject  to 
revision  after  six  years.  Holland,  who  has  no  African  posses- 
sions, and  was  the  chief  exporter  of  trade  gin,  jeopardised  the 
Act  by  her  long  delay  in  ratifying. 

In  that  year  the  total  quantity  of  trade  spirits  imported 
into  British  West  Africa  was  about  3,400,000  gallons.  The 
average  duty  imposed  by  the  different  British  colonies  stood 
at  Is.  8d.  per  gallon,  and  the  aggregate  revenue  realised  was 


598  SOME   OTHER  PROBLEMS. 

£236,724.  la  1894  half  the  revenue  and  94.8  per  cent  of  the 
customs  of  the  Mger  Coast  Protectorate  were  derived  from 
spirits,  and  in  1895  the  '  Times  '  observed  that  half  the  produce 
exported  from  West  Africa  was  purchased  with  spirits.  The 
duties  in  the  French  and  German  colonies  were  much  lower. 

Twenty-one  years  after  the  ratification  of  the  Brussels 
Act  in  1892 — the  year  before  the  war — the  duties  had  been 
more  than  trebled  (average,  5s.  9d.),  but  the  quantity  imported 
had  nevertheless  more  than  doubled  (7,144,549  gallons),  while 
the  revenue  derived  from  duties  had  increased  eight-fold 
(£1,832,420).  This  immense  increase  in  the  imports  was 
probably  attributable  rather  to  the  expansion  of  trade  in  the 
interior  than  to  an  increase  of  consumption  in  the  older 
markets  near  the  coast. 

At  the  stipulated  revisions  of  the  duties,  in  1899  and  1906, 
Great  Britain  was  willing  to  raise  them  to  any  level,  but 
France  and  Germany  would  only  consent  to  follow  her  lead 
to  a  very  limited  extent ;  and  since  the  colonies  of  aU  three 
Powers  alternate  with  each  other  with  common  frontiers, 
any  increase  in  British  duties,  in  excess  of  those  in  a  neighbour- 
ing foreign  colony,  involved  the  maiatenance  of  a  costly 
preventive  service. 

These  figures  show  that  the  policy  of  gradually  raising  the 
duty  had  so  far  failed  to  effect  any  decrease  in  the  import. 
When  I  assumed  the  governments  of  Southern  and  Northern 
Nigeria  in  1912,  the  former  colony  was  by  far  the  largest 
importer,  though  the  quantity  in  proportion  to  its  population 
was  only  about  half  that  of  the  Gold  Coast.  The  duties  were 
rapidly  raised  each  year  from  5s.  6d.  to  10s.  a  gallon  in  1918, 
with  the  intention  of  crushing  the  trade.  But  the  war  proved 
an  even  more  effective  agent  by  closing  the  export  from  Ham- 
burg and  Eotterdam,  and  in  1917  the  import  had  fallen  to 
about  one-twentieth  of  the  pre-war  total. ^  The  Gold  Coast, 
however,  which  obtained  nearly  three-fifths  of  her  spirits 
from  the  United  States,  continued  to  increase  her  imports, 
and  actually  reached  her  highest  record  in  1916.^  The  Governor 
of  Sierra  Leone  also  reported  that  the  United  States  was 
rapidly  taking  the  place  of  Germany  in  the  traffic^ 

'  Cmd.  468  of  1920,  pp.  55-59,  in  which  a  full  account  is  given. 
'  The  Gold  Coast  imported  double  as  much  rum  as  gin,  while  Nigeria  consumed 
eight  times  as  much  gin  as  rum  ('  Times,'  8th  April  1919). 
3  '  Sierra  Leone  Annual  Report,  1917,'  Cd.  8434,  p.  5. 


THE   CONVENTION   OP   SEPTEMBER  1919.  599 

The  belief  hitherto  held  by  the  merchantB  that  the  native 
would  not  produce  raw  materials  for  export  except  in  exchange 
for  spirits  was  abundantly  disproved  by  the  facts  in  Nigeria, 
for  the  value  of  native  produce  exported  ia  1917  was  actually 
the  highest  recorded.  The  loss  of  revenue,  amounting  to  over 
£1,000,000,  had  been  made  good  by  other  means,  and  the 
theory  that  no  single  Government  could  act  independently 
for  fear  of  smuggling  had  been  shown  to  be  without  founda- 
tion. The  merchants  were  quick  to  respond,  and  now  pressed 
for  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  trade. 

On  10th  September  1919  a  Convention  *  was  signed  between 
the  United  States,  France,  Italy,  Japan,  Belgium,  Portugal, 
and  the  British  Empire  prohibiting  throughout  the  territories 
of  tropical  Africa  under  their  respective  control  "  the  importa- 
tion, distribution,  sale,  and  possession  of  trade  spirits  of  every 
kind,  and  of  beverages  mixed  with  these  spirits,"  together 
with  certain  other  "  distilled  beverages  injurious  to  health." 
A  minimum  duty  upon  all  other  distilled  beverages  was  fixed, 
and  distillation  in  tropical  areas  was  wholly  prohibited. 
Article  22  of  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  had  already  pledged  its 
signatories  to  the  "  prohibition  of  abuses  such  as  .  .  .  the 
liquor  traflftc." 

Early  in  the  same  year  prohibition  of  "  trade  spirits  "  was 
enforced  in  all  the  British  West  African  dependencies,  in 
anticipation  of  the  Convention,  which  was  to  come  into 
force  from  date  of  ratification.  The  French  Government 
(which  had  made  a  step  forward  by  abolishing  the  sale  of 
absinthe  in  liTovember  1914)  followed  on  8th  July  1919  with 
a  similar  decree,  but  made  it  applicable  only  to  foreign — viz., 
non-French — spirits.  This  action  was  severely  condemned 
by  the  '  Temps,'  and  the  eminent  French  publicist,  M.  EmUe 
BaUlaud  (in  '  Les  Cahiers  Coloniaux  '),  observed  that  "  the 
errors — not  to  use  a  stronger  term — verge  on  the  violation 
by  the  French  Government  of  international  agreements  signed 
by  itself.  .  .  .  France  seemed  to  be  using  the  great  principles, 
to  which  she  had  appealed  for  the  protection  of  native  interests, 
merely  to  protect  her  national  spirit  trade  against  foreign 
competition."  ^ 

The  British  Foreign  Of&ce,  at  the  instance  of  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  Chambers  of  Commerce,  protested,^  on  the 

1  Cmd.  478  of  1919.         ^  June  1920,  quoted  by  'West  Africa,'  3rd  July  1920. 
3  '  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  Monthly  Record,'  January  1921,  p.  15. 


600  SOME   OTHEE  PROBLEMS. 

groimds  that  discrimination  between  British  and  French  im- 
ports in  the  territories  to  which  the  Convention  of  Jmie  1898 
applied  was  a  contravention  of  that  agreement,  and  as  regards 
French  Equatorial  Africa  an  infringement  of  the  Berlin  Act. 
The  Union  Coloniale,  which  represents  aU  the  French  West 
African  trading  firms,  and  had  advocated  even  more  drastic 
measures  of  suppression  than  the  British  merchants  were 
prepared  to  support,  appealed  to  M.  Simon,  but  were  informed 
on  18th  December  1919 — viz.,  after  the  signature  of  the  Con- 
vention— that  the  decree  was  applicable  to  all  French  colonies, 
and  he  could  not  consent  to  alter  it.^ 

In  view,  however,  of  the  protest  of  the  British  Government, 
the  prohibition  was  withdrawn  by  decree  of  23rd  March  1920, 
and  alcohol,  whether  French  or  other,  was  no  longer  prohibited. 
The  French,  however,  remain  under  the  obligation  incurred 
by  the  Convention  of  September  1919.^ 

Now  that  this  consummation  has  thus  happily  been  reached, 
so  far  at  any  rate  as  British  tropical  Africa  is  concerned,  there 
is  no  occasion  to  go  into  any  detail  regarding  the  moral  objec- 
tions to  this  trade,  which  Mr  Chamberlain  summed  up  by 
saying  that  he  held  it  as  a  matter  of  deep  conviction  that  it 
was  discreditable  to  the  British  name  and  disastrous  to  trade. 
But  since,  as  we  shall  see,  there  are  still  loopholes,  of  which 
the  powerful  vested  interests  concerned  may  take  advantage, 
I  wiU  very  briefly  summarise  some  of  the  arguments. 

A  Committee  appointed  by  Lord  Crewe  in  1909  took  a  great 
deal  of  evidence  on  the  spot.'  They  negatived  the  view  that 
the  traffic  was  responsible  for  physical  deterioration,  or  a 
decrease  in  the  birth-rate,  which  I  am  myself  inclined  to 
attribute  chiefly  to  venereal  disease.*     "  But  however  this 

^  Ddpeche  Coloniale  quoted  by  'West  Africa,'  6th  November  1920. 

^  The  "  Native  Races  and  Liquor  Traffic  Committee"  informed  me  at  the  end 
of  May  1921  that  this  Convention  "had  not  yet  been  put  into  operation  by  the 
French, "  but  it  was  anticipated  that  a  prohibiting  decree  would  issue  shortly. 

3  Cd.  4906,  October  1909. 

'  Dr  Bedford,  I. M.S.,  Director  of  the  Central  Excise  Laboratory  in  India, 
stated  that  there  was  nothing  physiologically  injurious  in  the  trade  spirit.  The 
Committee  reported  that  the  almost  unanimous  medical  opinion  was  that  it  was 
not  responsible  for  physical  deterioration.  This  verdict,  of  course,  applies  to  the 
liquor  sold  in  West  Africa,  and  not  to  that  sold  in  South  Africa  or  elsewhere. 
Tlie  conflict  of  evidence  with  the  earlier  reports  of  wholesale  race  deterioration 
(which  may  be  found  in  the  first  two  or  three  reports  of  the  "United  Com- 
mittee ")  may  perhaps  be  explained  in  part  by  an  improvement  in  the  quality  of 
the  liquor  between  the  date  of  those  reports  (1887)  and  the  sitting  of  the  Com- 
mittee (1909). 


MOEAL  AND  MATERIAL  ASPECTS   OF  THE  TEAFFIC.       601 

may  be,"  I  wrote,  "  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is  a  sterile  import, 
upon  whicli  the  natives  (of  Southern  Nigeria)  wasted  over 
1^  millions  sterling  annually  without  securing  any  improve- 
ment in  their  standard  of  comfort,  or  increasing  their  pro- 
ductive output,  and  that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  an  administration 
that  nearly  half  its  revenue  should  be  derived  from  such  a 
source."  ^  It  was  calculated  that  the  consumption  in  Southern 
Mgeria  was  about  one  gallon  (at  50°  TraUes  ^)  per  head  per 
annum  ;  but  the  calculation  is  quite  unreliable.  In  Nigeria 
railway  rates  on  spirits  increased  rapidly  with  the  distance 
from  the  coast,  with  the  object  of  making  them  not  less  than 
the  cost  of  head-carriage. 

Prom  the  commercial  point  of  view,  the  spirit  trade  was  a  dis- 
astrous policy — as  I  pointed  out  in  the  '  Nineteenth  Century ' 
as  long  ago  as  1897.*  Not  only  was  it  a  foreign  manufacture, 
carried  in  foreign  vessels — and  pro  tanto  opposed  to  British 
trade — ^but  since  it  supplied  German  vessels  with  outward 
cargoes,  it  enabled  Germany  to  secure  the  practical  monopoly 
of  the  homeward  pahn-kernel  trade.*  The  Comptroller  of 
Customs  in  Nigeria  states  that  "  Continental  trade  spirits 
were  the  mainstay  of  German  outward  cargoes,  and  Germany's 
African  trade  was  built  up  on  them."  The  spirit  trade  was 
indeed  synonymous  with  German  influence  in  West  Africa. 
It  is  a  traffic  which  not  oidy  usurps  the  place  of  more  legiti- 
mate trade,  but  kills  it. 

The  prohibition  of  "  trade  spirits  "  presupposes  a  definition 
of  the  article,  but  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  define,  as  may 
be  seen  by  the  varying  definitions  of  the  difEerent  Govern- 

See  report  on  Nigeria  (Cmd.  468  of  1920). 

^  This  is  the  strength  at  which  the  duty  has  been  calculated  since  1909 — 
viz.,  12^  u.p.  by  English  standards  (English  proof  is  37°  absolute  alcohol).  This 
reform  made  it  no  longer  profitable  to  import  over-proof  spirit  for  local  manipu- 
lation. The  further  the  spirit  travels  up-country  the  more  diluted  it  be- 
comes. 

'  "  Liquor  Traffic  in  Africa,"  November  1897.  The  article  contained  a  review 
of  the  evidence  as  to  both  the  moral  and  material  aspects  of  this  question. 
See  also  'Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute,"  vol.  xxvii.  p.  31. 

■*  The  Committee  state  that  90  per  cent  of  the  spirits  imported  into  Nigeria 
come  from  Holland  and  Germany.  Mr  T.  Welsh  (a  member  of  the  Committee), 
writing  to  the  'Times'  (28th  January  1919),  states  that  seventy-one  German 
vessels  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of  329,000  tons  were  mainly  engaged  in  supply- 
ing West  Africa  with  intoxicants.  The  manifest  of  one  ship — the  Degwma — which 
he  says  is  typical,  showed  169,288  gallons  (approximately)  of  liquor.  The  German 
Woermann  Line  was  created  by  the  spirit  trade,  for  though  the  bulk  of  the 
spirits  came  from  Holland  they  were  shipped  in  German  vessels. 


602  SOME   OTHER  PEOBLEMS. 

ments.i  Mr  Welsh  argues  that  quality  and  price  should  be 
the  determining  factors,  and  states  that  Cuban  rum  is  admitted 
to  Sierra  Leone,  while  West  Indian,  French,  Spanish,  and 
English  liquors  are  being  offered  at  moderate  prices.^  An- 
other correspondent  states  that  he  has  seen  quotations  of 
Scotch  whisky  at  4s.  6d.  a  case  f.o.b.  Glasgow  and  Leith. 

At  the  conference  between  British  and  French  merchants 
iu  April  1920  the  spirit  trade  was  the  subject  of  prolonged 
discussion.  The  views  expressed  by  Mr  Holt  and  other  Brit- 
ish merchants  were  moderate  and  practical.  It  was  finally 
unanimously  resolved  to  advocate  the  restriction  and  regula- 
tion of  imported  alcoholic  liquor,  but  that  since  fermented 
liquors  have  been  used  by  the  natives  from  time  immemorial, 
absolute  prohibition  would  be  an  interference  with  personal 
liberty  ;  that  the  import  of  wines  and  beers  free  from  noxious 
constituents  and  impurities  should  be  permitted,  except  to 
prohibited  areas  ;  and  that,  without  expressing  an  opinion 
as  to  the  importation  of  properly-rectified  spirits,  they  should, 
it  imported,  be  reduced  in  alcoholic  strength,  and  consumption 
restricted  by  a  duty  of  15s.  or  more  per  liquid  gallon  at  the 
fixed  maximum  strength. 

The  alternatives  seem  to  be  either  total  prohibition  of  dis- 
tilled liquor,  while  admitting  fermented  beverages — for  to 
prohibit  the  import  of  these  while  native-made  intoxicants 
are  beyond  control  would  be  absurd  and  unjust  to  non- 
natives, — or  some  method  (which  I  should  prefer)  of  imposing 
a  duty  which  will  increase  in  severity  as  the  spirits  fall  below 
a  given  standard  of  quality  and  price,  so  that  it  would  no 
longer  pay  to  import  any  spirits  below  that  standard. 

The  attempt  to  deprive  a  people  entirely  of  a  stimulant 
or  sedative  to  which  they  have  become  accustomed,  has 
usually  done  much  more  harm  than  good  to  the  classes  on 

^  The  Colonial  OflBce,  in  a  letter  to  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  dated 
24th  April  1919,  quoted  the  following  definitions:  "In  Nigeria,  'spirits 
imported  for  sale  to  natives,  and  not  generally  consumed  by  Europeans.'  In 
Sierra  Leone,  '  spirits  commonly  knovpn  as  trade  or  common  gin,  and  trade  or 
common  rum.'  In  the  Gambia,  'spirits  of  a  low-grade  value,  which  in  the 
Receiver-General's  opinion,  subject  to  any  direction  of  the  Governor,  are 
imported  mainly  for  native  consumption.'  In  the  Gold  Coast  no  definition  of 
the  term  '  trade  spirits '  has  been  adopted,  but  ...  no  difficulty  in  restricting 
licences  to  other  than  trade  spirits  is  anticipated  in  practice."  The  Chamber's 
own  definition  reads  :  ' '  Spirits  which  are  contained  in  bottles  of  less  than  one- 
sixth  of  an  imperial  gallon,  or  being  contained  in  such  bottles  have  not  been  in 
warehouse  in  the  country  of  manufacture  for  at  least  three  years." 

2  'Times,'  11th  March  1920. 


NATIVE  FERMENTED   LIQTJOE..  603 

whose  behalf  the  legislation  was  initiated,  while  interferiag 
with  the  liberty  of  those  who  use  it  in  moderation,  and 
creating  new  offences.  The  arbitrary  prohibition  of  opium, 
used  in  moderation,  to  which  a  smoker  had  become  habitu- 
ated, has  in  some  places  in  the  East  resulted  ia  the  increased 
use  of  morphine  and  cocaine,  with  far  worse  results.  In  the 
case  of  spirits  there  is  the  alternative  of  fermented  beverages 
— ^wines,  beer,  and  native-made  intoxicants — as  a  safety- 
valve,  but  there  seems  no  good  reason  why  natives  should 
be  debarred  from  purchasing  high-priced  spirits  of  good 
quality  in  a  non-prohibited  zone  equally  with  Europeans. 
DeUvery  from  the  customs  warehouse  might,  however,  be 
made  contingent  on  dilution  to  a  fixed  maximum  strength, 
and  sale  in  excess  of  that  strength  forbidden  by  law. 

I  have  advocated  a  light  beer,  prepared  in  local  breweries, 
which  is  Mkely  to  be  popular  among  natives  of  West  Africa, 
who  have  a  great  liking  for  the  bitter  kola-nut. 

The  use  of  fermented  liquor  is  universal  throughout  Africa. 
It  is  usually  made  from  grain  (a  fermented  gruel),  or  from  the 
sap  of  various  pahns,  especially  the  raphia  (vinifera)  and  the 
wild  date.  The  oil-palm  is  also  tapped,  though  the  stem  in- 
cision, which  destroys  the  tree,  is  in  Nigeria  prohibited  by 
law,  and  enforced  by  native  court  by-laws.  It  woidd,  if 
resorted  to  on  a  large  scale,  threaten  the  staple  industry  of 
Southern  Mgeria,  but  tapping  by  means  of  an  incision  ta 
the  flower-stem  does  not  seriously  injure  the  tree.  I  am 
told  that  the  maximum  strength  which  it  is  possible  for  palm- 
wiae  to  reach  is  7  per  cent  absolute  alcohol,  as  against  44.86 
per  cent  in  trade  spirit  as  ordinarily  sold.  The  result  of  some 
tests  showed  ordinary  palm- wine  to  contain  about  4.69  per 
cent  absolute  alcohol  (8.2  per  cent  of  proof  spirit). 

In  East  Africa  the  beverage  made  by  fermenting  the  liquid 
contained  in  the  green  cocoanut  {Madafu)  produces  a  most 
potent  drink  (tembo),  which  the  Moslem  owners  of  the  planta- 
tions, though  abstaining  themselves,  allowed  their  slaves  to 
prepare  and  sell  in  great  quantities  to  the  neighbouring  pagan 
tribes  (Giryama),  among  whom  I  have  seen  more  drunkenness 
than  elsewhere  in  Africa.^  The  banana-wine  of  Uganda  is 
very  like  cider,  and  though  consumed  in  large  quantities  is 
not  a  violent  intoxicant.    Reports  from  the  grain-producing 

1  Drunkenness  is  said  to  be  increasing,  in  spite  of  a  tax  on  Tembo. — Handbook, 
'  Kenya,'  p.  324. 


604  SOME   OTHEE  PROBLEMS. 

districts  of  the  Northern  Provinces  of  Mgeria  speak  of  con- 
stant orgies  held  by  primitive  tribes.  Whole  villages,  in- 
cluding women  and  children,  indulge  in  continued  intoxica- 
tion, with  crime  and  bloodshed  as  a  result.'^  Eestriotion  of 
drunkenness  among  primitive  tribes  can  only  be  effected  by 
gradual  administrative  progress  and  educational  reform,  and 
by  the  introduction  of  palatable  and  less  noxious  beverages. 

It  is  possible  to  exercise  some  control  over  the  preparation 
and  sale  of  native-made  intoxicants  through  the  native 
administration,  in  Moslem  districts,  where  their  use  is  con- 
trary to  Koranic  law.^  But  Moslems  are  often  indifferent  to 
the  use  of  intoxicants  by  pagans  under  their  control,  as 
shown  by  the  Arabs  on  the  east  coast,  and  the  Committee 
of  1909  reported  that  the  Moslem  communities  of  Southern 
Mgeria  traded  in  spirits,  and  were  averse  to  prohibition. 

In  townships  and  mining  areas,  and  in  proximity  to  the 
railways,  where  direct  control  is  feasible,  a  check  can  be  in- 
stituted, but  among  pagan  tribes  it  is  at  present  impracticable 
to  introduce  any  form  of  licence  or  excise  on  native-made 
intoxicants.  The  Congo  State  is  reported  to  have  forbidden 
the  manufacture  of  liquor  over  8°  in  strength,  but  such  a 
rule  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  enforce.  It  seems  dtesir- 
able  that  a  system  of  licences  for  the  sale  of  imported  intoxi- 
cants should  be  instituted  wherever  feasible,  and  gradually 
extended  to  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  native  liquor,  as  the 
administrative  machine  permits  of  effective  control. 

The  really  serious  danger  Ues  in  the  acquisition  by  the 
natives  of  knowledge  of  the  simple  process  of  distillation. 
In  the  conditions  of  Africa  pot-stiUs  would  be  impossible  to 
detect  or  control.  Sir  Samuel  Baker  relates  how  he  amused 
himself  by  teaching  the  natives  of  Unyoro  how  to  distil 
spirit  from  sweet  potatoes.  I  found  in  1890  that  the  Sudanese 
had  not  forgotten  the  art.  The  introduction  of  sugar-refining 
in  Africa  is  to  be  feared  for  the  same  reason. 

Many  distilleries  have  been  erected  in  Portuguese  Africa, 
and  President  King  stated  in  his  inaugural  address  that  they 
are  rapidly  increasing  in  Liberia.  The  Greeks  have  introduced 
them  in  Abyssinia.     Subject  to  reservations  in  the  Italian 

*  '  Native  Races  and  their  Rulers,'  C.  L.  Temple,  p.  173.i 
"  By  the  Native  Liquor  Regulation  decree  of  1914  totaljprohibition  was  en- 
forced in  Zanzibar  (a  Moslem  State). — Cd.  7622  of  1917,  p.  17  (annual  report). 


DANGER  OP  NATIVE  DISTILLEEIES.  605 

colonies,  distilleries  (whicli  were  inferentially  recognised  by 
the  Brussels  Act)  are  now  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  Con- 
vention of  September  1919,  to  which  Portugal  is  a  party. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  League  of  Nations,  under  whose 
control  the  International  Office  is  placed,  will  take  special 
measures  to  ensure  the  observance  of  this  important  article. 


606 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

CONCLUSION — THE    VALUE    OF   BRITISH   EULE   IN    THE    TROPICS 
TO   BRITISH   DEMOCRACY   AND   THE   NATIVE  RACES. 

The  nature  of  the  task — The  views  of  the  "  Laboirr  Research  Department " 
— The  cost  to  the  British  taxpayer — The  benefits  to  the  democracy 
— Food  and  defence — Trade  and  employment — Openings  for  personal 
enterprise — Formation  of  national  character — Motives  for  acquisition 
—  Some  moral  incentives — Pressure  of  population — The  right  of 
mankind  to  tropical  products — The  verdict  of  democracy — Accusa- 
tions in  regard  to  treatment  of  native  races — Benefit  to  Africa — 
England's  mission. 

Three  decades  have  passed  since  England  assumed  effective 
occupation  and  administration  of  those  portions  of  the  interior 
of  tropical  Africa  for  which  she  had  accepted  responsibility 
when  the  nations  of  Europe  partitioned  the  continent  between 
them.  How  has  her  task  as  trustee,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the 
advancement  of  the  subject  races,  and  on  the  other  hand, 
for  the  development  of  its  material  resources  for  the  benefit 
of  manMnd,  been  fulfilled  ?  There  is  no  one,  I  think,  who 
has  been  privileged  to  bear  a  share  ia  the  task,  with  its  im- 
measurable opportunities,  who,  looking  back,  would  not 
echo  Mr  Ehodes'  dying  words,  "  So  much  to  do — so  little 
done !  " 

In  the  foregoing  chapters  I  have  endeavoured  to  describe 
some  of  the  problems  which  confront  the  administrator,  and 
with  diffidence  to  indicate  the  path  by  which,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  the  best  solution  may  in  the  course  of  time  be  foimd. 

Viceroys  and  Governors  of  the  older  dependencies,  of 
Colonies  and  of  Dominions,  occupy  posts  of  greater  titular 
importance  than  those  who  are  entrusted  with  the  charge 
of  these  tropical  dependencies  iu  Africa,  but  their  own  per- 
sonal initiative  is  circumscribed  and  controlled  by  Ministers, 


NATXJEE  OF  THE  MANDATE  IN  APEICA.  607 

by  effective  assemblies  and  councils,  by  a  local  press  which 
reflects  public  opimon  and  criticism,  and  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  by  the  Parliament  and  press  of  England.  The  Gover- 
nors in  Airica  are  to-day  gradually  being  brought  under  the 
same  guidiag  and  controlling  rafluences,  but  in  the  earlier 
beginnings  of  our  rule  these  influences  hardly  existed.  Neither 
the  Foreign  OfiBce  nor  the  Colonial  OfiBce  had  any  experience  of 
Central  African  conditions  and  administration,  when,  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  summons  for  effective 
occupation  compelled  this  country  to  administer  the  hinter- 
lands of  the  West  African  colonies,  and  to  assume  control  of 
vast  areas  on  the  Nile,  the  Mger,  the  Zambesi,  and  the  great 
lakes  in  the  heart  of  Africa. 

The  self-governing  Dominions  grew  by  slow  stages  from 
smaU  mimicipahties  to  the  status  of  United  Nations.  In  India 
and  the  Eastern  colonies,  territorial  expansion  was  the  slow 
increment  of  many  decades.  But  in  Africa  it  was  not  a  matter 
of  expansion  from  existing  nuclei  of  administration,  but  of 
sudden  creation  and  improvisation.  Perhaps  it  was  weU  that 
Great  Britain,  foUowing  the  tradition  of  the  Empire,  did  not 
(as  she  might  have  been  expected  to  do)  select  from  her  most 
experienced  servants,  trained  in  the  school  of  Indian  adminis- 
tration, those  who  should  grapple  with  this  sudden  emergency, 
but  trusted  to  the  men  on  the  spot.  The  pioneers  of  African 
administration  came  to  their  task  with  minds  unbiassed  by 
traditions  imsuited  to  the  races  and  conditions  of  Africa, 
and  more  ready  to  attempt  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 
The  perspective  of  history  wiQ  perhaps  show  more  clearly 
the  magnitude  of  that  task,  and  the  opportunity  it  gave  for 
initiative,  almost  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  the  Empire. 

It  was  for  these  pioneers  to  cope  with  the  internal  slave- 
trade,  the  very  existence  of  which  was  hardly  known  in 
England,  to  devise  their  own  laws,  to  set  up  their  courts  of 
justice,  to  deal  with  foreign  aggression,  to  create  an  adminis- 
tration, and  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  The  funds  at  then- 
disposal  were  wholly  inadequate,  the  staff  poorly  paid, 
painfully  insufficient,  and  recruited  somewhat  at  haphazard, 
whether  for  chartered  companies  or  for  Crown  dependencies. 
The  areas  to  be  controlled  were  most  of  them  many  times  the 
size  of  England,  with  populations  numbered  in  miUions,  seeth- 
ing with  internal  strife,  and  wholly  without  roads  or  means 
of  communication. . 


608  CONCLUSION  :     VALUE   OF  BRITISH  BtTLE. 

The  nation  is  justified  in  demanding  how,  in  such  circum- 
stances, the  administrative  officers  and  their  colleagues  in 
the  judicial  and  educational  departments  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  engineers,  the  medical,  agricultural,  and  forestry 
officers,  and  the  rest  of  the  technical  staff  on  the  other  hand, 
have  acquitted  themselves  in  their  respective  responsibilities 
towards  the  native  races,  and  the  material  progress  of  these 
countries. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  creed  of  the  "  Little  Eng- 
lander."  At  each  fresh  access  of  responsibility  and  expan- 
sion of  the  Empire  he  has  warned  us  that  "  the  white  man's 
burden  "  was  already  growing  too  heavy  for  this  country  to 
bear,  that  the  British  taxpayer  was  being  called  on  to  support 
the  ambitions  of  chauvinists,  and  that  the  native  races  were 
misgoverned  and  robbed  of  their  lands  and  their  proper  profits 
by  the  greed  of  exploiters. 

Of  late,  since  the  war,  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  an  organised 
attempt  was  being  made  to  promulgate  these  doctrines  among 
the  Labour  Party,  and  to  persuade  them  that  the  existence 
of  the  Empire  is  antagonistic  alike  to  their  own  interests  and 
to  those  of  the  subject  races.  That  Party  has  not  as  yet  had 
experience  of  overseas  problems.  Its  "  Besearch  Department " 
for  the  investigation  of  these  subjects  appears  to  have  fallen 
under  the  influence  of  those  who  hold  these  narrow  views. 
They  woidd  persuade  the  British  democracy  that  it  is  better 
to  shirk  Imperial  responsibility,  and  relegate  it  to  international 
committees  ;  that  material  development  benefits  only  the 
capitalist  profiteer ;  and  that  British  rule  over  subject  races 
stands  for  spoliation  and  self-interest.  Guided  by  these  ad- 
visers— some  of  the  more  prominent  of  whom  are  apparently 
not  of  British  race — ^the  Labour  Party  has  not  hesitated  to 
put  forward  its  own  thesis  of  Government  of  tropical  depen- 
dencies under  the  Mandates.  To  these  views  I  hope  that  I 
have  already  in  some  measure  offered  a  reply,  and  I  wUl 
endeavour  briefly  to  summarise  in  these  concluding  pages. 

"  Nothing,"  says  Sir  C.  Lucas,  "  should  appeal  so  strongly 
as  the  Empire  to  democracy,  for  it  is  the  greatest  engine  of 
democracy  the  world  has  ever  known.  ...  It  has  infected 
the  whole  world  with  hberty  and  democracy."  *  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  control  of  the  tropics,  so  far  from  being  a 
charge  on  the  British  taxpayer,  is  to  him  a  source  of  very 

'  'United  Empire,' March  1919. 


THE  COST  TO   THE  BRITISH  TAXPAYER.  609 

great  gain.  I  have  in  a  previous  chapter  shown  how  the 
products  of  the  tropics  have  raised  the  standard  of  comfort 
of  the  working  man,  added  to  the  amenities  of  his  life,  and 
provided  alike  the  raw  materials  on  which  the  industry  and 
wealth  of  the  community  depend,  and  the  market  for  manu- 
factures which  ensure  employment. 

So  keenly  do  other  nations  value  the  assured  possession 
of  these  sources  of  supply  and  these  markets,  that  they  have 
been  willing  to  expend  enormous  simis  for  their  acquisition 
and  development,!  and  (unlike  Great  Britain)  have  built  tarifE 
walls  aroimd  them  to  exclude  other  nations  from  participa- 
tion. "  Never  in  the  world's  history  was  there  an  Empire 
which  in  proportion  to  its  size  encroached  so  httle  upon  the 
public  time  and  the  pubhc  cost."  * 

The  temporary  subsidies  which  have  been  paid  to  some  of 
these  tropical  possessions  in  their  earlier  years,  as  "  grants- 
in-aid,"  have  decreased  yearly  until  the  countries  became  self- 
supporting,  since  which  time  they  have  not  cost  the  taxpayer 
a  penny,  and  the  temporary  grants  have  been  indirectly  much 
more  than  repaid. 

Prior  to  the  war  Mgeria  was  the  latest  addition  to  the 
Empire,  and  if  against  the  original  payment  to  the  Chartered 
Company  and  all  subsequent  grants,  be  set  the  profit  derived 
by  the  British  Exchequer  on  the  import  of  silver  coin,  and 
the  contributions  offered  by  Mgeria  to  the  war,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  debit  is  on  the  other  side,  and  the  country, 
with  all  its  potentialities  and  expanding  markets,  has  cost 
the  British  taxpayer  nothing.  Its  trade — already  £42,000,000 
— ^the  greater  part  of  which  is  with  the  United  Kingdom,  is 
of  the  kind  which  is  the  most  valuable  possible  to  the  workers 
of  this  country — ^raw  materials  and  foodstuffs  in  exchange 
for  textiles  and  hardware. 

Democracy  has  learnt  by  the  war  how  absolutely  dependent 
it  is  on  the  supply  of  these  vital  necessities  from  overseas, 
and  even  for  the  material  for  munitions  in  time  of  war.  We 
have  realised  that  the  import  can  only  be  maintained  by 
command  of  the  seas.  Some  of  these  tropical  dependencies 
are  essential  as  naval  bases,  as  cable  and  wireless  stations, 
and  as  aerodromes,  for  that  command  of  sea  and  air  and  of 

1  Herr  Demburg  stated  that  Algeria  had  cost  France  £343,720,000  up  to  1906. 
—'Times,'  23rd  November  1906. 
^  Lucas,  loc,  cit, 

2q 


610  CONCLUSION  :     VALUE   OF  BRITISH  EULE. 

world  communications  upon  which  these  islands  depend  for 
their  existence.  Without  them  we  could  only  survive  on  such 
terms  as  the  powerful  nations  might  choose  to  dictate. 

Before  the  war  the  Little  Englander  was  wont  to  argue 
that  these  world-wide  outposts  were  a  source  of  weakness, 
and  in  time  of  war  their  defence  would  be  a  burden  which 
we  could  not  sustain.  But  when  Armageddon  came,  we 
required  no  additional  garrisons  to  hold  these  vast  territories 
in  check ;  on  the  contrary,  thousands  of  volunteers  were 
ready  to  fight  the  Empire's  battles.  The  West  African 
colonies  (relying,  of  course,  on  British  supremacy  at  sea) 
were  able,  with  the  French,  to  capture  the  German  Cameruns 
and  Togoland,  and  to  send  thousands  to  fight  or  serve  as 
transport  units  in  German  Bast  Africa,  and  if  need  be  in 
Palestine.  These  colonies  asked  for  no  financial  assistance 
to  help  them  through  the  crisis  ;  indeed,  they  subscribed 
largely  to  the  cost  of  the  war  and  to  war  charities. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  more  normal  conditions  of  peace 
and  commerce.  It  is  alleged  that  we  could  do  an  equally 
lucrative  trade  in  the  possessions  of  other  Powers,  instead  of 
incurring  the  cost  and  responsibility  of  maintaining  posses- 
sions of  our  own.  But  I  have  shown  that  foreign  colonies 
are  increasingly  exclusive,  and  do  not  welcome  British  com- 
petition ;  that  the  cost  of  maintenance  is  borne  by  the  revenues 
of  the  colonies  themselves,  and  not  by  the  British  taxpayer ; 
and,  finally,  it  were  easy  to  demonstrate  that  the  largest 
proportion  of  their  trade  is  done  with  the  United  Kingdom 
and  not  with  foreign  nations. 

The  fallacies  put  forward  by  these  critics  have  long  since 
been  disproved,  though  the  Labour  Party  may  not  be  familiar 
with  the  statistics.  It  suffices  here  to  point  out  that  the 
trade  of  the  single  dependency  of  Mgeria  for  1920  stood  at 
over  £42,200,000  in  value,  which,  however,  was  probably 
abnormal  and  due  to  the  "  boom  "  of  that  year.  Of  this 
96.74  per  cent  of  the  imports  and  97.35  per  cent  of  the  exports 
were  carried  in  British  vessels — mainly,  of  course,  to  British 
ports.^  For  East  Africa  and  Uganda  the  latest  figures  (1918- 
1919)  show  84.3  per  cent  of  imports  and  91.1  per  cent  of 
exports  from  and  to  the  Empire  (United  Kingdom  61  per 

^  Governor's  address  to  Nigerian  Council,  December  1920.  The  destination  is 
not  stated,  but  in  1918  92.4  per  cent  of  exports,  and  87  per  cent  of  imports, 
were  to  and  from  the  Empire.— Cmd.  508/14  of  1919. 


THE  VOLUME  OF  TRADE.  611 

cent  and  53.5  per  cent).i  How  rapidly  the  trade  of  these 
colonies  is  expanding  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  the 
trade  of  Mgeria  in  1913  (pre-war)  was  under  13 1  million. 

As  to  the  assertion  that  we  do  just  as  good  trade  with 
countries  in  tropical  Africa  which  are  not  under  the  British 
flag,  I  find  in  the  '  Statistical  Abstract  for  the  British  Empire '  ^ 
that  the  trade  of  the  United  Kingdom  with  all  French  posses- 
sions (iacludiag  those  ia  India  and  the  Par  East)  was,  ia  1913, 
£6,730,244,  whUe  our  trade  with  the  siagle  dependency  of 
Mgeria  for  the  same  year  stood  at  £8,278,813,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  in  that  year  Germany  had  monopolised  nearly  half 
the  Mgerian  trade,  which  has  since  reverted  to  the  United 
Kingdom.* 

The  critics  quote  statistics  showing  the  proportion  that 
the  trade  of  this  or  that  tropical  dependency  bears  to  the 
whole  volume  of  our  foreign  trade,  as  though  any  comparison 
could  be  instituted  between  our  commerce  with  wealthy, 
populous,  and  highly  industrialised  countries  Uke  the  United 
States,  Germany,  or  France,  and  that  of  new  and  undeveloped 
markets  in  the  tropics,  whose  present  output  or  demands  are 
no  measure  whatever  of  their  future  potentialities. 

And  though  our  markets  are  free  to  all  the  world,  British 
merchants  have  no  small  advantage  in  the  first-hand  and 
early  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  resources  of  each 
country,  available  in  their  own  language.  They  can  and  do 
bring  their  influence  to  bear  in  order  to  secure  as  far  as  pos- 
sible that  the  conditions  of  trade  shall  be  made  to  suit  their 
own  convenience.  The  home  market,  provided  it  can  hold 
its  own  as  to  quality,  price,  and  rapidity  of  delivery,  has  the 
first  opportunity  of  supplying  colonial  demands. 

These  are  indeed  matters  of  such  common  knowledge  that 
I  refrain  from  dilating  further  upon  them,  and  will  content 
myself  with  referring  to  one  or  two  other  aspects  which  have 

1  East  African  Report,  1918-19,  No.  1073  of  1921. 

^  Cd.   7827  of  1915.      It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  later  edition  has  yet 

appeared.  t,         •  ■       r  ■ 

3  The  war  has,  of  course,  exercised  a  great  influence  on  the  origin  of  imports 
and  the  destination  of  exports  of  the  African  dependencies.  In  Nigeria  prior  to 
the  war  Germany  by  importing  trade  spirits  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  able  to 
monopolise  the  export  of  palm-kernele,  and  so  to  secure  44  per  cent  of  the  exports. 
This  has  been  almost  completely  absorbed  by  British  merchants.  In  other  West 
African  colonies,  however,  the  place  of  Germany  has  been  largely  taken  by  the 
United  States.  The  pre-war  proportion  of  the  East  African  trade  with  the 
Empire  is  given  by  the  Economic  Commission  (p.  11)  as  62J  per  cent  of  imports 
and  54J  per  cent  of  exports. 


612  CONCLUSION  :     VALUE   OP  BRITISH  RULE, 

perhaps  received  less  recognition.  The  abounding  progress 
of  our  tropical  dependencies  calls  not  only  for  millions  of 
pounds  worth  of  railway  and  other  construction  material, 
but  for  men  to  construct  and  to  maintain  the  railways  and 
other  works.  The  expansion  of  administration  equally  de- 
mands officers  for  every  branch — administrative,  medical, 
educational,  &c.  The  development  of  commerce  requires 
local  agents.  The  opening  of  mine-fields  calls  for  expert 
workers. 

/In  all  these  fields  of  activity  openings  are  afforded  for 
©very  class  of  the  youth  of  England,  whether  from  the  uni- 
versities, the  technical  schools,  or  the  workshop.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  realise  how  severe  would  be  the  blow  to  the  Ufe  of  the 
nation  if  these  thousands  of  avenues  to  independent  initiative 
and  individual  enterprise  and  ambition  were  closed,  as  Ger- 
many has  largely  dosed  them  to  her  people  by  her  crime 
against  the  world._J 

I  have  already  pointed  out  that  this  large  field  of  oppor- 
tunity and  of  responsibility  must  undoubtedly  have  con- 
tributed very  greatly  to  the  formation  of  the  national  char- 
acter, which  the  late  Lord  Salisbury  described  in  memorable 
words  :  "  Our  people,  when  they  go  into  the  possession  of 
a  new  territory,  carry  with  them  such  a  power  of  initiative, 
such  an  extraordinary  courage  and  resource  in  the  solving 
of  new  problems  and  the  facing  of  new  difficxdties,  that  if 
they  are  pitted  against  an  equal  number — I  care  not  what 
race  it  is,  or  what  the  part  of  the  world  is — and  if  you  keep 
politics  and  negotiations  ofE  them,  it  will  be  our  people  that 
wUl  be  masters,  it  will  be  our  commerce  that  will  prevail, 
it  will  be  our  capital  that  wfil  rule,  though  not  a  sword  has 
been  unsheathed,  and  though  not  a  blow  has  been  struck  in 
their  defence."  ^  He  did  but  echo  the  words  of  Adam  Smith, 
which  I  have  quoted  elsewhere,  that  the  debt  of  the  colonies 
to  the  motherland  consists  in  the  fact  that  "  it  bred  and 
formed  the  men  who  were  capable  of  achieving  such  great 
actions,  and  of  laying  the  foundations  of  so  great  an  Empire." 

The  British  working  man  is  told  that  the  exploitation  of 
Africa  was  undertaken  by  groups  of  financiers  and  capitalists, 
who  desired  to  profiteer  at  the  expense  of  the  nation  and  of 
the  native  races  aUke.  "  Common  greed,"  says  the  reviewer 
of  the  Labour  Eesearch  Committee's  report,  summing  up  the 

'  Debate,  House  of  Lords,  11th  February  1895. 


MOTIVES  FOR  ACQUISITION.  613 

gist  of  the  argument,  "  came  to  be  avowed  openly  as  the  most 
respectable  of  reasons  for  establishing  colonies  or  protectorates 
anywhere  and  everywhere,"  ^  in  contrast  with  the  nobler 
motives  which  prompted  the  bold  adventurers  of  the  spacious 
Elizabethan  days. 

I  will  not  digress  to  discuss  those  motives  here,  or  the 
navigation  laws  which  treated  the  colonies  merely  as  sources 
of  profit,  or  the  fortunes  which  Macaulay's  "  E"abobs  "  brought 
from  India,  or  the  quest  for  an  "  El  Dorado."  The  partition 
of  Africa  was,  as  we  aU  recognise,  due  primarily  to  the  economic 
necessity  of  increasing  the  supplies  of  raw  materials  and  food 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  industrialised  nations  of  Europe.  It 
is  a  cheap  form  of  rhetoric  which  stigmatises  as  "  common 
greed  "  the  honourable  work  by  which  men  and  nations  earn 
their  bread  and  improve  their  standard  of  life.^ 

But  while  admitting  this  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  several  of  our  West  African  colonies  had  been  acquired 
solely  as  depots  to  assist  in  the  suppression  of  the  overseas 
slave-trade,  others  in  support  of  missionary  endeavours  which 
were  certainly  not  prompted  by  greed  for  profit.  Others 
again,  as  I  have  shown,  were  necessary  for  the  maintenance 
of  our  sea-power.  In  all  these  cases  a  higher  civilisation  was 
brought  into  contact  with  barbarism,  with  the  inevitable 
result,  as  history  teaches,  that  boundaries  were  enlarged  in 
the  effort  to  protect  the  weak  from  the  tyranny  of  the  strong, 
to  extend  the  rule  of  justice  and  liberty,  to  protect  traders, 
settlers,  and  missions,  and  to  check  anarchy  and  bloodshed 
on  our  frontiers,  even  though  territorial  expansion  was  not 
desired.^  I^Tor  must  we  ignore  the  very  real  desire  of  the 
people  of  this  country  to  assist  in  the  suppression  of  slavery 
and  barbarous  practices.  These  are  matters  in  which  I  am 
convinced  that  the  British  democracy  has  a  deep  interest, 
deeper  perhaps  than  its  political  leaders  credit  it  with.  They 
cannot  be  disposed  of  with  a  sneer.^  But  I  return  to  the 
economic  question,  since  this  argumemof_L'.  capitalist  exploi- 

1  '  The  New  Statesman,'  19th  June  1920. 

^  Carlyle,  describing  all  that  work  has  done  for  England,  and  what  it  has  made 
England,  says  :  "The  English  are  a  dumb  people.  They  can  do  great  acts  but 
not  describe  them.  .  .  .  Their  epic  is  written  on  the  earth's  surface  :  England  her 
mark." — 'Past  and  Present,'  p.  135. 

'  As  Bacon  says :  "  It  was  not  the  Komans  who  spread  themselves  upon  the 
world,  but  the  world  which  spread  itself  upon  the  Romans." — 'Essays,' 
p.   44.' 


614  CONCLTJSION  :     VALUE  OF  BRITISH  EXILE. 

tation  "  appears  to  be  a  favourite  one  with  whicli  to  capture 
Jie-gar  of  Labouri,^-- '   "~      "  - 

In  the  introductory  chapter  I  cited  statistics  to  show  that, 
at  the  time  of  the  first  impulse  of  Imperial  expansion  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  small  and  chiefly  agricultural 
population  of  these  islands  was  able  to  supply  its  own  essential 
needs  in  food  and  materials ;  that  when  the  second  impulse 
came  240  years  later,  after  the  Napoleonic  wars,  the  popula- 
tion had  quadrupled,  while  in  the  next  seventy-five  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  1816-91  (when  the  partition  of  Africa 
began  in  earnest),  it  again  nearly  doubled  itself.  The  con- 
gestion of  the  population,  assisted  by  the  discovery  of  the 
application  of  steam  to  industrial  uses,  led  to  the  replacement 
of  agriculture  by  manufacturing  industry,  with  the  conse- 
quent necessity  for  new  markets  for  the  product  of  the  factory, 
and  the  importation  of  raw  materials  for  industry,  and  of 
food  to  supplement  the  decreased  home  production,  and  feed 
the  increased  population.  The  same  phenomenon  was  to  be 
seen  ia  Germany  and  elsewhere  in  Europe.^  I  recapitulate 
these  figures  because  their  importance  in  this  connection  can 
hardly  be  over-estimated. 

But  mere  increase  in  population  alone,  prodigious  though 
it  was,  does  not  represent  the  fuH  measure  of  the  pressure  on 
the  Governments  of  the  industrial  nations  of  Europe.  The 
standard  of  comfort,  and  what  had  come  to  be  regarded  as 
the  absolute  necessities  of  life  by  the  mass  of  the  population, 
had,  during  the  nineteenth  century,  advanced  in  an  even 
greater  ratio.  I  cannot  here  attempt  to  depict  the  contrast. 
It  is  enough  to  recall  the  fact  that  100  years  ago  a  labourer's 
wage  was  4s.  to  6s.  a  week.  He  rarely  tasted  white  bread, 
for  the  quartern  loaf  stood  at  lid.,  and  had  been  double  that 
price  a  few  years  before.  Still  less  could  he  aiford  to  eat  beef 
or  mutton.  Towards  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa,  previously  unknown  luxuries,  were 
his  daUy  beverages  and  white  bread  his  daily  food.    Sugar 

'  The  population  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  1816  was  about  19,890,000,  and 
in  1891  it  had  increased  to  38,104,000.  That  of  Germany  was  respectively 
24,831,000  and  about  50,000,000,  and  of  France  about  29,000,000  and  38,342,000. 
The  pressure  of  population  was  thus  not  so  great  a  factor  in  France,  who  was 
foremost  in  the  scramble  for  Africa.  Her  motives,  as  I  have  said,  were  chiefly 
due  to  the  belief  that  it  was  by  expansion  in  Africa  alone  that  she  could  hope  to 
find  means  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  the  war  with  Germany  in  1870. — See 
note  1,  p.  3. 


THE  EIGHT  TO   SHAKE  IN   TROPICAL  PEODTJCTS.  616 

was  cheap,  and  rice,  sago,  and  other  tropical  products  were 
in  daily  use.  If  my  reader  will  turn  to  the  pages  of  Miss 
Martineau's  history,  i  or  to  those  of  Carlyle,  and  contrast  the 
condition  of  squalor  and  misery  in  which  the  bulk  of  the 
people  of  these  islands  lived  in  1816  with  the  conditions  pre- 
vailingi  in  1891,  he  wiU  realise  how  insistent  had  become  the 
demand  alike  for  the  food-supplies  and  for  the  raw  materials 
which  were  the  product  of  the  tropics. 

These  products  lay  wasted  and  ungarnered  in  Africa  be- 
cause the  natives  did  not  know  their  use  and  value.  Millions 
of  tons  of  oU-nuts,  for  instance,  grew  wild  without  the  labour 
of  man,  and  lay  rotting  in  the  forests.  Who  can  deny  the 
right  of  the  hungry  people  of  Europe  to  utiUse  the  wasted 
bounties  of  nature,  or  that  the  task  of  developing  these 
resources  was,  as  Mr  Chamberlain  expressed  it,  a  "  trust  for 
civilisation  "  and  for  the  benefit  of  mankiad  ?  Europe  bene- 
fited by  the  wonderful  increase  in  the  amenities  of  life  for 
the  mass  of  her  people  which  followed  the  opening  up  of 
Africa  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Africa  benefited 
by  the  influx  of  manufactured  goods,  and  the  substitution  of 
law  and  order  for  the  methods  of  barbarism. 

Thus  Europe  was  impelled  to  the  development  of  Africa 
primarily  by  the  necessities  of  her  people,  and  not  by  the 
greed  of  the  capitalist.  Keen  competition  assured  the  maxi- 
mum prices  to  the  producer.  It  is  only  where  monopoUes 
are  granted  that  it  can  be  argued  that  profits  are  restricted  • 
to  the  few,  and  British  policy  has  long  been  averse  to  monopo- 
lies in  every  form.  The  brains,  the  research,  the  capital,  and 
the  enterprise  of  the  merchant,  the  miner,  and  the  planter 
have  discovered  and  utilised  the  surplus  products  of  Africa. 
The  profits  have  been  divided  among  the  shareholders  repre- 
senting all  classes  of  the  people,^  and  no  small  share  of  them 
has  gone  to  the  native  African  merchant  and  the  middleman 
as  well  as  to  the  producer.  It  is  true  to  say  that  "  a  vast 
area  of  activity  has  been  opened  up  to  the  British  workman, 
in  which  he  shares  with  the  capitalist  the  profits  of  the  develop- 
ment of  tropical  resources."  * 

1  'The  Thirty  Years'  Peace,'  vol.  i.  chapters  4,  7,  &c. 

2  Lord  Leverhulme  lately  stated  that  in  his  Company  alone — which  is  largely 
concerned  in  the  development  of  the  African  tropics — there  were  no  less  than 
127,000  shareholders. 

3  Bruce  loc.  cit.,  p.  4.  In  view  of  all  these  facts  I  read  with  amazement  the 
verdict  of'  the  Labour  Research  Committee,  that  "  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 


616  CONCLXTSION  :     VALtTE  OF  BEITISH  EtTI.E. 

In  accepting  responsibility  for  the  control  of  these  new 
lands,  England  obeyed  the  tradition  of  her  race.  British 
Africa  was  acquired  not  by  groups  of  financiers,  nor  yet  (as 
I  have  related  in  chapter  i.)  by  the  efforts  of  her  statesmen, 
but  in  spite  of  them.  It  was  the  instinct  of  the  British  democ- 
racy which  compelled  us  to  take  our  share.  When  Mr  Glad- 
stone's Cabinet  in  1893  had  decided  to  evacuate  Uganda,  he 
was  told  by  his  Scottish  agent  that  if  he  did  so  he  would  have 
to  evacuate  Downing  Street  too.  Even  were  it  true — and  I 
have  shown  that  it  is  not — ^that  we  could  do  as  lucrative  a 
trade  in  the  tropical  possessions  of  other  nations,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  verdict  of  the  British  people  has  been 
emphatic  that  we  will  not  ask  the  foreigner  to  open  markets 
for  our  use,  or  leave  to  him  the  responsibility  and  its  reward. 
Nor  will  tariff  walls,  like  those  of  Jericho,  fall  flat  at  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet  of  the  new  Labour  leaders. 

"  The  general  effects  of  European  poUcy  in  Africa  have 
been  almost  wholly  evil,"  says  the  Labour  reporter,  yet  he 
admits  that  "  experience  and  temperament  have  made  the 
rule  of  the  British  over  non-adult  races  an  example  of  every- 
thing that  is  best  in  modern  imperialism."  The  verdict  of 
another  of  the  prophets  of  Labour  is  to  the  same  effect.  The 
fundamental  character  of  British  official  policy  in  West  Africa, 
he  says,  has  primarily  been  influenced  by  a  desire  to  promote 
the  welfare  and  advancement  of  the  native  races.  England, 
he  points  out,  led  the  way  in  the  suppression  of  the  overseas 
slave-trade,  paying  enormous  sums  in  compensation  to  slave- 
owners in  the  West  Indies,  and  at  the  Cape,  and  to  Spain 
and  Portugal,  and  in  patrolling  the  seas.  She  espoused  the 
cause  of  Congo  reform,  and  of  the  indentured  labour  in 
Portuguese  West  Africa.  The  extension  of  British  control 
in  the  Gold  Coast  hinterland  was  (he  adds)  to  secure  protec- 
tion of  the  natives,  and  in  Southern  Nigeria  to  suppress  war 
and  human  sacrifice. 

The  indictment  against  European  misrule  in  Africa  appears 
therefore  to  lack  consistency,  and  to  be  directed  chiefly  against 
foreign  Powers,  though  bitter  charges,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
made  against  some  of  the  Eastern  British  dependencies  in 
Africa,  which  have  been  fully  discussed  in  these  pages.     In 

acquisition  of  territory  in  Africa  has  added  to  the  power  of  the  European  States 
who  have  assumed  it.  It  is  certain  that  it  has  not  added  to  their  wealth." — 
'  Empire  and  Commerce,'  p.  317. 


THE  DUAL  MANDATE.  617 

SO  far  as  they  concern  the  territories  of  other  Powers,  this 
attitude  of  what  Mr  Ehodes  called  "unctuous  righteous- 
ness," which  has  the  appearance  of  assuming  that  others 
a,re  actuated  by  less  generous  motives  than  our  own,  is  more 
likely  to  promote  resentment  than  reform.  That  the  aims 
of  these  critics  are  good  will  not  be  denied,  but  they  write 
without  actual  experience,  and  they  create  prejudice  where 
sympathy  and  appreciation  would  be  more  promising  of 
results. 

^Let  it  be  admitted  at  the  outset  that  European  brains, 
capital,  and  energy  have  not  been,  and  never  will  be,  ex- 
pended in  developing  the  resources  of  Africa  from  motives 
of  pure  philanthropy  ;  that  Europe  is  in  Africa  for  the  mutual 
benefit  of  her  own  industrial  classes,  and  of  the  native  races 
in  their  progress  to  a  higher  plane ;  that  the  benefit  can  be 
made  reciprocal,  and  that  it  is  the  aim  and  desire  of  civilised 
administration  to  fulfil  this  dual  mandate^ 

By  railways  and  roads,  by  reclamation  of  swamps  and 
irrigation  of  deserts,  and  by  a  system  of  fair  trade  and  com- 
petition, we  have  added  to  the  prosperity  and  wealth  of  these  i 
lands,  and  checked  famine  and  disease.     We  have  put  an; 
end  to  the  awfid  misery  of  the  slave-trade  and  inter-tribal) 
war,  to  human  sacrifice  and  the  ordeals  of  the  witch-doctor.  \ 
Where  these  things  survive  they  are  severely  suppressed.    We  ''< 
are  endeavouring  to  teach  the  native  races  to  conduct  their 
own  affairs  with  justice  and  humanity,  and  to  educate  them 
alike  in  letters  and  in  industry. 

When  I  recall  the  state  of  Uganda  at  the  time  I  made  the 
treaty  in  1890  which  brought  it  under  British  control,  or  the 
state  of  Nigeria  seven  years  later,  and  contrast  them  with 
the  conditions  of  to-day,  I  feel  that  British  effort — apart  from 
benefits  to  British  trade — has  not  been  in  vain.  In  Uganda 
a  triangular  civil  war  was  raging — ^Protestants,  Eoman  Catho- 
lics, and  Moslems,  representing  the  rival  political  factions  of 
British,  French,  and  Arabs,  were  murdering  each  other.  But 
a  short  time  previously  triumphant  paganism  had  burnt 
Christians  at  the  stake  and  revelled  in  holocausts  of  victims. 
To-day  there  is  an  ordered  Government  with  its  own  native 
parliament.  Liberty  and  justice  have  replaced  chaos,  blood- 
shed, and  war.    The  wealth  of  the  country  steadily  increases.^ 

^  The  last  report,  1918-19,  shows  an  export  of  cotton  alone  valued  at  close  on 
a  million  sterling.— Cmd.  508/37,  1920. 


618  CONCLUSION  :     VALUE  OP  BEITISH  EULE. 

The  slave-raids  and  tyranny  of  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of 
Unyoro  have  given  place  to  similar  progress  and  peace. 

In  Nigeria  in  1902  slave-raidiag  armies  of  10,000  or  15,000 
men  laid  waste  the  country,  and  wiped  out  its  population 
aimually  in  the  quest  for  slaves.  Hundreds  of  square  miles 
of  rich  well -watered  land  were  depopulated.  Earth  bore 
witness  to  a  similar  condition  of  things  fifty  years  ago.  Men 
were  impaled  in  the  market-place  of  Kano.  I  have  described 
its  dungeon  (p.  199).  Nowhere  was  there  security  for  life 
and  property.  To-day  the  native  Emirs  vie  with  each  other 
in  the  progress  of  their  schools  ;  the  native  courts  administer 
justice,  and  themselves  have  liberated  over  50,000  slaves. 
The  Sultan  of  Sokoto  and  the  other  Emirs  are  keenly  in- 
terested ia  such  questions  as  afforestation,  artesian  well-boring, 
and  vaccination.  The  native  prisons  have  been  pronounced 
by  the  medical  authority  to  be  a  model  for  Government  to 
imitate ;  the  leper  settlement  in  Bornu  under  purely  native 
control  is  the  most  successful  I  know  of. 

I  refer  to  these  two  countries  because  I  happen  to  have 
personally  witnessed  their  condition  prior  to  the  advent  of 
British  control,  but  similar  results  may  be  seen  in  every 
other  British  dependency  in  tropical  Africa. 
~  Ss  Eoman  imperiaUsm  laid  the  foundabions  of  modern 
civilisation,  and  led  the  wild  barbarians  of  these  islands  along 
the  path  of  progress,  so  in  Africa  to-day  we  are  repaying  the 
debt,  and  bringing  to  the  dark  places  of  the  earth,  the  abode 
of  barbarism  and  cruelty,  the  torch  of  culture  and  progress, 
while  ministering  to  the  material  needs  of  our  own  civilisa- 
tion. In  this  task  the  nations  of  Europe  have  pledged  them- 
selves to  co-operation  by  a  solemn  covenant.  Towards  the 
common  goal  each  wUl  advance  by  the  methods  most  con- 
sonant with  its  national  genius.  British  methods  have  not 
perhaps  in  all  cases  produced  ideal  results,  but  I  am  pro- 
foundly convinced  that  there  can  be  no  question  but  that 
British  rule  has  promoted  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
primitive  races.  Let  those  who  question  it  examine  the 
results  impartially.  If  there  is  unrest,  and  a  desire  for  in- 
dependence, as  in  India  and  Egypt,  it  is  because  we  have 
taught  the  value  of  hberty  and  freedom,  which  for  centuries 
these  peoples  had  not  known.  Their  very  discontent  is  a 
measure  of  their  progress.  .-— 

We  hold  these  countries  because  it  is  the  genius  of  our  race 


ENGLAND'S  MISSION.  619 

to  colonise,  to  trade,  and  to  govern.  The  task  in  which  Eng- 
land is  engaged  in  the  tropics— alike  in  Africa  and  in  the 
East — has  become  part  of  her  tradition,  and  she  has  ever 
given  of  her  best  ia  the  canse  of  liberty  and  civilisation.^ 
There  will  always  be  those  who  cry  aloud  that  the  task  is 
beiag  badly  done,  that  it  does  not  need  doing,  that  we  can 
get  more  profit  by  leaving  others  to  do  it,  that  it  brings  evil 
to  subject  races  and  breeds  profiteers  at  home.  These  were 
not  the  principles  which  prompted  our  forefathers,  and  secured 
for  us  the  place  we  hold  in  the  world  to-day  in  trust  for  those 
who  shall  come  after  us. 

^  "  I  believe,"  says  Sir  C.  Lucas,  "  that  to  our  people  has  been  given  the  work 
of  carrying  justice  and  freedom  throughout  the  world.  I  do  not  claim  for  them 
any  immunity  from  wrong-doing.  Like  other  people,  they  have  sought  and  found 
gain.  But  I  find  the  weak  peoples  of  the  world  looking  to  and  trusting  England. 
I  find  British  justice  a  proverb  among  nations.  ...  I  believe  the  world  to  be  a 
better  Vforld  for  the  fact  that  the  British  have  peopled  some  lands  with  their 
own  race,  and  taken  the  rule  of  others  into  their  own  hands." 

' '  We  of  West  Africa  ought  from  our  heart  of  hearts  to  thank  Almighty  God 
that  we  have  been  born  into  the  British  Empire,"  says  a  Lagos  paper  on  Empire 
Day  1920;  while  a  Gold  Coast  journal  observed  that  "to  us  of  West  Africa 
Empire  means  a  relation  of  goodwill  between  the  Imperial  unit  and  its  links, 
harmonising  all  interests  irrespective  of  race  and  colour."  West  Africa,  it  adds, 
looks  to  Imperial  Britain  to  lead  the  nations  to  a  just  recognition  of  Africa's 
claims. 

Beaulieu  pays  a  very  generous  tribute  to  England's  success.  "  La  nation  qui 
tient  le  premier  rang  dans  la  colonisation,  celle  qui  donne  h  tous  I'exemples  de 
vastes  empire  fond^s  au  dela  des  mers,  c'est  I'Angleterre.  .  .  .  Mais  le  temps 
le  grand  maitre  et  ce  juge  impartial,  qui  met  enfin  de  compte  chaque  peuple  k  la 
place  que  ses  qualites  ou  ses  defauts  lui  assignent  sddorme  k  I'Angleterre  pour  ne 
plus  le  lui  reprendre  le  premier  rang  parmilea  nations  colonisatrices." — Loc.  cit., 
vol.  ii.  p.  246.     See  also  vol.  i.  p.  92. 


FINIS. 


INDEX. 


Aborigines — 
Protection  Society  (A.P.S.),  190. 
Re  labour,  Kenya,  393,  408,  410,  414. 
Re  native  lands,  293. 
Abyssinia — 
Distilleries,  604. 
People  of,  67. 

Slavery  and  arms,  205,  388-9. 
Tolls,  254. 
Trade,  46. 
Use  of  plough,  517. 
Administration  (see  Government) — 
Duties  of,  94-5. 
Problem  of,  7,  606-7. 
Adoption  of  children,  385-6. 
Advanced  communities  (see  Native  Ad- 
ministration), 72,  75,  79, 117,  200-3. 
Contrast  Moslem  and  pagan,  205,  211. 
Africa  (see  Tropics) — 
Council,  q.v. 

Description  of,  chap,  iv.,  1,  5,  64-5. 
Desiccation  of,  520. 
Effect  of  civilisation,  91-2. 
Fauna,  634-5. 
History,  1-3,  66. 
Industrial  policy,  509. 
Opening  of,  2,   4,  17-18,  360,  613-17. 

(See  European. ) 
People  of,  66-75,  401. 
Population,  45,  66,  320,  332. 
South,  q.v. 

Task  in,  5,  6,  217,  607-8. 
Age-Classes — 
Of  pagans,  220. 
Of  trees,  527. 
Agricultural — 
College,  505. 
Shows,  504. 
Tribes,  73. 
Agriculture — 
Importance  of,  516. 
Model  farms,  504. 
New  products,  530-1. 
Research  in,  501-3. 
Staff,  503-4. 

Training  in,  419-21,  424,  604-6. 
Yield  of  crops,  616. 


Ajasa{Hon.  K.),  89,439. 
Alcohol  (see  Liquor) — 

For  power,  474,  513. 
Aliens  (see  Europeans,  Native  Strangers. 
&c.)— 

Control  of,  by  suzerain,  92,  207. 

Government  as  landlord  of,  206,  277. 
289. 

Land,  transfer  to  (see  Land). 

Native  rulers  as,  209-10. 
Amalgamation  of  governments — 

Advantage  of,  97-100, 179. 

In  Nigeria,  100-2. 
America — ■ 

At  Berlin  Conference,  11,  15, 

Commercial  treaties,  278. 

Export  of  liquor,  598. 

In  Guam,  124. 

Negroes  in,  81-2,  117. 

Eecognises  native  treaties,  11,  15. 

Slavery,  356-7. 

Study  of  tropics,  499. 

Trade  with,  515. 
Amery  (Col.  L.) — 

Colonial  Office  reform,  166. 

Favours  model  alien  estates,  508. 

Imperial  preference,  275-7. 

Improved  native  conditions,  93. 

Married  officers,  142. 

Railways,  501. 

Research,  501. 

Selection  of  staff,  138. 
Appeal  courts,  181-2.     (-See  Courts.) 
Apprentices — 

Agricultural,  505. 

Clerical,  88-9,  447. 

Of  slaves,  367. 

Technical,  448-9, 
Arabic,  teaching  of,  138,  453-4. 
Arabs :  of  the  North,  64, 

Of  Zanzibar  (see  Zanzibar) — 
As  explorers,  79, 
Attitude  to  Europeans,  20. 
Free  labour,  403. 
Slave-trade,  358-9. 
Area  of  British  tropics,  45. 
Aristotle  re  slaverv,  356-6. 


622 


INDEX. 


Armitage    (Capt.,  Chief    Commissioner, 
N.T.  of  Gold  Coast) :  Kule  through 
chiefs,  199. 
Arms — 

Of  troops,  576. 

Prohibition  of,  4,  205,  361. 
Arnett  (B.  J.,  Resident,  Nigeria) — 

Assessment,  248. 

Desiccation,  520. 

Slavery  in  Sukoto,  364,  374-5. 

Success  of,  222. 
Ashanti  {see  Fuller) — 

An  advanced  despotism,  76,  204,  211. 

Concessions  in,  352. 

Courts  (British),  539-40,  545. 

Courts  (native),  510,  516. 

Education,  429. 

Land  tenure,  286,  303. 

People  of,  70,  78. 

Status  of,  37. 
Asiatics  {see  Indians,  Arabs,  &c.) — 

Colonisation  by,  42,  317-23,  416. 

Contrast  with  Africans,  6. 

Immigrations,  67,  74,  76. 
Assessment  of  taxes,  239-40,  246-9.    {See 

Tax.) 
Assisted — 

Emigrants,  417.     {See  Indentured.) 

Schools  {see  Education). 
Auction  (of  land),  337-9. 

Baden-Powell  (B.  H.) :  Individual  owner- 
ship, land,  235,  344. 
Baillaud  (Emile) — 

England  in  Africa,  13. 

French  and  liquor  traffic,  599. 
Baker  (Sir  S.)  teaches  distilling,  604. 
Balfour  of  Burleigh  (Lord),  Committee's 
views  on — 

"Combines,"  479. 

Imperial  preference,  276,  278. 

Restriction  of  markets,  268-9. 
Ball  (Dyer) :  Slavery  in  China,  354. 
Bananas,  export  of,  531. 
Banking,  260-1. 
Bantu,  68,  70. 
Barter-trade,  251,  490. 
Barth  (Dr)— 

Free  labour  v.  slavery,  365. 

Slave-raiding,  361,  618, 

Travels,  2. 
Basutos,  65. 

Taxation,  257. 
Batty  (J.  H. ),  Preface,  ix. 

Export  duties,  264,  270. 

Price  of  produce,  478. 
Beanlieu  (Mons.  P.  L.) — 

Africa   not    fit    to    stand    alone,    82, 
198. 

Apprentice  system  for  slaves,  367. 

Free  labour,  419. 

French  in  Africa,  3. 

Land  ownership,  345. 

Policy,  59-60. 


Praise  of  England,  58,  619. 

Rail  construction,  462. 
Bechuana,  66. 

Export  duties,  263. 

Railway,  466. 

Tax  257. 
Belfield(SirH.  C.)— 

Gold  Coast  land  report,  282-9,  303. 

Population,  Gold  Coast,  153. 

Views  re  concessions,  305,  485. 
Benin — 

Advanced  despotism,  76,  231. 

Art,  70. 

Custom  of  Igba,  387. 

Land  tenure,  303. 

Progress,  70. 
Berbers :  Conquests  of,  76. 
Berlin  Act — 

Effective  occupation,  11. 

Export  duties,  263. 

Free-trade  zone,  277- 

Objects  of,  4,  48-9,  51,  336. 

Protectorates,  33. 
Binger  (Capt.) :  Salt  trade,  266. 
Blyden  (Dr  E.  W.)— 

African  journalism,  80. 

Education,  428. 

Islam  in  Africa,  78,  591. 

Lines  of  negro  progress,  82,  89. 

Use  of  Arabic,  453. 
Borneo :  Labour,  417-8. 
Bosworth-Smith :  Islam,  78. 
Britain,  population  of,  1816-1891,  614. 
British — 

East  African  Company,  14-6,  20-1. 

Free-trade  policy,  11. 

Ideals  and  results,  5,  58-9,  617-9.   {See 
Empire.) 

Reasons  for  entering  Africa,  4,  9-10. 

South  African  Company,  21-4,  343-4. 

Staff,  94-5.     (S«e  Staff.) 

Subjects  (status  of),  36,  39. 

Tropics,  45-64.      {See  Tropics.) 
Bruce  (Sir  C.)— 

African  Council,  174. 

Colonial  Office  reform,  158, 160-2, 167. 

Grown  Agents,  495. 

Tropical  development,  615. 
Brussels  Act — 

Objects,  4,  48-9,  58,  360-2. 

Obligations  of  Powers,  34. 

He  liquor,  597-8. 
Bryce  (Viscount) :  Labour,  Kenya,  394, 

410. 
Buckland    (W.    W. ):    Roman   law    of 

slavery,  355. 
Burke  :  Need  for  relaxation,  108. 
Burma :  Land  law  of,  344. 
Buxton     (Viscount) :     Rhodesian    Land 

Committee,  343. 
Buxton  (Sir  V. ) :  Education  (religious), 
436 ;  (industrial),  445. 

Cadet  service  (native),  88-9,  447. 


INDEX. 


623 


Cameruns — 

Area  and  population,  45. 

Capture  of,  610. 

Cocoa,  507. 

Mandates,  62. 

Rainfall,  65. 

Tax  in,  257. 
Cannibalism — 

Accusations  of,  369. 

Moral  sense  of  cannibals,  75 

Origin  of,  73,  355. 
Capitalist — 

African,  514. 

Charges  of  greed  of,  61,  612-15. 
Capital  sentences  [see  Punishment). 
Caravan  tolls,  254-5. 
Cardinall  (A.  W.)  :  Land  tenure,  N.T.  of 

Gold  Coast,  286,  303. 
Carlyle — 

Conditions  in  England  in  1816,  615. 

The  work  of  England,  613. 
Carr  (H.,   Chief  Inspector,    Education, 
Nigeria) — 

Education,  results  of,  in  Nigeria,  428. 

Native  press,  80. 

Supply  of  teachers,  443. 

True  path  to  self-government,  89. 
Carriers,  475-6.     (.See  Transport.) 
Carts  [see  Transport). 
Cattle,  632-3.     {See  Ranching.) 

Jn  dry  zone,  298. 

Oil-cake  for,  511,  522, 
■   Ownership  of,  73,  401. 
Cement,  manufacture  of,  512. 
Chamberlain  (Mrs  Joseph) — 

African  nurses,  151. 
Chamberlain  (Rt.  Hon.  Joseph) — 

Compulsory  labour,  234. 

Crown  agents,  495. 

Medical  staff  and  tropical  schools,  151. 

Opinion  re  continuous  responsibility 
scheme,  107. 

Policy  in  Africa,  4, 13,  29, 163, 167,  500. 

Policy  in  Malaya,  130. 

E«asons  for  his  success,  162-3,  178. 

Eolations  of  colonies  to  United  King- 
dom, 163,  167,  579. 

Relations  with   Governors,   163,   178, 
185-6. 

Sierra  Leone  hut  tax,  256. 

Sierra  Leone  native  courts,  543. 

State  ownership  of  railways,  469. 

Tenure  of  ofiace,  159. 

Terms  of  land  leases,  304. 

The  use  of  force,  579. 

Trustees  for  civilisation,  60,  615. 

Views  re  African  Council,  174. 

Views  re  flogging  of  natives,  560. 

Views  re  liquor  traiEc,  600. 

Views  re  slavery,  369-70. 

Visits  South  Africa,  169. 
Chambers  of  Commerce- 
French  and  British,  493-4.   {See  Liver- 
pool, Manchester,  &c.) 


Character — 

Effect  of  responsibility  on    national, 
612. 

Of  Europeans  in  Africa,  58-9. 

Of  the  African,  69-72,  77,  103. 

The  training  of,  427-35,  440,  460. 
Chartered  Companies- 
Achievements  of,  23. 

Bad  form  of  government,  4, 19,  23 

Contrast  ancient  and  modem,  27-8. 

East  Indian,  27-S. 

Formation  and  status  of,  14,  18,  23. 

Lessons  from,  23-6, 

The  three  African,  19,  23.     {See  under 
each. ) 
Chelmsford     (Viscount):      Indians     in 

Kenya,  318. 
China — 

Land  law,  347. 

Slavery  in,  354. 
Chinese  labour,  415-7. 
Chirol(SirV.)— 

Indian  education,  426,  433-4,  439. 

Indians  in  Kenya,  319. 

Industrial  progress,  India,  510. 

The  Indian  reforms,  88,  115,  195. 

Village  heads  in  Egypt,  202. 
Christianity,  effects  of  in  Africa,  78,  437, 

589. 
Churchill  (Rt.  Hon.  W.)— 

Colonial  OfHce  attitude  to  Governors, 
110,  163. 
To  commerce,  188. 

Development  of  colonies,  179, 182,  500. 

Indians  in  Kenya,  319,  322. 

No  barrier  of  race,  85. 

Qualities  of  British  staff,  132. 

Kecruitment  of  labour,  412. 

Visits  East  Africa,  169. 

West  African  railways,  467. 
Civilisation — 

Benefits  and  pains  of,  91-2,  153. 

Disruptive  effects,  216-7,   418,  426-7, 
460. 
Clarke  (Rev.  J. )  {see  Lavigerie) — 

Anti-slavery  crusade,  359. 

Description,  slavery  and  slave  raids, 
355-6. 

Slaves  do  not  breed  freely,  367. 

Tribal  slavery,  366. 
Clifford  (Sir  H.)— 

Condemns  "  National  Conference,"  84. 

Divergent  types  in  Africa,  67. 

East  India  Company's  trade,  27. 

Flogging  of  women,  563. 

Gold  Coast  cocoa  industry,  399. 

"House-rule,"  372. 

Native  courts,  654-5. 
Climate,  65,  298.     {See  Tropics.) 
Coal- 
Labour   in    Nigerian    coal-mine,   402, 
421,  463. 

Monopoly  by  Government,  352-3. 

Objective  for  railway,  463. 


624 


INDEX, 


Cocoa — 

Industry  on  Gold  Coast,  399-400,  607, 
526. 

Preparation  of,  487,  525-6. 
Collective  punishment,  547,  582-4. 
Colonial  Office — 

Ability  of  ofScials,  161,  164,  167. 

Absence  of  control  in  Malaya,  130-1. 

African  administration  in  1898, 14,  607. 

Attitude  to  Governors,  108-9, 

Averse  to  expansion,  13-14. 

Causes  of  discontent  in  Colonies,  169- 
165. 

Cost,  how  met,  189-90. 

Demand  for  reform,  155-6. 

Enlarged  library,  188-9. 

Increase  of  work,  167-8. 

Intervention,  162-4. 

Journal,  189. 

Lord  Elgin's  reforms,  158. 

Not  its  function  to  administer,   163, 
167,  170. 

Officials  resent  continuous  administra- 
tion scheme,  108-110. 

Organisation  of,  155-8. 

Suggestions  regarding,  165-186. 

The  office  view,  162. 

The  system,  97,  109. 
Colonial  Government  {see  Government). 
Colonial  Institute,  189. 
Colonies  (Crown) — 

Constitution  of,  95,  114. 

Contrast  with  Dominions,  40-43,  112. 

Definition  of,  36-7. 

Lack  of  means  of  expression,  190. 

On  tropical  plateaux,  41. 

Should  bear  share  of  Imperial  burden, 
189-90. 

Title  a  misnomer,  38-40,  118. 
Colonisation  in  the  tropics — 

By  Asiatics,  95,  114. 

By  Europeans,  9,  40,  42,  152. 
Colour  problem,  86-87. 
Colquhoun  (A.):  French  system  of  inspec- 
tion, 169. 
Commercial  intelligence,  188-9, 491-4,  504. 

Agencies  at  home,  188,  494. 
Conmiissions,  Royal,  499. 
Committees — 

Educational  (Nigeria),  430. 

Method  of  utilising,  176-7. 

Use  and  nature  of:   at  home,   170-1 ; 
abroad,  121-2. 
Communal  (land)  tenur*  {see  Land) — 

Plantations,  316, 
Compensation — 

For  land,  340. 

For  slaves,  367,  372. 
"  Combines  "  {see  Monopoly). 
Competition  (see  Monopoly). 
Concessionaire — 

Excluded    by    chartered    companies, 
19,  21. 

Rights  of,  487. 


Concessions — 

For  oil-mills,  485-6. 

In  British  Africa,  329,  485. 

In  Congo  andFrenoh  Equatorial  Africa, 
315,  485. 

Objections  to,  298,  307,  486. 
Concubinage    ceases    on     abolition     of 

slavery,  378-9. 
Concubines — 

Excluded  in  Zanzibar  decree,  370. 

Under  Moslem  law,  377-80. 
Condensers  for  water,  148. 
Conference  (Imperial),  159,  191. 

"National"  (W.  Africa),  84,  90,  115. 
Confucius  on  nobility,  212. 
Congo  State — 

Administration  of  justice,  540. 

Decrease  of  population,  163. 

Defects  in,  19,  49,  408. 

Domain  privee,  273,  315,  346,  385. 

European  tax,  260. 

Export  duties,  263. 

Formation  of,  11-12,  49. 

Liquor,  604. 

Native  tax,  257. 

Tippoo  Tib,  359-60. 

Trade  with  U.K.,  278. 
Congress,  Pan-African,  83-84. 
Congreve  re  slavery,  365. 
Conquest  (rights  of)  {see  Land). 
Conscription,  575-6. 
Consuls  in  Africa,  29,  357-8. 
Consulting  engineers,  466-8. 
Continuity — 

A  vital  principle,  96,  102,  113. 

By  Acting  Governor  and  local  Gover- 
nors, 125. 

By  Colonial  Ofiice  staff,  110,  164. 

By  grouping  colonies,  185. 

By  Residents'  reports,  129. 

Of  Governor  at  post,   105-9 ;  and  at 
home,  110. 

Of  records  and  policy,  103-4. 

Necessary  to  gain  confidence  of  natives, 
72,  103,  136. 

Sacrificed  by  inadequate  staff,  144. 
Contract  (see  Indenture  and  Labour) — 

For  local  labour,  407,  422. 

System,  railway  construction,  466-6. 
Conventions — 

By  Allies  (September  1919),  48,  60,  278. 
Do.  re  liquor,  50,  599. 

With  France,  1898,  4,  49,  59,  278,  600. 

Me  wild  animals,  35. 
Cookery,  need  of  improved,  150-1. 
Co-operation — 

A  principle  of  progress,  193. 

In  education   (with  Missions),  430-1. 
439-40. 

In  material  development,  600,  530. 
Coryndon  (Sir  R.)  (see  Uganda). 

Cotton-growing,  525. 

Indians,  320. 

Labour  question,  414. 


INDEX. 


625 


Coryndon  (Sir  E.)  Icontd.  )— 

Minerals,  347. 

Uganda,  decreasing  population,  153. 
Cotton — 

Empire  Cotton-Growing  Corporation 

271-2,  274,  SOS,  523. 
Cultivation  in  Nigeria,  524 

In  Uganda,  524-5. 
Indian  tariif,  513. 
Preparation  of,  487,  511. 
Restriction  of  market,  271-2. 
Specialisation  in,  508. 
Suggestions  re  cultivation,  472,  523-4. 
Value  of  trade,  525. 
Council  [see  Legislative  and  Executive) — 
Colonial     Office    Departmental,    168, 

178. 
India,  171-3. 

Method  of  doing  business,  176-7. 
Nigerian,  122-24. 
N.  Rhodesia,  121. 
Of  army  and  navy,  171.     - 
Of  Governors-General,  181. 
Proposed  African,  174-7,  188. 
Sudan,  121. 
Zanzibar,  34,  121. 
Courts — 
General — 

Civil  offences  by  soldiers,  565. 

Land  cases,  306,  308,  541,  545. 

Of  appeal,  181-2,  538. 

Officials  and  chiefs  amenable  to,  55- 
56,  203,  224. 

Procedure  of,  546-7. 

Bye-laws,   202,   206,    549-50,   557-8, 

'566. 
Clerks  of,  555-6. 
Pines  and  fees  of,  206-9. 
Judicial  councils,  202,  556. 
Law  administered  by,  202,  206,  369, 

371,  536-7,  549-50. 
Object,  value,  and  nature  ofprimitive 

courts,  547-9,  553-55. 
Offences  dealt  with,  550,  564. 
Powers  and  funotions  of,  202,  206, 

550-2,  556-7. 
Powers  of  old  courts,  543,  551. 
Punishments  by,  558-63.     (<S«e  Pun- 
ishments.) 
Slavery  questions  in,  371  -2,  558. 
Work  of,  376,  565-6. 
Provincial — 
Exclusion    of    legal    practitioners, 

544-5.     (See  Legal.) 
The  system,  641-5. 
Transfers  from  native  courts,  564. 
Supreme — 
Constitution  of,  538-9. 
Disabilities  of,  640-41. 
Vacation,  666. 
Credits — 
To  natives,  296,  647. 
Trade,  481. 

2 


Crewe  (Marquis  of) — 
Appoints  Committees  on — 
Crown  Agents,  494. 
Interchange  of  officers,  187-8. 
Liquor  traffic,  600. 
N.  Nigerian  lands,  282. 
Restricts  powers  India  Council,  172. 
Croft  (Sir  Alfred)— 
Education  in  India,  426. 
Moral  instruction,  437. 
Cromer  (Earl  of)— 
Annual  vacation,  106. 
Attitude  to  native  rulers,  227. 
Forced  labour,  410. 
Freed  slaves'  home,  386. 
Justifies  the  official  majority,  119. 
Principles  of  taxation,  240. 
Value  of  expert  knowledge,  177. 
Crown  Agents — 
Criticisms  of,  494-7. 
Expansion  of,  158,  167. 
Proposed  supersession  of,  168, 181. 
Railway  construction  by,  466-8. 
Crown  lands,  290-1,  316. 
Cuba — 
Miscegenation  in,  321. 
Slavery,  356. 
Cultivation — 
Communal,  316. 
Shifting,  298-9. 
Currency — 
Assisted  by  direct  tax,  233. 
Assists  abolition  slavery  376-6. 
Board,  491. 
Hoarding  of,  264-6. 
Notes,  491. 

Promotes  trade,  490-1. 
Profit  on  by  Mint,  190,  491,  609. 
Versus  barter,  251,  490.     {See  Barter.) 
Currie  (Sir  Jas. ) :  Crown  Colony  educa- 
tion, 428. 
Curtis  (L.)— 
Education  in  self-government,  88. 
Indian  reforms,  115. 
Curzon  (Marquis) — 
Defines  legal  status  slavery,  370. 
Education  in  India,  428. 
New  frontier  province,  567. 
Reply  re  concubines,  370. 
Secretarial  government,  126. 
Customs  (see  Import,  Export,  Tariffs) — 
Advantages  and  disadvantages  of,  236. 
Export  and  import  duties,  268. 
Internal  fiscal  frontiers,  98. 
Paid  by  natives  only  in  Africa,  258. 
Proportion  of  revenue  raised  by,  262, 

236-6. 
Rebates  for  distant  regions,  266-7. 
Variation  in  incidence  of,  266. 

Da    Gama    (Vasco):    Influence    of   dis- 
coveries of,  2,  3,  79. 

Darley  (Major  H.) :  Slavery  in  Abyssinia, 
389. 
B 


626 


INDEX. 


Death  sentences,  543,  561-2. 
Decentralisation — 

A  vital  principle,  96. 

By  native  rulers,  201,  220,  243,  253. 

By  Secretary  of  State,  168. 

Methods  of,  97,  101-2,  570. 

Of  departments,  100-2. 

Promoted  by  direct  tax,  253. 

To  Governors-General,  179-182. 

To  native  rulers  (see  Native  rule). 
De  Courcel  (Baron) :  Berlin  Conference, 

11. 
Defence — 

Colonies  to  bear  share  of,  190,  274-5. 

Modern  burden  of,  274. 

Of  colonies  in  the  war,  610. 
Delafosse  (Maurice) — 

African  land  tenure,  281,  284,  345. 

Meaning  of  terms,  316. 
Delegation  (vide  Decentralisation). 
Democracy — 

Advantage  of  Empire  to,  61,  609-10. 

Concern  for  welfare  of  subject  races, 
613. 

Demands  expansion,  10,  21,  616. 

Misled  by  Labour  leaders,  608. 

Needs  reliable  information,  7. 
Dennett  (R.  E.)— 

Evil  of  alien  land-owners,  313. 

Individual  land  tenure,  286. 
Departmental — 

System     in      Whitehall,     47.       (See 
Colonial  Office.) 
Treasury  control,  99. 

Officers,  relation  with  native  adminis- 
tration, 225-6. 

System  of  raUway  construction,  466-8. 
Departments — 

Decentralisation  of,  100-2. 

Functions  of,  94-6. 

Staff  of,  137-8. 
Dernburg  (Herr) — 

Cost  of  Algeria,  609. 

Re  "  Combines,"  479. 

Visits  Africa,  50. 
Desiccation  of  Africa,  520. 
Diagne  (French  native  Deputy) :  African 

Congress,  83-4. 
Differential  duties  {see  Imports,  Exports, 

Tariffs,  Imperial  preference,  &c. ) 
Dillte  (Sir  C.) :  Unofficial  majorities,  116. 
Diseases  of  the  tropics,  92,  144,  152-4. 
Distilleries,  604-5. 
District  headman  (native) — 

Duties  re  Tax,  242-3,  247-8. 

Education  of, 

Functions  of,  200-1,  205,  242. 

Resides  in  district,  242. 
District  Officer — 

Character  and  success  of,    132,   578, 
585. 

Continuity  at  post,  102-3,  136. 

Duties  of— 
General,  134. 


He  land,  301,  308,  342. 
He  Native  courts,  552. 
Re  Native  labour,  407,  415. 
Re  Prisons,  560. 

Re  Economic  resources,  135,  502. 
Judicial  work  of,  134,  539,  544. 
Judicial  Powers  of,  542-3. 
Need  for  travelling  in  district,  134-5, 

566. 
Records  and  returns  re  taxation,  134-5, 

207,  247. 
Relations  with  native  administration. 

201,  218,  220,  225-6,  249. 
Selection  of,  140,  142. 
Training  of,  133,  138,  543. 
Dominions,  status  of,  40-1,  607. 
Dowry,  377  et  seq.     {See  Slavery.) 
Dubois  (Dr  W.  E.  B.) :  Causes  of  discon- 
tent of  negroes,  82. 
Duff    (B.     C,     Resident,     Cameruns) : 

German  policy,  397-8. 
Dutch- 
Abolition  slavery,  356. 
Charters  and  trade,  27. 
Economic  policy,  59. 
Liquor  trade,  597,  601. 
Methods  of  colonisation,  59. 
Methods  of  selecting  staff,  140. 
Dyarchy  in  India,  115,  195,  204. 

Eaglesome  (Sir  J.) — 
Preface,  ix. 

Railway  construction ,  Nigeria,  465,468. 
East  African  (Imp.    British)   Chartered 

Company — 
History  of  charter,  14,  20-21. 
Treaties  with  natives,  15. 
East  African  Syndicate's  land,  329. 
Economic  (chapters  xxv.  and  xxvi.) — 
Commission  (East  Africa),  of  1912 — 

Re  labour,  394-5. 
Commission  (East  Africa)  of  1919— 

Constitution  of,  320,  492. 

Demands  of,  179,  325,  484,  500. 
Development  boards,  121,  492-4. 
Doctrine  of  land  rents,  290-1,  344. 
Effects  of  the  war,  267-8. 
Investigations  by  other  Powers,  498-9. 
Policy  {see  Free-trade). 
Products  of  Africa,  43-4,  135. 
Progress,  5,  153-4,  498. 
Pressure       compelled       development 

Africa,  3,  92,  613. 
Resolutions  at  Paris,  268-9,  279. 
Resources,  development  of,  501  et  seq. 
Waste,  520-1. 
Educated  (Europeanised)  native- 
Attitude  to  native  administrations,  86, 

195,  223,  426,  429. 
Cadet  class  for,  88-9,  447. 
Claims  for  self-government,  83-84. 
Debt  to,  90,  443,  458. 
Description  and  criticisms,  72,  79-81, 

428-9,  544,  589. 


INDEX. 


627 


Educated  (Europeanisedjnative  (contd.)— 
Dislikes  Provmoial  Courts,  644-5 
French  opinion  of  British  policy,  89. 
Fath  to  self-government  for,  225. 
Representation  on  Legislative  Council, 

o7,  115-6. 
Scope  for,  85-89,  196,  443,  458,  514. 
Share  of  taxation,  263. 
The    demand    for    educated    African 
clerks,  &c.,  87,  442-3,  458. 
iiducation  {see  Schools) — 
Boards  of,  430,  440. 
Character-training,  432-7. 
Co-operation  in,  430 
Cost  of,  443-4,  457-8. 
-Effects  and  results  of,   80,   83,   85-6, 
426-9,  443.  >        .        .  . 

Elementary  and  industrial,  444-6. 
For  girls,  457. 
For  Moslems,  453-4. 
Grants-in-aid,  435,  439-41. 
Higher  (University,  &o.),  455-6. 
Ideals  of,  425-6,  459. 
In  Arabic,  77. 
Literary,  443-4,  447. 
Proposed  changes,  427,  431,  460. 
Eeligious  and  moral,  435-7,  439,  460. 
Specialised,  450,  456-7. 
Technical,  448-60.     {See  Labour.) 
Types  of,  required,  442. 
Vernacular  and  English,  454-5. 
Edwards    (H.    S.    W.,    District   Officer, 
Nigeria) :  Reclamation,  Sokoto,  519- 
20. 
"Effective    occupation,"    11,    13.     {See 

Berlin  Act. ) 
Egba  (Nigeria)— 
Cause  of  unrest,  409. 
Independence  of,  35,  197. 
Native  treasury,  310. 
Progress,  78. 
Treaty  denounced,  35. 
Egypt- 
Early  civilisation  of,  2. 
Prosperity  and  unrest,  117. 
Responsibilities  in,  4. 
System  of  rule  in,  227. 
Elephant — 
Habitat,  65. 

Preservation  and  use  of,  532,  534. 
Elgin  (Earl  of)— 

"Economic  rent,"  291. 
Land  grants  to  Indians,  321. 
Land  policy,  E.  Africa,  329,  337. 
Reforms  at  Colonial  Office,  158. 
Eliot  (Sir  Chas.)  (aee  Uganda)— 
African  character.  69-70. 
Age-classes,  Masai,  220. 
Greater  latitude  to  local  Government, 

178. 
Islam  not  popular,  78. 
Land  syndicates,  328-9. 
Native  reserves,  324-5. 
Punitive  expeditions,  578. 


Elliott    (C.    B.,    Judge,    U.S.A.)    {see 
Philippines) — 
Condensed  water,  148. 
Dutch  colonisation,  59. 
Laud  and  minerals,  Philippines,  346, 
348. 
Emiu  Pasha — 
Expedition  to  Uganda,  20. 
Opposes  slave-raiders,  359. 
Emmott  (Lord)— 
Imperial  preference,  277. 
Labour,  Kenya,  394. 
Reform  of  Colonial  Office,  155. 
Empire  (British)— 
Benefits  to  democracy,  61,  609-10. 
Expansion  under  Elizabeth,  614. 
Meaning  of,  94. 
Obligations  to,  275. 
Empire     Cotton  -  growing    Corporation, 

272-3,  603. 
Empire   Resources    Development    Com- 
mittee, 268,  273,  480. 
England  {see  Britain). 
English   language,   118,   123,   134,    444, 

451,  464. 
Equatorial  belt,  characteristics  of,  65,  73, 

298. 
Ethiopian  Church,  117. 
Europe  ;  Increase  of  population,  3,  614. 
European — 
Estates  in  tropics,  296,  486-7,  419-20, 

504,  507-8. 
Influence    in    Africa,    5,    79,    91-92, 

215-17. 
Life  in  tropics,  58-9. 
Reasons  lor  advent  of,  in  Africa,  P,  10, 

92 
Taxation  of,  260-3. 
Evolution  of  Africans,  72. 
Based  on  customs,  82,  211,  219. 
Must  be  gradual,  194,  224,  252. 
Evolution  of  land  tenure,  307. 
Executive  Council^ 
Constitution,    duties,   and   procedure, 

115,  119-22,  637. 
Value  of,  121-2,  538. 
Expansion  in  Africa — 
Government  opposed  to,  10,  13. 
Unavoidable,  10,  614-15. 
Exploitation,  charges  of,  325,  612-13. 
Export  duties  {see  Imports,   Customs) : 
The  case  for,  264-7,  489.  ii-,_J 

Exportable  produce   of  British  tropical 
Africa,  45. 

Farquharson  (C.  0.) — 

Absentee  landlords,  296. 

Commends  European  estates,  507. 

Native  agricultural  methods,  486. 

Quality  of  produce,  489. 
Federation  v.  Amalgamation,  97-8,  179. 
{See  Grouping  of  colonies. ) 

Advantages  of,  179-81 

In  Malaya,  130. 


628 


mDEX. 


Felkin  (Dr  R.  W.)  (see  Uganda)— 

Birth  of  twins,  75. 

Residence  of  chiefs  at  capital,  242. 

Slavery  in  Uganda,  363. 
Fibres,  512,  530. 

Fiddes  (Sir  Q.):  Currency  Board,  491. 
Fiji- 

Cannibalism,  73. 

Indian  immigration,  415-16,  418. 

Land  law,  345. 
Fiscal  frontiers,  inland,  98.      {See  Cus- 
toms.) 
Fisher  (Rt.  Hon.  H.  A.  L.) :  "Venture 

schools,"  438. 
Fishes,  utilisation  of,  532. 
Flax,  505-6. 

Flogging  (see  Punishment). 
Fodder-grasses,  530. 
Food  in  tropics,  150-3. 
Force    (see    Military,    Troops,    Soldier, 
&o.)— 

African  only  recognises,  579-80. 

Control  of,  205. 

Use  of,  203,  361,  578-81. 
Foreign  OfBce — 

Control  in  Africa,  29-31,  163,  607. 

Interchange  of  officials,  187. 

Officers  in  England,  108. 

Prefers  export  duties,  263. 
Forestry,  training  in,  450,  503-4. 
Forests — 

Conservation  of,  315,  351,  527-9. 

Department,  501. 

Destruction  of,  299,  520,  527. 

Licences,  335. 

Ordinances,  Gold  Coast  and  Nigeria, 
315. 

Value  of,  299,  315. 
Foundations,  laying  of,  in  Africa,  105. 
France,  population  of,  66,  614. 
Frazer  (Sir  A.) :  Working  of  Committees, 

177. 
Freed  slaves — 

Disposal  of,  385-6. 

Homes  for,  386. 
Free  trade — 

Alleged  infringements,  61. 

British  policy  of,  11,  60. 

Enjoined  by  Berlin  Act  and  League, 
48,  54. 

Former  Congo  policy,  49.   (See  Congo.) 

French  policy,  11,  49,  59,  91,  278-9, 
499. 
"Free-traders,"  27. 
French — 

Abolition  of  slavery  by,  356. 

Aggression,  11,  29-30. 

Aims  in  Africa,  3,  9-10,  40,  59,  279, 
360,  614. 

Convention,  1898  (see  Convention). 

Co-operation  with,  30,  181,  223,  279. 

Economic  policy,  11,  49,  59,  91,  278-9. 
499. 

Pledges  to,  re  raw  materials,  273. 


Views  re  land  tenure,  295,  345. 
Me  Mandates,  52. 
He  native  press,  80. 
Jte  native  treaties,  16. 

West  African  Council,  122,  183-4. 
French  Africa — 

Area  and  population,  46,  183. 

Chambers  of  Commerce,  493. 

Claims  to  minerals,  348. 

Conscription,  677. 

Grouping  of  colonies,  98,  182-4. 

Inspectors  of  colonies,  169. 

Irrigation  scheme,  519. 

Judicial  system,  568-9. 

Liquor  traffic,  598-600. 

Railway  construction,  464. 

Selection  of  staff,  140. 

Status  of  indigenes,  40. 

Taxes,  244,  257. 

Trade  and  progress,  182. 

Treatment  of  native  chiefs,  228. 
Fulani — 

Capacity  for  rule,  198,  209-10,  220. 

Decadence  and  misrule,  198-9,  232. 

Manhood  tests,  74. 

Origin  of,  67. 

Relations  to  settled  tribes,  92,  287. 

Slave-children,  384. 
Fuller  (Sir  F.)  {see  Ashanti)— 

Administration    of    justice,    Ashanti, 
539-40,  545. 

Character  of  Ashantis,  70. 

Christian  intolerance,  78. 

Concession  to  Gold  Fields  Company, 
352. 

Education  in  Ashanti,  429. 

Islam  not  popular,  78. 

Legal  practitioners  excluded,  645. 
Fumban,  Njoya  of,  75. 

Gall  (F.  B.,  late  Resident,  Nigeria),  222. 
Gallas — 

As  labourers,  399. 

Origin  of,  67. 
Gambia — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 

Legislative  Council  of,  38. 

Proposed  exchange  of,  54. 
Game,  preservation  of,  535. 
Geary  (Sir  Wm.)— 

Criticism  of  N.  Nigeria  land  law,  292. 

Praise  of  district  officers,  132. 
Germany — 

Area  and  trade  of  African  colonies,  54. 

Attitude  to  Islam,  210. 

Bid  for  Uganda,  20. 

Coal-flelds,  363. 

Compulsory  labour,  Samoa,  418. 

Exclusion  from  Mandate  colonies,  54. 

German-owned  estates,  607. 

Increase  of  population  of,  66,  614. 

Labour  difficulties,  397-8. 

Liquor  traffic,  698,  601. 

Merchants'  Council,  176. 


INDEX. 


629 


Germany  (contd. ) — 

Methods  in  Africa,  4,  50-1,  391,  426, 
481, 

Monopoly  of  palm-kernels,  268-9,  270, 
601,  611. 

Profit-sharing  with  natives,  420. 

Keasons  for  entering  Africa,  3-4,  9-10, 
40,  614.  .       >         . 

State-aided  inquiries,  499. 

Verdict  on  N.  Nigeria  administration, 
223. 

"War  with  Arabs,  358,  360. 
Gilmour  (T.  L. )  on   N.  Nigeria   admin- 
istration, 228. 
Girls,  education  of,  457.  (See  Education.) 
Girouard  (Sir  E.  P.)— 

Approves  nationalisation  of  land,  190-1. 

Break-up  of  tribal  life,  216,  403. 

Burmese  land-law,  344. 

Masai  reserves,  324-5. 

Must  rule  through  chiefs,  216. 

Opposes    independent    native    states, 
198. 

Railway  construction,  465,  468. 
Giryama,  drunkenness  among,  603. 
Gladstone:  Retention  of  Uganda,  21. 
Glen-Grey  Act,  234,  326-7,  414. 
Gold  Coast — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45,   153, 
332. 

Acquisition  of,  357. 

Cocoa    industry    of,     399-400.       {See 
Cocoa.) 

Concessions  in,  485. 

Disposal  of  land  rents,  309-10. 

Education,  433,  457-8. 

Forest  Bill,  284,  315. 

Land  Bill,  1897,  304-5. 

Land  tenure,  283,  286. 

Liquor,  598. 

Native  jurisdiction  law,  553. 

Palm-kernel  export  duty,  269-70. 

Rates  and  taxes,  85,  234. 

Rule  through  chiefs,  86,  199. 

Slaves  in,  37,  377. 

Status  of,  36. 
Goldie  (Sir  G.) :  Niger  charter,  14.   ■ 
Goldsmith    (H.    S.,   late    Lt. -Governor, 

Nigeria),  222. 
Gordon  College,  Sudan,  151,  433.     {See 

Sudan.) 
Gorgas    (Surgeon  -  General) :     Mosquito 

campaign,  534. 
Government  (Colonial) — 

Constitution  of,  95. 

Participation  in  industry,  499-500. 

Public  works,  500. 
Government — 

By  chartered  companies,  18-28. 

By  committees,  171. 

By  home  departments,  164-5. 
Governor — 

Continuity  of,  97,  105-6,  111-12. 

Financial  powers,  127,  162,  179. 


Home  employment    of,   108,  110-11, 
166, 175. 

Latitude  allowed  to,  178-9. 

Powers  and  functions,  95,  101,   124, 
538,  606-7. 

Scheme  of  continuous  responsibility, 
107-9. 

Selection  of,  111,  126,  186. 

Touch  with  Secretary  of  State,  162, 
185-6. 
Governor  (Acting),  106,  108-9,  125. 

Limitation  of  powers,  110-11. 

Selection  of,  125-6. 
Governor  (Lieut.-) — 

Duties  of,  102,  126-8. 

Selection  of,  126. 
Governor-General — 

Absence  from  poet,  181. 

Of  grouped  colonies,  179-80, 182. 

Of  S.  Africa,  116, 180. 
Gowers(W.,  Lt. -Governor,  Nigeria),  222. 

Communal  tenure,  285. 

Forced  labour,  412. 

Slavery  dead  in  Nigeria,  377. 
Graham  (S.) :  American  negro,  80,  82. 
Grant  (Madison)  on  miscegenation,  320. 
Grants — 

To  Colonies,  98,  141,  462,  609.     {See 
Loans.) 

To  schools,  435,  439-41. 
Grasses  (fodder),  530. 
Grazing  leases  {see  Ranching). 
Green  ( J.  R. ) :  Anglo-Saxon  slavery,  355. 
Grey    (Lord) :    Compensation   to    slave- 
owners, 367. 
Grey  (Major-General  W.    H.):  Produce 

inspection,  489. 
Grogan  (W.  E.)— 

Labour,  Kenya,  393. 

Peasant  settlers,  397. 
Grouping  of  colonies,  110,  179. 
Guggisberg  (Brig. -General   F.    G.)    {see 
Gold  Coast)— 

Education,  86,  429,  433. 

Labour,  400. 
Guiana  (British) — 

Indian  colonists,  415. 

Minerals,  348. 

Population,  321. 

Hadow  (Sir  H.) ;  The  teaching  of  history, 

452. 
Hall  (W.  B.)— 

Protectorates,  34-36. 

Registration,  British  subjects,  39. 

Spheres  of  influence,  32. 

Treaties,  15. 
Hamites — 

Description  of,  67-68.     {See  Asiatics.) 

Introduce  domestic  animals,  474. 
Harcourt  (Viscount)— 

Adopts     continuous      administration 
scheme,  107. 

Amalgamation,  Nigeria,  100. 


630 


DSTDEX. 


Harcourt  (Viscount)  [contd.) — 

Condemns  results,  education,  428. 

E.  African  land  policy,  329,  337. 

House-rule  scheme,  373. 

Rhodesian  Reserves  Committee,  328. 

W.  African  Lands  Committee,  282. 
Harris  (J.  H.)^ 

Labour,  Kenya,  392. 

Portuguese  land-law,  346, 
Harward    (F.    H.):    Text-books,    moral 

instruction,  436. 
Haasa — 

Language,  134. 

Teaching  of,  138. 
Hawaii,  alien  immigration  in,  321. 
Hayford  (C.) :  British  rule  in  Gold  Coast, 

84. 
Hayti :  Conditions  of  negro  government, 

84-5,  198. 
Headman  {see  District,  Village,  &c.) 
Health,  hints  for,  152-3. 
Heerens :  Trade  of  Carthage,  2. 
Hemming  (Sir  A.) — 

Condemns  Colonial  Office  system,  160. 

Supports    continuous    administration 
scheme,  107. 
Herslett :  African  treaties,  15. 
Hewitt  (Consul)  makes  treaties,  15. 
Hides  and  skins,  44. 

Preparation  of,  487,  511,  526. 
Hinterland  theory,  12,  29. 
Hollis(A.  C.)— 

Labour,  412. 

Native  reserves,  328. 
Honduras,  British — 

Minerals,  347. 

Population,  321. 
Hong-Kong — 

Density,  population,  331. 

Land  settlement,  215,  345. 

Religious  teaching,  437. 

University  hostels,  433,  456. 
House-rule  in  S.  Nigeria,  372-3. 
Housing  in  tropics,  143,  145-7. 
Hudson's  Bay  Company — 

"Freetraders,"  27. 

Land  rights,  25. 

"Igba"  in  Benin,  387. 
Ilbert  (Sir  C.  P.)— 

African  treaties,  15. 

E.  India  charter,  27-28. 

Functions  of  Government,  95. 

History  of  India  Council,  172. 

Protectorates,  32-37. 

Rule  in  native  states,  226. 

Viceroy's    powers    in    native    states, 
116. 
Imperial — 

British  East  Africa  Company,  20-21. 

Conferences,  159. 

Institute  courses  of  instruction,  138-9. 
Samples  sent  to,  188. 
Value  to  colonies,  188,  506. 


Preference,  61,  55,  275-9. 
Accepted  policy,  268,  278. 
Meaning  of,  to  natives,  55. 
Other  than  tariffs,  272,  278. 
To  Mandates,  55. 
Import  duties,  264-7. 

Differential,  513. 

Incidence    of,    258-9,    267-8.      (.See 
Imperial  Preference.) 
Imports  of  British  tropics,  45. 
Imprisonment,    658-60.      {See   Punish- 
ment. ) 
Improvements,   297,    316,    334,    339-40. 

{See  Land.) 
im  Thuru  (Sir  E.) :  Labour  in  Fiji,  418. 
Income  or  profits,  tax  on,  261,  &o.     {See 

Tax.) 
Indentured  labour — 

Classes  of,  415. 

For  Kenya,  398,  416. 

Nature  of  repatriation  contracts,  417, 
424. 
Independent  native  rule — 

Limitations  to,  205-7. 

In  Malaya,  130-1. 

In  Egba,  35,  196-7. 
India — Indian — 

Agriculture,  504,  516,  518. 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45-6,  331 
515. 

Civil  Service,  132,  137-8. 

Company,  27-8. 

Cottage  industries,  446, 

Cotton,"  271,  513. 

Council  of,  171-2. 

Economic  policy,  509-11. 

Economic  Reports,  530. 

Education,  426-8,  437. 

Example  for  Africa,  46-7. 

Industrialism,  47,  508-10. 

Industrial  report,  448,  509. 

Interchange  of  officers,  187-8. 

Labour,  4U5. 

Land  law,  284,  299,  344. 

Married  life,  142. 

Native  rulers    and   new  scheme,   46, 
195-6,  226. 

New  province,  126,  567. 

Ordering  of  stores,  497. 

Pleaders  in  courts,  567-8. 

Produce  inspection,  488. 

Progressives,  81,  84. 

Protected  states,  33. 

Railways,  99,  463-4. 

Salt,  266. 

Slavery,  368. 

Taxation,  245-6,  257. 

Traders,  32u,  482. 

Unrest,  117,  321,  426-8. 

Village  panchayet,  202,  248. 
India  Office — 

Control  in  Somaliland,  30. 

Relations    with    Indian    Government, 
163. 


INDEX. 


631 


Indians — 

la  E.  Africa,  42,  318-23. 

In  Zanzibar,  403. 
Individual — 

Initiative,  211,  228,  315,  388  et  passim. 

Land  ownership,  285,  306,  316,  327. 
Industrialism — 

Evolution  of,  43,  509. 

Not  opposed   to   British  trade,    512, 
515. 

Of  Europe,  3,  614. 
Industries — 

Native,  73,  445-6,  517. 

Suggested  new  local,  512-14. 
Infant — 

Mortality,  66,  151,  153. 

Weaning  of,  66. 
Infanticide  (twins),  75. 
Ingram  (Dr  J.  K.)  on  slavery,  354-5. 
Inspectors — 

Of  protectorates,  169-70. 

Of  schools,  435,  441,  452. 
International — 

Control  in  Africa,  56,  608. 

Court,  53. 
Interpenetration  scheme  for  labour,  325-6. 

(iSi««  Reserves.) 
Ireland  (AUeyne) — 

Elected  majorities,  115. 

Javanese  land  law,  346. 

Selection  of  staff  by  Dutch,  140. 

Tour  in  East,  499. 
Irrigation — 

Absence  of,  in  Africa,  295,  518-20. 

For  cotton,  523-4. 

French  scheme  on  Niger,  519. 
Islam  {see  Mahomedanism). 
Islington  (Lord) — 

Federation,  E.  Africa,  182. 

Labour  in  Kenya,  394. 
Ivory,  export  of,  534. 

Jackson  (Sir  F.) :  Land  in  Uganda,  330. 
Jamaica — 

Government  action  re  industries,  499. 

Misuse  official  majority,  115. 
Japan — 

Absorbs  Indian  cotton,  272. 

Population,  66. 

Trade  of,  46. 

Trade  with  United  Kingdom,  515. 
Java — 

Labour,  418. 

Land  law,  346. 
Johnston  (Sir  H.  H.)— 

Land  settlement,  Uganda,  330. 

Do.  in  Nyasaland,  330. 

Re  Grown  agents,  181,  494. 
Jordan  (Sir  J.),  177. 
Journalism  (native),  80.     {See  Press.) 
Judges — 

Salaried  native,   233.      {See    Supreme 
Court.) 

Vacation  of,  106,  566. 


Judicial — 

Council  of  chiefs,  202. 

Merger  with  executive,  539. 

Powers  of  district  ofiicer,  542-3. 

Ultimate  sanction  of  powers,  579. 

Work  of  district  officers,  134,  639. 
Jute — 

Cultivation  of,  531. 

Differential  duty,  269,  271. 

Kalahari — 

Desiccation  of,  520. 

Reclamation  of,  519. 
Kano — 

Dungeon,  199. 

Industrial  school,  447. 

Trade  of,  480-1,  609. 

Water-supply,  208,  519. 
Karongas   fighting   against   slavers,   30, 

359. 
Kasson  (J.  A.):  U.S.A.  views  at  Berlin 

Conference,  11. 
Keable  (Rev.  R. ) :  Intolerance  of  native 

priests,  81. 
Keith  (Professors.)— 

Berlin  Act,  48. 

Evolution,  land  tenure,  281,  285. 

Indians  in  Kenya,  319. 

International  control,  66. 

Ownership,  minerals,  348. 

Terms  of  British  recognition  of  transfer 
of  Congo,  273. 
Keltie  (Sir  J. ) :   Colonisation  in  Sierra 

Leone,  40. 
Kenya — 

Area,  population,  and  trade  of  colony, 
45,  610-11. 
Of  highlands,  317,  324. 

British  settlers,  321,  323,  393-4,  397-8. 

Economic  Commission  (see  Economic). 

Education,  458. 

Indians  in,  318-23. 

Labour,  323,  391-8,  405,  416. 

Land  tenure,  328-9. 

Legislative    and    executive    councils, 
114,  121. 

Minerals,  347. 

Native  administration,  205,  216. 

Native  diseases,  153. 

Railways,  470. 

Reserves,  323-6. 

Status  of,  37. 

Taxes,  257,  262. 
Kew  gardens,  188. 
Khama,  205. 

Re  cash  trade,  251. 
Kidd  (Dr  B.)— 

Africa  not  ripe  for  independence,  198. 

Cannot  be  developed  by  natives,  507. 

French  aims,  40. 

No  recognised  policy  in  tropics,  6,  506. 

Re  chartered  companies,  23. 

Test  of  racial  superiority,  76. 

Value  of  tropics,  44. 


632 


mDEX. 


Kimberley  (E&rl  of)— 

Natire  languages,  465. 

Residents  in  Malaya,  130. 
Kingsley  (Miss  M.) — 

Colonial  Office  opposed  expansion,  13. 

Hut  tax,  252. 

Merchants  should  legislate,  116, 176. 

Punitive  expeditions,  577-8. 
Kirk  (Sir  John)— 

Chartered  Company's  claims,  21. 

Niger  Company's  monopoly,  20. 

Plenipotentiary,    Brussels,     20,     177, 
357-8. 

Share  in  Brussels  Act,  361. 

Slavery  in  Zanzibar,  debates,  &o.,  357, 
369-70. 

Suggests  abolition  legal  status,  368. 

Labour — 
African  as  worker,  235,  401-5. 

As  vfage-earner,  296,  401-5. 
British  policy,  391. 
Compulsion  when  justified,  410-11, 420- 

21. 
Conditions  for,  405-8. 
Contracts,  407,  422. 
Contrast    E.    and   W.   Africa,   396-7, 

399. 
Duties  of  District  Officer  re,  134,  415. 
Educative    for    advancement,    234-5, 

410-11,  417-19,  421. 
Free  labour  and  slavery,  390. 
Incentive  of  ownership,  295,  507. 
Indentured,  398,  415,  424.    (See  Inden- 
ture. ) 
In  Kenya,  42,  325,  391-9. 
Lord  Milner's  proposals,  391-3,  395-6. 
Methods  employed,  234-5,  412-14,  420- 

21. 
Policy  in  S.  Africa,  393. 
Saving  of,  314,  516-23. 
Skilled,  404,  421,  448-50. 
Substitution  for  tax,  251,  411. 
Transfer  from  a  distance,  396-6,  414-5. 
Unpaid  labour,  408-9. 
Wage  rate  (see  Wages). 
Wasted  as  carriers,  422-3. 
Labour  Party — 

African  policy,  166,  608. 
Anti-Empire  propaganda,  608,  616-17. 
Approves  tribal  forced  labour,  408. 
Condemns  Kenya  policy,  394. 
Views  re  Mandates,  58. 
Labourer  (British) :  Standard  of  life,  3, 

43,  614-15. 
Lagos  (Nigeria) — 
Acquisition  of,  357. 
Town  Council,  87. 
Water-rate  riots,  85,  283. 
Lamb  (P.  H.) :  Use  of  plough,  &c.,  517. 
Landlord — 
Absentee,  241-2,  296,  507-8. 
Government  as,   of  aliens,   206,   297, 

300,  311. 


Lands — 
Absence  of  tenure,  287. 
Acquisition  by  Government,  206,  .297, 

300-1,  311,  342. 
Alien  owners,  295-6,  419,  507. 
Committee  of  1912-15,  282. 
Compensation,  297,  301,  316. 
Crown  lands,  290-1,  316. 
Disposal  of,  by  chartered  companies, 

20,  24-26,  292. 
Disposal  of  rents,  309-10. 
"Economic  rents,"  237,  290,  293,  302. 
Evolution  of  tenure,  73,  280-1. 
Executive  to  deal  with,  308-9,  541. 
Grants  of,  333,  &c.   (See  Leases,  Bents, 

Premiums,  &c.) 
Individual  ownership,  281,  286-6,  295, 

305-6,  327. 
Influence     of    English    ideas,    285-6, 

304-6. 
In  relation  to  population,  331-2. 
Land  rents,  246,  289-91,  299-300. 
Meaning  of  terms,  316-7. 
Moslem  law,  288. 
N.     Nigeria    Committee,    239,    287, 

290-4. 
Peasant  occupiers,  294-5,  325-6,  391, 

419. 
Policy  in  Kenya,  317,  328-9. 

Rhodesia,  343-4. 

Uganda  and  Nyasaland,  329-30. 
Policy  in  other  countries   (see  India, 

Burma,  &c. ). 
Practice  in  Nigeria,  206,  289,  293-4. 
Registration,  306-8,  313,  343. 
Eights  of  conquest,  281,  287-90,  292, 

300. 
"Strangers,"  305,  312-14. 
Tenure   in   West   Africa,   283-7,   305, 

312. 
Transfers,  206,  296-7,  305-9. 
Waste  lands,  283-5,  293. 
Languages,  native — 
Diversity,  75. 
Study  of,  133. 
Laurier  (Right  Hon.   W.):    Ministerial 

responsibility,  178. 
Lavigerie  (Cardinal) — 
Crusade  v.  slavery,  359. 
Temporal  power  Uganda,  587. 
Law  (Right  Hon.  A.  Bonar) — 
Mandates,  51. 
On  committees,  122,  171. 
Palm-kernel  committee,  268. 
Lawrence   (Sir  H.):    Work   of  district 

officer,  134. 
Laws  (Dr),  430,  587. 

Tribal  slavery,  Nyasaland,  363. 
Laws  (see  Ordinances)— 
Defiance  of,  579. 
How  enacted,  115,  118. 
In  British  Africa,  536-7. 
Native  customary  (see  Native). 
Translation  of,  557. 


mDBX. 


633 


Leases — 

By  natives  to  aliens,  307-10,  333. 

General  conditions,  333. 

Grazing,  335-6,  533-4. 

Mining,  336,  350-2. 

Residential     and     agricultural,     314, 
334-5. 

To  natives,  316. 

Types  of,  298. 
Lebon  (Mons. ) — 

British  methods  of  education,  89. 

British  treatment  of  labour,  418. 

Progress  to  be  on  racial  lines,  82. 
Leeds  University :  Assistance  in  research, 

502. 
Legal  practitioners — 

Exclusion  of,  in  courts,  309,  544-5. 

In  India,  567-8. 

In  Ashanti,  645. 
Leggett  (Sir  H.):  Purchase  of  cotton, 

524. 
Legislation — 

Function  of  Suzerain,  206. 

In  grouped  colonies,  99,  180. 

Method  of,  115,  537. 
Legislative  Councils — 

Constitution,  procedure,  and  powers, 
114,  119,  637-8. 

Not  representative  of  opinion,  122. 

Relation  to  protectorates,  38,  537. 

Unofficial   representation  on,   114-19, 
262. 
Lepers,  settlements  for,  164,  618. 
Leprosy,  treatment  of,  92,  154. 
Leverhulme  (Lord) — 

Machinery  v.  labour,  517. 

Number  of  shareholders,  615. 

Obligation  to  develop  Africa,  486. 
Liberia — 

Conditions  of  Government,  86. 

Distilleries,  604. 

Trade  of,  46. 
Licences,  255. 

Canoes,  254-5. 

Prospecting,  351. 

Timber,  314. 
Liquor    (see    French,    German,    Dutch, 
Distilleries,  &c.) — 

Attitude  of  Moslems  to,  78,  696,  603-4. 

Consumption  by  Europeans,  161,  603. 

Definition,  trade  spirits,  601-2. 

Effects  of,  235,  600-1. 

German  profit  from,  490,  601. 

Native  fermented,  603-4. 

Niger  Company's  action,  19. 

Present  policy,  602-4. 

Revenue  from,  236,  266,  598. 

Safeguards,  406. 

Traffic  in  W.  Africa,  697. 

Treaties  re,  49-60,  597-9. 
Liverpool  merchants  {see  Merchants) — 

Conference  with  French,  499. 

Favour  amalgamation,  98. 

Favour  West  African  Council,  174. 


Nature  of  African  trade,  494. 

Oppose  liquor  trade,  699,  602. 

Oppose  Niger  Company,  19. 

Retain  control  at  home,  115-6,   142, 
493,  613-4. 

Support     continuous     administration 
scheme,  108. 

Views  re  land  leases,  341-2. 
Re  Mandates,  52. 
Me  Nigerian  Council,  123. 
Live-stock,   improvement  of,  632.    (5ee 

Ranching. ) 
Livingstone — 

As  Consul,  29. 

Discoveries  of,  2. 
Lloyd  George  (Right  Hon.  D.)— 

Uganda  railway,  462-3. 
Loans — 

Ability  to  raise,  274. 

Imperial  grants  and  guarantees,  277, 
499-600. 

Issue  by  Crown  agents,  497. 

Need  of,  141,  144,  462. 

Not  allowed  to  a  protectorate,  37,  99. 
Locke  :  Education  of  children,  82. 
Long  (Lord)  consults  colonies,  190. 
Low  (Sir  H. ) :  Rule  through  chiefs,  200. 
Lucas  (Sir  C.) — 

Control  of  Europeans,  92. 

Empire  and  democracy,  608-9. 

England's  example,  618. 

Unrest  means  progress,  426. 
Lugard  (Lady) — 

Advent  of  Islam,  76. 

History  of  Songhay,  66. 

"Interlopers,"  27. 

Progress  in  N.  Nigeria,  252. 

Rules  for  health,  152. 

The    tropics    in   twentieth   century, 
191. 
Lyautey  (General) :  Rule  through  chiefs, 

228. 
Lyttelton  (Right  Hon.  Alfred)— 

Adopts     continuous      administration 
scheme,  107. 

Touch  with  Governors,  186. 

Verdict  re  Crown  agents,  495. 

Macdonnell  (Lord) — 

British  staff  of  schools,  434. 

Disruptive  effects  of  education,  426. 

Grants  for  tone  of  schools,  435. 
Macgregor  (Sir  W. ) — 

Crown  agents,  494. 

Native  tribute,  232. 

Views  re  educated  natives,  428, 
Mackinnon  (SirW.):  East  African  char- 
ter, 14,  20. 
Magistrates — 

Police,  666. 

Station,  129,  566,  673. 
Mahdi— 

Recrudescence,  210,  565. 

Rule  of,  361. 


634 


INDEX. 


Mahomedanism,  Mahomedan — 

Attitude  to  anti-slavery  policy,  357, 
365. 

Attitude  to,  of  British,  210,  220,  445, 
593-4. 

Attitude  to,  of  Germans,  210. 

Attitude  to  education,  449-50. 

Attitude  to  liquor,  395,  603-4. 

Attitude  to  witchcraft,  663. 

Bid  for  empire  in  Africa,  357,  362,  687. 

Creditable  standards,  595. 

Dangers  of,  77,  210. 

Effect  in  Africa,  76-8,  365. 

Law  of  succession,  213. 
Of  land,  288. 
Of  slavery,  364,  377. 

Missions  to,  224,  591-4. 

Social  organisation,  77,  204. 

System  of  taxation,  232,  237,  240. 
Maine  (Sir  H.)— 

Origin,  land  tenure,  281. 

Waste  lands,  284. 
Maize,   inspection   and  export  of,   488, 

531. 
Malaya  {see  also  Swettenham) — 

Alien  labour,  415,  4i7. 

Debt-slavery,  385. 

Decadence  of  Malays,  417-18. 

Land  law,  345. 

Land  rents  in  Penang,  338. 

Minerals,  347. 

Eailways,  467-9. 

"ResideAts,"  129-31. 

Taxation  of  Europeans,  260. 

Tin,  270. 

Unaided  schools,  439. 
Mance  (Col.  H.  0.) :  Value,  native  cloth, 

446. 
Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce- 
Export  duties,  264. 

Liquor  traffic,  599. 

Segregation,  149. 
Mandates — 

Duties  under,  17-18. 

French  views  of,  52. 

Review  of,  and  suggestions,  50-57,  92. 

Supersede  treaty-making,  17-18. 

The  dual  mandate,  617-18. 

To  Congo  State,  51. 
"  Man  on  the  spot,"  110,  163,  181,  607. 
Manufactures,    encouragement    of,    314. 

{See  Industries.) 
Markets — 

Dues,  255. 

Eor  cotton,  270-2. 

Restriction  of,  269-70. 
Marshall  (Sir  J.) :  Slavery  on  Niger,  366. 
Martiueau  (Miss) — 

Flogging  in  England,  660. 

New  Under-Secretary  in  1825,  185. 

Standard  of  comfort,  615. 
Masai — 

Absence  of  land  tenure,  286-7. 

Age-classes,  220. 


Origin  of,  67. 

Reduced  by  disease,  &c.,  324. 

Reserves,  324,  328. 
Material  progress  {see  Economic). 
Maugham  (R.  C.) :  Tribal  discipline,  433. 
M'Clure  (S.  S.) :  Racial  antipathies,  320. 
M'Connell  (J.)  on  cotton,  523. 
M'Dermott  (P.)— 

LB.E.A.,  2L 

Uganda,  687. 
Meath  (Earl  of):   Duty  and  discipline, 

436. 
Mechanical  appliances,  517-18. 
Medical  staif — 

Deficiency  of,  141,  153. 

Efficiency  of,  144, 151-4. 

Need  of  research,  151, 

Passing  of  candidates,  142. 

Private  practice,  152. 

Training  of  natives,  450. 

Treatment  of  natives,  93,  152-4. 

Triumphs  of  science,  40,  152-4. 
Melville- Jones  (Bishop  P.)— 

Deficiency,  Mission  staff,  690. 

Schools  at  Oyo,  430. 
Merchants  {see  Liverpool,  Manchester) — 

Conferences  at  Colonial  Office,  176. 

Functions  and  value  of,  263-4,  477-9. 

Prefer  import  to  export  duties,  263. 

Principals  non-resident  in  Africa,  115- 
16,  142,  493,  513. 

Relations  with  native  traders,  482. 

Relations  with  producers,  268-9,  477-9. 

Representation  on  Legislative  Council, 
116,  262. 

Research  work,  601. 

Seats  on  African  Council,  176,  184. 

Specialisation  by,  508. 

Taxation  of,  268-9,  337-8. 
MStayage,  245. 
Middleman,  480. 
Migeod  (P.  W.)— 

Separation,  judicial  and  executive,  in 
Congo,  540. 

Taxation,  French  and  Belgian  Congo, 
257. 
Military — 

Causes  of  disaffection  of,  577. 

Contribution  in  Eastern  colonies,  275. 
{See  Defence.) 

Co-operation  with  civil  administration, 
576. 

Officers,  character  of,  132,  677-8. 

Operations,  how  conducted,  582-4. 

Suggestions  regarding,  575-7. 
Mill  (J.   S. ) :    Relations  of  Home   and 

Indian  Government,  163. 
Miller  (R.) :  Quality  of  produce,  487. 
Milner  (Lord)— 

Development,  498,  520. 

Justifies  official  maiority,  119. 

Labour,  235,  391-3." 

Progressive  policy  of,  178,  190. 

JRe  Mandates,  51-2. 


INDEX. 


635 


Milner  (Lord)  {contd.)— 

Eeseaxoh,  501-2. 

Rhodesia,  24. 

Rule  through  chiefs,  194,  227 

Segregation,  149. 

Trustee  must  promote  self-help,  88. 

West    Africa    not    ripe    for    elected 
councils,  116. 
Minerals  {see  Royalties,  Mining,  feel- 
Development  of,  521. 

Functions  of  Government  re,  349-51. 

Leases,  &c.  {see  Mining). 

Niger  Company's  share  of,  24-6,  349. 

Non-renewable  assets,  259,  349. 

Ownership  of,  347-60. 

iniug  {see  Royalties,  Leases,  Coal)— 

Development  of,  419,  521. 

Labour  for,  402,  419,  422. 

1-aw  and  department  of,  351. 

Leases,  rights,  licences,  329,  335,  349- 

Profi'ts  from,  259-60,  360. 

Surface  rents,  338. 
Missionaries,  life  of,  689. 
Missions  {see  Christianity) — 

Acquisition  of  land,  342-3. 

As  pioneers,  10,  586. 

Attitude  to  politics,  587-8. 

Co-operation  with,  430,  439-40. 

Criticise  labour  policy,  Kenya,  393. 

Education,  429-30,  438,  441,  458. 

Government    responsibility   for,    590, 
613. 

Inadequate  staff,  78,  590. 

Receive  freed  slaves,  385. 

Results  of,  204-5,  429-30,  443,  586,  589. 

Spheres  of  rivalry,  445,  688,  596. 

To  Moslems,  691-5. 

To  pagans,  590. 
Model  farms,  503-4.     {See  Agriculture.) 
Molesworth  (Sir  G.) :  Railway  construc- 
tion, 464. 
Monopoly — 

Adverse  to  native  interests,  54,  269, 
479. 

Arguments  for,  479-80. 

By  E.R.D.C.,  273,  480. 

By  the  State,  276,  480,  485. 

Charters   and   mandates   should    pre- 
clude, 26,  54. 

Elizahethan,  27-8. 

Hard  to  maintain,  479-80. 

Niger  Company's,  19-20,  479-80. 

Opposed  to  British  policy,  615. 

Opposed  to  progress,  259,  479. 

Varieties  of,  479. 
Monson  (Consul  W.  J. ) — 

Labour  in  Zanzibar,  403,  399,  414. 

Slavery  in  East  Africa,  363-4,  369,  390, 
414. 
Moral — 

Instruction  in  schools,  432,  435-6. 

Obligations,  68. 

Right  to  intervene  n  Africa,  17-18. 


Morel  (E.  D.)— 

Crown  agents,  494. 

French  colonial  system,  184. 

House-rule,  373. 

Native  policy,  Nigeria,  228. 
Morison(Sii-T.)— 

African  bureau,  6. 

Amalgamation,  East  Africa,  182. 

"  Economic  rent,"  290, 

Indian  land  law,  344, 
Morley  (Lord) — 

India  Council,  172, 

Indian  reforms,  116, 

Lieut,-Govemor's  Council,  128, 

Railways,  463,  469, 

Tendency  to  centralisation,  96, 
Mosquito,  146,  147-50, 153, 
Moton  (Dr  R.  R.)— 

Example  of,  82-3,  85, 

Negro  education,  442. 
Municipal,     Municipality    {see     Town- 
ship)— 

Classes  of,  and  powers,  672-3, 

Must  be  financially  independent,  86, 

Outside  jurisdiction  of  native  courts, 
207,  574, 

Scope  for  educated  native  in,  85,  570-1, 

Selection  of  councillors,  571. 
Music,  attraction  of,   for  Africans,   69, 
78. 

Natal- 
Indians  in,  321,  417. 
Produce  inspection,  488. 
Natalite,  474. 
National — 
Character  moulded  by  responsibility, 

58. 
"  Conference  "  {see  Conference). 
Native     administration    (chapters     x., 
xi.)— 
Abolishes  forced  labour,  408-9. 
Alien  rulers,  209-10, 
Appointment  and  education  of  rulers, 

210-11,  213,215,220,  426, 
Appreciation  by  Yola,  220, 
Assess  and  collect  tax,  207,    {See  Tax, ) 
Criticisms  of  system,  203-5, 
Description  of,  200-5. 
"Direct  rule,"  214-15,  219,  226. 
Disintegration  of  tribal  authority,  215- 

17,  418,  460, 
Financial  control,  131,  208-9,  244, 
In  "advanced  communities,"  154,  200- 

6,  212-13. 
Interest    in  education  and   technical 
progress,   211,   221,   444,   504,   521, 
527-8,  618, 
Limitations  to  independence,  205-7, 
Methods  of,  104,  194-6,  214-15, 
Primitive  communiti(;s,  214-19. 
Prisons,  222  q.v. 

Progress  in  Northern  Nigeria,  201-3, 
208,  249. 


636 


INDEX. 


Native  administration  {contd.) — 

Police,  203,  205  q.v. 

Powers  of  chiefs,  206,  215,  284,  301. 

Relation  of  British  staff  to,  128,  225-6. 

Relation  to  native  courts,  202,  548-9. 

Revenues  of,  207-8,  230,  253. 

Rule  through  chiefs,  86,  94,  141,  204, 
227-9, 

Salaries,  219,  231,  243-4. 

System  in  Kenya,  205,  216. 
In  India,  Egypt,  and  French  West 
Africa,  226-8. 
Natives — native — 

Aliens  under  Suzerain  only,  207. 

As  peasant  occupiers,  153,  419.     (See 
Land.) 

Control  of,  41. 

Description  of,  66-73,   &c.     {See  also 
Educated  native. ) 

Industries,  73,  445-6. 

In  Government  service,  87. 

Law  and  custom,  39,  202,   206,  301, 
312,  544,  549-50,  556,  558,  563. 

Medical  treatment  of,  153-4. 

Must  be  the  producers  in  tropics,  397 
507. 

Reciprocity  for  benefits,  60,  274-6. 

Representation  of  people,  118. 

Reserves  {see  Reserves). 

Responsibilities  regarding,  57-8,  224. 

Restriction  of  marliets,  54,  61,  269-73. 

Rights,  270-1,  342,  486. 

Status  of,  39. 

Under  charters,  19,  21. 
Nauru  Island,  mandate  for,  55. 
Navy,      contribution     to,     275.       {See 

Defence.) 
Negroes     and     Negroids     {see     Africa 
and  Natives) — 

Aboriginals  driven  to  swamps,  &c.,  74. 

Description  of,  68-71. 

Despotisms,  69,  75-6. 
Neville  (G.):  Barter-trade,  490. 
Niger  Company  (Royal) — 

Annual  leave,  106. 

Charter,  14,  19. 

Half  royalties,  24,  349-50. 

Monopoly  by,  19,  479. 
Niger  river — 

Irrigation,  519. 

Navigation,  19,  519. 
Nigeria.     Not  indexed  in  full.     {Vide 
passim) — 

Accepts  palm-kernel  ordinance,  270. 

Amalgamation,  100-2. 

Area,   population,  and  trade,  45,  66, 
100,  154,  332,  610. 

Committees  on  lands  {see  Lands). 

Cost  of,  609. 

Cotton-growing,  624. 

Council,  122-4. 

Early  conditions,  131, 140, 143-4, 198-9, 
224-5,  618. 

Education,  431,  452,  454. 


Fulani  rule,  232,  261. 

Labour,  402,  405,  421. 

Lands,  284-6,  289. 

Minerals,  347-9. 

Native  administration,  221-3,  &c. 

(Northern)  British  rule  established  in, 
129. 

Railways,  463,  468-9. 

Slavery,  368,  376. 

Taxation,  236-7,  248,  253. 
Nile- 
Course  of,  65,  619. 

Sources  in  Uganda  retained,  20-1. 
Nomads,  73-4,  238,  532-3. 

Absence  of  land  tenure,  287. 

Relations  to  settled  tribes,  287. 
Non-native  {see  European). 
Nurses,  144,  151. 

Training  of,  457. 
Nyasa,  lake,  65. 
Nyasaland — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 

Acquisition  of,  360. 

Cotton,  525. 

Early  conditions,  29-30. 

Education,  429,  458. 

Labour,  394,  403,  405,  414,  422. 

Land,  330. 

Legislative  Council,  38. 

Minerals,  348. 

Missions,  587. 

Non-native  settlement,  317,  323. 

Outrage  on  Consul,  29-30,  357. 

Railways,  501. 

Slavery,  29,  359,  587. 

Tax,  256. 

Treaties,  15. 

Official  vote,  119. 

Ofori  Atta,  Gold  Coast  chief :   Claims  of 
the  "  National  Conference."  85,  195, 
429. 
Oil-palm  {see  Palm). 
Oils- 
Concessions  for  mills,  485. 
Mineral  oils,  353. 
Preparation  of,  487,  511,  521-2. 
Value  and  use  of,  43. 
Olivier  (Sir  S. )  {see  Aborigines'  Protec- 
tion)— 
European  settlements,  Africa,  41. 
Forced  labour,  when  justified,  411. 
Native  land  titles,  293. 
Native  rights,  393. 
Rights  of  Suzerain,  34. 
Omdehs  (village  heads)  in  Sudan,  202. 
O'Neill   (Consul    H.    E.):     Slave-trade, 

358. 
Onslow  (Earl  of)    as   Under-Secretary, 

163. 
"Open  door."    {See  Free- trade  and  Im- 
perial preference. ) 
Ordinances,  38. 
How  enacted,  118,  637. 


INDEX. 


637 


Orr  (Major  C.  J.)— 

Conditions  in  N.  Nigeria   144. 

Labour,  404. 

Policy  in  Nigeria,  228. 
Osborne  (W.,  Chief  Justice,  S.  Nigeria)— 

Disabilities  of  Supreme  Court,  540. 

Merger  executive    and  judicial  func- 
tions, 539. 

Practitioners  in  provincial  courts,  544-5. 
Ostrich-farming,  532. 
Oxen — 

In  agriculture,  401,  516. 

In  transport,  474-5. 

Pagans — 

Description   of,    681.      (See  Primitive 
tribes.) 

"  HiU-top,"  74,  222,  581. 
Palm  products — 

Concessions  for,  314. 

Kernels    Committee    and    ordinance, 
268-70. 

Preparation  of,  43,  487,  511,  522, 

Wine,  522,  603. 
Palmer  (H.  R.,  Resident,  Nigeria),  222. 
Paper,  manufacture  of,  513. 
Paris  resolutions  (see  Economic). 
Pastoral  tribes  (see  Nomads). 
Pawning  of  persons  ("debt-slavery") — 

In  Africa,  384. 

In  Malaya,  385. 
Pearson  (Dr  C.  H.):  Expansion  unavoid- 
able, 10. 
Pease  (J.   A,,  Lord  Gainford):    Slavery 

debates,  1895,  369. 
Ped-rail,  473. 
Permanent  ofBcials  (see  Colonial  Office) — 

Ability  and  high  standards,  164. 

Oppose      continuous      administration 
scheme,  107-9. 

Preserve  continuity,  110. 

Relations,  local  governments,  158-63. 
Personation,  135,  252,  566. 
Peters  (DrK.)— 

Expedition  to  Uganda,  20. 

Forced  labour  scheme,  356. 
Philippines  (see  Elliott,  C,  B.)— 

Lands,  346. 

Minerals,  348. 

Policy  in,  61. 
Pioneers — 

Government  as,  in  Indian  industries, 
499. 

Task  of,  607-8. 
Ploughs,  use  of,  in  Africa,  517. 
Police — 

Government,  205-6,  576. 

Native,  203,  205. 
Policy — 

Continuity  of,  103-4.  (See  Continuity. ) 

Need  for  a  definite,  6,  7,  99,  506. 

Of  British  in  Africa,  5,  116,  194,  509, 
616-19. 

Of  Mandatories,  57-8.     (&e  Trustee.) 


Political  oflScers  (see  Resident,   District 

Officer) :  Memoranda,  104. 
Population — 
Causes  of  restriction  of,  in  Africa,  66-7, 

589. 
Increase  of,  in  Europe,  3,  614. 
Of  British  African  tropics,  45-6,   80, 
331-2.  '       ' 

Of  French  W.  Africa,  46. 
Of     Germany,     France,     and    others 
(density),  66. 
Polygamy,  67,  77,  588. 
Portugal — 
African  colonisation  by,  40,  60 
Distilleries,  604. 
Land  decrees,  346. 
Slavery,  356-7,  368. 
Prain    (Sir    D.)  re    Gold    Coast   cocoa, 

400. 
Preferential    duties    (see    Imperial    pre- 
ference. Free-trade) — 
By  Crown  agents'  system,  495. 
On  kernels  and  jute,  267-70. 
Voluntary  by  natives,  272-4. 
Premium,  269,  337. 
Press  (native),  80,  428,  439. 
Price — 
Conditions  governing,  in  Africa,  261, 

298,  478-80. 
Not  to  be  fixed  for  tax,  246. 
Should  vary  with  quality,  488. 
Primitive   tribes,    characteristics,    73-5, 

91,  221,  581. 
Prisons — 
Former  conditions  of,  199. 
Labour,  423,  559. 

Present  conditions,  222,  560,  662,  565, 
618. 
Private — 
Enterprise,  495,  499-500. 
Plantations,  ranches,  &c.,    504.     (See 

European.) 
Practice,  medical,  152.    (See  Medical.) 
Practitioners,  legal,  309,  544-5,  567-8. 
Privy  Council  appeals,  538. 
Produce  for  export — 
Adulteration,  488. 
Conditions  re  quality  and    quantity, 

477-8. 
Improvement  of,  510-11,  621-26. 
Inspection,  487-9. 
Preparation  of,  487,  510-11. 
Specialisation  in,  508. 
Producer  gas,  474. 
Profit-sharing,  420,  525. 
Profits- 
Contrast  merchant  and  miner,  258-60. 
Nature  and  definition  of,  238-9.     (See 

Tax.) 
Of  African  trade  shared  by  the  public, 
615. 
Protectorates — 
Definition,  35-37. 
Jurisdiction  in,  33-34. 


638 


INDEX. 


Protectorates  (contd.) — 

Status  of  natives  of,  36,  40. 

Suggested  abolition  of,  38,  118. 

Types  of,  33-35. 
Province,  description  of,  128, 131,  200. 
Pruen  (Dr  S.  T.) :  Number  of  slaves  ex- 
ported, 355. 
Punisbments — 

By  native  despots,  69,  199,  558. 

Capital  sentences,  561-2. 

Pines,  661. 

Flogging,  560-1. 

Imprisonment,  558-60. 

Of  women,  562. 
Punitive  expeditions,  135,  577-81.     (See 
Force.) 

Racial  equality,  86-87.     (<Siee  Colour. ) 

Test  of  superiority,  76. 

Types,  67-68. 
Railway — 

Acquisition  of  land  for,  311. 

Benefit  of,  462-3,  472,  501. 

Cape  to  Cairo,  464. 

Cost  of,  472,  467. 

Dahomey,  466. 

Disposal  of  revenue  of,  470. 

Freights,  611,  601. 

In  India,  99,  463-4,  469. 

Malayan,  467-9. 

Methods  of  construction,  464-9. 

Narrow-gauge  lines,  471-2. 

Nigerian,  644. 

Objectives  of,  463-4. 

Policy,  99,  464. 

Reciprocity  with  French,  279,  464. 

Standardisation  of  material,  470-1. 

State  ownership  of,  469. 

Suakim,  466. 

Uganda,  462-3. 

Workshops,  site  of,  470. 
Rainfall,  65,  298-9,  528. 
Ranching,  335,  532-3. 
Ransom  and  self-redemption  of  slaves — 

By  native  courts,  371-2. 

Method  of,  383-4. 
Reciprocity — 

By  foreigners  (see  Free  Trade). 

By  natives,  62. 
Recreation,  need  of,  145. 
Rees  (Sir  J.  D.):  Collective  penalties  in 

India,  547. 
Regulations — 

Colonial,  not  a  contract,  120. 

How  enacted,  118,  537-8. 

Use  of,  637. 
Religion — 

Influence  of  alien  creeds,  76. 

Ministration  of,  596. 

Natural,  69-70. 

Teaching  of,  in  schools,  435-7,  460. 
Rents- 
Disposal  of,  by  chiefs,  310. 

Effect  on  trade,  259. 


How  fixed,  318. 

On  land  opposed  to  native  law,  291, 

289,  301. 
Revision  of,  293,  298,  336-7,  341. 
Representative — 
Government,  115. 

Institutions  not  adapted  to  Africa,  194, 
219-20. 
Research — 
Experimental,  503. 
Laboratory,  502-3. 
Object  of,  501-2,  605-6. 
Staff  for,  503. 
Reserve  troops,  575.     (See  Troops. ) 
Reserves  (forest)  (see  Forests). 
Reserves  (native),  234  (see  Interpeuetra- 
tion) — 
In  Kenya,  323-6. 
In  S.  Africa,  324,  326-8. 
Resident — 
Contrast  Malaya  and  Nigeria,  129-31. 
Duties  of,  128-9,  201. 
Judicial  powers  of,  539-44. 
Retaliation  (by  tariffs),  278-9. 
Revenue  (Colonial) — 
Belongs  wholly  to  the  colony,  54-6. 
Realisation  of,  462. 

Sources   of,    in   lands    and    minerals, 
348. 
Rhodes  (Right  Hon.  Cecil) — 
Dying  words,  606. 
Glen-Grey  Act,  234,  326-7. 
Mission  education,  430. 
Native   freeholds    and   reserves,    294, 

326-7. 
Native  progress,  85. 
Obtains  charter,  14,  22. 
Supports  scheme  suppression  of  slave- 
trade,  Nyasa,  360. 
Rhodesia — 
Northern- 
Advisory  Council,  121. 
Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 
Control  of  schools,  439. 
European  tax,  260-1. 
Future  of,  22-3. 
Labour,  405. 
Land,  343. 
Native  tax,  257. 
Southern — 
Land  case,  24,  262,  343-4. 
Native  problems,  65. 
Ranches,  533. 
Reserves,  328. 
Eift  Valley,  65. 
Roads — 
Comparative  cost,  472-3. 
Construction    of,     463,    475-6.       (See 

Transport.) 
Labour  for,  408-9. 
Nature  of,  473. 
Use  of,  475,  501. 
Romilly  (Sir  S.) :  Flogging^,  in  England, 
560. 


INDEX. 


639 


Roaebery    (Earl    of)   revokes    I.B.E.A. 

Charter,  21. 
Royalties — 

How  fixed,  260,  348,  352. 

Hypothecated  in  Nigeria,  349-50. 

Nature  of,  348.    [See  Mining. ) 
Rubber — 

French  inspection  of,  488. 

Preparation  of,  487,  529. 

Value  and  uses  of,  44. 
Ruxton  (Capt.  U.  F.  H.)— 

Maliki  land  law,  288. 

Slave  law,  377,  383. 
Ruxton  (Mrs)  on  cookery,  151. 

Salisbury  (late  Marquis  of)— 
Home  Government  does  not  help  pio- 
neers, 161. 
Indian  slave  law,  368 
Missionaries  must  be  avenged,  590. 
Recognises      "effective     occupation" 

theory,  13,  34. 
Supports  Anti-Liquor  Committee,  597. 
Tribute  to  pioneers,  612. 
Views  on  missions  to  Moslems,  591-2 
Salt- 
Price  of,  266. 
Sources  of  supply,  266. 
Tax  on,  264,  266. 
Sambon  (Dr  L.  W.)— 
Health  statistics,  W.  Africa,  151 . 
Larger  medical  staff  needed,  153. 
Sanataria,  need  of,  142,  1 44-6. 
Sanitation,  progress  by  native  adminis- 
tration, 154,  222. 
Sarraut  (Mons. )  re  Mandates,  52-3. 
Schools — 
Central  industrial,  446. 
Classes  of,  438,  443-4,  450-1. 
Control  of  "Venture,"  430,  438-9. 
Discipline  and  character-training,  430 

et  seq. 
Fees,  458. 
Gardens,  447. 

Grants  to  "aided,"  435,  439-41. 
Inspection  of,  435,  441,  452. 
Monitors,  434-5. 
Moslem,  438. 
Religious   and   moral   instruction    in, 

435-7. 
Residential,  433,  440,  444,  455. 
Staff  of,  433-4,  440,  451-3. 
Standards,  444,  461. 
Sports,  435. 

Syllabus  of,  441,  461-2,  456. 
Village,  444-6. 
Secretary  of  State  for  Colonies,  156. 
Anonymity  of,  109,  168. 
Autocracy  and  ministerial  responsibil- 
ity, 124,  168,  172» 
Delegation  of  powers  to  Colonial  Office 
officials,  168,  185. 
To  Governors,  178-9,  185. 
Touch  with  Governors,  111,  185. 


Secretary  (Under)  of  State  for  Colonies- 
Parliamentary,  156. 
Visits  Africa,  169. 
Permanent,  156-8,  166. 
Duplication  of,  165-8,  185. 
Personal  responsibility,  168. 
Touch  with  overseas  officials,  186. 
Secretary  (to  Colonial  Government)- 
As  Acting-Governor,  126-7. 
Political,   or   for  native   affairs,    118, 
187. 
Segregation,  148-50. 
In  S.  Africa,  327. 
Of  Indians  in  Kenya,  149,  322. 
Selborne  (Earl  ot)— 
Delay  in  Uganda  railway,  462. 
Reform  at  Colonial  Office,  165. 
Self-government — 
Demand  for,  53-4,  117,  184. 
Methods  of,  194-8. 
The  path  to,  86. 
Seychelles  :  Export  duties,  263. 
Sharpe  (Sir  A.l :  African  Council,  174. 
Shuwa  Arabs  (Nigeria),  287,  524. 
Sierra  Leone — 
Anti-Syrian  riots,  90. 
Area,  population,  and  trade,  45,  80. 
Education,  445,  453,  455,  458. 
European  colonisation,  40. 
Freed  slave  settlement,  80,  588. 
Hut  tax,  85,  256. 
Irrigation,  518. 
Land,  304,  313. 
Legislative  Council,  38. 
Native  courts,  543. 
Native  rule,  199. 
Secret  societies,  221. 
Slavery  {see  House-rule,  Concubinage) — 
Abolition  must  be  gradual,  367,  369, 

372,  374-5. 
Abolition  of  the  legal  status  of,  368-9, 

390. 
Apprenticeship     and     compensation, 

367,  372. 
Brussels  Act,  368,  360-1. 
Dealing  in  slaves,  384. 
Effect  of  tax,  231,  233. 
Efforts  in  Zanzibar,  357-8,  369-70. 
Emancipation  of  thought,  294-6,  388. 
In  Moslem  states,  367-8. 
Methods  of  abolition  of,  231,  367-9, 

373-5. 
Moral  results  of,  364-5,  355. 
Moslem  law  re,  365,  364,  369,  377,  383. 
Native  courts,  &c.,  371-2,  383-4. 
Nature  of,  362-5. 
Origin  of,  354. 

Prevalence  in  interior,  6,  366. 
Prohibited  in  a  colony,  37,  377. 
Ransom  and  self-redemption,  364,  372, 

376,  378,  383-4. 
Results  in  Nigeria,  376-7. 
Results  of  sudden  abolition,  367-9. 
Task  of  the  past  and  future,  388. 


640 


INDEX. 


Slavery  (contd. ) — 

Tribal,  363,  366. 

Women,  364,  377-80,  885. 
Sir  vfi^^-^ 

As  chiefs,  213,  387-8. 

Disposal  of  freed  adults,  385. 

Disposal  of  freed  children,  385-6. 

Domestic,  363-4,  373. 

Employment  of,  380-1. 

Freed  slave  homes,  386. 

Inheritance  of,  386-7. 

Predial,  363-4,  374. 
Slave-raiding — 

Description  of,  5,  356,  358-9,  361,  618. 

Gratitude  of  pagans  at  cessation  of, 
219. 
Slave  trade- 
In  children,  366,  384. 

In  Zanzibar,  357-60. 

Promoted  by  salt  trade,  266. 

Suppression  of,  4,  366-62,  613. 
Sleeping-sickness,  92,  152-3,  534. 
Smallpox,  92. 

Smart  (L.) :  Oil-palm  plantations,  486. 
Smith  (Adam) — 

Chartered  companies,  14,  J3,  27,  28. 

Defence  v.  opulence,  270. 

Desire  for  profits,  238,  479. 

Evolution  of  serfs,  354. 

Exploitation,  60. 

Pioneers  of  Empire,  23,  612. 
Smith  (Dr  G.  Elliot) :  Need  of  interest  in 

life,  209. 
Smuts  (Right  Hon.  General) — 

Education,  428. 

Indians  in  Kenya,  321. 

Mission  of  the  Empire,  94. 
Soap,  manufacture  of,  512, 
Societies — 

Philanthropic,  578. 

Secret,  76,  221. 
Soldiers — 

Africans  as,  574.    (See  Troops.) 

Slaves  as,  or  in  employ  of,  382. 
Solf  (Dr)— 

View  of  Nigerian  administration,  223. 

Viiits  W.  Africa,  50. 
Somaliland — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 

Export  tax,  263. 

Labour  capacity,  399,  404. 

Origin  of  people,  67. 

Status  of  people  and  country,  30,  34, 
36. 
South  Africa  (see  Rhodes,  Rhodesia) — 

Company  get  charter,  21,  23. 

Education,  428. 

Labour,  393,  405. 

Land,  24,  343-4. 

Native  reserves,  324, 

Native  tax,  257. , 
Sovereignty  in  Africa — 

Basis  of,  11,  12,  16. 

British  theory  of,  33-4. 


Speed  (Sir  E.  A.,  Chief- Justice,  Nigeria), 
Preface,  ix. 
Land  cases  in  courts,  307. 
Merger  of  judicial  and  executive,  539. 
Practitioners  in  court,  544-5. 
Re  educated  native,  81. 
Supreme  and  Provincial  Courts,  540, 
544. 
"Spheres  of  influence,"  12,  32. 

Evanescence  of,  13-4. 
Sports  [see  Recreation). 
Spirits  (see  Liquor). 
Staff— 
(British)— 
Adequacy  of,  140,  143,  215,  224-5, 

585. 
Classification,  95,  137-8. 
Duties,  95-6,  301,  308. 
Interchange  of,  186-7. 
Leave  conditions,  141. 
Selection  and  training  of,  138-9, 144, 

186. 
Wives,  141-2. 
(Native) — 
Agricultural,  504-5. 
State  (see  Government). 
Stobart  (Captain  S.  E.  M. ) :  Account  of 

Fumban,  75. 
Stock-breeding  (see  Ranching). 
Stoddard  (Dr  Lothrop) — 
Africa  not  fit  for  self-government,  82, 

198. 
American  negro,  82. 
Asiatic  colonisation,  321. 
Evils  of  miscegenation,  320. 
Hayti,  85. 

Increase,  population  in  Europe,  3. 
Straits  Settlements  (see  Malaya). 
"  Strangers,"  312-14.     (See  Land.) 
Sturge  :  Apprenticeship  of  slaves,  367. 
Sudan — 
Agency,  494. 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45,  66, 33'2. 
British  claim  to,  30,  38. 
Cotton,  420,  525. 
Customs,  263. 
Devastation  by  Mahdi,  356. 
Economic  Board,  492, 
Education,  437,  439,  444-5,  454,  458. 
Gordon  College,  433,  449,  455-6,  458. 
Governor  -  General  and  Council,    30, 

106, 121. 
Labour,  396.  405. 
"Mahdis,"210. 
Missions,  591-4,  596. 
Railways,  465,  470. 
Staff,  102,  188,  228. 
Under  Foreign  OfBce,  30,  164. 
Use  of  Nile  water,  519. 
Sugar,  manufacture  of,  512,  604. 
Superstition  (see  Witchcraft). 
Survey — 
Geological,  502. 
Training  in,  450. 


INDEX. 


641 


Swaheli — 

Language,  134. 

People,  358. 
Swettenham  (Sir  F. )  (see  Malaya) — 

Ability  of  Colonial  Office  officials,  161. 

Colonial  defence,  190. 

Inspectors  of  colonies,  169. 

Laud  law,  345. 

Latitude  to  Goyernors,  178-9. 

Rail  construction,  467-8. 

"Residents,"  130-1. 

Rule  through  chiefs,  200. 

Selection  of  staff,  138. 
Sydenham  (Lord) — 

Indians,  Kenya,  318. 

New  Indian  reforms,  195. 

The  village  panchayat,  202. 

Value  of  District  Officer,  132. 
Syrians  in  Africa,  90. 

Tanganyika  territory — 
Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 
Indian  settlement,  823.  " 

The  lake,  65. 
Tanneries,  511,  526. 

Tariffs,  preferential,  11,  610.     [See  Free- 
trade,  &c.) 
Taring — 
Colonial  Regulations,  120. 
Legislative  Councils,  114. 
On  Crown  colonies,  36,  38,  536. 
Taxation  (direct  tax),  chap.  xii. — 
Amount  and  rate,  207,  218,  234,  240, 

251. 
Assessment,  207,  239-49. 
Cattle  tax,  239,  247,  251. 
Classes  liable  to,  251-2. 
Collateral    advantages  of   direct  tax, 
134-5,  201,  218,  230-3,  250-1,  253-4, 
293. 
Collection  and  disposal  of,  201,  208, 

231,  241-3,  250-2. 
Contrast  with  indirect  taxes,  235-6. 
Former  tax-gatherers,  232,  241. 
History  of  and  results,  N.  Nigeria,  232, 

236-7.  240-1. 
Hut  tax,  237,  252,  256-7. 
Incidence  of,  266,  258  et  seq. 
Indirect     (see       Imports,       Exports, 

Customs,  &c.) 
Koranic  law,  232. 
Labour  as  substitute,  251,  411. 
Land  tax,  237,  246,  289,  293. 
On   Europeans   and  alien  companies, 

258-63.     (See  European.) 
On  income,  234,  237-40,  245,  262. 
On  primitive  communities,  218-9, 231-4, 

249-50. 
Paid  in  cash,  99,  251. 
Poll-tax,  234,  237,  249-50. 
The  right  to  impose,  206,  245. 
To  compel  wage  labour,  234,  327. 
Tribute  recognised  by  native  custom, 
218,  231-2,  250. 

2 


Temple  (C.  L.,  late  Lieut.-Govcrnor  North 
Nigeria),  222. 
Drunkenness  among  pagans,  604. 
Territorial  (extra)  allegiance,  213,  241-2, 

565. 
Tew  (Mrs)  on  cookery,  151. 
Textiles,  local  manufacture,  513. 
Thompson  (H.  N.)  on  forestry,  299,  316, 

527-9.    (&e  Forests.) 
Tile-making,  146,  612. 
Timber,  preparation  of,  512,  529.     (See 

Forests.) 
Tin,  preferential  duty,  270. 
Tingey  (Paul)  re  palm  produce,  622. 
Tobacco,  cultivation  of,  !;31. 
Togoland  (British)— 
Area  and  population.  45. 
Mandate  for,  52. 
Tax  in,  257. 
Toutee  (General)  on  treaty-making,  16. 
Townsend  (Meredith) :  Lack  of  achieve- 
ment of  negroes,  82,  198. 
Townships  (see  Municipality). 
Trade,  chap.  xxiv.   (see  also  Mercha 
Middleman,  Price,  &c.)— 
African    and    Indian    traders,    481-2, 

489. 
Commissioners,  494.     (See  Commercial 

Intelligence.) 
Company  registration,  260,  482. 
Credits,  481. 
Economic  Boards,  492-4. 
Effect  of  war,  267-8,  611. 
Journal  and  reports,  492. 
Local  department  of,  91-2,  506. 
Nature  of,  264,  477,  494, 511-12,  610-11. 
Progress  of,  498,  609-12. 
Relations    of   Government   to,   483-4, 

499-600. 
Statistics,  British  African  tropics,  44-5. 
Taxation  of,  233. 
Transport,   chap,   xxiii.    (see    Railways, 
Roads) — 
Carriers,  402,  422-3,  461-2,  474. 
Carts,  475. 

Draught  animals,  461,  474-5. 
Importance  of,  and  cost,  5,  461-2. 
Mechanical  road,  472-3. 
Saving  of,  511. 
Travelling  by  staff,  need  for,  134-6,  566. 
Treasury — 
Imperial — 
Cimtrol,  98,  140,  144,  162-3. 
Lord  Salisbury  on,  161. 
Native — 
In  advanced  communities,  200-1,  209. 
In  primitive  tribes,  219,  250.     (See 
Native  Administration. ) 
Treaties — 
As  valid  claims  to  sovereignty,  11, 15. 
Nature  of  (native),  11-12,   16-18,   54, 

57. 
Of  Versailles,  48-60,  57,  62-3,  599. 
With  Zanzibar  (slave-trade),  357. 


S 


642 


INDEX. 


Tribal- 
Breakdown  of  authority,  215-17,  418, 
460. 

Evolution,  61-79. 

Political  frontiers,  53,  99. 
Trigge  (J.  E.) :  Produce  inspection,  489. 
Trinidad — 

Indian  colonisation  in,  321,  415. 

Labour,  403. 

Minerals,  349. 

Taxation  of  Europeans,  261. 
Trooj)S — 

Eagerness  in  tbe  war,  575,  610. 

Suggestions    regarding,    575-7.       {See 
Military. ) 

Use  of,  205-6,  582-4.     (>Sce  Force.) 
Tropical  Schools  of  Medicine,  151. 
Tropics — 

Area,  population,  and  trade  of  British 
African,  44-45,  182,  331. 

British  policy  in,  616-19. 

Contrast  temperate  zones,  43. 

Cost  of,  609-10. 

Description,  country  and  people,  chap, 
iv.,  65-6,  138. 

Exchanges  of,  54. 

Not  colonisable,  40, 152. 

Products  of,  43-4,  615. 

Progress  of,  498,  606. 

Value  of,  3,  7,  10,  43-4,  61,  609-15. 
Trustee — 

Best  judge  of  what  is  best,  119. 

Claim  for  reciprocity,  275. 

Dual  obligations  of,  17-18,  60. 

For  material  development,   42,   54-5, 
60-1,  416,  486,  509. 

For  moral  welfare,  50,  57-8,  210,  224, 
250. 

For  native  rights,  270-1. 

Principles  of,  88,  91-2,  270-1,  273. 

Task,  how  discharged,  606. 

With  indolent  ward,  400,  418. 
Tsetse-flv,  461,  534. 

Tugwell(H.,  Bi.shop  of  West  Equatorial 
Africa)  :  Criticisms  of  native  rule, 
Nigeria,  223-4. 

Uganda — 
Acquisition  of,  10,  20-21,  360. 
Area,  population,  and  trade,  45,  153, 

610-11. 
Changes  of  Governor,  105. 
Concessions,  485. 
Cotton,  490,  525,  617. 
Early   condition  of,   17,   69,   76,  205, 

617. 
Education,  429,  458. 
European  tax,  260. 
Evolution  of  people,  70,  72,  204,  211, 

231. 
Fidelity  of  chiefs,  71. 
Indians  in,  320-1. 
Labour,  404-5,  413-14. 
Lands,  329-30. 


Minerals.  347. 

Missions^  587,  342. 

Modern  progress,  78. 

Native  courts,  199-200. 

Native  tax,  235,  251,  256,  411. 

Ploughs,  517. 

Railway,  462-3. 

Rule  through  chiefs,  119. 

Slavery,  363. 
Uniformity  in  details  of  policy  undesir- 
able, 104,  193-4,  211,  219. 
Union  Coloniale  views  re  liquor  traffic, 

600. 
United  States  {vide  America). 
UnolBcials — 

Of  Legislative  Council,  114-19. 

Of  the  Executive  Council,  120. 
Unrest — 

A  sign  of  progress,  618. 

Caused  by  lack  of  touring,  135. 

Increased  by  prosperity,  117. 
By  inadequate  staff,  585. 
Unwin  (Dr  A.  H.,  Forest  Oflicer)— 

Cocoa  on  Gold  Coast,  400,  525-6. 

Forestry  in  Nigeria,  529. 

Taxes  in  Togoland,  257. 

Vaccination,  92,  153-4. 

Vegetables,  150,  153,  531. 

Vehicle  licences,  255. 

Venereal  disease,  66,  92,  153-4,  482,  524,, 

600. 
Versailles  Treaty,  48-50. 

Achievement  of,  57. 

Article  22,  62-3,  197. 
Veterinary  research  and  training,  450, 

501-5. 
Victoria,  lake,  66. 
Village — 

Area  of  lands,  299-300. 

Councils,  202,  248. 

Headmen,  239,  243,  245,  247,  249-50. 

Schools,  244-6.    {See  Schools. ) 

The  unit  of  administration  and  taxa- 
tion, 202,  244-5. 

Wages  {see  Labour) — 

Advantages  of,  419. 

Method  of  payment  of,  405. 

Of  apprentices,  448-9. 

Rate  of,  394,  396,  404-5,  443. 

Wage-labour  not  unpopular,  402-3. 
Waghorn  (Colonel  W. ) :  Report  on  Lagos 

railway,  467. 
Wahima — 

Found  dynasties,  74. 

Origin,  67. 
Wakf  lands,  288. 
Waller  (Rev.  H.)— 

Anti-liquor  crusade,  597. 

Losses  of  Navy  in  suppression  slave- 
trade,  358. 

Re  scheme  for  suppression  slave-trade, 
359-60. 


INDEX. 


643 


Wallis  (Secretary,  Uganda)— 

Excess  of  troops,  275. 

Indians  in  Uganda,  322. 
War,  eflfects  of,  225,  267-8,  611. 

Assistance  of  colonies,  610. 

Attitude  of  chiefs  in  Nigeria,  222-3 
Washington  (Booker) — 

Education,  442, 

Example  of,  82,  86. 

Work  of  educated  negro,  85. 
Waterways — 

Development  of,  462. 

For  agriculture,  518-20. 

Supply  for  consumption,   147-8,   153, 
208. 
Watson  (J.  B. ) :  Formation  of  character, 

436. 
Welch  (T.)  r«  liquor  traffic,  601-2. 
Wells  and  well-boring,  518. 
West  African — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45,  282. 

Chartered  Companies,  19-24. 

Colonies    threatened   by    France   {see 
French  aggression). 
West  Indies — 

Labour,  403,  415. 

Land,  345. 

Slavery,  367. 
Whittaker:  Ownership  of  land,  281,  290. 
Wild  Animals  Convention,  35. 
Wilkinson    (K.     J.,     Governor,    Sierra 
Leone) — 

Education,  445,  453. 

Irrigation,  518. 
Williams  (Basil)  :  Policy  of  Mr  Rhodes. 

234,  327. 
Williams  (Sapara,  Lagos  Council) :  True 

path  for  educated  native,  89. 
Wilson  (Rev.  Chas. ) :  Slavery  in  Uganda, 

363. 
Wilson  (G.  H.,  Nyasaland) — 

African  as  a  worker,  401. 

Break-up  of  tribal  control,  216,  403. 
Wingate  (General  Sir  F.  R.)— 

Annual  leave  of,  106. 

Missions  in  Sudan,  393. 


Witchcraft- 
Bast  and  West  Africa,  69,  75. 

Punishment  of,  563-4. 
Witnesses,  detention  of,  541. 
Wives  in  tropics,  141-2. 
Women — 

As  husbands,  387. 

As  labourers,  238,  369,  401,  517. 

As  producers,  251. 

As  slaves  and  concubines,  377-80. 

Conditions  of  life  of,  91,  588. 

Education  of,  457. 

Punishment  of,  462. 

Under  Moslem  law,  562. 
Woolf(L.)- 

Fighting  in  Africa,  362. 

International  control  in  Africa,  56. 

Labour  in  Kenya,  394. 

Yorubas — 
As  "advanced"  pagans,  70,  204,  211, 

231,  241. 
As  labourers,  401. 
Cloth  work,  70. 
Land  tenure,  283. 
Language  of,  134. 
Superstitious  rites,  76. 
Taxes,  232. 

Zanzibar — 

Area,  population,  and  trade,  45. 

History  and  power  of,  76,  357-9. 

Labour,  367,  403. 

Land  law,  288-9. 

Liquor  law,  604. 

Residents'  Council,  34,  121. 

Slavery  and   slave-trade,   357-9,    361, 
367,  370. 

Under  Colonial  Office,  34, 
Zebehr  Pasha  on  slavery,  355,  365. 
Zebra,  domestication  of,  532. 
Zimmermann  (Emil) — 

Africa  colonisable,  40. 

England's  ''open  door,"  11. 

Use  of  Africans,  356. 
Zulus,  dynasty  of,  74. 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  hy 
WILLIAM  BLACKWOOD   AND   SONS. 


-fcnm