South Africa, its history, heroes and wars;

THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ;

Where knowledge is free ;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow

domestic walls ;
Where words come out from the depth of truth ;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection ;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary

desert sand of dead habit ;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever- widening thought and

action —
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore.

THE

SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

BY

VIOLET R. MARKHAM

AUTHOR OF
SOUTH AFRICA, PAST AND PRESENT; THE NEW ERA IN SOUTH AFRICA

EX UNITATE VIRES

\°

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE

1913

TO

A BELOVED MEMORY

I must express my thanks to the Editor of the Westminster
Gazette for his kind permission to republish certain portions
of this book which have already appeared in his newspaper.

CONTENTS

PART I

TRAVEL SKETCHES

IJUAP.

I. Cape Town Revisited

II. The Mountain and the Capital

III. A Memorial and \ Grave

IV. In Basutoland .....
V. The Edge of the White Waters

VI. The Smoke that Thunders

VII. On a Matabele Location

VIII. Ladysmith .....

IX. The Country of the Van der Stels

X. The Opening of the Union Parliament

I'.Uii.

15

2'.i

•

31

39

55

m

8l»

9:}

109

PART II

SOME POLICIES AND PROBLEMS

XI. South Africa after the War .

XII. Racialism and the Language Question .

XIII. Hertzogism and Politicai Parties .

XIV. The Coming of the Native

125
1!)]
192
219

viii CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

XV. Black and White in South Africa . . . 239

XVI. The Social Contact 271

XVTI. The Industrial Contact 293

XVIII. The Political Contact 334

XIX. The Asiatic Difficulty 359

XX. The Development op Agriculture .... 384

XXI. Rhodesia and the Charter 416

INDEX 445

PART I
TRAVEL SKETCHES

CHAPTER I

CAPE TOWN REVISITED

Yesterday you had a song

I could not choose but hear ;
'Twas ' Oh to be in England

Now that April 's there ! '
But I have found a new refrain

I cannot choose but sing ;
'Tis ' Oh to be in Africa

Now Summer's on the wing!'

Pebcival Gibbon.

Four a.m. in Table Bay on a mild spring morning
in October ; the harbour a blaze of lights ahead ; to
the right, the vast bulk of the Lion's Head looming
up indistinctly in the darkness. But of the great rock
which dominates the harbour, its glory and its pride,
no glimpse can be obtained, for a south-easter is
blowing and the heavy cloud known as the ' table-cloth '
hangs low over Table Mountain. Even as I look,
solitary occupant of the deck at that early hour — for
the sea has played rough and tumble through the
night with the good ship and her passengers — another
squall drives up, obliterating harbour lights, shipping,
and the dim outline of the land. The ship, full of tur-
moil and strange noises, lurches uneasily at her anchor.
The tugs are alongside and the mails are already going
overboard. We had seen those battered canvas bags

b2

4 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

last at Southampton when their arrival marked for
some of us the irrevocable moment of departure. What
hopes and fears, what joys and sorrows, what tidings
good and ill lie hidden within their recesses ! Romance
has not fled from the world with the posting stage and
the pack horse. Romance is a matter of the heart, not
of picturesque accessories. The swift shuttle of modern
communication, weaving in and out among arctic
snows and tropical sands, knitting the world of men
and women together with a closeness and intimacy
unknown before our generation, is full of mystery and
suggestion. Some letters, as they disappear over the
side in this chill hour before the dawn, have reached
their journey's end ; others have yet to be borne for
hundreds of miles into the dim recesses of the continent
— one must sojourn in an outpost to realise the tragedy
of disappointment when the mail brings no word or
sign from distant England.

A soft rain beats in my face as I listen to the creaking
winches, the very outlines of the great ship seem lost
in the all-enveloping grey mist. A wet welcome, but
it is powerless to daunt the thrill of joy with which
I look through the darkness to where the shore must
lie. For this is South Africa — land as dear to some
children of her adoption as to her own native born.
What matter if for the moment she veil her face ? —
for seen or unseen the Table Rock is near at hand, and
once again I have felt the presence of the mountain
from which I had parted sadly on a sunset evening
some thirteen years since, as the war cloud burst over
the land. But its word of farewell to me then was an
assurance of return, and in fullness of time that return
had come. Some countries are like some people :
at a touch the gulf of years vanishes. There is hardly

CAPE TOWN KEVISITED 5

a question of the picking up of threads, for the
threads have never been broken. Necessarily, as I
told myself, it must be a return to many changes of
conditions and circumstances. But the old alluring
charm, the primary appeal of colour, space, and dis-
tance, the indescribable something of personality and
atmosphere which is the spell of South Africa — all that
could know no change. Even in the darkness and
the mist it reaches out and takes me to itself again
with an amazing sense of comfort. There are some
who hate Africa, who call her a heartless jade, who
fly from her great spaces in horror and dread. But for
others she is the eternal feminine among the nations ;
ever alluring, ever fascinating, the more beloved for
that very contrariness which makes the unexpected
and the unforeseen the only sure thing on which one
may reckon in her. Distracting she is assuredly,
dull never. You must not expect from her the more
placid virtues of the hearth. But the light of the
Great Adventure is in her eyes and she wears a crown
unknown to the younger nations whose lines have
fallen in happier places — the crown of suffering. Her
feet have trodden the royal road of pain, and tarried
in the kingdom of sorrow. But it may be that such
discipline, such bitter experience, will win for her children
in the end power and wisdom not granted to her sister
States. I take another look at the dim lights emerging
once more as the squall passes ; then I go below well
content. The first greetings are over ; a friendship
old and dear is renewed.

The grey dawn had melted into glorious sunshine
before I woke to find we had glided into dock. On
deck there was the indescribable confusion of passengers
full of unnecessary bustle preparing to go ashore, and

6 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

collecting their belongings with a harassed air. It
is apparently part of the ritual of landing to get up
before it is light, dress with uncomfortable haste, and
then roam round the ship at a loose end asking questions
about luggage from distracted stewards and long-
shore men. The old hands know better. They are
not to be lured out of bed at such uncomfortable hours,
and eat their breakfasts in peace before coping with
the business of the day, which presents very few
difficulties, thanks to the suave and courteous gentle-
men who see one's luggage and oneself ashore — for a
consideration. But an unusual and Oriental atmo-
sphere pervades the Saxon this morning, and we assist
at a scene not common on the arrival of the mail-boat,
one which, before we have set foot on land, thrusts a
serious South African problem to the fore. We had
brought with us a distinguished Indian statesman,
the Hon. Gopal Gokhale, member of the Viceroy's
Council, who had come to investigate the thorny ques-
tion of the position of Asiatic subjects of the Crown in
South Africa. Mr. Gokhale is a striking product of the
grafting of Western education on the old Eastern civilisa-
tion. In his own person he raises the whole problem of
modern India, and her position within the Empire. A
man of the highest culture, possessing immense influence
in his own land, he had been a popular and well-liked
passenger on board the Saxon, where his distinction of
mind and simplicity of manner had won him many
friends. A capital thrower of deck quoits, and a ready
sharer in the other small amusements with which
passengers on a mail steamer fill their days, Mr. Gokhale's
presence had proved that whatever the gulfs of race,
there are bridges of courtesy and education by which
they can be spanned. The racial problems of the future

CAPE TOWN REVISITED 7

are well-nigh insoluble unless thoughtful men and
women of all races can learn to show some sort of
sympathetic appreciation of each other's varying stand-
points. The quiet gentleman of the voyage had become
a high Indian official in Eastern dress when we met
that last morning. His own countrymen had arrived
in force to welcome him, and after the manner of their
race had brought numerous bouquets and garlands of
flowers with which to do him honour. Among contem-
porary Indians few men rank more highly than the
founder of the ' Servants of India Society/ a semi-
religious body which in aim and ideals recalls the purest
aspirations of the Franciscans. The crowd of eager
Oriental faces on deck, no less than the rows and rows
of red tarbouches gathered on the quay, was some
index of the strength of the Asiatic and Mohammedan
element in Cape Town alone. A flower-decked landau
with four horses carried away our late fellow-passenger
in state amid the cheers of the crowd. It says much
for the universal liking and esteem felt on board for
Mr. Gokhale that this demonstration, raising as it did
some of the most acute of South African prejudices,
passed off without criticism or comment from the
Europeans who looked on.

Mr. Gokhale and the flower-wreathed landau having
driven away, the crowds dispersed ; and we, in turn
protesting entire innocence of dutiable goods in our
possession, struggled through the customs and found
ourselves on shore. My first impression as I scanned
the old familiar scene was that everything remained
curiously unchanged. Straight ahead the great Table
Rock, flanked by the rump-like Lion's Head to the right
and the more jagged Devil's Peak to the left, enfolds
the town as it were with a horseshoe of mountains.

8 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

Never was a city set about with guardian heights
more inviolable, more beautiful. The lower slopes are
covered with trees, but little by little the oaks and the
pines yield place to the purple rocks raising their crests
against the blue sky. To the left of Table Bay, the
Cape Flats stretch across the neck of the peninsula
in the direction of False Bay, less white and shining
perhaps than of old, for cultivation and the friendly
wattle are reducing these shifting sands to solidity.
In the far distance lies the beautiful Hottentots' Holland
mountain, an off-shoot of the great Drakensberg range,
which, to South Africa's imdoing as regards navigable
rivers, encircles her coasts from the Cape almost to the
banks of the Zambesi. Between this country and
Canada with her magnificent system of water-ways
how vast a difference — a difference which has expressed
itself in countless varying forms on the lives of the two
nations ! South African history has been in a large
measure the product of the great plateau which mono-
polises all the land save the coast fringe. These barrier
mountains proved for many years an arresting influence
both in exploration and development. In the early
nineteenth century, the interior of South Africa was
practically unknown ; whereas the Jesuit Fathers in
the seventeenth century had already penetrated along
the St. Lawrence and the great lakes far into the
heart of the American continent. To the old Dutch
settlers these mountains presented the Ultima Thule of
civilisation ; hence their quaint name — the Holland,
or the country to which the Hottentots were
welcome.

One change is obvious as soon as one sets foot on
shore — the improved condition of the roads. Adderley
Street, no longer the ploughed field of my recollection,

CAPE TOWN EEVISITED 9

boasts wood pavement and an even surface. The
old dusty tram road to Sea Point has been converted
into an imposing thoroughfare. Sea Point itself and
Camps Bay farther along have expanded beyond
recognition. The Twelve Apostles look down on the
Victoria Eoad as of old, but bungalows and villas by
the dozen have established themselves between the
mountains and the shore. Natural features such as
these are little affected by man's vagaries, and in one
sense a city of kraals or of palaces would look much
the same in such surroundings. But any traveller who
remembers the pre-war conditions soon becomes con-
scious of a great change in Cape Town. Of the war
itself here, as indeed in every other part of Africa, no
trace remains. It seems incredible that within a term
of years relatively so brief, every sign of the legions
poured by thousands and tens of thousands into the
land should be wiped out. Archaeological researches at
Green Point and Wynberg — two of the large camps —
would probably result in the discovery of a certain
number of old tins and pots, but even for these signs
you would have to go and search diligently. Ladysmith,
as though to demonstrate how true was the tale of its
valour and sufferings, has kept unrepaired the shattered
clock-tower of its town hall, but this instance is unique.
The marks of the struggle are on the lives of the people ;
they must be sought in the new spirit abroad in the
land.

Of that new spirit I became conscious during the
first half -hour in Cape Town. I had left a sleepy, rather
untidy colonial town ; I returned to a brisk and
energetic city. One has the feeling that everything
has become more spruce and vigorous, that time is of
importance, that the saying ■ to-morrow is also a day '

10 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

does not hold good to the same degree as of yore. The
outstanding impression is one of cleaning up. The
old dusty dilapidated look has gone. The crazy-
looking telegraph poles, tree-trunks all sizes and shapes,
have given place to neat iron standards. The roads
are broad, well paved, and kept wonderfully clean.
In Adderley Street, the old Heerengracht which stretches
from the great oak avenue of the Gardens — that
splendid heritage of the Dutch pioneers — to the blue
waters of the Bay, there is a jumble of architectural
styles, but individual buildings are new and spacious,
if not beautiful. I do not pretend that the change is
altogether an advantage. A good deal of individuality
— something that in old days was essentially South
African — has necessarily been sacrificed. Modern life
has a tendency to stereotype the conditions under
which it lives. Probably the spirit of nationality which
crops out nowadays in so many places is a protest,
and a valuable protest, against forces which tend to
pour us all into the same moulds. Many of us, were
we given the chance, would readily barter Adderley
Street to-day, with its excellent shops and efficient
tram service, for a sight of the old Heerengracht,
with its canals and Dutch houses with wide stoeps
raised high above the pavement to avoid wash-outs
from the mountain rains. Even the native population
seems less distinctive than of old. I looked in vain
for the minute cream-coloured hansom-cabs, with
their gorgeous Malay drivers, which formerly plied
for hire. In their place were the taxi and the motor
horn. Even the Malay women have to a great extent
laid aside the brilliant shawls and scarves which in
old days gave such a welcome splash of colour to
the drab streets. Progress has arrived, and we

CAPE TOWN REVISITED 11

must make the best of it in Cape Town as elsewhere.
It is impossible, though, not to regret the failure to
turn such unique natural conditions to the best
advantage. Table Bay is practically lost to Cape Town
so far as the amenities of life are concerned. One
side was necessarily occupied by the docks ; but to the
east, through lack of foresight, the ugly utilities of the
railway have been allowed to monopolise the foreshore
to its utter ruin, and to damage no less seriously the fine
old fortress known as the Castle. It is necessary to
penetrate among the old Dutch homesteads in the
neighbourhood of Paarl, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch,
Somerset West, to realise how much South Africa owes
in historical tradition to the early Dutch settlers. One
welcome change is the enhanced interest taken by
South Africans themselves in the natural and archi-
tectural beauties of their land, especially in the old
Colonial houses which lend such a gracious and
mellow touch to the South-west district of the Cape
Province.

Table Bay in the eighteenth century was a great
meeting place for shipping, and the delightful and
suggestive name for Cape Town — * The Tavern of the
Ocean '■ — dates from that period. In old days Cape
Town must have been remarkable for the fine residences
of the better-class Dutch. One characteristic house
of this period still survives in Strand Street ; the
residence of the late Mrs. Koopmans de Wet, whose
recent death has broken one of the last links with the
old order in South Africa. Mrs. Koopmans, a great
lady of the ancien regime, held a unique position,
thanks to her high character and intelligence, among
the old Cape families. A national movement was set
on foot to conserve her house and its art treasures

12 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

intact for the country, and the effort fortunately has
been brought to a successful conclusion. The co-
operation of British and Dutch art lovers in this matter
is yet another instance of the change which, little by
little, is coming over the animosities of South Africa.
Passionately identified with the extreme ideals of Dutch
nationality, Mrs. Koopmans lived to see the Union of
South Africa brought about on other lines than those
she may have cherished. In the new South Africa
there is room for all who have loved and served the
land, whatever expression that love and service may
have taken, and in a happier future the old house in
Strand Street will be a common heritage for both
races. It is earnestly to be hoped that with this more
vigilant spirit abroad, no further vandalisms will be
permitted as regards the destruction of old buildings
which lent a touch of distinction even to the shabby
Cape Town of old days. I am one of those who even
regret the coming disappearance of the Georgian ugliness
of the existing Cathedral which is to make place for
a modern successor. Each age has its own artistic
and architectural expression, and the Early Victorian
expression may be interesting when we get far enough
away from it. It is difficult to judge of the ultimate
appearance of the new Cathedral from the fragment
which has been erected. Though cool and spacious
within, the high Gothic windows seem out of place when
transplanted from the land of grey skies and fleeting
sunshine to the perpetual glare and warmth of a sub-
tropical latitude. It contains one monument before
which many English visitors as well as South African
residents linger with affection and regard. Here among
many memorials of the war hangs the brass which
commemorates the life and work of Edmund Garrett,

CAPE TOWN REVISITED 13

once Editor of the Cafe Times, true ' Ritter von dem
Heilgen Geist ' than whom no more pure and noble
soul ever lived and served.

Where e'er I fall, like yonder ripped

Old elm, there lay me ; so but one
Small brass hang where the solemn crypt

Gives respite from the Cape Town sun,
Hard by the hurrying street, alive

With strength and youth : 'tis all I claim,
That where the heart is, there survive

The dust and shadow of a name.

His spirit speaks in his own words from the brass, but
the influence of his life and work must be looked for
in the hearts of those he touched to higher issues, nobler
ends.

Cape Town has but recently emerged from a period
of great depression following on the land boom which
took place within three or four years of the war. A
mania for speculation in house property and real
estate seized on the people, and land- values were run
up to an absurd price. Then came the inevitable re-
action, bringing loss and depression in its train. The
community met its reverses in a firm spirit, and to-day
prosperity reigns anew. A higher standard, a bigger
spirit, is the key-note of the new South Africa. For
those who have ears to hear, it dominates the shrill
tones of party warfare. The uncertainties and
insecurities of the old days have gone — the troubled
times when men knew not whether to look to the north
or to the south for the great principles of their political
being. Separation, discord, diverse racial development,
mutual charges of cowardice and contempt — such were
the outstanding features of the Africa with which I was
once familiar. Union has come now — come through
blood and tears ; but it has wrought a revolution

14 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in the whole habit of thought and outlook in the land.
It would be too much to ask and to expect that on the
morrow of such a conflict perfect peace and amity should
exist between the combatants of yesterday. Political
and racial questions still run high ; of alarums and
excursions we have had of late not a few. Even so,
the strong men on both sides have shaken hands, and
have settled down to a common task with mutual
goodwill. Generally speaking, when bitterness crops
out it is not among those who bore the heat and
burthen of the struggle, but among those who looked
on. From the heart of this great change one becomes
conscious that two new factors have emerged : the
new factor of security, of a nation with its feet on
solid ground ; and the new factor of mutual respect.

15

CHAPTEK II

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE CAPITAL

And soon we emerged
Prom the plain, where the woods could scarce follow!

And still as we urged
Our way, the woods wondered, and left us,

As up still we trudged
Though the wild path grew wilder each instant,

And place was e'en grudged
Mid the rock-chasms and piles of loose stones

Like the loose broken teeth
Of some monster which climbed there to die

From the ocean beneath.

. . . God's own profound
Was above me, and round me the mountains,

And under, the sea,
And within me, my heart to bear witness

What was and shall be.

Robert Browning.

One of the changes in South Africa since the war is
that she has realised her possession of a beach. The
seaside counted for very little in the affairs of Cape
Colony and Natal in old days. The coast was there,
and a certain number of people came to it, but no
particular effort was made at that time to cater for
visitors. Now every railway-station along the line
through the Union of South Africa is gay with brilliant-
coloured advertisements and delectable pictures set-
ting forth the joys of Durban, East London, Algoa
Bay, Muizenberg, and Sea Point. Unless you go

16 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

to the coast it is rather difficult to take a holiday in
South Africa. There is curiously little change of
scene possible in the interior. You may travel for
hundreds of miles and at the end of that time find
yourself practically in the same country as when
you started. Hence the real importance of the de-
velopment of the seaside, which the energetic manager
of the Union Railways, Mr. Hoy, is bent on bringing
so graphically before the travelling public. You are
invited to leave the altitudes and the dust of the
interior and revel in the sands of the South Atlantic
or Indian Oceans. Durban, indeed, seems on the
high road to acquiring the somewhat dubious reputation
of being the Margate of South Africa, so great is the
exodus which flocks regularly to her sunny shores
from the Transvaal. There was not bathing room
left on the beach, so one tourist complained to me, for
bathing was necessarily limited to an area carefully
roped off from the sharks that watch the revels hungrily
from the far side of the barrier. Even Beira and
Lourenco Marques are setting their respective houses
in order with a view to the Rhodesian custom, are
laying out golf courses and dealing strenuously with
the ubiquitous anopheles and the malaria it carries.
The seaside has arrived in South African life, and
it has come very much to stay. Competition between
the rival places is keen, and it is wholly to the benefit
of the population at large.

The Cape peninsula geographically j is not the
nearest point on the seaboard from the interior, but
the unique beauty of the surrounding country sets
Muizenberg and the other maritime suburbs of
Cape Town far above ] all j rivals. I am sometimes
at a loss to understand the streak of nervousness

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE CAPITAL 17

which the Cape Colonist occasionally reveals about the
future of Cape Town. James Anthony Froude declared
on one occasion that no city in the world was so
beautifully situated, and compared its grey cliffs
with Poseidon's precipice, which overhung the city of
Alcinous.

With all this the Cape Colonist would agree heartily,
but he then asks with acrimony why such a place
was passed over for the Union capital. One of the
advantages of belonging to an old-established country
is that you are spared the internecine feuds which
rend the Dominions, when they come of age, over their
seats of government. Whether or not our tribal
ancestors quarrelled over the site of the particular
moot-hill on which they assembled to discuss their
feuds and affairs, history is silent. But since human
nature has a curious knack of remaining the same
throughout the ages, it may be that Flint Arrow enter-
tained the worst opinion of Bone Head's intrigues on
this subject. In South Africa the question of the
capital is a burning one, for the new spirit of the Union
is still young and provincialism will be a potent factor
for years to come. The South African Convention
cut the knot of conflicting coast and inland claims by
refusing to have a capital at all ; susceptibihties being
saved by calling Pretoria the seat of Government, and
Cape Town the seat of the Legislature. The com-
promise is little to the taste of the coast party, who
consider that the historical claims, on both Dutch
and English grounds, of Cape Town outweighed those
put forward by the Transvaal. Keeping an eye,
therefore, on the pretensions of Pretoria is a matter
to which they devote much vigilance. The new arrival
is hardly clear of the Cape Town docks before the

18 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

enormities of the Union buildings have been poured out
to him at length — the abominable waste of money
by which Pretoria on the eve of Union forced the hand
of the rest of South Africa, while the Cape Colony was
practising all the virtues of thrift and economy. Need-
less to add, the Pretoria view of the story is a very differ-
ent one. Perhaps the long-headed men of the north
wanted something in hand with which to bargain as
against Groote Schuur — the asset of a Prime Minister's
residence secured to the Cape by Mr. Rhodes's will. Geo-
graphically and from the point of view of train service,
Bloemf ontein may murmur that her claims to house the
capital were irresistible. But that hot little city set
in a dusty plain was in no position to carry off such a
prize. So the Union Government goes on trek, and in
the hot January days packs up its papers and departs
to the coast. A trip to the seaside, with some legis-
lative duties thrown in, does not seem a particularly
hard lot for the South African politician, though doubt-
less our English officials would give up the ghost if
requested to conduct their business with Whitehall as
far removed from Westminster as, roughly speaking,
London is from Rome. On the whole the compromise
does not work badly, each town being satisfied that the
other has had the worst of a poor bargain. The cash
value of the permanent Civil Service against that of
the peripatetic Legislature has been reduced almost to
actuarial tables. To the onlooker the whole contro-
versy wears a slightly farcical air ; but this sharp
collision between the ambitions of the coast and those
of the inland towns bears witness to a spirit not favour-
able to the best interests of South Africa. The fear
which secretly haunts many a Cape Town resident is
that some day Pretoria, backed by all the influence of

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE CAPITAL 19

Johannesburg, will, so to speak, snatch the Parliament
and set it down on Meintjes Kop behind the great
buildings designed by Mr. Herbert Baker. The fear
seems somewhat far-fetched, and even so the remedy
lies in the hands of Cape Town itself. It is up to that
city, as the Americans say, to make the stay of the
Parliament so delectable that no one would ever desire
such a change. Not for nothing, surely, should the
Cape Peninsula possess thirty miles of the most glorious
rock and mountain and coast scenery in the world.
And from the residential point of view, the Cape Town
suburbs which wind round the slopes of the mountain
have no equal in South Africa. After the heat and
aridity of the high veld, the oak groves and shady
gardens, the pine woods and luxuriant flowers of the
peninsula are like a foretaste of Paradise.

But impressive though the famous coast-drive
under the shadow of the Twelve Apostles ; alluring
though the sands of Muizenberg, where the wild South
Atlantic breakers, which dash with such fury on the
western coast, roll in more gently, as though fitting
their mood to that of the countless children at play ;
the glory of Cape Town remains the Table Bock. By
night or by day, in fair weather or in foul, whether
standing out rampart-like against the sky or wreathed
in mist which pours down on to the city below as
though the Nibelungen children were sporting with the
fleecy vapour, this mountain is unique in the world.
And yet South Africans apparently have so little true
appreciation and regard for the Table Bock, that an
abominable scheme for a funicular railway is being
actively prosecuted at present by the Cape Town muni-
cipality. We may expect therefore in the near future
to see the mountain side defaced by one of the most

c 2

20 THE SOUTH AFRICAN j SCENE

outrageous vandalisms ever perpetrated in cold blood
by a civilised community. The very rocks themselves
surely call out against destruction so cruel and so
wanton of one of the unique beauties of the world, for
Table Mountain with a funicular disgorging hoards of
tourists on its plateau will be a very different place
from the silent, beautiful heights scaled now with some
labour and the more full of reward for that very fact.
This is really a case where the needs of the sightseer
should give way to the claims that all great beauty
makes to preservation, so far as may be, from the defil-
ing hand of man. It is astonishing to me that public
opinion in South Africa does not rise up in its wrath
and make short work of the scheme and its authors,
thus preserving the great mountain in its primeval
beauty for generations to come. Anyone whose evil
fate has led them up the railways on the Rigi or Pilatus
can only turn in revolt from the thought that similar
desecration is shortly to be practised on the slopes of
Table Mountain. One asks if it is still too late for
public opinion to rouse itself on the subject. Be that
as it may, I for one am glad to have known the Rock
before the funicular strips it of its unique charm.

The climb, though of no account to a mountaineer,
is a fatiguing one ; but it should not be missed by
any active-limbed traveller. The ascent from the
Cape Town side, through what is called the Platte Klip
Gorge, is steep and arduous, but the view which un-
folds itself step by step as the face of the rock is scaled
well repays the effort. From the top of the mountain
one looks sheer down over what may be called the
flaps of the table on to Cape Town, 3582 feet below.
I have no acquaintance with aeroplanes, but I imagine
that the aviator sees the world set forth beneath him

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE CAPITAL 21

in much the same chart-like fashion. Cape Town lies
at one's feet like a toy city built of children's bricks.
Everything is reduced to the scale of the nursery.
One picks out the absurd-looking little public buildings
and thoroughfares apparently a few inches long. The
docks are about the size of a saucer ; a great White
Star boat bound for New Zealand has shrunk to
the proportions of the vessels which decorate Messrs.
Gamage's windows. Even as we look it crawls out to
sea like a fly on a window pane. One has an absurd
desire to pick up a stone and throw it right down into
the heart of the city or make a splash on the blue
waters of the Bay, where Eobben Island lies like a
dusty rug on the shining deep. Southwards the plateau
which forms the top of the mountain slopes in somewhat
less precipitous fashion to the beautiful gorges which
lead down to the suburbs of Rondebosch, Claremont,
and Wynberg. Constantia, the old home of the Van
der Stels, one of the most beautiful of the Cape houses,
lies over the nek in the direction of False Bay. On
three sides the sea sweeps round till its inviolable
frontier yields place to the mountains through which
the pathway lies to the north.

And then the flowers — the heather, the lilies, the
gladioli — which cover the mountain. They are pro-
tected most carefully by law from the depredations of
the tourist — a fact of which I was all unaware as I
sallied down Skeleton Gorge and through Bishop's
Court with my arms full of gladioli, an unsuspecting
law breaker. Even more beautiful, perhaps, are the
tiny glades on the lower slopes, where streams of water
bubble out of the rock, and arums and moss and ferns
cling together : miniature scenes from fairyland, where
elves might come to sport by moonlight.

22 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

In this dry and rugged land of Africa these green
glades of dazzling verdure, with their murmur of water
and the wind driving upwards through the great oak
trees below, bring a sense of enchantment hard to
describe. And those who know the mountain well
will tell you that you may explore it for months and
years and still find new beauties undiscovered in its
gorges and frowning precipices, in its flowers and streams
and valleys, last but not least in that incomparable
gift of colour which at all seasons is the special glory
of South Africa.

No ; the question of the capital is not to me an
agitating one. Cape Town, with her history, her harbour,
her mountain, has nothing to fear from Pretoria.

23

CHAPTER III

A MEMORIAL AND A GRAVE

Full lasting is the song, though he

The singer passes : lasting too
For souls not lent in usury

The rapture of the forward view.

Meredith*

L'homme d'action est toujours un faible artiste, car il n'a pas pour
but unique de refleter la splendeur de l'univers ; il ne serait etre un
savant, car il regie ses opinions d'apres l'utilite politique ; ce n'est meme
pas un homme tres-vertueux, car jamais il n'est irreprochable, la sottise
et la mechancete des hommes le forcant a practiser avec elles. Jamais
surtout il n'est aimable : la plus charmante des vertus, la reserve, lui
est interdite. Le monde favorise les audacieux, ceux qui s'aident eux-
memes. On est fort dans Taction par ses defauts ; on est faible par
ses qualites.

Ernest RenaN.

Rondebosch, the beautiful suburb of Cape Town on
the slopes of the Devil's Peak, dates from the earliest
years of the Dutch colonisation of South Africa. It
was here that Jan van Riebeck, leader of the first
expedition to the Cape, started farming operations
on behalf of the Dutch East India Company about 1655,
and here, in due course, was built the original Groote
Schuur, or Great Barn, in which his grain was housed.
On the hillside above the fine modern Dutch house
which is now the official residence of the Prime Minister
of the Union of South Africa there has recently been

24 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

erected a memorial temple with spreading colonnades.
It is built of the local granite, and stands out white,
simple, dignified among its setting of pine-trees. A
great flight of steps flanked by bronze lions leads down
from the temple to a semi-circular space, where on a
block of granite stands the figure of Watts's Physical
Energy. Behind the temple the woods slope upwards
till they lose themselves among the violet rocks of
the mountain. In front lies that vast expanse of
country over the Cape flats to the distant Hottentots'
Holland mountains, the beauty of which eludes descrip-
tion. Once long ago at Groote Schuur, the owner who
loved it with so deep a passion said to me that he
often thought God in Heaven had no scene so fair to
look upon as that view above the house. The bronze
figure on the galloping horse fronts the far horizon
with eager challenge. The hand of the rider is shading
his eyes and he is looking fixedly, intently, towards
the north. Anyone familiar with the statue among
the placidities and perambulators of Kensington Gardens
can little realise the splended virility of the group amid
natural surroundings more attuned to its rugged genius.
Rider, temple, mountain-side, all here form one coherent
whole, a fitting monument by day or by night to the
mighty spirit it commemorates. I saw the temple
once, mysterious, unforgettable, when the gold and
purple of the sunlight hours had yielded place to the
olive and silver of the moon. It was as though the
peace of God enveloped the grey mountain side and
the whisper of the eternities was carried by the wind
as it glided through the pine woods. The sense of
the sea was all around, but a hush had fallen even
on the dim waters half discerned of the two great bays
washed by different oceans. All was silence, peace,

A MEMORIAL AND A GRAVE 25

acquiescence, but a living peace which spoke of brief
earthly effort merged into a more vast, a more eternal
purpose. Horse and rider stood out clear against
the powder-blue sky, while the white stairway behind
sloped upwards till it lost itself among the darker
shadows of the clustered pillars : true image of that
Jacob's ladder of the soul with the angels of God
ascending and descending. Under the full splendour
of the moon, the questioning impatient figure on the
horse flung its perpetual challenge across the heart of
Africa into a night which was as clear as day. And
suddenly across the sky came a great shooting star,
soaring up serenely and then falling, a blaze of light
apparently into the heart of the temple itself.

Let us follow the intent gaze of the rider as he
scans the night : let us annihilate a thousand miles
and more of dry karroo and dusty veld, and journey
to that resting-place in the far north towards which the
eyes are ever turned. Thirty miles from Bulawayo,
the ancient ■ Place of Killing/ you strike a range of
low granite hills which stretch for about 100 miles along
the great uplands of Matabeleland. They are little
hills, 200 or 300 feet high, geologically the product
of denudation, and they have nothing in common
either with the characteristic flat-topped South African
kopje or with the sweeping lines of the Drakensberg.
They are angry-looking heaps of stones, and I for
one had the impression of a family of giants who had
quarrelled over some huge meal and had upset the
mammoth contents of a sugar basin over the country-
side. The whole district is a sea of rocks, and it is
doubtful whether any white man has explored half
the recesses of the caves and valleys which He hidden
among the hills. They are wooded hills too, and after

26 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the rains are a mass of verdure and flowering plants.
One kopje so closely resembles another that the difficulty
of geographical bearings among such a labyrinth is
enormous. But there is one kopje now to which many
feet are turned in pilgrimage, a kopje hard to find in
the old days, but unique among the hills for the twelve
or more great monoliths which encircle the summit.
For ages these great stones have stood as though
awaiting a guardianship, a trust ; and the trust is
theirs to-day, for they guard a grave — a rough-hewn
block of granite on which the eyes of the bronze rider
far in the south are fixed.

The view from the rock has been called the World's
View. But from this high claim I for one must dissent.
There are many finer views in South Africa alone
than can be obtained in the Matoppos. The view is
poignant, strange, restless, rather than beautiful. These
convulsed and agonised hills speak of the toil and
travail of life rather than of the peace of death. The
imagination of a Leonardo da Vinci alone could do
justice to such rocks with their weird suggestion of
life and personality. One is reminded of the stony
backgrounds in which he has set those enigmatic smiling
women whose faces are so singularly devoid of all real
mirth. Even the solitude and the silence are not con-
vincing. In them the same note of restless expectancy
is to be found : of silence, but waiting for the last trump
to sweep with shout and battle through the hosts of
Heaven. But it may be that the strong, restless soul,
who willed to He at the last among these hills, gave us
in that final choice some glimpse of the spirit in Nature
to which his own was akin. Here he ventured his life
in the cause of peace and won his Matabele name of
' the one who separates the fighting bulls/ And here,

A MEMOKIAL AND A GRAVE 27

so it is said, the Matabele — who by their own wish
guard the grave — believe that his spirit communes
over the affairs of the land with that of Umsilikatze,
their own great chief, buried on a kopje near at hand.
Not for such ghosts could there exist the torpid joys
of the conventional Paradise.

By the grave of Cecil John Rhodes who can venture
to estimate his life and work ? The task remains
an impossible one for our generation. Lives and
memoirs have been written ; facts, data, impressions,
collected. It is no reflection on their authors to recognise
that so far the tale is left half-told. The calm lamp of
the historian has not yet illumined a figure so great
and so debatable ; not those who have lived among the
passions and upheavals of latter-day South Africa
can estimate with justice the mingled gold and dross
of that character. The measure of the man is not to
be taken by those who greatly loved or greatly hated
him. Our hands are incapable of holding firmly scales
into which we have cast the bias of our own prejudices.
As in the mysterious story of Abraham's sacrifice in the
plain of Mamre, both the burning lamp and the smoking
furnace turn by turn passed among the pieces of the
offering casting light or darkness on his path. That
strange mystical touch sets him apart, and leaves
lesser men shaken and confounded by his deeds. He
compels unwilling tribute from those who most
passionately seek to condemn him. Such a man as
Mr. Cripps of Enkeldoorn, missionary, negrophilist,
and poet, cannot escape in his Mashonaland station
from the influence which still remains the most vital
thing in Rhodesia. He challenges it angrily, but a
poem like ' Resurgat ' shows that the compelling force
of that influence is strong upon him.

28 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

God be with you in your need !

When God's mills have ground you through —

All the coarse cruel chafE of you —

Be there left one seed to sow !

Which in season may unfold

Your visionary might of old —

Like some fecund vine to sprawl

On the widths of Zion's wall

In penitence imperial.

The man who can wring this strange tribute from an
unwilling opponent is not one to be pigeonholed and
docketed morally after the vain attempts of many of
his detractors. To deny or to overlook in Rhodes the
greatness of his spirit, the wide sweep of his vision, the
vast national ends to which he devoted wealth and
will, were as foolish as to ignore the darker, the more
sinister sides of his nature, the ruthless disregard of
men and methods, the moral short cuts which involved
him in disaster. And midway between these poles
lay a debatable ford where warring factions struggled
for supremacy : an utter contempt for money as regards
all the pompous trivialities for which small men value
it, and yet the supreme and pathetic delusion that
money could buy a man's best convictions ; a complete
simplicity of personal life while the pageant of Empire
hung before his eyes ; a power of thought which ranged
over continents and yet could display a childish irrita-
bility and petulance about trifles ; staunch in friend-
ship, implacable in enmity ; finally, as his will proved,
capable of a keen appreciation for educational discipline
and intellectual power, the more remarkable in a man
of action, himself little disciplined.

No: among the angry violences of our own time,
the first, let alone the last, word has hardly been spoken
of Cecil Rhodes, that dreamer with his head among the

A MEMORIAL AND A GRAVE 29

stars, examining the future with puissant vision, while
his feet strayed among dark and devious paths. Here
on the rock where in old days he would spend hours
in silent thought, or sprawling like a great Hon in the
shadow of the monoliths would argue and dispute with
the friends he summoned to his councils, perhaps the
thought which rises uppermost is that in very truth
the face of death is kind. For life are violences,
acrimonies, struggles ; for death, the quiet majesty
which winnows the things temporal from the things
eternal. To death, not life, we must look for a true
sense of values ; and the kindness of death lies in its
wiping out of the lesser and baser and therefore more
transitory sides of human life and character. Cecil
Rhodes remains a great influence in South Africa to-
day, but it is a higher influence than of old, an influence
purged and purified. To-day the dross is gone and the
spirit's true endowments stand out as never before.
When men speak of their hope and faith for the future
his personality still dominates hearts and imaginations.
Wherever some great work is found his inspiration is
almost invariably concerned with it. To whatever
criticisms the acquisition of Rhodesia may have been
open there can be no question of the value of Rhodes's
far-sighted policy to the whole present development
of a United South Africa. The very existence of the
Union would have been thwarted and imperilled had
a foreign Power established itself between the Limpopo
and the Zambesi, and a situation already sufficiently
tangled politically and racially would have been still
further complicated. Rhodes, who saw the end, willed
the means. But the history had its dark pages, and
for these things a price had to be paid. Cecil Rhodes,
Paul Kruger — the ambitions and conflicts of these

30 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

two men were to deluge the land with blood. To the
old President, as to Rhodes himself, death has brought
the more kindly generous judgment, the greater
recognition of his deep if narrow patriotism. Neither
man was doomed to see the new order arise out of the
ashes of the old. What was vital in Rhodes's vision
of Empire, what was no less vital in Kruger's passionate
sense of nationality, had to pass through the change
of death before the Fates could weave the enduring
strands of those purposes on the loom of the nation's
life. To both men, as of old, came the inexorable voice :
* Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made
great wars ; thou shalt not build a house unto My
Name because thou hast shed much blood upon the
earth/

We bow our heads before the judgment, but maybe
we pray that a man of rest may indeed be reared
up for the building of a house of life in this land ' ex-
ceeding magnifical and of fame and glory throughout
all countries/ Let the last word He not with the men
and women of his own race, but with the generous
appreciation by General Botha which appears as
foreword to Lord Grey's great tribute at the opening
of the Rhodes Memorial in July 1912 : —

* Criticism, at such a time as this, gives place to a
reverent and sincere appreciation of what was best and
most unselfish in our friend ; and the heart in reverence
bows to the silent prayer, that what was greatest and
highest and noblest in Cecil John Rhodes may remain a
living influence in the country he loved so well.'

31

CHAPTER IV

IN BASUTOLAND

We travelled in the print of olden wars,

Yet all the land was green.
And love we found and peace,

Where fire and war had been.
They pass and smile the children of the sword,

No more the sword they wield ;
But 0, how deep the corn

Along the battlefield.

R. L. Stevenson.

Local trains in South Africa eschew the American
spirit of hustle, and amble placidly and pleasantly
across the veld to their destination. In remote
districts they are by no means of daily occurrence,
and when you part from the main line it is sometimes
necessary to wait patiently at the local hotel till the
specified day produces the specified train. The smoke
of an approaching locomotive twice or thrice a week
is a real event in the Back Veld, the smaller Dorps
turning out in force at the wayside stations to pass
the time of day with neighbours who have embarked
on the hazardous courses of foreign travel. The train
itself is almost invariably overcrowded, and affords
much scope for a study of the Dutch countryside.
They are invariably — in my experience — courteous
and considerate, these tall Boer farmers, who interrupt
their harangues in Taal to converse with one politely

32 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

in broken English about the opening or closing of the
window and the other small amenities of travel. In
such a train I ambled one Saturday afternoon late
in December through the Conquered Territory from
Bloemfontein to Maseru, the picturesque little capital
of Basutoland. A train into Basutoland at all is
a novelty, for till the recent construction of the line
from Bloemfontein, Maseru could only be reached by
a long coach-drive from Ladybrand. The drought
which had laid so fierce a hand on South Africa during
1912 still reigned practically unbroken, and the
parched land of the Free State was calling out for
rain. It is a valuable farming country, however, this
district of the Conquered Territory filched from the
Basutos more than forty years ago by the Free State
Boers, and large crops, both of mealies and wheat,
are grown here. The Duke of Westminster owns a
large tract of land in this district, and the red-tiled
roofs of the pretty homesteads on the Westminster
estate are a feature of the countryside. The Duke's
property has been carefully developed, but the land-
lord and tenant system which obtains on it is not a
popular one, neither does it seem well adapted to the
needs of the country. Power of acquiring the freehold
on easy terms is a necessary condition of satisfactory
land settlement in South Africa, as otherwise men
hesitate to make improvements the benefit of which
may be reaped by someone else. The fine runs near
the Government Experimental Farm at Tweespruit
where stock and cattle are raised; and, to judge by
the number of homesteads, farming is obviously pro-
secuted with considerable vigour. For many miles
the isolated peak of Thaba N'Chu, rearing its crest
into the clear sky, dominates the rolling landscape.

IN BASUTOLAND 33

The mountain was the meeting place of the Trek Boers
in 1837, and as such adds a certain historical interest
to its fine natural outlines. The country becomes
more and more hilly as the Basutoland border is
approached, the Caledon river forming the boundary
at this point. Rivers with flowing waters are an ex-
ception in South Africa, and the respectable stream
of the Caledon was quite a surprise. Shortly after
the passage of the river the train comes to a stop at
Maseru — Maseru being the Basuto word for sandstone,
the prevalent rock of the country.

It is something of a privilege to penetrate to this
tiny capital, for hotels are non-existent and the visits
of stray tourists in no way encouraged. Basutoland
is practically a great native reserve, and no European
settlement is allowed within its boundaries, save a
handful of specially authorised persons. The Resident
Commissioner and small group of British officials
have their headquarters at Maseru, and here the ' Pitso/
or Great Council of the Basutos, meets annually, when
chiefs and people confer with the Imperial authorities
about all matters of government. Basutoland is
a treeless country, but at Maseru pines and eucalyptus
have been introduced, and the Residency has a pleasant
garden, where flowers and green leaves come as a
welcome change from the barren hills. The sub-
stantial houses, built of the local sandstone, give a
solid air to Maseru, and the public offices, the Pitso
hall, and the newly built Anglican church are a prac-
tical demonstration of what native work can achieve
under European guidance. Basutoland has been a
great field for missionary effort, the French Protestant
missions in particular being widely established. They
have carried on excellent work among the natives

34 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

and an admirable technical school has recently
started under Government auspices. The Basutos
make skilled workmen ; indeed, their proficiency in
this respect excites no little jealousy in the Free State,
where native competition in industrial matters is
regarded with great abhorrence. But as one looks
round at Maseru on the excellent quality of much
native work, more and more rank heresy takes posses-
sion of the mind as regards the fundamental dogma
of South African industrial life — namely that white
men are to do the skilled and black men the unskilled
work. In a country where the white working popu-
lation is not sufficiently large to meet the economic
needs of the community, can there be any sense in
artificially preventing the native from making good,
so far as he can, the considerable deficiencies which
exist ? This heresy, however, raises a very large
question, the full discussion of which would take us
far beyond the boundaries of Maseru. At least the
Imperial authorities in Basutoland act upon the
hypothesis that the native should be trained to carry
out manual work in his own land. At the Government
Industrial School there is a fitting shop, blacksmith's
shop, carpenter's shop, and the boys are also taught
to work as masons. There were seventy-three pupils
at the school at the time of my visit, and they pay
school fees amounting to U. per annum. Detractors
of missionary work must find Basutoland somewhat
a stumbling-block in the path of their theories, mis-
sionary influence having been the dominant one in
the land to the benefit of all concerned. All told,
about 50,000 natives are members of churches, but
Christianity in some form has touched a far larger
proportion of the population.

IN BASUTOLAND 35

Three hills, known locally as the World, the Flesh,
and the Devil, surround Maseru, and from the summit
of the World an extensive view of the country may
be obtained right away to the Maluti Mountains and
Thaba Bosigo — Mountain of the Night — once the
stronghold of Moshesh, now the burial-place of the
Basuto chiefs. Nearer at hand is the break in the
hills known as Lancers Gap, where Sir George Cathcart's
expedition in 1852 suffered in an encounter with the
Basutos. These great views are one of the special
glories of South African travel, and the Basutoland
scenery is particularly fine, especially on the Natal
border. I was told that during the war on a very
calm day it was possible from the summit of the World
to hear faintly on one side the guns of Ladysmith,
125 miles distant, and of Paardeberg, in the Free State,
on the other.

Basutoland is densely populated, and the steady
increase of population among a pastoral people already
numbering over 400,000 is a serious problem. The
land question is an urgent one, for the country is
clearly overcrowded. A density of forty natives to
the square mile is a high one for South Africa. Native
villages are very numerous, and the degree to which
the veld is cropped high up the mountains tells its
own tale. The Basutos look happy and contented,
and their bearing, though proud and independent, is
perfectly respectful. They wear gaily striped blankets
and curious chimney-pot hats, with wide brims, made
of straw, European clothes mercifully being less common
here than in other parts of Africa. Nearly all of
them own horses, and the little Basuto ponies are a
feature of the land. The native population is practically
a mounted one, and during a visit to one of the kraals

D 2

36 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

it was not a little curious to pass so many warriors
of this picturesque type — many of them armed. On
the face of it, Basutoland hardly seems adapted
to motors, but the ubiquitous car has arrived here,
as elsewhere. Letsie, the Paramount Chief, died shortly
after my visit, but the old gentleman — ill though he
was at the time — had been seized with a passion for
motoring, and was in the habit of scouring the country,
despite the inadequate roads, in a car which was the
joy of his heart. For even in Basutoland the new
order treads hard on the heels of the old, and the
spirit of change is abroad here as elsewhere.

Basutoland, though of small size judged by South
African standards — its area is a little over 10,000
square miles — is historically one of the most interesting
districts south of the Zambesi. This mountainous
country, popularly known as the Switzerland of South
Africa, has had a strange and chequered career among
native States. Though administered directly by the
Imperial Government, the Basutos may claim the
proud position of a Kafir people who have preserved
a larger measure of independence against all comers
than exists in any other part of South Africa. They
have in the past inflicted no small measure of dis-
comfiture on Imperial, Colonial, and Dutch Govern-
ments alike. As a nation they owe their existence
to one of the most remarkable men the Bantu race has
yet produced, the celebrated chief Moshesh, who during
the wars of extermination waged by the Zulu King
Chaka, rallied a number of fugitives from other tribes
among the rocky strongholds of the Maluti Mountains.
Moshesh, though gifted with considerable military
skill, was even more remarkable for the astuteness and
success of his diplomacy, and in 1869, after a prolonged

IN BASITTOLAND 37

struggle with the Free State Boers, saved the practical
independence of his people by invoking the protection
of the Imperial Government. ' Let me and my people
rest under the large folds of the flag of England before
I am no more/ wrote Moshesh in words which are
famous in South African history, and under those
large folds the Basutos have prospered exceedingly.
The warlike spirit of the people occasioned no little
anxiety to the Imperial authorities during the late
Boer war. The then Paramount Chief Lerothodi,
with between 20,000 and 30,000 well-armed men, asked
no better than to make a demonstration across the
Caledon river which would wipe off some old scores
against the Free State Boers. Thanks to the tact and
discretion of the Resident Commissioner and his
colleagues, this dangerous spirit was kept in check, and
the Basutos, though spoiling for a fight, were induced
to remain quiet and not interfere in a white man's
struggle. The present Resident Commissioner, Sir
Herbert Sloley, is one of the greatest authorities on
native affairs in South Africa, and under his wise and
sympathetic rule this high-spirited people are developing
their national life without conflict with their neighbours
and along lines conducive to their own self-respect and
growth in civilisation. They show no inclination of
any kind for absorption into the Union, and their
determination to remain under Imperial control may
produce some perplexing situations for the Home
Government before the matter is finally adjusted.
The whole question of the Native Protectorates is
not the least of the many thorny problems of South
Africa, and the Basutos, who have maintained their
independence successfully, as we have seen, in the past,
are not likely to brook any high-handed settlement

38 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

made over their heads. All these circumstances are
of course fully realised by the authorities concerned,
but in Basutoland, as elsewhere in South Africa, the
true solvent of many difficulties is to be found not
through forcing the pace but through the more peaceful
operations of time.

39

CHAPTER V

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS
A place for gold where they fine it.

There is only one poetical element connected with
Johannesburg, the beautiful and suggestive name
given to the greatest gold district in the world — why
or wherefore I know not, for the rushing waters flecked
with foam which the word Witwatersrand suggests
are conspicuous by their absence here. This is the
High Veld in all the grandeur of its great spaces and
open challenge to the heavens above ; but it is also
the High Veld in all its silence, emptiness, and dryness.
In the old days when the Trek Boers first roamed over
these remote uplands, who could have conceived the
dramatic transformation to be witnessed in the future
when primeval silence was to yield place to the clang
of stamp and mill, and the peace of Nature to the
unrest of man's quest for gold ? So vast is Nature
in South Africa, so puny is man when confronted with
her works, that it is almost with a sigh of surprise
that one comes across any evidences of the latter's
power to wrest from Nature some measure of her might.
The living will, frail but conscious, imposes itself on
the great unconsciousness of the empty spaces, and
Nature in the main submits — save on the occasions
when, so to speak, she lifts an eyebrow and man is

40 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

overwhelmed with cataclysms which make of his strength
a dream and a forgetting. Would that the first contact
of man's living will with Nature's power were apt to
take a form more consonant with the inherent nobility
of each ! But that first contact, alas ! too often expresses
itself in ugly greed and sordid gain, till a higher moral
consciousness once again asserts itself, and man returns
to the great mother in penitence seeking forgiveness :
a reconciliation never denied, however much shadowed
by the sense of failure.

It is difficult to avoid some such moralisings as the
railway for the first time brings one within sight of
Johannesburg and the Rand. To wander for some
weeks or months from district to district throughout
South Africa, seeing nothing but an occasional farm ;
halting at the little settlements called towns ; feeling
with the glory of each sunny morning and the hush
of each perfect night that the vast peace of Mother
Earth sinks deeper into one's being ; losing all memory
of the fret and jar of city life while a truer sense of
proportion falls on the weary restlessness of the spirit :
then suddenly to see, as in some nightmare, great
chimneys disgorging clouds of black smoke on the
horizon, and the whole ugly apparatus of industrialism
more dirty, more ragged, more unkempt even than in
industrial Yorkshire and Lancashire, heaving itself out
of the solitude of the veld, is a shock of no pleasant
kind. The cyanide heaps are the only unfamiliar
feature of the scene which unfolds itself, spectral-
looking accumulations, white, glistening ; but the
whiteness has in it nothing fair or alluring, but rather
something sinister and corpse-like. It is all profoundly
unlovely, and moves one to a resentment which is never
experienced in industrial England where the sense of

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS 41

the human heart is very present amid mine, mill, and
machine. Why, one asks, should dirt and chimneys
come and instal themselves in such a land as this,
defiling Nature with their corrupting touch ? That is
the first impulse, and it is a natural one in the
circumstances. But after the first shock common sense
reasserts itself. This ugly patch is the financial key
of South Africa, and, for the present at least, national
development is bound to be concerned with gold pro-
duction. Then, man is after all a gregarious animal,
and his progress in civilisation has been, to a large
degree, the measure of his association with other men in
towns. To rail against the town is foolishness : it is
an inevitable condition of modern life and modern
industry. Far better is it therefore to accept the fact
and work with it loyally, setting before ourselves an
ideal of city life worthy of the manhood it holds. In
the great vision of the new heaven and the new earth
the city still remains when former things have passed
away and even the sea has vanished. It may seem
slightly fantastical to call upon town councillors and
urban authorities to conform their standards to those
of the mystical Civitas Dei, and yet who can deny the
need of just some such uplift to vivify the whole of
municipal fife and raise it from the slough of despond
and petty interests in which it has too great a tendency
to sink ?

The beginnings of most cities are ugly, and Johannes-
burg, which had the further disadvantage of starting
life as a mining camp, was handicapped in a special way.
In the early days its future was one of complete un-
certainty, and until the phase of gold mining and specu-
lation had passed into that of gold manufacturing and
solid enterprise, the first conditions of an ordered and

42 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

civilised life could hardly be fulfilled. No trouble was
taken to lay out the town properly in the first place,
because no one had any idea whether they were dealing
with a town or a fleeting settlement. The beginnings
therefore were neglected entirely, and for neglected
beginnings any community has to pay heavily. A great
many allowances therefore should be made for Johannes-
burg to-day, if on the whole she still gives the incon-
gruous impression as of a woman, wearing a brocade
gown, with ragged stockings and down-at-heel shoes.
With a population here to-day and gone to-morrow,
the more solid civic virtues cannot be rooted and bear
good fruit, and this transitory element remains to this
day a grave drawback in the life of the place. The
town straggles in every direction, covering a large area.
It presents some very sharp contrasts so far as wealth
and poverty are concerned. There are beautiful houses
in the residential suburbs, and from the high ground at
Park Town fine views over the surrounding country
can be obtained. As against this, the poorer parts of
the town are unspeakably squalid and ramshackle.
The principal streets are spacious, but without a re-
deeming feature architecturally. Here and there fine
buildings are springing up as the artistic sense asserts
itself with more settled conditions. No doubt it is all
a very remarkable product for less than a generation's
growth, but it lacks charm and glamour completely,
and even such atmosphere as may be experienced
at Pretoria. The authorities claim not unjustly, that
a great deal has been done in the time, and that
such public services as light, trams, water, telephones,
&c, have been provided adequately and efficiently for
the community. As a community it is very much alive,
but I was never in a place where, rightly or wrongly,

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATEES 43

the impression made on me was so strong of the lack of
human intercourse between classes. One is conscious
of a hard indifferent spirit abroad, which might easily
crystallise into sharp hostility — an observation certainly
endorsed by the July riots on the Rand which took
everything and everyone aback by their fierceness.
The presence of the black man in preponderating
numbers as the basis of industry is no doubt responsible,
in a large measure, for the somewhat inhuman terms
on which the whites live together. They are not a
great homogeneous body welded together by common
needs and interests. At every point the native thrusts
himself in between them with a different standard of
life, and through his weakness and impotence is a moral
peril of no slight magnitude to his white employers.

The Rand basin of which Johannesburg is the
centre is about 130 miles long by 30 wide and the
main reef series stretch right and left of the town for
a distance of 80 miles before curving to the south.
Gold mining is carried on continuously along this line
for forty or fifty miles, some seventy-seven companies
being at work in the district. They vary in size from
great enterprises with a multiplication of batteries
and stamps, to propositions of a more modest character,
and between them they turned out in 1911 the huge
total gold production of £33,599,689.1 The net output of
gold from all sources in South Africa was £35,049,041,
being 36 per cent, of the world's total production, which
is estimated at £97,250,000. A strange city indeed, num-
bering some 237,220 souls,2 120,411 white and 116,809
black and coloured, sprung from the bare veld, where
twenty-five years ago buck and hartebeest roamed at will.

1 Union of South Africa Mines Department Annual Report, 1912.
s Census 1911,

44 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Few things sound more romantic and exciting than
a gold mine. What visions of El Dorado, of treasure
islands, of buccaneers — in a word, of all the glamour and
enchantment of our youth — are conjured up by the
very name ! Alas, for the latter-day prose of life !
the modern gold mine is the most wholly unromantic
spot imaginable. It has considerable mechanical and
scientific interest, especially as regards the elaborate
processes brought to bear on the extraction of the gold
from the rock in which it lies embedded. But the
only thing which one must never expect to see at a
gold mine is gold itself. It is well to be clear on that
point at the start, so as to avoid disappointment. The
processes disclosed in the course of a visit to a mine
are very remarkable, but gold is never present visually
during any of them. Lumps of the precious metal
sticking to the stamps or the sides of the cyanide vats
must not be looked for here. All that one sees from
first to last is, first, the mining and pounding of hard
grey rock, and then the thumping and washing of soft
grey mud. It was my good fortune to be shown the
process above and below ground by Sir Lionel Phillips
himself, to whose kindness I was indebted for a most
interesting visit to the Crown Mines.

A coal mine and a gold mine underground are very
different things. The first shock when one reaches the
bottom of a Rand shaft is to see naked fights every-
where and men smoking pipes and cigarettes. The
unique gold deposits of the Rand are to be found in
conglomerate pebble beds called banket, tipped at an
angle of between 30 and 70 degrees. The mine is
worked at a series of different levels known as stopes,
and up the stope one must clamber, more or less on
hands and knees if one wishes to see the men at work

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS 45

on the face of the reef. There is no question, as in a
coal mine, of extracting the metalliferous ore with pick
and shovel. Holes are drilled in the rock and the surface
shattered daily by charges of dynamite. The shattered
rock is then collected and taken above ground to the
mill, where it goes through the further processes of
reduction necessary. The very serious feature of rock
drilling, simple and not particularly arduous work
though it looks, lies in the dust created by the drills
and the high percentage of miner's phthisis to which
it gives rise. We clambered up the stope, and squatted
in the half light where a typical picture of South African
industrial life lay before us. The native boys were
hard at work driving holes in the rock either with
hammers or electric drills getting ready for the blasting.
There was a white ganger in charge of the boys, but
even the electric drill was being worked by the natives,
while the ganger sitting on his haunches looked on
with an occasional word of direction. This particular
ganger was a Northumberland miner, and as natives
of colliery districts we promptly foregathered over coal.
Yes, the wages were excellent, he said, but England
was England and his heart was clearly in ' the north
countree.' No native may hold a blasting certificate,
so the direction of the mine remains entirely in white
hands, though some of the natives acquire considerable
skill in handling the drills. But they are easily thrown
off their balance by even the smallest upset or difficulty,
and though contemplation rather than hard work
seems the lot of the white overseer in a Rand mine,
probably his responsibilities are greater than seem
obvious to the casual visitor.

Once above ground the rock sets forth on a diver-
sified and chequered career, worked out for it with

\

46 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the highest scientific elaboration. The average output
on the Rand is about six dwt. of gold for every ton of
rock treated, and for every particle of gold recovered
there are 100,000 particles of waste. The rock is taken
first to the stamp mill where it is thoroughly pounded
and crushed. The din of the stamp mill is indescrib-
able and overwhelming ; it is impossible to hear oneself
speak, and I can only conclude that some form of dumb
crambo exists among the unfortunate men who have
the ill fate to work amid the uproar. The mill is like
some devastating devouring monster clamouring for
its prey, as it sucks the masses of grey rock greedily
into its multifarious mouths and grinds them to powder.
This stage accomplished, the pounded rock mixed with
water is first poured over metal plates treated with
mercury, and from a half to two-thirds of the gold is
caught by the mercury process at this point, on what
are known technically as the 'tables/ It is on the
extraction of the remaining balance of the gold that so
much skill and thought have been lavished. The rock,
by this time pounded as fine as face powder, having
passed over the mercury plates, is now subjected to the
cyanide process. It is first poured into the great tanks
which are an outstanding feature of every mine on the
Rand. The water is then pumped off and the powder
when dried passed up on belts to a distributor which
scatters it loosely into another tank. Cyanide of
potassium is then pumped into the tank, which sets on
foot a sort of game of hide-and-seek between the gold
and the cyanide. The cyanide being fickle drops
the potassium and exchanges it for the gold. The new
cyanide solution is then pumped off and passed through
boxes filled with zinc shavings, while what remains
of the pounded rock is carted away to form the great

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATEES 47

white rubbish heaps of cyanide tailings which litter
the whole district. Once again the fickle cyanide thinks
it would like a change, and this time drops the gold
and picks up the zinc, the gold being deposited in a
grey powder at the bottom of the box. This is collected ;
and the final process consists in the smelting of the
mercury deposits on the plates, and of the powder in the
boxes collected after such an expenditure of time and
trouble. At the end of all these elaborations 95 per
cent, of the gold crushed is recovered. I was shown a
small crucible, the size of a casserole, in which gold
and amalgam off the plates had been collected. Its
appearance was that of a handful of dried mud, and
this was the nearest I achieved to seeing gold in
visible form at Johannesburg. But when the manager
suggested I should lift it up, the weight proved tremend-
ous, small though the crucible I was attempting to raise.
The Rand gold mines are of low-grade ore, yielding but
a modest return of gold per ton crushed. Their value
lies not in their richness but in their regularity. Hence
the amount of labour expended on the cyanide process
with a view to capturing that one-third proportion of
gold which eludes the mercury plates at the first washing.
Above and below ground during our tour the
presence of the native gave rise to some curious reflec-
tions. Out on the fields and farms he seems at home ;
here amid complicated machinery we have yoked him
to another process of doubtful value to himself. Com-
pound life is one of the most interesting studies in South
Africa. Here may be seen natives from all parts of
the country ; agriculturists turned for the nonce
into miners, and lured from their kraals by the prospect
of wages which prove the open sesame to the gratifica-
tion of the Kafir's growing needs. Unlike the natives on

48 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the diamond fields, both at Kimberley and the Premier
Mine, the Rand workers are not strictly confined to
compounds. In the case of gold there is not the same
difficulty about thefts as in that of diamonds. The
cloistered compound has been, and is, hotly attacked on
principle ; but if well managed it is probably a far
better system for the natives concerned than the liberty
which they possess at Johannesburg to roam about at
will — a point emphasised by the last Commission which
has recently dealt with native difficulties in South
Africa.1 Liberty can be an asset of very doubtful
value to the native. Influences of the worst and most
corrupting character await him at his compound, gate,
and though the sale of intoxicants theoretically is pro-
hibited, practically the illicit liquor trade flourishes
at the expense of his demoralisation. So long as
indentured black labour is employed on the mines, a
special obligation rests on the whole mining community
to ensure that the native's passage through the furnace
of Johannesburg should be as little harmful as possible
to his morale. In the Kimberley compounds, where
Mr. Rhodes instituted really paternal government;
the native is provided with opportunities of decent
amusement and self-improvement out of work hours,
which render the term of industrial service, despite
the restraints on personal freedom imposed, far less
inimical to his welfare than the conditions to which he
is subjected at Johannesburg.

Many people may learn with surprise that nearly
half the labour required for industrial purposes on the
Rand is recruited outside the Union in Portuguese
East Africa. The Witwatersrand Native Labour Com-
pound, which is the great centre where the Portuguese

i Report of the Commission upon Assaults on Women, 1913.

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS 49

natives are recruited and collected prior to being drafted
over the mines, is the largest of its kind in Johannesburg.
I paid a visit to the compound, where the high standard
of order, cleanliness, and efficiency was very striking.
Any sort of systematic ill-treatment of natives on the
Rand may be dismissed as a fiction. It is one of the
matters in which there has been a distinct advance in
public opinion. Labour is scarce, costly to recruit,
and when acquired is of value to the employers. The
death rate from pulmonary diseases has been very high,
especially in the case of boys from tropical latitudes
where recruiting is now prohibited. But, so far as the
outer conditions of life are concerned, the native is well
provided for in the Witwatersrand Native Labour
Compound. The building itself is spacious and well con-
structed. In no respect did the employment of Chinese
prove more beneficial than the wholly improved con-
ditions for native labour generally which resulted from
their introduction. There was no question of thrusting
the Chinese into the kennels which were thought good
enough in old days for the housing of Kafirs on the
mines. Adequate accommodation was one of the con-
ditions of the employment of Asiatics, and now that the
latter have departed, the Bantu worker reaps the benefit
of these advantages. The Rand abounds in curious
legends dealing with the brief and stormy residence of
the Chinese in South Africa. An amusing sidelight on
the ' slavery ' cry was the character of one complaint
about them which I heard in Johannesburg. On
holidays no cabs of any kind were available in the
town. They were all monopolised by the poor slaves,
who, dressed in their best clothes, drove about
in state, making purchases, while the Europeans per-
force went on foot. That the first batch of Chinese

50 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

introduced should have been the sweepings of the Chinese
gaols was a surprising blunder in view of the unpopu-
larity of the experiment. It might have been thought
that, especially at the start, more care would have
been taken to secure good material. These ruffians
were responsible for such outrages as were committed,
and certainly proved very upsetting to the nerves of
the country districts when they escaped from the com-
pounds. But the bulk of the Chinese were steady,
respectable men, very hardworking, who gave little or
no trouble. Contrary to expectation they spent a
good deal of money in the country, and their departure
was not a little bewailed by the Johannesburg shop-
keepers. In another respect I was told there had been
an interesting by-product of their importation and
exodus. The Chinese took very kindly to South African
tobacco, and a small export trade of that commodity
to China has now been established. As a temporary
expedient to meet an abnormal state of affairs, the
Chinese served a useful purpose ; but to whatever gross
exaggerations their presence in South Africa gave rise,
their final disappearance from the country can only
be regarded as a very fortunate circumstance. The
difficulties to which the British Indians both in Natal
and the Transvaal have given rise, show the peril of
introducing yet another race question as a permanent
factor in a situation already sufficiently complicated.
Further, Chinese labour was not an adequate substitute
for Kafir labour, because so vastly superior. It would
have been impossible to confine such intelligence
merely to the ranks of unskilled labour. There can
be little doubt therefore that, had the experiment
continued, the white working man would have found
himself edged out in a relatively short space of time.

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS 51

There was a very adequate case against the Chinese
on grounds such as these, without the hysteria on the
subject which ran riot at the time. But in one direction
at least their presence indirectly entailed very fortunate
consequences. So far as labour is concerned, there can
be no question that the South African native has
benefited all along the line since the introduction of the
Chinese, owing to the higher standard in housing and
sanitary matters which they imposed on the industry.
Let us hope that this circumstance affords some con-
solation to the outraged consciences of the artists to
whom we were indebted at the time for the harrowing
cartoons of chained and manacled slaves.

The particular compound of the Witwatersrand
Native Labour Association, to which I paid a visit, was
one specially built for the Chinese, and is provided with
many amenities as well as a hospital and medical staff.
Natives from a distance are kept here for some little
time in order to grow acclimatised before going below
ground. The general impression conveyed within the
enclosure is of a merry chattering crowd of men. Some
of them were chaunting in the native manner to the
strains of that strange instrument the marimba, the
native piano. The marimba has a family likeness to
the zither, and is played with a pair of sticks like tongs.
It emits a weird, monotonous sound, but there is some-
thing rather attractive about its plaintive minor tones,
voicing as it were the subconscious woe of a subject
race. In another part of the compound the fresh
arrivals were to be found hard at work with hammers,
practising rock-drilling on heaps of stones in order to
acquire a certain efficiency before going below ground.
This is a habit to which the boys take readily enough,
since it ensures better wages from the start of their

52 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

mining career. The kitchens where the great cauldrons
of mealies — the staple food — were boiling were trim
and clean. The sleeping accommodation consists of
two tiers of bunks arranged in rooms round the various
yards. A stalwart Mozambique boy sitting bolt up-
right with his legs crossed on an upper bunk in a mood
apparently of the deepest meditation was my first
impression of the interior. He took not the smallest
notice of our entrance, continuing to stare into space
as fixedly as before. I asked what was the matter with
him, and was told he was one of the new arrivals who
felt delicate and was therefore indisposed to work.
Since his illness did not apparently justify removal
to the hospital he was meditating undisturbed on his
bed. Fierce faction fights, of course, break out from
time to time in the compound, but so far as I could
judge the natives were being handled with humanity
and good sense by the compound managers. Tens of
thousands of them pass through the place in the course
of the year. Some of the boys were coming, others
departing, long queues of them waiting at the office to
hand over or receive their passes or wages. A com-
plaint may be heard in Johannesburg — not one in my
opinion to be taken very seriously — that native wages
are really too high and that in the large majority of cases
no proper use is made of the money earned. Wages,
so it is said, are squandered on cheap jewellery, clocks,
and umbrellas, and all manner of trash. A large group
of boys with their bundles and parcels were just leaving
the compound as we passed through, and the manager
picked out one of them haphazard and asked him to
open his box and show us his purchases. Down on his
knees he went, well content with the request, the other
boys gathering round in a circle and watching the

THE EDGE OF THE WHITE WATERS 53

proceedings with the keenest interest. I was irre-
sistibly reminded of the story of Joseph's brethren
and their bundles, and the cup hidden among the latter
to their trouble and alarm. Our friend fumbled with
obvious pride at the key of his cheap tin box, and then
the lid was thrown open with a great air and its treasures
one by one drawn out and carefully laid on the ground.
As luck would have it, we had not stumbled on contents
of a trashy kind, for this particular native had made
some sensible purchases in the way of serviceable boots,
shirts, clothes, &c. Some embroidery and two glass
jam-jars with plated spoons were the only obvious
incongruities in this particular selection. An east
coast Mohammedan boy, he repudiated with scorn the
idea of taking a present home to his wife or wives, an
inquiry I threw out in the course of the interview. The
purchases were folded up and replaced, the box locked.
He vanishes, a unit in that great crowd, with a long
Odyssey by rail and road before him ere his eyes behold
his native village once again — the village in many
instances to which there is, alas ! no return. A large
cage of African birds was kept in one corner of the com-
pound— pretty, gay-looking objects with their bright
plumage. ' We call her Miss Pankhurst,' said the
manager, pointing to an alert-looking parakeet. ' Why
that ? ' I inquired. ' Oh, because she talks and scolds
all day and gives the other birds no peace.' But ' Miss
Pankhurst ' at the moment was wrapped in silence, so
I was unable to judge of her prowess in this direction.
One leaves the compound with a hundred questions
surging in the mind. What is the effect of all this on
the native ? What type of life and character is being
created through this widespread contact with Johannes-
burg ? What is the future of this strange city to be ?

54 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Johannesburg has grave faults and failures, but it is
only fair to remember that many of them are the in-
evitable faults of a young community where public
opinion is crude and immature. I must return in a
subsequent chapter to a more detailed consideration of
Johannesburg from the industrial and social point of
view. Here I am but concerned with a fleeting im-
pression of some aspects of its outer life. But beneath
the wealth and glitter of the European population one
becomes conscious that the native, half discerned, half
recognised, in mine and compound permeates the
whole structure of society and is the mainspring
on which the life of Johannesburg turns. But what of
the future of any society whose life rests on such a
superstructure ?

55

CHAPTER VI

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS
Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood.

There are some superior folk, fond of short cuts on to
altitudes of self-sufficiency, who seek to separate them-
selves from the common herd by a studied disparage-
ment of objects, natural or artistic, which the general
opinion of the world acclaims. Such people exist in
South Africa as elsewhere, and the hall-mark of their
superiority is a deprecating attitude towards the Victoria
Falls. They will hint that the Falls are rather disap-
pointing than otherwise, that the water is inadequate,
and that altogether too much fuss is made about them.
The price of superiority is often a heavy one, and it is
the critics, not the Zambesi, who in this instance are to
be pitied.

It was in 1855 that the Victoria Falls were first
discovered by Dr. Livingstone in one of those famous
journeys which are still the admiration of all African
travellers. No visitor to Rhodesia should miss the
account of that discovery given by Livingstone in his
diary. The extreme modesty and simplicity of the
great explorer's narrative, his entire absence of phrases
and fine language, are an example to all writers who
have succeeded him. But the wonder of the scene

56 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

wrung even from Livingstone an exclamation more poetic
than his wont, when he speaks of the flights of angels
which but recently must have hovered over the spot.
Livingstone's first impressions were of a unique character,
for, unlike any of his successors, he approached the
Falls from the upper reaches of the Zambesi on his
descent of the river. From an island which bears his
name, situated on the very edge of the abyss, he sur-
veyed the wondrous scene of the Mosi-oa-tunya — 'the
smoke that thunders/ as it is called by the natives.

The journey to the Falls takes twenty-two hours
in the train from Bulawayo, and it is accomplished in
comfort nowadays with the accessories of dining and
sleeping cars. It is not a little interesting to compare
this expeditious transit with the graphic account of a
journey to the Victoria Falls given by Mr. Knight in
■ South Africa after the War/ a book published in 1903.
Events have moved rapidly in South Africa since the
war, and in no respect is the transformation more
striking than in the matter of communication. Ten
years ago, at the time of Mr. Knight's visit, the railway
stopped short of the Falls by 130 miles, and the re-
maining distance of uninhabited forest and bush had
to be covered by coach or wagon, the trip to and from
the rail-head taking at least twelve days. Travelling
was very rough and uncomfortable, and few tourists
penetrated under such conditions to the banks of the
Zambesi. One learns with regret and surprise that the
glories of the Falls were never beheld by the Founder
of Rhodesia. Illness cut short a trek to the north
which Mr. Rhodes had arranged not long before his un-
timely death. The country between Bulawayo and the
Zambesi is dull and uninteresting. Before the days of
the railway the journey must have proved one of singu-

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS 57

lar monotony and devoid of all excitements save the
sporting chance of falling in with a Hon. One becomes
hardened to dust in South Africa, but a brand of a very
special and superior type is kept on this particular route,
a soft, all-permeating black dust which covers every-
thing and everyone. Some 212 miles from Bulawayo one
of the sharp contrasts of Africa comes into sight at
the Wankies collieries, an unlovely bit of industrialism,
springing out of the heart of the bush. It is, however,
an enterprise of great importance to the commercial
future of Rhodesia. But this is the only settlement
through which the train passes till it comes to a halt
at the pleasant hotel where visitors for the Falls find
accommodation. For some miles before this point one
scans the view eagerly from the carriage windows for
the first glimpse of the great white cloud of mist and
vapour hanging over the Falls, and it is with a thrill of
excitement that the zig-zag of the canon can be traced
as the train toils along the track, and the railway span
over the gorge comes into sight. One first-class geo-
graphical prize yet remains to be grasped by some bold
explorer, for it is rumoured that one of the greatest
waterfalls in the world exists on the unknown reaches
of the Brahmapootra, where, so the natives say, the
river turns into mist and talking devils. It may be,
therefore, that in the future another magnificent natural
object will come to take its place alongside the marvels
of Niagara and the Zambesi. For the moment we have
to be satisfied with the wonders of Africa and America,
leaving Asia for the gratification of those who come
after us.

One of the remarkable features of the Victoria Falls
is that the level of the banks is practically the same
above and below the cataract. Above the Falls the

58 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Zambesi, a great placid river, a mile and a quarter wide,
is flowing serenely between its wooded banks and gently
washing the luxuriant islands, sub-tropical in appearance
and vegetation, which lie like jewels in the stream.
There is no hint, no suspicion of what is to come. Com-
parisons between the Victoria Falls and Niagara are
peculiarly unprofitable, the natural features of the two
scenes having nothing in common. But I know no
difference more striking than that of the state of the
Niagara and Zambesi rivers above their respective
falls. The agony with which the Niagara prepares for its
leap, the great series of rapids above Goat. Island when
the river, as though overwhelmed by some appal-
ling consciousness, appears to be descending upon the
island in a sheet of surging water, have not the faintest
parallel here. At low water on the very edge of the
Falls the Zambesi babbles among rocks broken up into
little streams as shallow and as innocent as a Scottish
burn. Then, suddenly, without a moment's warning,
comes the great change, and the whole enormous volume
of the river pours over a sheer precipice 350 feet high, and
more than a mile across from bank to bank into a deep
and narrow fissure, sometimes less than, 400 feet in width.
You are told on reaching the Falls — and I hasten
to repeat the information — that at high water the line
of cataract stretches unbroken for a distance as great
as that of Oxford Street between Marble Arch and
Tottenham Court Koad, and also that St. Paul's
Cathedral, so far as height is concerned, could be accom-
modated in the abyss and fail to clear the edge. But
I must confess my entire inability at the time to recon-
struct Oxford Street along the line of the Falls, and an
incapacity no less great on my return to reconstruct the
Falls in Oxford Street.

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDEKS 59

Save at high river, the Victoria Falls do not present
the great unbroken curtain of water which is to be seen
at Niagara. There are, so to speak, a series of falls
divided by islands which hang on the brink of the
chasm, and the enchantment of the scene lies in the
variety and wonder of their changing aspects. Close
to the western bank is the beautiful fall now known
as the Devil's Cataract, but called originally by Baines
with more charm and appropriateness the Leaping
Water — a name which one would like to find restored
to common usage. Between the Leaping Water and
the great line of the Main Falls comes Cataract or
Boaruka Island, the Main Falls being in turn divided
by Livingstone Island from the Kainbow Falls, which
run across to the eastern bank. Language becomes
helpless and inadequate in presence of the Falls. The
mind, stumbling before the scene, piles on adjectives
only to find itself silenced and outclassed. No descrip-
tion can hope to convey even a fractional impression
of the spectacle. Yet succeeding travellers hurl them-
selves vainly on the task. The view from Boaruka
Island, for instance, is one of unearthly beauty. The
island projects so far over the edge that it is possible
to look from its brink right into the dark chasm
below, while the cataract falls in glory all around one.
The impression is of water ascending no less than
descending, for the spray springs upwards to meet the
falling waters in an arresting embrace, as though seeking
passionately, helplessly to avert the stroke of Fate from
one beloved. But all in vain ; swept on by that
inexorable might the mingled waters sink in final and
despairing acquiescence into those sinister depths the
recesses of which are for ever hidden from the eye of
man.

60 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

From the opposite bank of the chasm, known as the
Rain Forest — the beautiful, tropical wood, kept peren-
nially fresh and green by the moisture — the traveller
directly faces the Falls, and can survey the scene
with as much leisure as is compatible with the drench-
ing spray, which falls perpetually. The damp, over-
hanging boughs frame the most enchanting views.
Turn by turn one thinks of fairyland and then of some
devouring monster. The fury of the water in the
depths below is indescribable. It is as though the
river were driven mad by the shock which has turned
its placid course into tumult and chaos. The seething
waters, penned up in their narrow prison, try desperately
to find some way out, and, finally, nearly a mile from
the western bank, they pour themselves through a
narrow slit, only 100 yards wide, into an opening
known as the Boiling Pot, thence to dash again for
over forty miles through a narrow, zigzag ravine of
precipitous basaltic cliffs. Then, and then only, after
this passage perilous, does the exhausted river emerge
among surroundings which in some way recall its old
serenity. The gloomy course through the ravine is
still in large part a mystery, so deep and inaccessible
are the cliffs and so difficult of exploration.

Opinions are much divided as to the best time of
year to visit the Falls. Here, as elsewhere, you cannot
have it both ways. At low water in November the
eastern side of the cataract is practically dry. It is
interesting to remember that it was at this season of
the year that Livingstone made his great discovery. The
advantage of the low-water period is that the whole
surroundings can be viewed with ease, though naturally
the scene lacks the majesty of the river in flood. But
the absence of water is, after all, relative ; there is water

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS 61

enough and to spare on the western bank and in the
main cataract. At high water it is impossible to get
very near the Falls. The volumes of cloud and spray-
hide everything, and, soaked through as I was myself
in the Rain Forest at a moment when the river was
exceptionally low, I find it difficult to imagine how any
view of the abyss is possible when the Zambesi thunders
into it with all its strength. No words can describe
the extraordinary beauty of the falling water, which,
catching on projecting pinnacles of rock, dissolves
before one's eyes into clouds of airy spray. And from
the depths of the abyss, like hope rising triumphantly
through the shadow of despair, spring the beautiful
rainbows ; forming, re-forming, with every gust of wind
against the shifting background of cloud and spray.
One is reminded of the great elemental melodies of the
Rheingold, the rushing water that Wagner pours into
our ears with so mighty a flood of sound. And here,
too, one thinks of the rainbow arch over which he con-
ducts his quarrelsome and immoral gods into Valhalla.
It would be hard to say from which of the many
vantage points the aspect of the great panorama is
the most wonderful. The Falls have many aspects
and attune themselves to many different moods. The
enchantment of the Rain Forest and the pursuing rain-
bows linger in a very special way in the recollection.
But the view from the bottom of the Palm Kloof below
the cataract has a grandeur all its own. With the
seething waters at one's feet, it is possible to stand on
the very edge of the Boiling Pot and look upwards at
the white line of the Falls through the narrow portal,
guarded by dark overhanging rocks, where the river
pours itself out from the trough into which it has fallen.
There is something almost hypnotic in the sinister

62 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

compelling force of the waters as they hurl themselves
along to dash with appalling violence against the first
turn in the canon, where their course is again diverted.
If they were suddenly to rise and overwhelm the
onlooker it would hardly seem surprising, so living is
the scene, so uncanny the sense of some great and
monstrous personality.

The reaches above the Falls are of a very different
character. Here the aspect of the Zambesi is sunny
and serene, lacking of course the unique grandeur of
the cataract itself, but in its breadth, calm, and beauty
affording a welcome contrast to the turmoil below.
The islands afford delicious shade for picnic parties —
no trifling consideration when shade temperatures
considerably over 100 degrees are common. Regattas
even take place on occasions, and there is a touch of
lightness, joy, and mirth about this stretch of the river
very unusual in South Africa. In one respect the whole
environment of the Falls has advantages unhappily
denied to Niagara. It is almost impossible to-day to
reconstruct the scene in America on which Father
Hennepin, another missionary discoverer of waterfalls,
first of all white men must have gazed. On the Zambesi
the unique natural surroundings remain intact and
undefiled, and there can be little essential change since
Livingstone's day. Many people regret the construc-
tion of the railway bridge across the river, but personally
I do not think the great span detracts much from the
scene. The ginger-beer and paper-bag touch and all
the ugly evidences of modern industry which thrust
themselves to the fore at Niagara are here mercifully
lacking. At the Victoria Falls paths have been cut
in the woods and seats provided, a circumstance for
which one is grateful. Several days are necessary to

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS 63

see the Falls in detail, and owing to the heat excursions
are apt to be tiring. Scrambling about in the bush
would be arduous work, and one has no reason to com-
plain of clearances which have been made with care and
due regard for beauty. Monkeys are common in the
Rain Forest, and very early one morning the sight of
two of these animals sitting arm in arm on a bench over-
looking the Leaping Water, talking and gesticulating
as though pointing out the beauties of the scene to each
other, is one of my recollections of the Falls.

One cannot but regret that Livingstone never saw
the Falls from this side. We can only wonder, with
Baines, how it came about that he paid no visit to the
Rain Forest. Baines was the second Englishman to
visit the Falls, and he subjected them to a much closer
and more detailed examination than Livingstone. His
narrative remains one of the most engrossing on record.
The privations of these stalwart travellers who penetrated
into the heart of Africa when the study of tropical
disease was in its infancy, and the latter-day travelling
comforts of Piccadilly and Pall Mall were practically
unobtainable, should shame the tourists who grumble
so heartily at the heat and dust to which they find them-
selves subjected in the course of a twenty-two hours'
journey with sleeping and dining cars from Bulawayo.
The tabloids of Messrs. Burroughs & Wellcome might
almost dissolve at one portion of Livingstone's narrative,
when he remarks quite simply that he attributed his
good health on the journey to Loanda to fires at night
and baking his own bread in a pot ! Livingstone and
Baines make light of discomforts, but they must at
that time have been severe, and fever an ever-present
danger. Baines's drawings of the Falls now rest in the
Geographical Society's rooms at Lowther Lodge, but

64 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

though interesting sketches, they are not sufficiently
accurate to throw any light on a question of the highest
scientific interest — whether or not changes are taking
place in the physical configuration of the cataract.
Livingstone took the view, which was accepted for
many years, that cataract and gorge were the product
of some vast upheaval, due to volcanic forces. This
theory, however, is yielding place to other and yet more
remote agencies, that of erosion following the major
faults along the basaltic rock of the river-bed. Mr.
Arthur Molyneux, F.R.Gr.S., of Bulawayo, in an able
paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, has
put forward this view in a convincing manner, and at
present it holds the field. But if we are called upon to
yield the theory of some great catastrophe bringing the
Falls into being in a titanic coup de theatre, the imagina-
tion can dwell with even greater awe and wonder on
those slow forces of Nature thanks to which the river
has worn its way backwards through forty miles of
gorge and rapids till confronted with the great basalt
wall over which it falls to-day. Whether or not the
process is exhausted, and whether in course of time
the river will beat its way still farther back, leaving
the present Falls but a turn in the zigzag canon, as it
has left other turns below, it is difficult to surmise.

Latter-day geologists would have blessed Livingstone
and Baines had it occurred to them to drive any wedges
into the banks showing the actual line of the waters.
Failing such wedges there can only be speculation as to
the rate and degree of the amazing process of erosion
which has brought this wonder of the world into exist-
ence. Is the cataract retreating along the line of the
Leaping Water, the part of the Falls which certainly
carries off the greatest volume of water at low river ?

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS 65

Is the eastern cataract more dry than in the days of
Livingstone and Baines, a result which inevitably must
follow if the main channel on the western bank has cut
itself farther back ? The panoramic view of the Falls
in Livingstone's book shows an unbroken line of water
across to the eastern bank, and, as already noticed, he
discovered the Falls at the period when the river is low.
That same unbroken line is not to be seen now in Nov-
ember ; neither, to my disappointment, were the five
columns of vapour of which he speaks. So low was the
river at the time of my visit, that I was able to sit on a
rock on the edge of the Eainbow Falls and with tourist
self-sufficiency swing my toes over the abyss for the
sake of the experience. But the rpicture is obviously
not an accurate drawing, but has been composed by
an artist from a description and embellished to taste.
Also, of course, the seasons vary, and Livingstone may
have struck an unusually high low-water. So these
surmises must await the answers which can only be
supplied by future generations. At least we may
comfort ourselves with the assurance that the processes
of erosion are slow, and that the Falls will certainly
last our time and that of our immediate successors.

Livingstone, the administrative capital of Northern
Rhodesia, is situated seven miles above the Falls on the
left bank of the river. It has had the peripatetic career
not unusual in the case of South African settlements,
and was moved bodily from one side of the river to the
other. It is an attractive little outpost where a handful
of white men and women are to be found in the midst
of a vast native population. A great river is in a real
sense a dividing force, and it is curious how different
may be the conditions obtaining on the opposite banks
of even small streams. Once across the Zambesi one

66 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

realises that South Africa is finally left behind, and that
the portal of Central Africa — dim, mysterious, largely
unexplored — has been reached. I have never known
a place where the call of the hinterland was so strong, or
the sense of things primitive more alluring. The con-
ditions of government, as I have explained elsewhere,
are different in this great northern province from what
they are south of the Zambesi. It is no reflection on
the latter to say that in Northern Rhodesia one picks
up the pioneer spirit of British administration at its
best. The Livingstonians are delightful people, from the
Administrator, Mr. Wallace, downwards, and no traveller
can fail to be struck with the high standard as regards
the amenities and courtesies of life which they have
created under difficult circumstances. After the English
manner they have brought their games with them,
and tennis, golf, &c, are vigorously pursued in the
midst of more serious work. If the strength of the
Catholic Church lies in the fact that it knows no varieties
of ritual and ceremony, but may be found in all places
and at all times one and the same, the strength of the
British race as a colonising power surely lies in the fact
that in all times and places they may be found serenely
playing with a ball, and, so it seems, incidentally sub-
duing the wilderness and creating good government.
Foreigners may scoff at this peculiarity of ours, but
certainly the men concerned do these things none the
less well for the complete absence of self-consciousness
which they bring to their work. The women face the
isolation, the heat, and the general limitations of life
with much fortitude and a minimum of grumbling.
With the woman comes the home, and what home means
as a check and restraint on the reckless violence born
of the wilds, may well give pause to those who pretend

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS 67

to despise the hearthstone as an antiquated institu-
tion. To travel in the back of beyond, and light on
such a spot, is to realise what a woman's influence
can really create and uphold. Though it may express
itself outwardly in nothing more sensational than
cretonne covers, one or two pictures and a few books,
the home touch is there ; and with it the desolation and
savagery of the wilderness are beaten back. By such
service are the verities of the Pax Britannica secured ;
those unseen spiritual forces without which no people
can hope to finish the course set before them. One
scene on the night of my arrival at Livingstone lingers
in my mind — a familiar scene which, daily repeated in
the heart of Africa as elsewhere, nevertheless seizes on
the imagination and speaks of wider things. The sunset
hour approaches at the close of a stifling day and the
moment of the short twilight is upon us. Like a bronze
statue the Barotse sentry, cord in hand, stands by the
flagstaff in front of the Residency, waiting for the signal
to lower the familiar emblem. The evening gun booms,
the bugle sounds, and the half-caught roar of the dis-
tant cataract answers their passing challenge. A sharp
word of command rings out, the guard salutes, the
sentry lowers the flag and folds it up carefully. The
brief ritual is over — a daily duty played out as usual,
but my memories had fled across the continent, for it
was from the roof of the Mahdi's house in Omdurman
that I had last watched a similar salute to the flag.
As I look on in the rapidly growing darkness from the
deep verandah of Mr. Wallace's house, the thought
strikes home of the many climes and lands where night
and morning this short ceremony becomes the symbol
which unites men unknown to each other in the bond
of a common service. It is no small task for the men

9 2

68 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

and women of the outposts to maintain the high tradi-
tion of those who have gone before and proved jealous
guardians of the race's honour. We do not always
recognise with what courage in the main that task is
carried through, nor do we make due allowance for those
who fail by the way. Each one of us is apt to focus
life from too narrow a standpoint, to view it merely
through the glasses of our own interests and prejudices.
We differ in our estimates as to what constitutes the
best and highest form of national service, and to some
there is, and there will remain, a sharp antagonism
between England the Nation and England the Empire.
Yet there are points at which the needs of the slum and
the needs of the great spaces touch and join hands —
both indeed are but parts of a greater whole. At Living-
stone in that twilight hour it seemed a task well worth
while to uphold the Pax Britannica within sight and
sound of the Smoke that Thunders.

69

CHAPTEK VII

ON A MATABELE LOCATION

How beautiful this dome of sky.
And the vast hills, in fluctuation fix'd
At thy command, how awful !

Wordsworth.

Early morning in Matabeleland. Though the hour
has not touched 7 a.m., already the sunshine spreads
strong beams of heat across the veld, and lies warmly
on the stoep of the white, thatched building, built on
the lines of a Dutch homestead, once the house of Mr.
Rhodes, now altered and enlarged for its position as an
official residence. Government House, Bulawayo, stands
on the site of Lobengula's kraal, three miles outside
the town. After the occupation of the country, Mr.
Rhodes's imagination was fired by the idea that there
should be historical continuity in the seat of govern-
ment, and so he willed that the administrator's residence
should rise from amid the ashes of a savage monarch's
stronghold. From the sanitary point of view one
marvels that he had the courage for such an enterprise ;
but, as in other matters big and small to which he put
his hand, what he did was done thoroughly. Cleaning
up on a vast scale was essential, but though the process
was necessarily continued over years it has been accom-
plished successfully. Out of the dust and debris Sir

70 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Arthur and Lady Lawley — most popular of adminis-
trators and his wife — created a garden where the far-
away influence of the stately English pleasaunce makes
itself felt in a curious and fascinating manner in the
heart of Africa. It is difficult to-day within the walls
of the charming country house, or among the flower-
beds of the parterre, to conjure up a thought of the
horrors which must have taken place on this very spot
well within the recollection of one generation. Atmo-
sphere, so real and yet so elusive a thing, conforms
apparently to no known rules. Whatever strife and
bloodshed marked the events of the past, they have
left no ghosts to haunt uneasy dreams at Government
House, Bulawayo, but have yielded place entirely to
other and more gracious influences. The rising ground,
which is reached by a long avenue of not very happy-
looking trees, commands one of those vast views which
are the special glory of South Africa. Matabeleland is
a great, rolling country, less beautiful and diversified
from the natural point of view, perhaps, than Mashona-
land, but full of charm to those who are subject to
the spell of great spaces and great silences. From the
stoep of Government House one looks across miles and
miles of country to a far-distant kopje, Thabas Indunas,
name of woe and evil portent in the days of Lobengula,
but a fine, natural object, glowing like an opal of ever-
changing colour. And here, in the beautiful garden,
where pink-and-white oleander-trees, hedges of plum-
bago, and great masses of splendid purple bougainvillea
stand out in glowing contrast with the drab and dusty
veld around, one can still see the council-tree under
which, in old days, Lobengula sat with his chiefs, and
cast the assegai, showing in which direction the tribes
were to scatter for murder and pillage. So few, in

ON A MATABELE LOCATION 71

truth, are the years which separate the old, wild savage
days from the peace and order of the seemly English
garden with its borders and rose-beds.

But the land is crying out for rain. In the memory
of the oldest native there has never been a drought so
great or so pitiless. Day by day the merciless sun beats
down on the parched lands, and we scan the skies in
vain for a sight even of one cloud like a man's hand,
with an eagerness which brings home the meaning of the
old story in the Book of Kings. For 1300 miles and
more the country, from the Cape to the Zambesi, is
in the same parlous state, and crops wither and cattle
die as the sun-god revels in his fierce joy. It is certainly
not for an English wanderer, fresh from the damp joys
of an English summer, to grumble at the sunshine. But
once again, as day by day the drought persists, it is
borne in upon one what water and irrigation mean to
the future of South Africa.

This morning, however, we are concerned not with
agricultural matters, but the more direct human interest
of the natives of this country. Under the guidance of
the Chief Native Commissioner, Mr. Taylor, we are to
see the Matabele at home, and in a condition as little
sophisticated as may be. The motor-car throbbing at
the door registers one of the most remarkable changes
which have taken place since the pre-war days — the
whole revolution in values, so far as means of com-
munication are concerned. It is difficult to underrate
what the advent of the motor has meant to South Africa,
and the extraordinary linking-up of place and distance
which has followed in its wake. The old leisurely
days of the bullock-wagon and the Cape-cart have to
a very large extent been superseded by the strongly
built high-powered cars with which one now scours

72 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the high veld in every direction. Little less remarkable,
too, is the power of the South African motor for negoti-
ating roads and drifts of a character the very sight of
which would cause an English motor to sit down by the
roadside in horror and disgust. As we bumped along
the rough surface, I thought of certain pampered
Panhards and disdainful Daimlers of my acquaintance
which might learn with advantage that motors no less
than human beings are on occasions all the better for
making an effort.

Our destination this particular morning was a
Matabele location twenty miles away, of whom the
chief, rejoicing in the euphonious name of Mhanqwa
Ndiweni, was of kin to Lobengula. This location is
24,000 acres in extent, and about 1200 people — men,
women, and children — are settled in it. There are
various kraals within the area, but we paid our state
visit to the one at which the chief resides. The popula-
tion, needless to say, turned out in force to receive us,
and the sight was one which brought home in a striking
way the strange juxtapositions of South Africa — the
hurtling of the old order and the new. Here, as the dark
faces swarmed round us, we were touching the very
heart of all South African problems and difficulties.
For the problem of the white races — their competition
or their strife — drops away like a dream when confronted
with the true reality of the land, the preponderating
black masses with which it is populated, and their slow
but steady progress from the old savage conditions to
conditions little less baffling. The very clothes of our
Matabele friends on this occasion were eloquent of the
transitional stage we have reached in native life. Some
of the older men were dressed as their forefathers, in
skins and blankets, but the majority wore more or less

ON A MATABELE LOCATION 73

broken-down European clothes. Some of Mhanqwa's
men were got up in old khaki coats, relics of the war,
with goat-skin loin-cloths and helmets decorated with
ostrich feathers. But still more remarkable were a
few young men in immaculate tweed suits, with knee-
breeches, gaiters, brown boots, high white collars, ties
and pins, fresh apparently from the glories of Johannes-
burg, and passing strange objects among the mud-huts
of their home. Outside the enclosure stood a new
wagon, just bought by the chief, which must have cost
about £80. For these people, in their way, are rich,
and the growth of the minor capitalist among the black
and coloured peoples of South Africa is one of the econo-
mic features of the day. No less remarkable is their
passion for education, and the desire shown for it by
the native races all over Africa.

Mhanqwa made us welcome with all the dignity of
his race. Inside the kraal the primitive round-hut
life was being carried on, and yet evidences of change
were everywhere. Some of the women wore blankets
and others the short, blue, accordion-pleated skirt,
like a ruff, peculiar to Matabeleland. Unfortunately,
draggled European skirts were but too prominent.
Mhanqwa is an able man, trusted by the Government,
and leading his people on progressive lines. And yet,
without question, the dominant personality of the
location was not the chief, but his mother, a pure old
savage, draped in a very inadequate blanket, who came
out to converse with us. Ugly and wizened though the
face, it was full of expression, and the obvious fact that
the old lady held the whole kraal in her hand was a
curious side-light on the technical subjection of women
among savage races. I had brought some trinkets for
the women, and the horror displayed by the chief at

74 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the very idea of his wife receiving a present before his
mother was almost comic. Great indeed is the power
and influence of the mother-in-law among these people,
and the meekness of Mhanqwa's wives was another
outstanding feature of the situation. The old lady
displayed much emotion as she heard from the Com-
missioner of the death of her niece, formerly queen to
Lobengula. Tottering on her stick, she muttered to
herself, ' Ah, the other day I fell down, and I knew
bad news was coming/ Men, women, and children
gathered round in a circle as we talked ; or, rather, as
Mr. Taylor talked, with an obvious power of sympathy
and understanding which boded well for his rule.
Savages they might be, but dignified they were, and,
like all primitive peoples, courtesy and justice were the
qualities which first and foremost held them. The
problem that they present from some points of view
appears well-nigh insoluble, but along the same fines
of courtesy and justice that solution must be sought,
whether or not it be found.

Mhanqwa took us for a walk to see his mealies and
cattle. Kafir farming, generally speaking, is of the most
wasteful character, but thanks to the progressive turn
of mind of their chief, these particular Matabele were
better off than the ordinary run of natives. We found
some of them busily employed digging a well for
irrigation purposes — an unusual enterprise on which
Mhanqwa had engaged without prompting of any kind
but that of his own good sense. I left the location with
real regret and full of surmise about the shy silent women
who looked at one across the gulf of race with dark
questioning eyes, the depths of which eluded all com-
prehension. Now and then one of them would go off
into fits of laughter as they showed each other the bright-

ON A MATABELE LOCATION 75

coloured penknives and buttonhooks, which had found
so strange a destination after their journey from Oxford
Street. Then silence would fall on the group again and
the same question in the eyes would reappear. Some
problems make one almost afraid to think, and the only
consolation lies in the fact that not infrequently the
subject-matter of the gravest difficulties is happily
unconscious of the searchings of heart to which it
gives rise.

But we must hurry on, for the day's work is as yet
hardly begun, and we have many miles to cover and
other locations, as well as farms and mines, to visit,
before returning to our dwelling place on the site of the
king's kraal. Our next visit to a neighbouring location
brought us into touch with a very different set of men.
After the Matabele rebellion it occurred to Mr. Ehodes
in one of his more whimsical moods that he would
import a body of Fingoes from Cape Colony to settle
in the country and set a good example to the Matabele.
The venture may be written off as one of his failures.
The Matabele, savages of a far more distinguished type
than the Fingoes, remained wholly unimpressed ; whereas
the Fingoes soon found that the Sandford and Merton
standard set before them was one quite beyond their
powers. After a brief and futile effort to live up to this
preposterous role of the good boy they collapsed on to
easier lines, and have proved lazy, unprogressive people
with strong views as to what should be done for them
by Government and little appreciation of what they
should do for themselves. The chief, a somewhat
villainous-looking old gentleman, received us in great
style. Three chairs and a table were produced and
set out under a tree. The chief, having whisked into
his hut, reappeared to my no small amusement with a

76 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

large sheet of foolscap paper which he thrust into our
hands. All the men of the location were gathered round
squatting on the ground in a circle, and having taken
our seats we surveyed each other for a time in that
complete silence which forms part of native etiquette
on such occasions. The use of an interpreter is another
curious feature of interviews held between native
chiefs and Commissioners. Although the latter per-
fectly understand the dialect spoken, this indirect
method of address is apparently the custom in such
intercourse. The Fingo type was not nearly so hand-
some as that of the Matabele — a more flattened negroid
face with thicker lips. They were full of protesta-
tions, but for that very reason gave one a far less
genuine and pleasant impression than the men we had
just visited. The chief led off with a series of flowery,
not to say fulsome, compliments. How fortunate
were the Fingoes that day, inasmuch as such great and
wonderful people had paid a visit to their habitation.
Yes, the drought was severe, but now the lady from
over the seas had come to see them she would most
certainly bring rain and good fortune with her — a
compliment which the lady in question received with
as much composure as she could muster. Rain of
course must fall now and their troubles be at an end.
No, they had not dug a well. A pained expression
came over the chief's face at the unkind suggestion.
Did they not know that their father the Commissioner
would remember their needs and not let his children
starve ? Would not the Government see to it that,
when misfortunes befell them in time of drought,
such calamities were made good to them ? The desul-
tory compliments merged more and more into a long
list of definite grumblings which at last Mr. Taylor

ON A MATABELE LOCATION 77

cut short by rising and bringing the interview to a close.
Meanwhile I was looking at the clear bronze sky over-
head, surreptitiously out of the corner of one eye, and
calculating with uneasy mind my chances of living up
to this new reputation of rain-maker among the Fingoes.
The Chief burst into compliments again as I presented
him in turn with one of the bright enamelled penknives
which had excited admiration at Mhanqwa's kraal.
But luck was with me on this occasion. Bain, as it
happened, fell shortly after our visit, and the last I
heard of my penknife was that it was hanging charm-like
round the Chief's swarthy neck, while my stock as a
drought-breaker apparently stood high among his tribe.

On again, this time to lunch with Mr. Bertie Finn,
a prosperous and progressive Rhodesian, who has a large
farm of some 7000 acres in the Bembesi district, fitted
up with every modern appliance. Such a place is an
excellent object-lesson of what a stock farm combined
with several hundred acres under cultivation can be
made in Rhodesia when capacity and hard work go
to the task. Mr. Finn has been a real pioneer in the
matter of winter feeding for cattle, and makes large
quantities of silage from mealies. Consequently, despite
the drought, he had lost no cattle when his neighbours'
herds were suffering heavily. Near at hand was the
Queen's Mine, a small proposition when compared with
the great enterprises on the Rand, but following the
same process of crushing and extraction so far as the
gold was concerned.

Our luncheon party with Mr. Finn was a merry one.
Some purposeful-looking farmers were present ; and
agriculture, natives, politics, the deeds and misdeeds
of the Chartered Company, were all discussed with
fluency and vigour. We left our genial hosts with

78 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

regret, but the day's tour was too long to admit of much
loitering by the way. Then at last we turned our helm
in the direction of Bulawayo, as the sun began to dip
towards the western horizon and the car sped home-
wards across the veld. The most beautiful, the most
intoxicating part of the day was yet to come with the
sunset hour. On these great plains the sense of land
is almost lost, and like a ship at sea it is as though one
ploughed not the veld but the waters of some vast
ocean. The western horizon lay before us, a wonderful
line of indigo ; above that the sky was a clear yellow,
shading into eau de nil and opalescent lights. Then
came a mass of clouds, heavy, molten, glorious, shading
into purple, grey, and pink. Behind, the eastern horizon
lay grey and blue ; around us in the foreground were
spread the cooler neutral shades of the veld, splashed
here and there with the fresh green of tree or bush. The
trees stood up like delicate silhouettes against the
purple of the sky, and their effect, under the slanting
rays of the sun, reminded me, by a sharp contrast of
ideas, of an Umbrian picture. Here, too, as in the
Matoppos, the rocks, the aloofness of landscape set one
thinking in an odd way of Leonardo and his work.
Shall we marvel that in a country so far removed from
literary and artistic experience, the mellow glories of
that Saturnian land of Italy should rise not infrequently
before one's eyes ? Surely not. Great art and great
nature go hand in hand. All genius has a sweep more
profound than its actual age or the actual conditions it
describes. In so far as it is genius at all, it speaks for
all times and peoples and climes, and makes its appeal
throughout the ages. That the wilds should recall
images of the great masters in poetry, music, and art
is, after all, very natural, for the noblest expression of

ON A MATABELE LOCATION 79

the one will always be ultimately concerned with that of
the other. Things primitive and things eternal spring
from a fountain-head near akin ; and where Nature is
free, glorious, and untrammelled, Art, which seeks to
catch and fix some aspect of her changing but ever-
eternal life, can never be far distant from our hearts
and minds.

80

CHAPTER VIII

LADYSMITH

Counting the quest to avenge her honour as the most glorious of
all ventures, and leaving Hope, the uncertain goddess, to send them what
she would, they faced the foe as they drew near him in the strength of
their own manhood ; and when the shock of battle came they chose rather
to suffer the uttermost than to win life by weakness. So their memory
has escaped the reproaches of men's lips, but they bore instead on their
bodies the marks of men's hands, and in a moment of time, at the climax
of their lives, were rapt away from a world filled for their dying eyes not
with terror but with glory. ... So they gave their bodies to the common-
wealth and received each for his own memory praise that will never die
and with it the grandest of all sepulchres, not that in which their mortal
bones are laid but a home in the minds of men where their glory remains
afresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by.

Pericles in the ' Funeral Oration.'

Moee than any other part of South Africa, Natal is
associated with memories of valour and disaster. It
was in Zululand that the great military despotism
of Chaka took its rise, and from here that his impis
carried sword and slaughter throughout the land.
Isandlhwana, Rorke's Drift, Majuba, Ladysmith— these
are names both of famous and unhappy memory ; and
twice the uplands of Natal have witnessed conflicts
between Boer and British on which the destinies of
the whole country have hung. I am told that there
is nothing in South Africa to compare with the unique
panorama of hill and plain which enfolds itself from
the slopes of the Himalayas ; but India is to me an

LADYSMITH 81

unknown land, and I can only speak of what I have
seen. Personally I know no scenery to equal the
point where the green plateau of the Transvaal, so
flat that all sense of its altitude is lost, merges into the
barrier mountains of the Drakensberg and the high
lands of Natal. For vastness and grandeur it must
be counted among the great views of any continent.
One has the sensation not only of being on the roof
of the world, but actually of looking over its edge.
From the top of Van Reenen's Pass, or from the Ingogo
heights where Majuba dominates the scene, the eye
ranges as far as it can reach over a sea of mountains,
falling, falling, sheer below, apparently into space.
Not only the altitude at which one stands, but the
break of the land downwards, first in precipices, then
in a succession of great rolling hills, gives the most
extraordinary impression of illimitable space and
distance. This is in a very literal sense to have the
world at one's feet ; for there seems no end set to
this great stairway stretching upwards in mammoth
steps between heaven and earth. At twilight, when
all evidences of man's presence are lost to sight, it is
a wild impressive scene, which recalls the sinister
mountains of ' Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came '
where—

The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay,
Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay.

As the railway winds in and out either in laborious
ascent or in no less careful descent, one recalls the
adventure of the Trek Boers who first of white men
penetrated the barrier range of the Drakensberg from
the interior, and descended from the mountains into
the lower reaches of Natal, founding Pietermaritzburg

82 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in 1838 as capital of the tiny Dutch Republic of Natalia.
Here they hoped to make for themselves a home free
from the encroaching presence of the English ; and
here they were compelled after six troubled years once
again to acknowledge British sovereignty, or retreat
across the mountains in anger and disappointment
to the fastnesses of the Transvaal. This was the
period of Weenen, of Dingaan's Day, of those fierce
struggles in the remote interior of the itinerant Boers
with the Zulu hosts. Conflicts between natives and
white men can seldom stir us to enthusiasm. The
upshot is always too much of a foregone conclusion
for the side armed with machine guns. But the case
of the Trek Boers against the disciplined Zulu hosts
was a very different matter. No inherent advantage
in this instance lay with the white men, and the courage
and daring of their native campaigns is a page of history
on which the South African nation of the future will
dwell with pride. Some seventy years after Dingaan's
Day which broke the Zulu power, the Boers were once
again to find themselves in conflict amid the uplands of
Natal with another and a greater foe. And of these
things so long as South Africa exists the name of
Ladysmith will tell.

I have spoken in several places of the real effort of
imagination necessary when travelling through South
Africa to reconstruct any phase of the great conflict
which rent the land in twain. One traverses battle-
fields in no ways distinguishable to-day from any other
part of the all-embracing veld. From the windows of
the railway carriage, as one goes up country to Kimber-
ley, possibly during the long monotonous journey one
may wonder idly why at intervals traces of stone circles
like the primitive remains on Dartmoor are to be seen

LADYSMITH 83

close to the line. It is with a real thrill that one is
told these are the last vestiges of the blockhouses which
for hundreds of miles guarded the lines of communi-
cation. When the very occasional rivers (or rather
their beds) are crossed, remains of a more solid character
come into sight, for the blockhouses guarding a bridge
were of greater importance than the smaller stations
on the line itself. But generally speaking there is
nothing to be seen on the battle-fields save the obelisks
telling of the valour and services of the dead, and the
pathetic burying-grounds where they sleep. These
resting places on the veld are the new feature of the
land since I knew it before the war. There is something
inexpressibly poignant about these groups of graves :
these tiny patches telling their tale of death and suffering
under the clear South African sky. They are carefully
tended by the group of South African women who
have devoted themselves so admirably to this pious
office. But already it is as though Nature had passed
her healing hand over all outer aspects of strife and
bloodshed, and I had the impression of mounds, all
struggle at an end, falling back wearily into the arms
of Mother Earth herself. Nowhere can this impression
of peace following on storm be stronger than at Lady-
smith. There were districts of South Africa during the
Boer war where the struggle was waged in a fight or
desultory manner. Not so here. The terrible roll-
call of death round the walls of the church visualises
with appalling force what the valour and the sufferings
of the siege must have been. The inhabitants who
went through that grim experience and tell one of its
incidents, do so with the extreme simplicity born of
first-hand contact with the great realities of life and
death. Theirs is no grandiloquent record of suffering

a 2

84 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

and adventure, but just a simple narrative of events
of which they speak in quite ordinary language. To
hear them talk, one would imagine that a siege of five
months' duration, with all its attendant miseries of
hunger, suffering, and disease, was part of the normal
experience in the life of the average citizen. But
this very simplicity, this lack of self-pity, serves each
moment to deepen one's admiration for the men and
women who passed through such an ordeal in this high
spirit. You must not expect any dramatic narrative
of the war from those who bore the brunt of the South
African struggle. They are dramatic in what they do
not say, and in the casual revelations which accident-
ally they disclose. Such remarks as ' one tin of
condensed milk for forty men in hospital didn't go
very far, you see, however much we let it down with
water/ or \ we couldn't keep some of the enterics when
they came out of hospital from picking up and eating
bits of raw bone, they were so hungry, poor fellows, and
there was so little food, but of course it killed them,'
or ' one got accustomed to the bombardment ; their
gunnery was very bad ; besides, bells were always rung
when a shell was fired and we generally had time to get
into the shelters before it exploded ' ; — stories of this
kind make the heart contract in a way which drives
home the realities of the siege as no written narrative
can ever hope to do. And as one listens, pain for human
suffering, pride in the unconquerable power of man's
spirit to rise above the transitory things of existence
struggle within one for mastery. That mingled note of
pain and pride is one which every English person must
surely feel to be uppermost at Ladysmith ; pain and
pride not only for and in those whose names are written
on the roll of fame, but for others no less worthy of

LADYSMITH 85

a nation's gratitude. The world's coarse thumb is
always apt to ignore the persistent heroism of which
human nature in a quiet way is capable. Our imagina-
tions are easily stirred when some great and obvious deed
of valour rivets public attention in a dramatic way,
but we underrate the daily heroisms carried out by
thousands of obscure folk of whom the world has never
heard. ' That things are not so ill with you and me as
they might have been/ writes George Eliot in one of
her finest phrases, ' is half owing to the number who
lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited
tombs/ Of such faithful and obscure fives there are
thousands to-day in South Africa ; men and women
who went through the furnace without a murmur,
and are wholly devoid of consciousness even that their
behaviour was anything out of the ordinary. But these
are in very truth the makers of a nation's greatness,
and, at however bitter a price, South Africa possesses
such sowers in her fields to-day. At Ladysmith as
elsewhere no visible evidences of the struggle remain,
and it is difficult to associate the broken clock-tower
of the Town Hall, deliberately retained in the same
state as when fractured by a Boer shell, with a siege
which has become famous in the annals of the British
army.

The chances of travel brought me to Ladysmith
for the Christmas festival ; the further chances of
travel willed that I should come to it direct from General
Botha's house at Standerton, with his narrative of
Colenso and Spion Kop fresh in my mind. I arrived
in the middle of the night, and my first impression the
next morning was that I had made some mistake, and
left the train at the wrong place. This peaceful, sunny
little town with houses set in gardens bright with

86 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

flowers, could this really be Ladysmith ? Was this the
spot on which through the weeks of a weary winter our
hearts were once fixed in the keenest anxiety and
suspense ? As I looked in perplexity and surprise at
the roses and flowering shrubs and attractive bungalows,
my mind harked back to a chill November Sunday in
an English industrial town, where a group of men
had gathered in silence round the post office window
on which was posted a telegram signed by a general
telling of desperate fight in this very place and ending
with the ominous words ' very hard pressed.' And
this gay little town busy with its Christmas shopping
and decorations, but a few years before had been the
theatre of such events as those of which the telegram
spoke ! As I looked up and around at the guardian hills
lying peacefully in the sunshine, to invest them with
cannon and the grim apparatus of death and destruction
was an effort of the imagination too great to be achieved
this Christmas Eve. But we may recognise with
thankfulness that, whatever the sufferings of Ladysmith,
these things have not been endured wholly in vain.
Hung up in the entrance of the hotel was a proclama-
tion, the force of which struck home here of all places.
With the Royal Arms at its head, with the signature of
General Smuts, a Boer leader, at its foot, this proclama-
tion by the Union Government called on the youth of
South Africa to register themselves under the pro-
visions of the Defence Act for a common civic duty —
the raising of the military forces necessary for the
protection of South Africa. ' The Defence Force is
going to do more for the peace of this country in bringing
men together than any other influence in it,' so said
one of its officers to me. And under the shadow of
Wagon Hill one prays that the words may be true.

LADYSMITH 87

Ladysmith is situated on a slope near the Klip
River, some thirty miles from the foot of the Drakensberg
Range. Colenso and the Tugela River lie seventeen
miles to the south, and the country immediately round
the town is more flat and open than I for one had
realised. The lie of the land is pretty and undulating,
with surrounding hills in the distance. The little
town has no architectural pretensions, but it possesses
this odd charm so curiously out of keeping with its grim
history. The centre, so to speak, of a large saucer, with
hills all round, the disadvantages of Ladysmith as a
place of siege are obvious to the most untrained eye.
With the Boers in possession of Umbulwana, the large
dominating hill six miles away, the long-drawn-out
defence becomes the more remarkable or the Boer
generalship the more defective — a point about which
naturally I do not profess to speak. Wagon Hill is
within a short distance of the town, and here again
the merest amateur can grasp its vital importance to
the defence. The view from the top of Wagon Hill
stretching away towards the Free State border is very
fine, and looking down on Ladysmith it is easy to follow
the line of the British defences and then the circle of
outer hills occupied by the Boers. Far away to the
right, across the undulating country, the outline of
Spion Kop eighteen miles distant was visible. Such
an expedition as this is indeed to see history recon-
struct itself before one's eyes and become a living thing.
I walked from one end of the ridge to the other, every
step full of poignant interest. There on the summit
lay the little plain, about 150 yards wide, across which
the three companies of the Devons charged in the
desperate action of January 6, and so saved the day
when the Boers had nearly captured the hill. Had

88 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Wagon Hill been lost no power on earth could have
saved Ladysmith, and, with the fall of Ladysmith,
consequences must have followed of incalculable gravity
to England and the Empire. But as one bows the head
before the burying-place where the dead lie on the
scene of their victory, the thought arises that some
men are happier greatly dying, than others meanly
living. What are life and death after all but oppor-
tunities through which human nature may manifest
the imperishable spirit within itself ? But the heart
is wrung as one looks at the graves ; so pitifully young
were many of the boys who sleep here — lads of 21, of 22,
of 23, belonging chiefly to the Gordon Highlanders,
the Devonshire Kegiment, and the Imperial Light
Horse. To look with eyes undimmed at the long
row of crosses and memorials must be a task beyond
the fortitude of most people. But the true note of
pride and victory rising above sorrow and loss is struck
by the noble inscription on the memorial to the Imperial
Light Horse adapted by Edmund Garrett from the
celebrated lines in which Simonides of Ceos immortalised
the fame of Thermopylae :

Tell England, ye who pasa this monument,
That we who died serving her rest here content.

That is, after all, the spirit which speaks from every
rock and stone round Ladysmith, and it is the great,
the only consolation, that we may dare offer to those
who mourn their dead in this place.

For Ladysmith is indeed a place of tombs and
memories, despite the peace and brightness of her
outer appearance. Round the walls of the church
are inscribed the names of no fewer than 3200 men
who fell in action or died of disease during the defence

LADYSMITH 89

and relief of the town. In the beautiful cemetery,
kept with the scrupulous care which is so admirable
a feature of the South African graveyards, the same
story is repeated. This is a shady and peaceful God's
acre, planted with trees and flowers — to me at least
possessing a far-away resemblance to the English
cemetery in Rome where Shelley's ashes rest hard by
Aurelian's wall. But it is above all on Spion Kop, where
I spent an unforgettable Christmas Day, that the heart
fails one before the evidences of the tragic events and
blunders of the place. The town the previous night
had been agog with merrymakers. Children were
laughing, shouting, and letting off squibs and crackers
in the streets. The hotel itself was preparing for
great efforts in the way of turkey and plum pudding :
no detail of the English ritual being omitted in South
Africa whether suited or not to the midsummer heat.
My dinner was saved for me religiously, as unavoidably
I missed the mid-day meal at which high revel was
held. To associate the hot summer night with Christ-
mas festivities seemed well-nigh impossible ; but as a
party of waits passed beneath my window, singing
' Christians, awake ! ' a sharp pang of home-sickness
mingled with the familiar air, and I longed for the
fog and wet of England and all that England held.
It was late before the town fell asleep, and we were
up betimes so as to cover some portion of the eighteen
miles' drive before the fierce heat of noon. The road
passes Wagon Hill and stretches away across a flat,
bare country towards the Drakensberg, which stands
like a mammoth sunk fence on the horizon. Once
again the open stretch of country, absolutely devoid
of tree or shade of any kind, came as a surprise. Here
and there as the Cape-cart jogged along we saw a few

90 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

scattered farms and a number of Kafir kraals. Spion
Kop itself is a rugged mass of rock standing up out
of the plain and, as one approaches from the Ladysmith
side, discloses two peaks to the left and a long hog's-
back to the right where most of the fighting took place.
In the background stands the great ridge of the
Drakensberg, and between Spion Kop and the mountains
lies the Tugela river winding down to Colenso. From
the summit General Buller's headquarters and the
whole British position and the river could be seen at a
glance. I was wholly devoid of military guidance at
Ladysmith, and despite the information supplied by
the intelligent half-caste driver, who had been through
the siege, a hundred questions rose to my mind which
necessarily remained unanswered. One asks, looking
round at the open country in the perplexity of entire
ignorance, what possible end could be served by an
excursion over this isolated hill? The old rhyme —

The famous Duke of York ! lie had ten thousand men ;
He marched them up to the top of the hill, and marched
them back again —

swept into my mind and refused to be dislodged. It
is a hot scramble up the hill from the east side, the
side on which General Botha's forces were established.
But when one looks down from the summit on the
almost sheer ascent up which the English came on the
far side facing the Tugela, it is difficult to imagine how
armed men could have scaled the heights at all, the
more so that they came up in a fog. The view all
round is glorious — Natal lying spread out below ; the
great mountain rampart propping up Basutoland to
the north and west ; the river flowing like a ribbon
at one's feet. Such utter peace reigned there that

LADYSMITH 91

Christmas Day — the peace of God enfolding the dead;
but my thoughts were away in England. What of
the many homes where some sorrowing heart was
turned on the occasion of this festival so specially
consecrated to the joys and memories of childhood and
the family to the spot on which I stood : mothers
whose sons slept in the terrible trenches close at
hand ; wives who never more would hear the echo of
some loved step returning at the close of the day's
work ? It is impossible to convey any sense of the utter
silence and solemnity of the scene, though, in homely
phraseology, it is very necessary to take a pull at oneself
as one walks along the line of trenches and realises that
they are one long tomb : for the bulk of the men killed
were buried where they fell. The Boers had established
themselves on a small peak to the left commanding
the hog's back, and from there, and also from Green
Hill, they enfiladed the unhappy English troops packed
tightly on the ridge. I was told there was a good
spring of water within a hundred yards of where they
lay under the blazing sun, but no one knew it. It is
for others to write of the military aspects of the fight
and the tragic blunders which marked its course.
General Botha told me that the scene after his terrible
victory, when he came up on the hill the following
morning, was one of which he could not bring himself
to speak. Looking away towards Ladysmith it is
easy to realise the awful suspense with which the
hard-pressed garrison on Wagon Hill must have watched
the struggle. One day they had seen all the Boer
tents disappear from the hillside and they thought
relief had come. The next the tents had reappeared
and they knew the attempt had failed. On Spion Kop
friend and foe rest side by side in the great final

92 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

reconciliation of death. The Boer graves are marked
as carefully as those of the English. * Here
rest Brave Burghers ' — ' Here rest Brave English
Soldiers/ run the words on the white crosses pointing
Heavenwards, eternal emblems of hope which speak
of suffering turned at last to joy. And for us who
come to stand by their graves with grief and reverence
in our hearts, surely from these tombs comes not a
whisper but a clear and urgent command. For well
may the dead on the one side or the other cry outraged
from their graves, if we, the living, with our miserable
dissensions trample under foot the only worthy
monument we can raise to those who fell — the peace
and unity of the land for which they gave their lives.
Racial bitterness and political intrigues appear con-
temptible indeed when confronted with the trenches
of Spion Kop. This sacred guardianship of the dead
throughout South Africa should be the true corrective
of racial animosity ; the check on all unworthy impulse
among her sons ; the spur to all noble effort. Leave
cynics and materialists to scoff as they may, the world
lies ever open to the conquest of the great idea, and
those who will with lofty purpose mould history to
their liking. Let it be therefore on the battle-fields
of South Africa that Boer and Briton together in the
spirit of Gettysburg highly resolve that these dead
'shall not have died in vain,' and that the nation for
which both have suffered so profoundly shall know in
very truth through their service and their sacrifice a
new birth of freedom.

93

CHAPTER IX

THE COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS

Mihi corolla picta vere ponitur,
Mihi rubens arista sole fervido,
Mihi virente dulcis uva pampino,
Mihique glauca duro oliva frigore.

Catullus.

The Cape Peninsula and the south-west corner of
the Cape Province stand by themselves in South Africa
both as regards beauty and historical association. The
district, about a hundred miles in length, through
which the train passes from Cape Town to the foot of
the Hex River Mountains is quite untypical of the rest
of the country. It is a district of most rare charm
and beauty ; in its way one of the most beautiful
in the world. This is not Nature in rugged or savage
mood, for despite the hills and the guardian Table
Rock the impression is one of loveliness that woos
rather than of grandeur that compels. This is not
the Nature that speaks in the tempest and earthquake,
overwhelming man with the consciousness that his
days are but a shadow. Rather is it Nature in kindly
forthcoming mood, bidding man rejoice in his strength,
as he reaps the fruits of field and vineyard, or rests,
his labours completed, beneath the shadow of her
benevolence. The melancholy of the high veld
yields place here to beauty with a smile on her lips.

94 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

But it is beauty of a nature far removed from that
of the English countryside. Africa is not sportive in
any part of her coasts ; suffering has laid too heavy
a hand on her for that. It would not occur to one to
connect ^this landscape with the pure joie de vivre of
a Chaucer, a Shakespeare, a Keats, singing of English
birds, and flowers in the glory of a spring morning.
Chaucer's ' lutel foul,' Shelley's skylark rising in ecstasy
to the heavens, speak with a careless rapture which
has no counterpart here. Blake's immortal lines —

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee —

all that gay challenge of the child sitting on a cloud
to the piper with his reed could never have been written
among the oak groves and vineyards of the Peninsula
shadowed by mountains within sight and sound of the
eternal sea. There is a psychology of nations just as
much as of individuals. The great images of poetry
and literature evoked by them are of very different
types, and it is hard to say why certain associations
attach themselves to the one rather than the other.
We cannot tell why England, an old country, burdened
with fame and manifold responsibilities, should yet
retain in her literature this perennial note of joyous
youth ; while South Africa, a young nation, leaves this
outstanding impression of sobriety and dignity. In
her case the note, even when most beautiful, most
romantic, is mellow and golden rather than intoxi-
cating. It is the country of Portia rather than of
Rosalind. We think there not of the recesses of Arden
with its vagabond band, but of the enchantment of
the moonlit garden on the Brenta and its guests. One
feels instinctively in the Peninsula that the presiding

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS 95

muse wears the stately garb of classical rather than of
romantic poetry. The great masters of song which
pass before our eyes are those of Greece and Rome,
not of England or the North. Theocritus, still more
Virgil, might have sung of the valleys of French Hoek
and the Drakenstein ; for this fair valley land with its
oaks, and vineyards, and wheat fields is the country
of the Bucolics and the Georgics. The great grey
mountains, worn and rugged, sweep down with even
folds into the corn fields below. During harvest- time
the foreground is like a sheet of molten gold — gold
varied by the brilliant green of vineyards or ripening
orchards. The old colonial houses shine out white and
gleaming from the oak groves which shelter them.
No harsh industrialism has laid a bitter hand upon this
district — one is less conscious here than elsewhere of
that all-pervading touch of sadness which has entered
into the being of South Africa. It is a fair portal to
the somewhat ungracious North, where more primitive
forces are met with — this land of verdure, of running
water, of great peace ; but a peace not so overwhelming
as the solitudes of the high veld.

The advent of the motor has made all this district
accessible as never before. Stellenbosch, Paarl, French
Hoek, Somerset West have now been brought within
reach of a day's excursion from Cape Town, and tourists
and travellers are becoming more and more f amiliar with
the beauties of the old colonial houses which date from
the period of the Van der Stels. As one is carried across
the Cape Flats towards the mountains of the Draken-
stein and the Hottentots Holland with the blue waters
of False Bay to the right, the scene is extraordinarily
suggestive of the Campagna. Like the Campagna,
too, in the spring-time it is a sheet of flowers. No

96 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

words can describe the beauty of a Cape spring when the
arums, the watsonias, the sparaxis, and babianas,
and a host of others, mixed with the multifarious heaths
— white, pink, scarlet — he like a great variegated carpet
glowing beneath the perfect blue of Heaven. The
corn, the vineyards, the wide stretches of grey rhenoster
bush, the umbrella pines, the persistent note of the
cicala — all this recalls Italy and the classical atmosphere
of which I have spoken. Only a line of broken aqueducts
is lacking to make the illusion complete. Here, in the
lines of Catullus which stand at the head of this chapter,
is the variegated garland of the spring, the ruddy ear
of grain when the soil is warmed, the sweet bunch of
grapes when the foliage of the vine is nourishing. Only
the grey olive is lacking ; but on Table Mountain at
least it finds a worthy representative in the soft sheen
of the beautiful and unique silver tree. A fair land
indeed ; and our thoughts must turn in gratitude to that
striking personality, Simon Van der Stel, who has left
so broad a mark on the early days and development of
South Africa. Van der Stel was a great planter and
a great builder. To his spacious spirit we owe not only
the oaks and vineyards of the Cape but the inspiration
of the beautiful houses which are the peculiar charm
of the Peninsula. An able administrator, it was ' by
his persistent efforts' (writes the late Mr. Leibbrandt,
formerly Keeper of the Cape Archives) ' that he
converted the barren hills and dales of this Peninsula
and of the Paarl and Stellenbosch into fruitful corn-
fields and vineyards, that everywhere he planted
forests and avenues of oaks which at the present day
still testify to his indefatigable efforts and complete
success/ It is no less interesting to find that Simon

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS 97

Van der Stel did not confine his attentions to agriculture,
but sent an expedition into the interior in search of
copper which penetrated as far as Namaqualand.

To have accomplished so much before the days of
modern communication proves boundless energy and
resource, qualities which marked several of the leading
figures among the Dutch pioneers. Jan Van Riebeck,
the first Commander at the Cape, a bad-tempered,
capable little man, known as " the little thornback," left
South Africa in 1662 after a residence of ten years.
Of Dutch phlegm, there was certainly no trace in his
vigorous and irascible personality, and within a short
period of time he had accomplished much for the infant
settlement of his foundation. The vine was introduced
from Germany in his time, and some day perhaps the
Cape Archives will reveal what experiments were made
in forestry before the oak established itself with such
signal success in the country — a point on which it would
be interesting to have some information. Simon Van
der Stel became Governor sixteen years later in 1678,
and under his influence the Colony was swept into
development on a scale previously unknown. Simon
Van der Stel was the first of a series of great men not
only to love South Africa but to have boundless faith
in its future. His broad horizon was not to be circum-
scribed by a cabbage garden for diseased sailors under
the shadow of Table Mountain, or the need of securing
fresh water for passing ships. Pushing across the
Flats he, first of all Europeans, colonised the beautiful
valleys of the Drakenstein and Hottentots Holland.
Stellenbosch, called after himself and his wife, whose
maiden name was Bosch, was the earliest of these
settlements, having been laid out in 1681, while Paarl

98 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

was colonised by the Huguenot refugees early in the
eighteenth century. In the neighbourhood comprised
by Groot Drakenstein, French Hoek, and Somerset West
the indefatigable Dutch settlers with their oaks and
vineyards little by little transformed the face of the
countryside ; and here sprang up many of the colonial
homesteads of whose origin we know so little, but
whose beauties raise so many questions. It is, however,
in the neighbourhood of Cape Town itself that the
noblest example of Simon Van der SteFs powers as a
builder still remains to the delight of all who behold
it. Some ten miles from Cape Town, near Wynberg,
stands the stately house surrounded by great oaks
known as Groot Constantia, now a Government wine
farm, but in a special sense the pride of the Peninsula.
It is situated among natural surroundings of extra-
ordinary beauty, and round it are scattered, like the
guardian gems of some great jewel, a group of houses
dating from the same period : Hoop op Constantia,
built as an official guest-house ; Klein Constantia, built
for Simon Van der Steles daughter Katryna; Nova
Constantia, less interesting; and a charming house of
somewhat later date possessing the attractive name
of ' Buitenverwachtig ' (beyond expectation). Beyond
expectation beautiful it all is, and as the charm of these
old houses grows and grows the more one sees of them,
the question then arises — who were their architects
and builders ? who were these unknown designers
and master workers ? for it is absurd to suppose that
the proportions and gables of the best of the Cape
colonial houses sprang from the mediocre hand and
brain of the average builder and plasterer of the time.
The work is often rough, as though the inspiration
had outstripped the available means of material and

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS 99

execution. The houses are not all of the same quality ;
many of them are just farmhouses adapted to the
needs of what we should call in this country a minor
squirearchy. But at Constantia, at Morgenster, at
Meerheust, at Stellenberg, at Nooitgedacht, it is
impossible not to feel the influence of a finer hand
and brain than any of which we have the record.

It is only of late years that South Africans them-
selves have awoke to the consciousness of their national
possession in the matter of these fine old colonial
houses. It is not a little curious that the Dutch, who
have so strong, indeed at times so aggressive, a sense
of nationality, have yet shown so little appreciation
for the most valuable evidences of that nationality
which the country holds. While heart and soul may
be flung into some squabble over bi-lingualism or dual
medium, a fine old Dutch house is allowed to disappear
before the attacks of the jerry-builder without a
murmur. One would gladly welcome a diversion of
the spirit which guards certain aspects of the race so
jealously to a more jealous guardianship of the national
memorials. By one of the many paradoxes of the
country, it is the English section who stand watch and
ward over the old houses to-day and are always rousing
the Dutch to efforts on behalf of their ancestral homes.
The awakening, alas ! has come too late in many
cases to prevent the most appalling vandalisms being
perpetuated under the baleful name of restoration.
The delightful old towns of Stellenbosch and Paarl
are modernised — vulgarised were the better word —
to-day out of all recognition. Set among their great
avenues of splendid oak trees and umbrella pines, it
is in grief of spirit that one reconstructs their original
appearance. Gone are the stoeps with their high pillars ;

H 2

100 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

gone are the reed- thatched roofs. In their place reigns
a sea of corrugated iron, naked and unashamed, with
verandahs of ornate ironwork which give one a pain
across the eyes. The old teak windows of many panes
have been ruthlessly torn out and replaced by modern
sashes and plate glass. Inside, the same dreary
vandalisms have left a desolation as great. The fine
old furniture and household effects of the eighteenth-
century Dutch settlers have in the main been dispersed.
They are replaced by bric-a-brac, plush, and ornamental
suites of a character on which Tottenham Court Road
would turn its back in disgust. There are of course
exceptions, but it is a curious contrast to pay a visit
to one of these old houses, to find their owners the
most courteous, the most dignified of men and women,
and yet to find that the artistic sense of their forefathers
has vanished as completely among them as the personal
tradition of good breeding has survived intact. The
shell of the house and its fine proportions remain, the
manners and appearance of the owners are all in the
picture ; it is on the wall-papers, the coloured
photographs, the tawdry china, the plush furniture,
that one desires to fall like a decorative Attila or
Sennacherib in his wrath. Luckily to the merits and
demerits of the present situation a large number of
South Africans of both races are increasingly alive,
though the impetus has come entirely from the English.
The country owes a great debt to Mr. Herbert Baker,
whose modern houses built on the lines of the old
ones have done so much to rouse interest in the striking
and original school of architecture evolved at the
Cape from the days of the Van der Stels onwards.
Another enthusiast, Miss Dorothea Fairbridge, herself
a member of a well-known Cape family, has done much

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DM STELS lOl

by her researches in the Archives to rouse interest
in the old colonial life of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In a series of delightful articles giving
detailed studies of the houses both in the Peninsula
and in other districts colonised by the Van der Stels,
Miss Fairbridge has brought to light much valuable
material and information about Dutch architecture and
Dutch social life during the period we are covering.
I was fortunate enough on several occasions to visit
some of the old houses under her guidance and to
have an opportunity of discussing with her the many
conjectures to which they give rise.

In the introduction contributed by Mr. Herbert
Baker to Mrs. Trotter's charming book ' Old Colonial
Houses of the Cape of Good Hope/ the former states
that in the main there are two types of ground plan
almost universal in the larger Cape colonial houses.
One is an H -shaped house turned sideways, the living
rooms consisting of the two uprights joined by a hall ;
the front of the house surrounded by its stoep or terrace
corresponding to the broad part of the H , in the centre
of which is the entrance. In the second, the H remains
upright ; the rooms, as you enter, instead of being ex-
tended to right and left are placed lengthways ; and the
distance between them is taken up by the hall, the back
of which is almost invariably divided from what is
known as the voorhuis, by a carved and louvred wood
screen made of yellow wood, stinkwood, &c. These
screens are a special feature of the houses, and the
carving in many cases is of fine workmanship. The
rooms are all on the ground floor, and the general plan
is cool, spacious, airy, and well adapted to the needs of
a hot climate. A single thatch roof spans the rooms,
with a loft over the entrance ; the roof breaking into

102 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

a gable at this point often with a stone pediment and
side scrolls. Reverting to the H -shaped figure, we find
both ends of the vertical lines no less ornamented with
gables which serve as a wall screen. It has been the
custom up till now to speak somewhat lightly of the
Cape colonial house as showing interesting but not
particularly good work. But the detailed studies made
by Miss Fairbridge of the gables and the excellent
photographs of them now available, reveal a much
higher standard artistically and architecturally than
was at first suspected. The modern school of Cape
architecture is doing admirable work. It is, I hope,
no reflection on its authors to suggest that there is as
yet no rivalry between the best of the new and the best
of the old. In proportion, in outline, in moulding,
in all those indefinable yet most real factors which in
literature or art go to make up that rare but precious
element we call quality, the colonial houses of Simon
Van der Stel and his successors stand in a class far
removed from the modern buildings which are withal
so pleasant and welcome a feature of the land.

The gables of the old houses show variety of type,
but in the main they resolve themselves like the ground
plans into two large groups : a high straight gable like
a tombstone with scrolls at the side — the Constantia
type ; and a broad-based gable wreathing itself upwards
in a series of scrolls and curves — the Morgenster type.
Mr. Baker, in Mrs. Trotter's book to which I have
just referred, finds prototypes of both these gables in
Amsterdam, and thinks they reflect Dutch influence
throughout in their origin, though in his opinion the
second and broader gable has developed quite original
features. At a later stage the classical revival certainly
touched South Africa, and columns and pilasters appear,

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS 103

as in many of the Stellenbosch houses and the balcony
in the courtyard of the Castle at Cape Town. But
though the tombstone type of gable recalls Holland,
and certainly seems to point to Dutch influence, I for
one cannot escape from a great sense of French influence
in the second type of broad incurved or wreathed gable.
I venture the suggestion with all diffidence, for there
are really no data to go upon. But the strength of
the work, the beauty of the curves, the free handling
of the plaster, rightly or wrongly, perpetually set me
thinking of the towns and castles on the Loire and all
that beautiful flower of the French Renaissance in
architecture cut short so miserably by the Wars of
Religion. Goujon, whose name rises to the mind in
this connection, perished in the St. Bartholomew
massacres in 1561. The influence, if influence there
were, from this school would be an indirect and much
later one, for Constantia was not begun till 1685. But
in the entire absence of facts, inquirers are apt to take
to the dangerous course of speculation and searching
of their own bones, and it is difficult not to feel this
French influence in one's bones; wherever it came from.
This particular speculation is; after all, not unreason-
able when one remembers the Huguenot element
which came to settle in the country. The first French
immigrants reached South Africa in 1689. Their
arrival coincided with a period corresponding to the
great building activity of Simon Van der Stel. The
conjecture that among the refugees there may have
been craftsmen who brought with them to South
Africa not only French talent but skilled French crafts-
manship is not an impossible one where all is conjecture.
At Morgenster, the beautiful residence of Mrs. Alexander
Van der Byl near Somerset West, the sense of this

104 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

French influence forced itself on me strongly. The
house rivals even Groot Constantia in the beauty of
its architecture and natural setting, though it lacks the
wonderful view over False Bay with the foreground of
vineyards which ravishes the eye from the stoep of
Simon Van der Stel's house. The gable over the front
door, with its great scrolls ending in a shell-like apex,
is one of the finest in South Africa ; for this is beauty
springing not out of prettiness but out of strength,
and one cannot look at the curves and scroll work of
the Morgenster gables without feeling that they were
moulded by a sure hand guided by a fine spirit. It is
difficult to convey the charm of this old house set among
its oak trees, a brook babbling by the white-pillared
stoep hung with vines and creepers. Near at hand is
Vergelegen, the celebrated farm of the ill-fated Adrian
Van der Stel, Simon's son and successor, who became
the centre of one of the most stormy intrigues ever
conducted in South Africa, and — as it now appears,
unjustly — was degraded from his high office and
banished from the country — the first but by no means
the last of the men who have loved and served South
Africa to whom that treatment has been meted out.
* What mean ye by these stones ? ' is a question upper-
most in one's mind as one visits these old houses ; and
the question has to remain a question, for of facts there
is an entire and disconcerting absence.

I was told by Miss Fairbridge that it was very
difficult to arrive at the dates of the houses, let alone
the names of the builders. Land was sometimes leased
and a house built on it and then subsequently bought.
The records would show the date of purchase, but the
house itself might be much older. Again, when houses
were altered the date of the alteration was frequently

COUNTRY OF THE VAN t>ER STELS 105

fixed on the new or renovated gable, and this circum-
stance may wholly mislead the inquirer in search of
the original date. The Castle at Cape Town, a building
the merits of which are at present but scantily appre-
ciated, has passed through a variety of transformations
of this kind. It was begun by Van Riebeck, but the
Van der Stel touch is unmistakable not only on the
fine entrance-gate, but on the massive walls and bastions
and the admirable proportions of the living-rooms.
Very remarkable, too, are the great vaults built as
granaries by Simon Van der Stel, which give one some
idea of the wheat-growing operations in the Colony
and their scale. Further structural alterations took
place at the time of what may be called the South
African classical revival, and it was about this period
that Lady Anne Barnard lived at the castle and enter-
tained Cape society with fiddles and the French horns.
But again very little information is forthcoming as to
the actual builders and architects responsible for this
fine old pile, sadly defaced as it is now by the uses to
which it is put as barracks, and jostled under its very
bastion by the railway.

As regards the Archives, after the irritating manner
of their kind they supply endless particulars in the
case of a number of well-known houses as to the quan-
tities of materials used and detailed records of the
cost. But in no case does the name of the builder or
architect appear. The human material apparently was
taken for granted and passed unrecorded. It may be
remembered that at Chartres, though we have every
particular of the gifts made by the various guilds to
the Cathedral, we know not the name of the architect
to whom we owe the most glorious fane in Christendom.
There is nothing surprising therefore that names of

106 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the Cape architects do not find their way into specifi-
cations of wood of teak, bnt there is much that is very
irritating in a problem so elusive as that which these
houses present.

In the old days of the Tavern of the Ocean, when
Table Bay was a meeting-place for the argosies of many
seas, other influences from other sources may easily
have flowed into the country. The Cape, in the eyes
of the Dutch East India Company, was but a port of
call to the far more important settlements in Batavia.
Miss Fairbridge has pointed out how the Archives reveal
very pretty quarrels between the Van der Stels and
the directors in Holland, owing to the reprehensible (in
their eyes) habit of Simon and Adrian in detaching trained
workmen bound for the East at Cape Town and utilising
them for the prosecution of their own schemes. From
Batavia, too, may have come the ground plan of the
houses and their stoeps so well adapted to the needs
of a hot climate, to which no parallel can be found in
Holland. And as we remember the ships which must
have passed to and fro rounding the Cape with their
rich Eastern cargoes, it is easy to understand how the
old settlers came into possession of their treasures in
furniture and china, the acquisition of which at this
remote end of the African continent at first sight seems
puzzling. However much the latter-day Transvaal
Boer, cut off from education and refining influences,
may have fallen below the standards and culture of
his forefathers, the fact that this culture nevertheless
lies behind him is of good import to his future develop-
ment. There is plenty of progress for him to make
along fines laid down by a great ruler such as Simon
Van der Stel.

Another matter which calls for some comment is the

COUNTRY OF THE VAN DER STELS 107

character of the names given to the houses. Imagi-
nation must have been no uncommon quality among
the settlers in those early days, and there is a very
delicate aroma about many of the names possessed
by the old homesteads which often reveal a touch
both poetic and fanciful. I have already spoken of
* Buitenverwachtig ' — Beyond Expectation. No less
charming and suggestive are • Meer Lust ' — Joy of the
Sea ; ' Morgen Ster ' — Morning Star ; * Rust en Vrede/ —
Rest in Peace ; * Nooitgedacht * — Not Remembered ;
and such names as * Bien Donne/ ' La Gratitude/ ' Bon
Foi/ and many others. But we know no more of their
origin than of the origin of the houses themselves.

At last, towards the end of the eighteenth century,
the veil lifts and we come on two names which can be
definitely connected with certain buildings in Cape Town
and elsewhere. Louis Michel Thibault, a French
Lieutenant of Engineers, arrived in Cape Town in 1785
and entered the Government service, being employed
on fortifications and public works. He died in South
Africa between 1810 and 1820, having seen the country
pass from Dutch to English hands. Thibault's buildings
show the classical influence of which I have spoken, and
good illustrations of his work may be seen in the balcony
at the Castle and the beautiful Drosty at Tulbagh for
which a sum of £8000 was paid. The flat-roofed
houses at Stellenbosch and elsewhere with columns,
pilasters, and other classical ornaments are traceable
to his influence. At the same time came Anton Anreith,
sculptor and worker in plaster, who must have carried
out decorative work for Thibault. South Africa owes
to him the greatest gem in the land, the exquisite
group of Ganymede surrounded by putti, which decorates
the pediment on the wine cellar at Groot Constantia.

108 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Here there is no question of a relative judgment. The
work is of the highest order, and can fearlessly challenge
comparison with any prototype in the old world. But
save in the case of Thibault and Anton Anreith, we have
as yet no clue to the master-builders of the eighteenth
century, the period at which the finest houses were
erected.

The present Union archivist, Mr. Botha, is a real
enthusiast at his work, and the papers under his care
have doubtless much to reveal about many matters
of deep interest historically and archseologically. We
must also hope that Miss Fairbridge will gather together
all her admirable knowledge of the Cape houses and
their owners in a form which will rouse South Africans
to a fuller appreciation of the historical beauties of their
country, and to the real responsibility which rests with
the nation to give such beauties a vigilant and faithful
guardianship.

109

CHAPTEK X

THE OPENING OP THE UNION PARLIAMENT

'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay,
But the high faith that failed not by the way.

So long as men do their duty, even if it be greatly in a misapprehension,
they will be leading pattern lives ; and whether or not they come to lie
beside a martyr's monument, we may be sure they will find a safe haven
somewhere in the providence of God. R. L. Stevenson.

The third session of the first Parliament of the South
African Union was opened with all ceremonious
observance by the Governor-General, Lord Gladstone,
on Friday, January 24, 1913. The political crisis
through which the country was passing invested the
occasion with an unusual degree of interest. Great
had been the hitherings and thitherings during the
preceding weeks, since General Botha's break with
General Hertzog ; for the almost complete absence of
party organisation on the Dutch side had made calcu-
lations of relative strength very difficult. The session
opened in an atmosphere thick with uncertainty and
conflict ; the struggle between the two Dutch leaders,
whichever way it turned, being recognised on all sides
as momentous to South Africa.

As regards the actual ceremony, it is not a little
interesting on such an occasion to note the extent to
which the ancient constitutional forms of the Mother

110 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of Parliaments have been transplanted to the Dominions
beyond the Seas, and how far they flourish in their
new surroundings. We English — in the limited geo-
graphical sense of the term — though a democratic
people, have no little affection for archaic ceremonials,
and parade them with much pleasure on State occasions.
It amuses us now and again to rummage in the property-
box of tradition and remind ourselves how long and
varied have been the events in the course of our
island story. We are half ashamed to confess how
much we are moved by these evidences of the past,
speaking as they do of generations now fallen on sleep
but who were torch-bearers in their time — the torch
passed on to us. This respect for State ceremonial
on great occasions reflects no discredit on those who
are moved by it. The condition of the toiling masses
would be not one penny-piece the better for its
disappearance. In a drab world beset with mechanical
appliances, what advantage can there be in the
suppression of all that stimulates the national imagi-
nation, of all that makes the toiler realise that he
too, whatever his limitations, shares and upholds a
great national life which has descended through the
ages ? The more we cherish that tradition, the more
we realise its greatness, the more we shall strive that
latter-day circumstances do not create conditions of
life for the nation incompatible with a future as fine
as the past. So the property-box has its uses in our
busy modern life, and brings home to the younger
nations that these archaic ceremonials speak of a past
in which, if they so wish and will, they equally can share.
History, and a proud and great history, has flowed
through these forms, and an occasional tribute to the
latter is but a legitimate species of ancestor-worship.

OPENING OF THE UNION PARLIAMENT 111

The average Colonial is fond of saying he makes no count
of these things, but the remark does not imply any
particular superiority; it only points to a short
historical tradition and an undeveloped genius loci.
He absorbs both willingly enough in the Old Country
on the occasions when England deploys her great
pageants of national joy or sorrow.

The brilliant sunshine which marked the opening
day of the South African session was yet another contrast
to the murky skies under which the English Parliament
is accustomed to meet. I set off in good time to take
my place, for I had not wholly disabused my mind of
the idea of a London crowd on a similar occasion and
the delays it entails. But beyond a certain stir in
the neighbourhood of the oak avenue, and here and
there the unfamiliar sight of a uniform, scarce a ripple
seemed to disturb the normal tranquillity of Cape Town.
The red-brick Parliament House, with stucco columns,
at the head of Adderley Street, is an unpretentious
building, though recently enlarged to meet the needs
of the greater Assembly which now deliberates within
its walls. Cape Town is fond of remarking with a sniff
that whatever wanton extravagance may be committed
in the north in the way of public buildings, the south
does not regard bricks and mortar as essential to
Parliamentary greatness. The opening ceremony was
performed in the old Chamber of the Legislative Council,
now the Senate House. The floor of the House was
given up practically to the ladies, legislators accom-
modating themselves gallantly in the background.
The precedent of sending for the faithful Commons
is not followed here, members of the Assembly and then
the Senators arriving in procession and taking their
seats before the advent of the Governor-General.

112 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

But Black Rod, and the Mace, and the Speaker, gorgeous
in black and gold robes, carry back the youngest of
parliaments to the oldest of usages on the banks of
the Thames.

On the whole, the years have brought fewer changes
than might have been expected among the figures
whom I remembered as playing their parts in the angry
debates immediately preceding the war. South Africa
is remarkable for the calibre of the public men she
has produced. The youngest of the Dominions, she
has statesmen whose intellect and capacity would make
them front bench men in any parliament of the Old
World. As I looked down from the gallery, the
chequered history of latter-day South Africa seemed
to be summed up in the personalities gathered together
on the floor below. Mr. W. P. Schreiner, Prime Minister
when I saw him last in 1899, older and bearded is
among the Senators. A somewhat cryptic personality,
no man has had to bear more abuse and probably
few have deserved it less. A typical intellectual
with a somewhat fastidious mind of first-rate quality,
Mr. Schreiner is not the type of politician who holds
the masses, but a thinker who will always form thought
among those around him. The difficulties of his public
career have been those of an essentially cross-bench
mind coloured by a deeper humanitarianism than ever
can be popular with the crowd. Men who struggle for
any sort of fair or dispassionate judgment as between
conflicting racial claims and policies are at once assailed
in South Africa as weak-kneed traitors. So it comes
about that the just man must pursue and cherish his
ideal of justice undeterred by the clamour which the
extremists on one side and the other most certainly
will raise about his path. Sir James Rose Innes has

OPENING OF THE UNION PARLIAMENT US

left politics for the judicature and now sits among the
judges. A personality of singular charm, politics are
the poorer for the loss of one whose influence I remember
as the great moderating factor in the stormy days
before the war. Mr. Sauer, capable, burly, witty,
then, as now, is on the Front Bench.1 Sir Richard
Solomon, another distinguished son who has deserved
well of South Africa, has vanished from the parlia-
mentary scene, but is now serving the Union in
London. Slight, alert, genial, the Dr. Smartt of the
Cape Assembly has now blossomed into Sir Thomas
Smartt, leader of the Unionist Opposition. Death
of course had taken its toll. As Parliament meets, Sir
Gordon Sprigg, veteran ex-Prime Minister and far
excellence the old parliamentary hand of South Africa,
is approaching the bourne of the undiscovered country.
One outstanding personality alone of those days is
missing : the lion-headed man, with the high-pitched
voice so little in keeping with his frame, who sleeps in
the Matoppos. The land he loved and served has in
a large measure been moulded to his will, but the Fates
cut short his thread before the hour of fulfilment.
Rhodes as a politican always seemed to me somewhat
out of place. The greatness, the impatience of his mind
could hardly make their count with the restraints and
formalities of parliamentary practice. It was probably
to him an irksome part of his larger purpose, a necessary

i Mr. Sauer's regretted death in July 1913, at the moment of the
disturbance in Johannesburg, occurred after this chapter was written.
The loss of his experience and ripe judgment will be severely felt not
only in the Botha Cabinet but throughout the Union. A strong party
man, Mr. Sauer had lived through stormy days during his political career,
but the universal tributes to his memory and the general regret at his
untimely death are yet another proof of the changed feeling which has
come over South African public life.

i

114 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

means to the ends he had in view. He dominated
the old Cape Assembly by sheer force of genius, but
my recollection of him fidgeting on the Front Bench
is that of a man not thoroughly at home in his
surroundings, and submitting with ill grace to the
limitations of his position. In God's out-of-doors,
on the veld, on the mountain side, or again in his own
beautiful house — of which General and Mrs. Botha are
now such faithful guardians, preserving it at every
point intact and unchanged — he was in the right
environment. One may think of him in many ways,
but it never occurs to one to think of him primarily
as a successful Prime Minister. Politics were the
accident, not the mainspring, of his career. His stage
was a wider one even than the floor of a popular
Assembly.

Very different is the case with the grey-headed, hand-
some man, still, as of old, the most conspicuous figure
in the Parliamentary throng, another ex-Prime Minister,
who stands in the literal sense head and shoulders
above his colleagues. Parliamentary life throughout
the Empire has produced no personality more remarkable
than that of Mr. J. X. Merriman. Distinction of person
and distinction of mind in him go hand in hand. For
culture, wit, and oratory he has not his equal in
the Union Parliament, though his span has already
outstripped the three score years and ten allotted
by the Psalmist to man's labours. In private life
one of the most brilliant and caustic conversationalists
of our time ; in public matters a first-rate financier,
an ingrained individualist, a strenuous opponent of
socialism and woman's suffrage, out of sympathy with
the Imperial idea — Mr. Merriman's mental equipment

OPENING OF THE UNION PARLIAMENT 115

is of a somewhat contradictory character. As a speaker

he is not only impressive by reason of his matter which is

admirable, but he has in addition the matchless charm

of a golden voice so mellifluous that it would compel

attention if his speeches were devoted to a repetition

of ' Three Blind Mice/ On ceremonial occasions he is

at his very best, and his tribute in the Assembly on

the death of Sir Gordon Sprigg was a model of generous

and restrained appreciation. But though it has been

my good fortune to listen to him on various occasions,

I remember him primarily not by his keen sword-play

and thrust on the floor of the House and the confusion

with which he can overwhelm an antagonist, but in a

humble little school which he had gone to open in the

poorest part of Cape Town belonging to that neglected

people the Malays. It was a corner of the Orient

gathered in the whitewashed schoolroom, the audience

pressing round the tall, white-haired statesman as he

spoke to them encouragingly, kindly, of self-improvement

and education ; the somewhat haughty bitter touch of his

political utterances wholly in abeyance, the real kindness

of his heart wholly displayed. Mr. Merriman has always

been a champion of native rights, a fact already known

to the patient, dark-eyed men and women looking at

him with mute appeal as he reminded them of words

in their own Koran, ' God loveth the clean,' ' God is

with those who persevere.' Other writers may speak

of other sides of Mr. Merriman's political life, may tell

of circumstances through which he has failed despite

such gifts to win and maintain the first place in the

conduct of public affairs. He has reached a point in

his career where criticism drops out of sight, and his

friends need only dwell on the charm of his personality,

I 2

116 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

and all those qualities of heart and mind that make
his friendship indeed a possession.

But all these are figures of the past and familiar in
the days of the old Cape Parliament. The Union has
widened the scene and brought other actors on the
stage. Faces then unknown have stepped into the
front rank, men from the North who have many qualities
to bring to the fuller national life now established.
General Botha, erect and soldierly, walks at the head
of the Union Assembly procession with firm tread and
untroubled glance. To see him in his place as Prime
Minister is perhaps to reflect on the different treatment
meted out by Imperial Britain and Imperial Rome
respectively to their defeated foes. Beside him is
General Smuts, a slight, fair-haired, fair-bearded man,
who for sheer brain power has probably no equal in
South Africa. A first-rate metaphysician, General
Smuts, like Lord Haldane, is a devout worshipper at
the shrine of divine philosophy, and is at heart more
interested in Kant and Hegel than in the wearisome
squabbles of race and language. It is difficult to under-
rate the importance of his intellectual capacity to the
cause of good government in South Africa. The close
ties of friendship which exist between him and General
Botha are fortunate for both men. General Botha is
the leader par excellence, with touch, vision, personality,
but his educational advantages have been slender.
General Smuts is in no sense a popular leader. His
acute metaphysical brain, so curious a product to be
thrown up by his race, renders his personality per-
plexing and incomprehensible to the average Boer.
A mind so subtle and so nimble can dance too many
dialectical rings round the stalwarts of the Back Veld
— hence the element of distrust he inspires among

OPENING OF THE UNION PAKLIAMENT 117

them. But intellectually General Smuts is the Govern-
ment. I have heard it said he could without the least
trouble assume all the portfolios of all the ministers.
Gifted with an immense power of work, he is supposed
to forge not a few of the bullets which General Botha
fires with considerable effect. I heard him introduce
the Financial Kelations Bill, an excessively complicated
measure, with perfect lucidity and almost without
reference to a note. He can speak with equal ease
and command in the Dutch and English languages
alike, an advantage denied to General Botha, who
usually prefers the Dutch medium. In debate his
manner is suave and conciliatory. In private life he
has not only all the courtesy of his race but a pleasant
wit and a ready laugh. The Empire is greatly the
richer by his addition to its statesmen. General Botha
and General Smuts are obviously greater figures than
those of their remaining colleagues, but these in-
clude personalities well known in latter-day South
African history. Ex-President Keitz, formerly ruler
of the Free State, now President of the Senate, arrives
late and pushes his way with no little agitation to his
seat. Mr. Abraham Fischer, formerly Prime Minister
of the Free State, venerable and grey-bearded, sits
on the Treasury Bench. I had seen him last in Cape
Town during the troubled months preceding the war,
when negotiations had brought him on a fruitless
mission to the south. General Beyers, tall and dignified
in his uniform as head of the Defence Force, stands
near the throne, one of the most striking figures of
the gathering ; a very staunch foe in the past, an
admirable and trusted official in the present.

Since the loss of Dr. Jameson, the Unionist Oppo-
sition can put forward no men equal in calibre to

118 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the best brains of the Nationalist Party. In Mr.
Patrick Duncan they hold a great asset, but he is a
younger man whose political opportunity has not yet
come, and he supports policies not wholly acceptable
to many of his party. Certain of the Rand lords who
sit in Parliament are very able men, but the qualifica-
tions of great leadership comprise more than ability
and, save in the case of Mr. Duncan, those further
qualifications and qualities are not conspicuous in the
Unionist Party. One figure has no small interest
from the point of view of political continuity at home
and overseas. Mr. Hugh Wyndham, the Unionist
whip, who has become a South African by adoption,
carries on and maintains very admirably in the Union
Assembly the tradition of a great governing family
who have left a broad mark on the Mother of Parlia-
ments. I heard him on one occasion make a short
impromptu speech which for verve and real intellectual
quality was not unworthy of Lord Rosebery's nephew.
Strange thoughts and memories are stirred as one
looks down from the gallery on the mingled crowd
below ; ministers of the Crown — men who but a few
years since were in arms against us — awaiting the
King's representative and exchanging amicable greetings
with other men to whom they have found themselves
in opposition in no academic or parliamentary sense.
It is easy to say that a Dutch Government rules South
Africa to-day, and that England has surrendered in
peace all she won in war — easy, but essentially cheap
and untrue. The very genius of our race lies in this
frank and generous calling to a common council of the
enemies of yesterday. To say that the Boers in turn
have surrendered nothing is strangely to ignore the part
that sentiment plays in all human concerns. The flag

OPENING OF THE UNION PAKLIAMENT 119

which waves to-day over every Government building
in Pretoria, the throne and the symbols of royalty
beneath which the Parliament meets — all this marks a
change the acceptance of which must have meant a
hard struggle to the men and women of the Republics.
Outside, the clash of arms is heard and the boom of a
minute gun. Then the strains of the National Anthem,
and Dutch and English rise to their feet as the Governor-
General, preceded by his staff and the naval and military
authorities, enters the Chamber. The scene is stately
and dignified, and Lord Gladstone bears himself well
as the central figure of the gathering ; no longer in the
familiar frock-coat of the lounging Treasury Bench
days at Westminster, but in the brilliant uniform of
his high office. In a clear, firm voice he reads the
gracious message from the Throne. Finance, defence,
naval policy, immigration, the generous gift of Mr.
Max Michaelis — all are touched upon. But the one
subject uppermost in every person's mind naturally
finds no place in the speech. The brief ceremony is
over, Lord Gladstone retires, a variety of persons
have made a variety of bows, and the assembled com-
pany break out into a babble of comment and inquiry.
It must be owned that a certain atmosphere of unreality
overlaid the whole proceedings. General Hertzog's name
was on everyone's lips, and all eyes were searching
for him. But the General was absent, had tarried in
the Free State on a visit to ex-President Steyn, another
circumstance which set the quidnuncs agog. Many
people pour into the Assembly itself to hear the roll
called over and watch members take their seats. Only
formal business is being transacted to-day, but it is
possible to judge the formation of parties. The Chamber
is a pleasant, wood-panelled room with spacious

120 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

galleries devoid of the indignities of the grille so far as
my sex is concerned. The Speaker's Chair, the Table,
the Mace, the ranging of Government and Opposition
to right and left follow the precedents with which we
are all familiar. The little desks at which the legis-
lators sit are no doubt very convenient, but they lend
an oddly pedagogic air to the floor of the House. One
has the impression of a group of school boys receiving
instruction in the higher forms. In the absence of
benches on which to sprawl, members bent on a nap
must assume a prayerful attitude with their elbows on
the bench in front of them. This is a favourite position
with General Hertzog, who is often to be seen bent
double with hands tightly clasped over his face, as
though shutting out in disgust all view of an objection-
able world. A short acquaintance with the Union
Assembly reveals the fact that the Parliament at
Westminster has no speciality in the matter of political
March hares. The genus capers as cheerfully under
the shadow of Table Mountain as in the precincts of
St. Stephen's. The Labour Party makes up in garrulity
for what it lacks in numbers, and the six members who
compose it are prepared to talk at all times and on all
occasions at inordinate length. The tendency is for
speeches in all parts of the House to be much too long,
and the complete indifference with which they are
received is not a little striking. Sensitiveness to
atmosphere is not a condition of South African parlia-
mentary life. The average speaker will pound away
quite unperturbed by a cheerful babble of conversation
all around, and the colossal inattention of the House
to his remarks. Mr. Merriman's air of weary indifference
on such occasions and the glances he casts at the
speaker would be daunting in a gathering more highly

OPENING OF THE UNION PARLIAMENT 121

charged with electricity. When he rouses himself to
pay a series of little calls round the House, it indicates
that the breaking point of his patience is nearly reached.
He moves from bench to bench with an air of great
detachment, casting now and again a glance over his
shoulder at the orator as much as to say ' Are you still
going on ? ' More cheerful are the occasions on which
the Back Velders take part in the proceedings. The
Boer is by no means badly equipped in the matter of
oratory, and the fluency of the Free State members
must impress the onlooker even though the sense of
the remarks is not gathered. They indulge apparently
in witticisms of no mean order, to judge by the shouts
of laughter with which their speeches are received in
all parts of the House. Even when due allowance is
made for the very small beer which moves any popular
assembly to mirth, the Dutch member has obviously
more vigour and fluency than is to be found in the case
of the average Englishman. I listened on one occasion
to a debate on woman's suffrage, more dull and dreary
because more desultory and unreal, even than the type
of debates on the subject which take place in Eng-
land. It expired among the squibs and coruscations
of an old Free State member who dealt apparently
with certain primitive facts in a somewhat primi-
tive way to the huge glee of all members present. The
bi-lingual regulations in force waste a considerable
amount of time, but I refer elsewhere to the circum-
stances in South African public life which render
them inevitable.

One thing may be said of the Union Parliament
without fear of contradiction — no popular Assembly
in the world meets in the midst of natural surroundings
more beautiful. The apparent futility and waste of

122 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

much Parliamentary debate is a matter which causes
considerable heartburning to thoughtful men in all
countries. At times it is difficult not to ask oneself if
the best forces of a nation's life are not flowing in other
channels or at least through other forms. And the
trouble of it all is that the men whose character makes
them most worth while to the nation are those most
apt to turn in trouble and disgust from the intrigues
and compromises of politics, asking themselves cui
'bono'1. When such questions obtrude, the great con-
solations of Nature come with a specially healing touch.
And this is particularly the case in Cape Town. How-
ever violent or foolish any struggle within the walls
of the House, to come out on the steps and see the
violet crest of the mountain rising above the oak trees
in serene and glorious beauty, is to regain the true
proportion of things almost at a stroke. To look up
to hope, ' to hope till hope creates out of its own wreck
the thing it contemplates ' ; that is the condition of
help promised to those who, despite the discourage-
ments of life, have nevertheless the fortitude still to
lift up their eyes unto the hills. May that deeper
purpose, that steadfast hope never fail the men who
are beating out a nation's destiny under the guardian
shadow of the Mountain !

PART II
SOME POLICIES AND PKOBLEMS

125

CHAPTER XI

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR

. . . But Life ere long
Came on me in the public ways and bent
Eyes deeper than of old : Death met I too
And saw the dawn glow through.

George Meredith.

Mein Vermachtniss, wie herrlich weit und breit.

Goethe.

It is not a little strange to look back from the troubled
vantage point of the twentieth century to that idyllic
moment midway in the nineteenth when for a short
time men abandoned themselves to pleasant dreams
of a new era of universal peace. In 1851 the Glass
House in Hyde Park gathered under its roof repre-
sentatives of all nations, who, so the dream ran,
henceforth were to meet in the friendly rivalries of
commerce and abjure the brutalities of war. This dream
unfortunately had passed through the gate of ivory
not that of horn : the Glass House itself, true symbol
of insecurity, was not more frail than the hopes it had
sheltered during the famous world's fair. Mr. Justin
McCarthy has pointed out that so far from inaugurating
the reign of Peace, the Hyde Park Exhibition but
marked the close of such brief period of authority as
that luckless divinity has so far known. The hard
realities of the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny soon

126 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

shattered the illusions of 1851, and so far from war
coming to an end, the dark shadow of strife hangs
more heavily to-day over the modern world than it
hung over the prosperous mid- Victorian period, with
its robust common sense and somewhat prosaic virtues.
History is never more pregnant than in its study of
beginnings, or when tracing the fountain-heads of those
divergent streams which at a later date unite to form
a torrent. In the great drama of human life the actors
are often trained on diverse stages before they come
together in the playing out of some world-wide event.
The loom of Fate is a vast one, and threads doomed
to the joint working out of great designs both good and
evil are spun apart and apparently without the smallest
relation the one to the other. The men and women
of 1851, who gathered in Hyde Park to marvel at the
wonders of the Great Exhibition were all unconscious
of the forces at work about them, and had little con-
ception of the whole development of national and
Imperial life which lay ahead. They belonged to a
generation curiously remote from our own in its different
appreciation of the problems concerned with the position
of Great Britain overseas. That Great Britain had
a position overseas at all was a fact which rarely
traversed the national consciousness of that period.
The men of those days were concerned with other
thoughts, work, and ideals, and for them the pressing
problems were domestic. The whole relationship of
the Colonies and the Mother Country had touched the
nadir of indifference in the middle of the last century.
Preoccupied as the mid- Victorians were with the idea
of internationalism, it would have seemed to them an
absurd suggestion that these remote settlements could
ever draw near to the Homeland or one another in

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 127

a living relationship. Communication in the modern
sense was still in its infancy, and the countries of the
world remained separated one from another by vast
distances of time and ocean. And yet, while thousands
and tens of thousands of people poured through the
Glass House, and men boasted of the peaceful triumphs
in commerce and industry which henceforth it would
be England's pride to sustain, Destiny had flung on
the loom the first threads of a very different challenge.
Some twelve years before, Lord Durham's great Report
on the Canadas had already provided an unsuspected
Magna Charta on which British-speaking peoples over-
seas were to build up new and vigorous expressions of
national life. In South Africa the first pawns in a great
struggle had no less been moved on the board. No
seer was at hand to foretell what vast consequences
were ultimately to flow from the obscure movements
at this period of a small and remote people in the far
interior of South Africa. The Sand River Convention
of 1852 which established the Transvaal Republic, the
Bloemfontein Convention of 1854 which established
the independence of the sister Republic in the Free
State — these trivial agreements passed unknown and
unheeded ; yet they were doomed to set on foot a chain
of events which in the fullness of time were to cause the
whole British Empire to stand and deliver. And that
the creation of the Dutch Republics in South Africa,
this ultimate origin of strife and bloodshed, should
belong to the period of the Great Exhibition, gives
rise to some strange reflections as to the course of
human events, and the slow stages apparently by which
the higher moral consciousness of mankind is evolved.

The two Boer Conventions of 1852 and 1854 are
capital events in South African history, for from them

128 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

dates the creation of these separate nationalities and
separate sovereignties, the rival claims of which have
been the fountain-head of strife. Into the causes and
origin of the Boer War of 1899-1902 I do not propose
to enter here at any length. For many years to come
the necessity for that great struggle will be asserted
by some and denied by others. But it must be a
puzzling circumstance for those who challenge the
fundamental issues which underlay the conflict, and
who see in its origin nothing but the sordid intrigues of
financial interests, that the war should have produced
such an astonishing development of national life and
consciousness as the present Union of South Africa.
Grapes do not grow from thorns, or figs from thistles ;
and if the South African struggle had sprung from
nothing better than a sordid commercialism, the
aftermath of the war would have proved more bitter
even than the struggle itself. The secondary causes
which precipitate a great conflict may be culpable and
unworthy, and no one will be at any pains to deny that
culpable and unworthy elements went to the making
of the Boer War. But to speak of them as a primary
cause is to confuse the spark which fires the powder
magazine with the powder magazine itself.

Through a lamentable lack of vision in years past
Great Britain had gone out of her way to manufacture
for herself in South Africa a condition of affairs which
was bound sooner or later to challenge the very basis
of her own supremacy. In her eagerness to shirk
responsibility, she made, in the creation of the Boer
Kepublics, a peculiarly unsatisfactory venture in the class
of experiment known as setting up the poacher as
policeman. She grossly mishandled the Boer population,
and having irritated them into rebellion, acquiesced

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 129

readily enough in their coping with savages and wild
beasts in the interior — so long as she was relieved from
any such disagreeable necessity. South Africa south of
the Zambesi is geographically one country. These geo-
graphical conditions dictate in turn the only possible
basis of sound and peaceable development, namely union
in one form or another. Politically it was impossible
for the land to be at peace within itself when torn
asunder by two opposite national ideals, focussed in
hostile and separated governments. A British South
Africa, a Dutch South Africa — each was sectional in
outlook and mischievous in manifestation. In a South
African South Africa alone could a greater unity of
ideal be found large enough to give fair and legitimate
play to the individuality of both races. That greater
unity of ideal had in turn to find its expression in
a much ampler framework than could be provided
by four disunited governments, half Imperial, half
Republican, each full of jealousy and distrust of the
other. Through the tangle of latter-day South African
history this is the bedrock of the situation and the
present Union of South Africa is its triumphant proof.
There is much which lies to right and left of this main
proposition, and many a baffling backwater and cross
current. But fundamentally the strife in South Africa
sprang from its disunion, and the removal of that
primary source of stumbling is the hope of the future.
For the first time in her history South Africa has at last
achieved a sound basis of government — equal rights
and equal justice for all white men within her coasts.
She will have her troubles and difficulties like all other
nations, but she has won at least from the sufferings
of a great war the essential condition of unity which
alone can give her peace.

130 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Frequent reference has been made in the preceding
chapters to the changes which have come over South
Africa since I knew it in the pre-war days — far off
days they seem now and utterly remote, but affording
nevertheless a very useful standard by which to judge
the new order. So far as the outward appearance of
things is concerned the conditions are transformed
almost beyond recognition. The change is no less
striking as regards the inner spirit of men's lives and
purposes. That the country should have arrived at
unity in any form seems little short of a miracle to
one who like myself remembers the pre-war conditions
— the ugly jostling of Imperial and Republican ideals,
the discord, the strife, and intrigue which culminated
in a struggle so grim and so great. No true sense of
national proportion could exist in the past when the
right basis of government was, as we have seen, lacking.
Secondary interests under such circumstances usurp
a position to which they are in no sense entitled, and
focus public attention on many haphazard issues.
For example, the gold mining interest in 1899 was unduly
influential and dominated the situation to an unhealthy
degree. The history of the Rand reads partly like a
fairy tale, but a fairy tale constantly merging into a
nightmare in the absence of a strong government
capable of keeping a firm hand over the situation. That
firm hand, of course, President Kruger's regime was
wholly unable to supply. It was tyrannical, corrupt,
and inefficient, and the hard-headed financiers with
whom it came into contact met it on its own terms.

Under British rule the situation has changed com-
pletely. Since the war the influence of the mining interest
has shrunk to a fraction of its old strength. Economi-
cally of course it remains the greatest of South African

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 131

interests, with influence proportionate to such a position
and to the intelligence of the many able men connected
with it. But that influence is exercised on a very
different plane from of old — one altogether more simple
and more wholesome. There is no longer any question
of dominating the situation on the old terms. In
1899 I remember very well that the one eternal subject
of conversation was the deeds and misdeeds of the
Rand magnates — what they did and what they did
not ; a capitalist in popular imagination lurked behind
every bush. In 1912 I was in the country for some
weeks before hearing any save the most casual reference
to Johannesburg. People were no longer thinking
in terms of gold production ; agriculture and native
affairs were the topics of general discussion. And
this is no accidental circumstance due to a mere shifting
in the current of popular opinion, or even to another
desirable circumstance, that the age of adventure is
generally speaking at an end so far as the gold industry
is concerned, and that the latter is now engaged in
ordinary commonplace production. It springs right
from the heart of the essential change which has come
about, namely a redressing of the whole sense of national
proportion. That change has been bought at a heavy
price of blood and treasure. So confused and so
tangled were the primary and secondary causes that it
is easy to understand why many people failed to grasp
the principle which at bottom was at stake. But
fundamentally in South Africa England had to fight
or to go and her Empire with her. That was the issue,
though we may not only recognise but admire the
valour of a small people who flung such a challenge at
the feet of a mighty nation.

There will always be something in the struggle of

K 2

132 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the Boer Republics against the British Empire which
will move generations unborn to wonder and admiration.
They were as fully justified in their attempt to establish
Republican ideals in South Africa as we in maintaining
our Imperial standard. Unfortunately there was not
room for both in the country. We, the conquerors,
have made good our claim that the ideal for which we
stood was compatible with all that was essential in
Boer nationality ; that incorporation within the Empire
would mean, not the crushing out of that individuality,
but its free expression within a wider whole. A Dutch
Government rules in South Africa to-day within
thirteen years of the extinction of the Boer Republics.
Without indulging in grandiloquent language about
the unparalleled magnanimity of England, this circum-
stance is a very remarkable one. To-day England
has done more than vindicate her position in South
Africa. Lessons of mutual respect and mutual esteem,
sentiments utterly lacking in the past, have been
driven home for both races on many a bloody field.
And heavy though the price, it has not been paid in
vain. Whatever the difficulties of the present (and I
am at no pains to deny the existence of many grave
difficulties), the conviction of solid and enduring gain
all along the line was one which deepened with every
month of my visit. Prophecy, dangerous at the best, is
particularly hazardous when applied to South Africa,
a country fond of turning down prophets with a malicious
laugh. All the omens, however, encourage the belief
that the worst of the storm has been weathered, and
that the foundations of the new order rest on a solid
basis. Purged and purified by sorrow and by tears the
new South Africa has come into being. So far as
bedrock is concerned she has found her feet and will

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 133

stand upon them firmly in future. If at times her
steps bait and falter, faith and patience — above all
patience — not despondency and criticism are needed to
strengthen her in the path she must tread.

It is far from easy to summarise in a few pages the
actual position of public affairs in South Africa to-day.
A great war, both devastating and life-giving in its
consequences, has swept over the land, revolutionising
all the values of the past and creating new forces still
incalculable as regards the future. This, too, in a
country which of all others lends herself reluctantly to
generalisations, hasty or the reverse, about her affairs.
What we see at the present moment in South Africa
are questions not settled but in a state of solution.
Hence there is often considerable discrepancy between
the direction in which public affairs are moving and
the actual incidents which diversify their course.
It is possible to maintain, for instance, that racialism
is bound to be a dwindling force in South Africa, and
yet describe incidents which show that racialism is
still alive and mischievous. This apparent contradic-
tion will appear not infrequently in the following pages,
for South Africa is full of contradictions and speaks
with many voices, not with one. In the main, how-
ever, it may be said that though unity of national life
and purpose is not yet achieved, the foundations of
such a life have been broad based, and there is no
reason to doubt their capacity ultimately to bear a
worthy superstructure. The Union of South Africa,
as Lord Grey justly remarked, has been accepted by
all right-minded people of both races, and among
such people there is only one wish — to put away the
memory of old, unhappy, far-off things and work honestly
together for the future. Unfortunately, as in every other

134 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

state and community, there are large numbers of
people who are not right-minded ; and so it comes
about that — though for those who disregard the shrill
voices which at present darken counsel by words
without knowledge a deep under-note of security
rings reassuringly — the immediate aspect of South
African affairs is difficult, confused, troubled, un-
satisfactory. To appreciate the present political
position it is necessary to glance briefly at the cir-
cumstances which have unfolded themselves since the
Peace. The whole subject is controversial in the
highest degree, and as no good service can be rendered
by stirring unnecessarily among ashes the fires of which
are still smouldering, I shall endeavour to confine myself
as much as may be to a statement of fact.

The Peace of Vereeniging was signed on May 31, 1902.
Events in South Africa have moved rapidly since
that date. The Government grappled, and grappled
amazingly well under the circumstances, with the
herculean task of repatriation and re-establishment
of normal civil life. By the beginning of April 1903
200,000 members of the old burgher population had
been restored to their homes. In March 1905 Lord
Milner left the country. Within a space of three
years he had entirely reconstructed the whole frame-
work of government and had created an efficient
administration out of chaos. The magnitude of this
achievement — one of the greatest administrative feats
in history — is up to the present but little recognised.
The new Transvaal Government was not born into
a peaceful and well-disposed environment. It was
cradled in tumult and reared in ill will. The bitter-
ness left by the war was extreme. The Dutch naturally
enough would not touch the new administration ;

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 135

the English no less naturally were uneasy and sus-
picious as to Boer ambitions and designs. The
political situation in England was another circum-
stance which gave rise to much heartburning among
the British population. The war had not commanded
the sympathies and support of an undivided England.
By large numbers among the Liberal Party it was
regarded as a monstrous and unjust act of aggression.
Lord Milner himself was to such people the arch-villain
of the play, and to credit him with good work of any
kind was a task beyond their powers. At home the
Balfour Government was obviously tottering to its
fall. The attitude of the Liberal Party to the war
and towards the question of Chinese labour filled half
of South Africa with apprehension, and the other half
with expectancy, as to what fruits might be expected
from a Liberal victory at the polls in England. Mean-
while discontent and dissatisfaction were rampant
in South Africa itself, and a period of acute financial
depression came as a climax of misfortune. The new
administrations in the Transvaal and the Free State
had to fight their way against odds of a very heavy
kind. It was inevitable that many mistakes should
be made ; nevertheless the foundations of the new
order were well and surely laid, even though the masons
worked as if in a besieged and beleaguered city. Those
of us in this country who grumble so heartily at the
smallest failure in any public service which ministers
to our comfort and convenience, can have little con-
ception of what was involved by the restoration of
the framework of civil life in a country devastated
and laid bare by a great war.

Within South Africa itself there had been from
the first moment of the Peace an agitation among

136 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

certain sections for the prompt establishment of re-
sponsible Government. It is important to remember
that this demand received support from large numbers
of Englishmen as well as the Dutch. The Crown
Colony Government was unpopular in many ways. Its
mistakes were obvious, and any view of the structure
it was rearing was impeded by scaffoldings of prejudice
and discontent. The indentured Chinese labourers
raised an outcry in South Africa as in England itself ;
administration was costly, and money was scarce.
Lord Selborne succeeded Lord Milner as High Com-
missioner in 1905 and his advent coincided with an
effort on the part of Mr. Balfour's ministry to establish
a system of representative government in the two
new Colonies, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton being at that time
Colonial Secretary.1 This plan was welcomed by the
majority of British South Africans and was regarded
with no less disapproval by the Dutch. The Lyttelton
Constitution, however, never came into operation. In
December 1905, Mr. Balfour resigned and Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister. The
general election in the following month gave the Liberal
party an overwhelming majority. It was decided
by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Government
to establish not representative but full responsible
government in the Transvaal and Free State, a plan

1 Mr. Lyttelton's unexpected and lamented death in July 1913 took
place after the above passage was written. The dry bones of South
African history will record his name as the author of an untried constitu-
tional experiment. Very different will be his memorial written in letters
of gold on the hearts of all who knew and loved him. England mourns
a statesman in whose career the best traditions of her public life shone
forth undimmed. But Alfred Lyttelton's gift to his generation is a greater
one than any record, however distinguished, of political service — that
of a manhood the memory of which remains as an inspiration and possession
to all whose high privilege it was to call him friend.

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 137

which created just the contrary situation from that
of the proposed Lyttelton Constitution,1' inasmuch
as it was hailed by the Boers and generally speaking
denounced by the British. The elections were held
in February 1907 and resulted in Nationalist majorities
in both the new Colonies, General Botha and Mr.
Abraham Fischer becoming respectively Prime Ministers
of the Transvaal and the Free State. Great anxiety
was felt in English circles as to the results of this
experiment, but no very terrible consequences mani-
fested themselves. It is an astonishing circumstance,
and one the true inwardness of which is too little
appreciated, that the Boers, on taking over the new
instrument of government created by Lord Milner,
maintained that instrument intact and practically
made no changes as regards the great reforms he had
initiated. When one remembers the corruption and
inefficiency of the old Republican Government and
the hopeless condition of the public services in the
Transvaal, the most harsh critic of the war must needs
recognise that a very astonishing change had come
to pass. The instrument Lord Milner had created
differed profoundly in character and spirit from the
happy-go-lucky administration of the old days. It
presented itself to the Boers as the work of a ruler
they detested, and exacted from them new standards
of efficiency and rectitude. Nevertheless it imposed
itself by sheer force of Tightness on men bred in the
spirit of Krugerism, a circumstance wholly honourable
to them, but no less honourable to the great statesman
whose true services to their race they cannot — not
unnaturally — recognise .

The course of South African affairs, however, is
apt to run in crooked channels, and it was most

138 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

unfortunate that a policy wise and right in itself was
introduced under circumstances which tended to throw
the British section into an attitude of antagonism
against the whole principle of self-government. The
rankling memories left by those circumstances colour
public opinion in South Africa to this day, and do not
help to improve the temper of the English inhabitants
towards the difficulties of the present moment. However
grave the misconception from which such an attitude
springs, the suspicion and distrust with which one poli-
tical party in South Africa regards another political party
in England certainly do not make for harmony in Im-
perial relations, especially when this animosity is directed
against the Government of the day. That such a situa-
tion could arise at all throws a curious light on some
difficult aspects of the Imperial tie, and the moral to be
drawn from it may prove to be of much consequence
in other parts of the world as well as South Africa.

Any thoughtful observer must recognise that as
the different nations of the Empire draw nearer one
to another — in itself a desirable end — certain diffi-
culties are bound to arise as a result of that closer
relationship. Prominent among them is the tendency
for alliances, or at least understandings, to be set up
between political parties in the Mother Country and
in the Dominions. Since the lines of Liberalism and
Conservatism by no means coincide at home and
abroad, this circumstance in itself is bound to give
rise to certain anomalies in the relationship so created.
But still further, any such relationship, though helpful
and convenient to one side, is bound to excite strong
feeling among the section who consider they have
been worsted in the fray thanks to the benevolent
or malevolent interference in their local concerns of

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 139

Liberals or Conservatives from home. This was
certainly the feeling among Canadian Liberals after
Sir Wilfrid Laurier's defeat in 1911 on the Reciprocity-
issue. It was held by them that British Conservatives
had contributed not a little to Mr. Borden's success
and had flung their weight into the scales against the
Liberal Party. Similarly large numbers of Englishmen
in South Africa are no less convinced that the British
Liberal Party went out of their way in this matter
of self-government to promote the policy of the Boers,
and to trample on that of their own countrymen.
And since they were in a position to render active,
not academic, sympathy to their friends, the process
of trampling was the more complete. The Liberal
Party at home is the real bogey man among all South
African Unionists, and the latter are ready at any
moment to call down fire from heaven upon it. To
see ourselves as others see us is a wholesome process,
but an English Liberal must be prepared for some
chastening experiences on landing at the Cape. The
average South African Unionist holds firmly that the
English Liberal Party sold them deliberately and of
malice prepense into the hands of the Boers, and
that the pacification of South Africa sprang from
nothing better than the gratification of personal spite
and ill will among people who had disapproved of
the war. However unreasonable such a point of
view may seem, it is widespread, and must be reckoned
with, just as much as Liberal feeling in Canada about
the enormities of the ' British Jingoes ' who support
Mr. Borden must be taken into account. The division
of public opinion in England over the South African
trouble was a very unfortunate circumstance, neither
side being in any temper to give the other credit for

140 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

honesty and high-mindedness in the views held. Ugly
taunts were flung about freely, and feeling, as we all
remember, ran very high. To the average Conser-
vative the moral doubts and scruples of the pro-Boers
over the war were incomprehensible. They wholly
failed to recognise that much pro-Boerism sprang from
a sensitiveness for the national honour no less great
than that felt by the Conservatives. They could not
bring themselves to believe that the unpatriotic Radicals
and Little Englanders they denounced had also their
views of the duties and responsibilities of a great
nation. They regarded as wilful and malignant what
was in the main but a passionate and honest repudia-
tion of a course of conduct which large numbers of
people rightly or wrongly considered unworthy. All this
perhaps was natural enough, but it did not conduce
to calm and dispassionate handling of South African
affairs on the part of any statesman concerned.

Now as regards the policy carried out by the Liberal
Party in South Africa, that policy was fundamentally
sound, wise, and right, and was the only policy which
could give peace to the land. Further it is a policy
which has been justified in its results, for without it
Union could never have come into being. All this
in retrospect is easy to see, for it has been proved by
the event. But there is nothing surprising in the
fact that the grant of complete responsible government
within five years of the conclusion of the war caused
much searching of heart among all friends of South
Africa. The wisdom of the course taken was certainly
open to question, and if the good star which waits on
the Empire had not raised up men like General Botha
and General Smuts as political leaders the results might
have been different. Many people, however, who, like

SOUTH AFKICA AFTEK THE WAE 141

myself, were very doubtful as to the wisdom of the course
then followed, now recognise in retrospect that our
fears were mistaken and groundless. A right principle
is a better foundation for government than restric-
tions and devices however ingenious. The Lyttelton
Constitution was open to the charge that, with its
elected Assembly and nominated Council, it instituted
a form of government which has always produced
friction and difficulty wherever attempted. The choice
for South Africa really lay between continuation of
Crown Colony government and the establishment of
full responsible government. The Crown Colony
government, as we have seen, did wonderful work.
Good autocratic administration makes for efficiency
and the getting of things done. But so far as an
English Colony is concerned, it runs up against the
most sacred of principles, the right of the average man
to manage or mismanage his own affairs. However
badly an Englishman may exercise that right, he is never
happy when it is beyond his reach. So in the long
run the Crown Colony government fretted the British
as well as the Boers, and discontent became widespread.
From the point of view of efficiency it might certainly
be argued that ten more years of first-rate personal
government would have had excellent administrative
and economic results. No such policy was, however,
remotely possible. Attractive though it might be
theoretically, in practice it meant the government
by force of a conquered province, and that is a task
for which we British have neither wit nor will. No
people can go back at a critical moment on the spirit
which has made them great. Freeddm is of the very
essence of British institutions, and we can express
ourselves in no other way. Our system may be open

142 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

to a hundred criticisms and have a hundred obvious dis-
advantages, but such as it is it has made the British
Empire, and by it we must abide. We cannot aspire
to the administrative efficiency of an Alsace-Lorraine ;
the King's peace is not kept among us on those terms.
Therefore the choice in the Transvaal at the moment
of the change was admittedly between the perpetuation
for a very few years of a system of limited responsibility
which irritated the majority of people, or the bold
experiment of flinging the responsibility for the land
into the hands of the people of the land, even though
such an experiment involved (as it was known it must
probably involve) the establishment of the vanquished
in the seat of government. It must always be to the
honour and credit of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's
Government that they took the bold course which
was also the wise and the right course. The claim
that Liberal principles pacified South Africa is a just
one, and the verdict of history will endorse it.

But where the Home Government failed — and it
must be confessed that they failed very badly — was
in their actual handling of the British population at
the moment of the change. More tact and more
consideration shown for British susceptibilities would
have obviated a whole gamut of resentment and ill
will, and simplified many difficulties which have proved
stumbling-blocks in the course of the national life.
Feeling in South Africa was very hostile on the
English side to the Liberal party. This is no new
antagonism ; it dates back to the old miserable busi-
ness of Majuba. As already remarked, the Liberals
were suspect owing to their pro-Boer sympathies during
the war. The grotesque agitation which had been
carried on in England over the Chinese ' slaves [ had

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 143

filled many South Africans with indignation. The
introduction of Chinese labour was open, as we have
already seen, to very serious objections of a racial and
economic character, though as a temporary measure it
fulfilled its end in turning the corner of acute financial
depression. But though I have met many men in
South Africa who denounced the importation of Chinese,
one and all they scoffed at any suggestion of ' slavery *
in the matter. The great objection to the Chinese
lay in their efficiency, and the degree to which un-
doubtedly they would have become not only unskilled
but skilled competitors with white as well as black
labour. The fierce opposition of the white artisans
on the Rand did not spring from abstract moral
objections to indentured labour. They hated and
feared the experiment, because convinced that the
mining industry intended it as no temporary measure
to make good a deficiency in unskilled labour, but as
the first step in the introduction of skilled coloured
labour which would eventually dislodge their own.
The racial and economic problems of South Africa
are extremely complicated, and there is a great deal
to be said for not introducing any further elements of
perplexity and difficulty into them. There was nothing
to be said for the misuse of language for party ends
which took place in England on the whole subject.

The personality of Lord Milner was another point
which brought Liberalism at home into acute conflict
with the South African Loyalists. His policy and
methods had been hotly attacked by Liberal politicians
who regarded him as primarily responsible for the war.
It was one of the misfortunes of the South African
struggle that we were as a nation unable to show a
united front at so serious a moment, and in those

144 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

circumstances Lord Milner, as the most prominent
actor concerned, was bound to be a very debateable
figure. Strong men with strong policies invariably
rouse opposition, and it must be remembered that
such opposition, monstrous though it appeared to
the Conservatives, was legitimate enough on the part
of those who disapproved of the war. Lord Milner
had left South Africa before Sir Henry Campbell-
Bannerman's Government came into office in December
1905. This was a fortunate circumstance for both
sides, and obviated the very difficult position which
necessarily must have arisen had the advent of a
Liberal Government found Lord Milner still as High
Commissioner in South Africa. There was therefore
the less excuse for the Government that, resolved as
they were on the reversal of Lord Milner's policy in
certain important respects, they should have lent any
sort of countenance to the disgraceful attack made
on him in the House of Commons in March 1906, on
what every one knew to be a trivial and petty side-
issue. A vote of censure was brought forward against
Lord Milner on that occasion for having authorised
the flogging of Chinese. It was perfectly well known
that the authorisation had arisen through a mis-
understanding, and that Lord Milner in accepting
responsibility for the mistake had generously shielded
a subordinate. The Government instead of repudiating
the motion, changed its terms : an alteration in phrase-
ology which only left them in the position of being
willing to wound but yet afraid to strike. This dis-
creditable exhibition of ill will against a man who
had held high office under the Crown, and had given
years of devoted service to the upholding of British
interests, created a lamentable impression in England

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 145

and moved South Africa to the deepest indignation.
There can be no question whatever that the vote of
censure should have been firmly suppressed by the
Cabinet, however profound their disagreement with
Lord Milner's views. Common loyalty demands that
great servants of the Crown should not be subjected
to attacks which originate from any one section of the
rank and file. If censure at any time is desired or
desirable, it should emanate with all responsibility
from Ministers themselves. I write as a Liberal, and
as a Liberal I know how perfectly honest and sincere
was the opposition felt in the party to Lord Milner's
policy. But in South Africa few actions have done
more to prejudice and discredit the Liberal position
than the action at once ridiculous and vindictive which
a small section was allowed on this occasion to impose
on the House of Commons.

The effect of all this on the attitude of the British
in South Africa to the changes initiated by the Imperial
Government after the return of the Liberals to power
can easily be imagined. They absolutely refused to
give the Government credit for any good will or good
intentions in the matter. The whole question of
responsible government was rendered more difficult
than it need have been, thanks to the depression, not
to say despair, with which the policy was regarded.
All this was extremely unfortunate and it has left
a bitter taste in South Africa to this day. It is easy
to recognise now that these fears were groundless
and to say that much of the opposition to respon-
sible government was violent and obscurantist. In
an imperfect world facts and characters have to be
taken as they are. The fears of the South African
Loyalist as to being bullied and trampled under foot,

146 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

like those of the Ulster Loyalist, may seem a trifle far-
fetched, since neither the one nor the other can claim
to have figured as quietists in history. The dread,
however, was a very real one in South Africa, and it
might have been dispelled without much difficulty.
The policy was the right one and had the root of the
matter in it, and so it pulled the situation through.
But had more pains been taken to conciliate British as
well as Boer prejudices, the same end might have been
achieved with a modicum of the friction actually incurred.
It must be confessed that the point of view of the
average South African Loyalist is very widely removed
from that of the average Liberal, and we may recognise
that it was a hardship for both to be thrown by circum-
stances into any sort of collision. But it is after all
the business of the Imperial Government to hold the
scales fairly as between all political sections in
the Dominions, quite apart from those natural and
personal sympathies which must inevitably spring up
between men holding more or less the same ideas
wherever they live. It is essential overseas that
confidence should be felt in the impartiality, justice
and good will of ministers in the Homeland. It is
the absence of this confidence which leaves a somewhat
unhappy impression upon one when talking to many
Englishmen in South Africa to-day. But if the English
are sore and irritated — not without some justification —
many of them show excessive prejudice about the present
position. Despite the angry passions roused, the achieve-
ment of the Liberal Party in South Africa has been a
very considerable one, unpalatable though that view may
be to the average South African of English birth. The
latter regards the gift of self-government at the best

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 147

as a monstrous gamble in which the off-chance of success
happened to turn up. The inherent soundness of the
principle and the good results which have flowed from
it have not yet won their way into the popular conscious-
ness. Both sides have still a good deal to learn from
one another as regards any sort of generous appreciation
of the services each has rendered. For the moment
both prefer to dwell on the failures, mistakes, and
prejudices of the other. The Liberal who applauds
the Union in one breath and denounces the war with
the next, forgets that without the war Union itself
would have been impossible. The achievements of
the Union Parliament cannot be detached logically
from the personality of the man whose administration
revolutionised all existing standards of government in
South Africa. The public services of to-day, the whole
framework of administration, are in a very special
sense Lord Milner's creation. The men he brought into
the country, the high standard of public life exacted,
have left a broad mark on South African history. In
the departments of agriculture and education alone
he called forth new forces of incalculable importance.
The principles he laid down, the efforts he inaugurated,
have passed into the hands of other men and are now
reaping their peaceful fulfilment. His task was of a
kind which could win him no popularity among the
Dutch, and his personal relations with them were not
happy. But, as frequently arises, the more transient
and debatable sides of his policy linger in popular
imagination, where great and solid achievement passes
unrecognised — because it has passed into the order
of accepted facts. His speeches show that he misjudged
(such is the irony of human events) the strength and

L 2

148 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

solidity of his own work ; he regarded as submerged
foundations which remained intact. With the din of
battle in his ears, he fell into the error of regarding
the early grant of self-government as premature and
undesirable. He is open to the criticism of having
forced, consciously or unconsciously, the purely English
note in public matters. To say that he made no mistakes
would be to claim an inhuman standard of perfection
for a man whose human qualities are the most obvious
of any to his friends. But the new South Africa is
in the main his monument, and opponents who
repudiate his views continue to build on the foundations
he laid and follow policies of which he, and he alone, is
the author.

If, however, misconceptions of this kind are rife
among persons who disapprove of the war, what the
Loyalist forgets no less completely is that without
the greatest of antiseptics — self-government — there
could have been no healing of the gaping wounds
left by the struggle. The South African Nationalists
saw much further in this matter than the essentially
British party, who are always too much inclined to
look without before they have looked within. The
men who had sufficient faith and courage to launch out
on the bold course of self-government have deserved
no less well of the land than those who repaired the
ravages of the war itself. Time eventually will mollify
these somewhat rankling memories, and, as years go on,
a better sense of proportion about all these matters
is bound to arise in South Africa. But the circum-
stances I have described have their bearing on South
African affairs to-day, and must be borne in mind
if we are to understand in what particular atmosphere
present events are unfolding themselves.

SOUTH AFEICA AFTER THE WAR 149

In these not very auspicious circumstances there-
fore the Transvaal and the Free State received the
gift of self-government. Meanwhile other and potent
causes were silently at work to bring about one
of the most remarkable achievements of our times —
the unification of South Africa under a centralised
government. That such a scheme should have entered
the region of practical politics within five years of the
war would have seemed an unthinkable proposition
at the conclusion of peace. A strange and happy
combination of circumstances, personalities, and direc-
tion of ideas was largely instrumental in bringing
about this result. The threatened breakdown of finance
in South Africa — due to the impossibility of adjusting
railway rates, customs, &c, between four separated
and quarrelsome States — forced all practical men to
search for some better arrangement than any which
could be supplied by the then existing system. Direc-
tion of ideas was forthcoming from the brilliant group
of civil servants introduced by Lord Milner into the
Transvaal service, men of character and ideas who
have left a very remarkable tradition in South Africa
not only for intellectual capacity but for the higher
gifts of character and rectitude. Scoffed at primarily
as ' academics/ the academics, who understood the value
of clear thought, saw the position into which the practical
needs of South Africa must inevitably drive her, and
sat down during many weeks and months to work
out in detail a scheme which would meet the situation.
The Selborne Memorandum of January 1907 was
the outcome of their labours. To Mr. Lionel Curtis
in particular the credit for this propaganda must
primarily be due ; but in Mr. Lionel Hichens, Mr.
Philip Kerr, Mr. Patrick Duncan, Mr. Brand, and Mr.

150 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Feetham he had colleagues who laboured in the same
cause as strenuously as himself.

But the spade-work of the Kindergarten as they
were called — a term no longer of reproach in the
Transvaal — would have been powerless but for the
vision and true patriotism of certain South African
statesmen who flung themselves into the movement
for closer union. It is impossible to exaggerate the
importance of the whole-hearted co-operation in this
respect of General Botha and General Smuts. Had
General Botha held aloof, Union would have been im-
possible. To him primarily the existence of the new
order is due, and he is rightly and appropriately the
first Prime Minister of a united South Africa. The
brilliant intellectual qualities of General Smuts were
no less vital to the success of the scheme. It was
General Smuts who steered the Convention through
its difficulties, and avoided the many rocks which
strewed its course. Without the co-operation of the
two Boer leaders the plan of Union could never have
been made intelligible to the Dutch, could never have
won even a partial measure of acceptance from them.
On the English side the character and influence of
Sir Starr Jameson were no less vital in promoting the
success of the closer union movement. His personal
relations with General Botha are one of the pleasant
pages of latter-day South African history, and a striking
instance of leaders who have known how to subordinate
the smaller considerations of race to the quest of a high
national aim.

Matters were brought to a head at a meeting of the
Customs Union Convention in May 1908, when the
representatives of the four Colonies found themselves
threatened with a complete breakdown of the existing

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 151

financial arrangements in South Africa. This in turn
led to the decision to call a National Convention which
should consider ways and means to establish a central
government. The National Convention met first at
Durban in October 1908, and a month later at Cape
Town. A draft Constitution was published early in
1909, which was submitted to the consideration of the
four Colonies for amendment and discussion in their
respective parliaments. It had become obvious to
the delegates during the National Convention that
a unified, not a federal, form of government was best
suited to the needs of South Africa. Under the South
Africa Act supreme power is vested in the Union Parlia-
ment, all the primary functions of government being
fulfilled by the central authority and the Provincial
Councils being restricted to the direction of local
affairs. Whatever the merits of a federal system in
a country where diversity of geographical conditions
produces diverse forms of national life, any such crea-
tion of separate State rights in South Africa would
only have resulted in a perpetuation of evils which the
Union itself came into existence to abolish. At the
same time, though legislative authority is rightly vested
in one body alone, over-centralisation in a vast country
such as South Africa must no less be avoided. Govern-
ment to be carried out efficiently demands elasticity
in its working arrangements, and administrative de-
centralisation on to local bodies is a very necessary
condition of the great sparsely populated areas of the
Union.

It is commonly said in South Africa to-day that
alterations may not improbably take place in the
future as regards the status and functions of the Pro-
vincial Councils. They are criticised by many people

152 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

as being too large and as setting up a superfluous
form of minor concurrent government alongside the
Union Parliament. The suggestion is in the air that
they should be broken up into a larger number of
District Councils better adapted to the varying local
needs of one and the same Province. This is, however,
a point which can only be determined after some years
of practical experience. The Constitution of the Pro-
vincial Councils was designed to give scope to individual
local feeling in the Provinces. Such feeling is in the
main of more harm than good in South Africa, for it
tends to preserve the spirit of sectionalism. It is
encouraging therefore to find that a proportion of
the population increasingly recognise the practical
advantages of the unitary system and are moving still
further in that direction. At the same time no changes
in the constitution of the Provincial Councils will be
possible without a very radical alteration of the South
Africa Act itself, for the Provincial Councils have at
present important functions both as regards finance
and election to the Senate. Such changes therefore as
practical experience may in time prove to be desirable
will entail considerable modifications of the present
Acfc of Union. Any such upheaval would be quite
undesirable at present, but obviously years must pass
before every provision of the Constitution settles
down into one harmonious whole.

The second great principle established by the
Convention was that of equal rights. The electoral
system of the Lyttelton Constitution for the Transvaal,
which with some modifications had been embodied in
the Elgin Constitution, provided for constituencies of
equal size based not on population but on the actual
number of electors. An automatic redistribution of

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 153

seats on the same basis was provided for at stated
intervals. It is a remarkable circumstance that both
the unitary system of government and the principle of
equal rights (with the basis of electors not population
for the constituencies) should have been pressed upon
the Convention unswervingly by the Transvaal dele-
gates. The unanimity of the latter— Dutch and English
alike — was a very strong fact and one of the first im-
portance in bringing the labours of the Convention to a
successful issue. In the words of Mr. Brand — whose
admirable little book ' The Union of South Africa '
gives a detailed account of the history and con-
stitution of the Union— the Transvaal delegates main-
tained a solid front throughout the proceedings, and
alone of the Colonial representatives fortified their
opinion by bringing with them a staff of lawyers and
expert advisers.

It was further proposed that the system of pro-
portional representation should be introduced for
election to the House of Assembly and the Provincial
Councils. On this point and on that of equal rights the
Convention was nearly wrecked when it reassembled
at Cape Town in May 1909, the Cape Parliament
having put forward amendments which stultified the
whole electoral principles previously agreed upon. In
the end a compromise was arrived at, thanks to the
firmness shown by General Botha and the other Trans-
vaal representatives. Proportional representation was
given up as a concession to the prejudices of the farming
population, but the ' equal rights ' clauses were main-
tained with single-member constituencies distributed
on the basis of electors not population. An arbitrary
number of members was adopted for the represen-
tation of each Province, the numbers being arranged

154 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

on such a plan as to allow more members for Natal
and the Free State than those to which they would
have been strictly entitled. Within the Provinces the
principles of one man one vote and one vote one value
are, generally speaking, maintained, but a certain elas-
ticity was allowed in this respect. The Commissioners
appointed to delimit the constituencies were authorised
to take into consideration such local questions as the
character of the community, its physical features,
sparsity or density of population, and, if judged proper,
to depart from the exact basis of division to not more
than 15 per cent, above or below the prescribed quota.
Two other grave obstacles were shelved rather than
settled : the question of the native vote, and the
question of the capital. The former difficulty was
got round by leaving the franchise qualifications exist-
ing in each Colony at the time of Union undisturbed
— a proceeding which without extending the native
franchise did not disfranchise the existing black and
coloured voters in the Cape. Over the question of the
capital a severe struggle raged as between the rival
claims of Pretoria and Cape Town. From the point
of view of historical association and natural beauty
Cape Town was easily first, but its geographical posi-
tion is not well suited to the needs of a unified South
Africa. In the final issue Pretoria became the Seat
of Government and Cape Town the Seat of Legislature,
a curious and not very satisfactory arrangement as
regards administrative efficiency, but, in view of the
fierce local jealousies to be placated, probably the best
compromise available.

The National Convention came to an end in May 1909
and the draft Act of Union as amended received, the
assent of the various Colonies concerned. In September

SOUTH AFEICA AFTER THE WAR 155

it had passed the British Parliament and received the
Royal Assent, the Act coming into operation in
May 1910.

The Constitution, which had been worked out
as we have seen in such thorough detail, provided
for a Legislative Assembly of 121 members elected
as already described, with provision for an expansion
of numbers up to 150, and for a Senate of sixty-four
members, sixteen from each Province — part elected,
part nominated. Direct popular election for the Senate
does not exist ; the members of the Provincial Council,
together with the members of the House of Assembly
elected for such Province, constituting the electing
body. The system of proportional representation,
abandoned, as we have seen, for the Assembly, was
maintained for the Senate, the electoral complications
of which are yet another proof of the difficulty in
establishing an ideal second chamber. The power of
originating Money Bills is vested in the Assembly alone,
and though the Senate may reject, it may not amend,
any Bills which impose taxation or appropriate revenue.
Disagreement between the two Houses is provided
for by a joint sitting. The Executive follows the
exact lines of the Cabinet system with which we are
familiar in England — the Governor-General, as repre-
senting the King, being advised by Ministers chosen
from the party which commands a majority in the
House of Assembly.

The establishment of the Judicature and the Supreme
Court of South Africa is provided for under the Act,
Bloemfontein; by way of compensation for its failure
to secure the legislative spoils, becoming the seat of
the Supreme Court. Another long section of the
Act deals with the question of Finance and Railways,

156 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

a Consolidated Kevenue Fund being formed as well
as a Railway and Harbour Fund. The control of
Native Affairs and Asiatics throughout the Union is
vested in the Governor-in-Council instead of in the
Provincial Councils, the one amendment made by the
Imperial Parliament. Last, but not least, the Act
among many other matters lays down the principle
of complete equality between the Dutch and English
languages, each enjoying equal freedom, rights, and
privileges.

Such in briefest outline are the main features of
the South African Act. It is a remarkable document,
but Mr. Brand rightly quotes some words of General
Smuts to the effect that even more remarkable were
the signatures appended to it. Twelve years ago who
would have believed in the existence of an Act of
Union to which General Botha and Dr. Jameson, Sir
Percy Fitzpatrick and Mr. Abraham Fischer, Sir George
Farrar and Mr. J. X. Merriman, and many other pairs
equally incongruous, were able to subscribe their
names ? That circumstance should give us pause,
for it points to much more than to the existence of
individual good will and forbearance on the part of the
men concerned. It points to an overwhelming pressure
of facts which neither individually nor collectively
were they able to resist. It is well to bear this circum-
stance in mind to-day when South African life once
again is more troubled, and some short-sighted people
are inclined to speak gloomily of the future. The same
facts are in existence and are exercising their pressure
as before. From them there is really no escape, and
they control the situation as fundamentally now as
then.

The first elections under the Act of Union were

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 157

held in September 1910, and resulted in a majority for
the Nationalist party, General Botha becoming Prime
Minister. The Union Parliament was opened with much
pomp and ceremony by the Duke of Connaught on
December 14 amid great expression of national good
will. All sides and sections of the population had made
sacrifices in the effort to achieve Union ; the creation
of a fuller corporate life for the whole country had
necessarily involved the loss of much local prestige
and authority in the respective Colonies. Men of
public spirit rejoiced that the forces of provincialism
— at all times a danger and a stumbling-block in South
Africa — were now to find their corrective in the larger
interests of a unified land. In those larger interests
others again saw that in common work for a common
fatherland lay the true principle of reconciliation
between the Dutch and English races. Practical
politicians harassed by the financial difficulties which
had beset the scattered Colonies hailed a change
promising a more stable and satisfactory basis of
government in the future. Business men were no
less satisfied at the prospect of a reduction in railway
rates and a simplification of Customs dues and other
matters intimately affecting the commercial develop-
ment of the country. Last but not least the driving
force of a great idea had for the moment silenced all
opposition and swept the whole national consciousness
on to a higher and broader plane. A great pageant
held at Cape Town at the moment of the opening of
the Union Parliament had brought home to both races
a keen realisation of a common historical tradition
of no mean order, together with a more generous
appreciation of the deeds of valour on one side and
the other which had gone to the building up of

158 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

that tradition. The whole national consciousness was
stimulated and uplifted, and the hope was widespread
that the bitter memories of the past, though not
obliterated, would be merged henceforth in a more
generous spirit of peace and reconciliation.

Such was the position in December 1910. It must
be admitted that in many respects the position in 1913
seems a great falling away from the high spirit which
the Convention had created and sustained. To-day
one is conscious of reaction, backwash, and depression,
of grumbling and discontent where optimism and good
will reigned before. In all this there is, or there should
be, nothing surprising. The Union of South Africa
and the circumstances which brought it about on the
morrow of a great war remain, as I have said, one of
the most astonishing facts in history. But driving as
it did a great highway through the course of the nation's
life, a path along which men's feet could travel securely,
it left, as it was bound to leave, a host of petty rookeries
to right and left. The passions and antagonisms of a
century are not to be obliterated by any stroke of the
pen, though legislation may sweep away many obstacles
which frustrate peace. The Union of South Africa
provides a sound and adequate framework within
which the national life can develop ; it does not follow
that within that framework all the units concerned
will at once and simultaneously play the parts for
which they are destined. Much bitter and unreasonable
opposition had been silenced by the compelling force
of the inherent good sense of the Union movement.
It is, however, the essential characteristic of all bitter
and unreasonable opposition that routed at one point
it reappears at another. Forces temporarily cowed
raised their heads once more when the inevitable reaction,

SOUTH AFRICA AFTER THE WAR 159

following on a period of great national excitement,
set in. Bitterness which had been held in check cropped
out again when the first practical disappointments
of the new order were manifested. Racial animosity
flamed up once more over the inevitable collision of
ambitions and interests. To-day one is conscious that
the Union honeymoon is at an end. The first raptures
and roses are over. One is reminded of the young
couple who are disconcerted with the revelation of
drawbacks in the bijou residence which beforehand
seemed to them so desirable an establishemnt. Smoking
chimneys, creaking doors, draughty windows, and a
leaking roof are all experiences fraught with disillusion.
They have to be lived through and accepted as part
of the discipline of life, and in the long run a much finer
and bigger life is built up through their discipline than
can be based on the raptures and roses. But the process
of education is a difficult one for nations as well as young
people, and South Africa, which is struggling at this
moment with just such a period of readjustment after
her national honeymoon, is not finding it more easy than
anyone else. There is nothing in the least surprising
that at the present moment there appears to be all
along the line a great falling away from the high aims
of the Convention. Through this period of reaction
the country was bound to pass before men and affairs
could settle down permanently. If people were over-
sanguine in 1910 as to the immediate settlement of
every controversy existing in South Africa, undue
pessimism to-day is just as little justified. There has
been, it is true, a lamentable recrudescence of racial
strife and animosity stirred up in the main through the
instrumentality of one man — General Hertzog. The
situation so created is awkward and unfortunate, but

160 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

it does not justify the lugubrious tones and prophecies
of large sections of the British-speaking community.
The great fact of the Union stands, and that fact in
itself cuts at the roots of Hertzogism. Whatever the
efforts of the reactionaries, and however great the
immediate mischief they may be able to effect, in the
long run they cannot hope to win the day. Every
permanent force, every silent influence in the country
is working against them. A reactionary propaganda
can obstruct and destroy, it can never create and uphold.
The living forces of the land, though their manifestations
for the moment may not be very obvious, are working
in the opposite sense. The depths of the ocean are
untroubled though the surface is disturbed. A short
choppy sea may produce as much discomfort as a
tempest, but it is concerned with a very different
measure of peril. And this to a large extent is the
position in South Africa to-day. Her national barque
is ploughing its way through cross seas in the midst
of dirty weather. But there is no menace from a
typhoon.

161

CHAPTER XII

RACIALISM AND THE LANGUAGE QUESTION

And — consequent upon the learning how from strife

Grew peace — from evil, good — came knowledge that, to get

Acquaintance with the way o' the world, we must not fret

Nor fume, on altitudes of self-sufficiency,

But bid a frank farewell to what — we think — should be,

And, with as good a grace, welcome what is — we find.

Robert Browning.

Many extraordinary misconceptions are prevalent in
England to-day as to the position of affairs in South
Africa. Gloomy rumours circulate as to racial strife
and Dutch supremacy. Many people talk as though
the English language were extinct, Dutch the sole
medium of instruction in the elementary schools,
and the Botha Government devoted all its energies
to the hunting out of British officials from the Civil
Service. The catch phrase goes round that we have
given the country back to the Boers ; that all the
fruits of the war are wasted ; that the long-suffering
British are being trampled under foot all day and
every day by the Dutch ; finally that the hauling down
afresh of the Union Jack and the establishment of a
South African Republic may be confidently expected
in the near future. The traveller who listens to some
of these panic-stricken tales might almost expect on
landing at Cape Town to hear no language but Dutch
spoken in the streets and to find all signs of the British

162 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

race swept away. We have generally to thank the
extreme ' patriots ' for views of this kind : that curious
class of patriotism which manifests itself in nervous
disparagement of all things British, and is not a little
responsible for the illusion among some Colonials
that unknown England is a broken down, decadent,
decayed country, possessing neither trade, commerce,
nor ships. It is this spirit which makes the word
1 Imperialism ' detestable to many people, and brings
the whole idea into discredit. Even the despised
Little Englander is apt to show more confidence
in the character and capacity of his race than
the typical Jingo, who lives apparently in a chronic
condition of nerves. It is difficult to understand
how such legends can arise, but public opinion in
England is weary of South African matters and takes
little trouble to inform itself as to the real facts
of a somewhat complicated situation. As a matter
of fact the whole complexion of the country to-day
is far more English than before the war. Certainly
Dutch is more in evidence for, since Union, official
notices appear in both languages where in former times
they appeared in but one. Great efforts are made by
certain sections of the Dutch to keep their language
steadily to the fore, a point to which I must refer
later. But as regards all the talk of trampling and
ill will, the whole circumstances which give rise to
these stories are grossly exaggerated. Political feeling
runs high at times in South Africa as elsewhere, and
racialism is by no means extinct. Nevertheless any
fair-minded stranger who takes the trouble to listen
to both sides in South Africa can only be impressed, not
with the measure of strife obtaining in the country,
but with the measure of amicable settlement achieved.

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 163

I for one was agreeably surprised to find how rapidly
the rumours of London were dispelled by the realities
of South Africa itself.

Of course there are difficulties of many kinds to be
met. A Dutch government has naturally a Dutch
complexion, just as much as a Liberal or Conservative
government in this country has a complexion obviously
distasteful to its opponents. But any sort of charge
brought against General Botha of having deliberately
conducted his Government on racial lines and with a
view to penalising the English is false. A broad-
minded, generous statesman of great personal charm,
and largely gifted with the indefinable but precious
endowment of temperament, no man could have
accepted his position under the Crown more loyally, or
have laboured more with a single eye for the welfare
of South Africa as a whole. He has had great difficulties
with the recalcitrants of his own party, and the schism
of an extreme racialist like General Hertzog has com-
plicated his task in every way. On the other hand
he has had to meet a great deal of carping and un-
generous criticism from the Unionist Party in South
Africa who, since the unfortunate retirement of Sir
Starr Jameson, have shown little statesmanship in their
handling of political affairs. It is perhaps galling for
the English to feel that the first elections under the
Act of Union placed a Dutch government in power.
Allowances must be made for the resentment of the
natural man at so curious an outcome of the war.
This fact is no doubt the basis of the top -dog criticisms
to which I have just referred. But viewed in its broad
aspects it must, I think, be admitted that the return
to power of a Dutch government was a fortunate
circumstance for the country as a whole. Government

M 2

164 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

by the English would have been more efficient, for the
political standard of the Dutch rank and file is lower
than that of the other race. As against this there
have been advantages of another kind. The primary-
need of South Africa was the acceptance of Union by
the rank and file of the Dutch — slow and often ignorant
people, who in many cases were left amazed and
bewildered by the action adopted by their own leaders.
To make that action comprehensible to them was
the first necessity of the situation. It was compre-
hensible to the English, but unless it carried the
acceptance of the other half of the country Union
itself must have failed. The whole framework of
government in South Africa to-day is English to a
degree the Dutch little recognise themselves ; but those
changed conditions have been accepted quietly, almost
imperceptibly, by the rank and file, thanks to the
presence of their own people in power, as they could
never have been accepted under English guidance.
Suspicions which would have been aroused, obstructions
which would have occurred, have to a large extent been
avoided by the present position. The Union has been
consolidated with less friction under Dutch rule than
would have been set up by the process under English
rule. There have been difficulties with the racialists
as it is, but those difficulties would have been magnified
tenfold in any other circumstances.

Political changes will in time put the English party
in power, but when their turn comes they will step into
possession of an accepted order of things, and in the
long run their own position will be simplified by this
fact and their power of usefulness increased. Measures
have been carried by the Botha Government for which
even Dr. Jameson's unrivalled powers of persuasion

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 165

could not have won popular consent. To take an
instance in point — General Smuts's Defence Act for the
provision of the military forces of the Union has won
universal praise and admiration. Under the Defence
Act all citizens between the ages of seventeen and
twenty- one were called upon to register themselves
during the month of January 1913. The Active Citizen
Force contemplated was estimated at 25,000 men.
The Act is a clever compromise between the voluntary
and the compulsory principles. A citizen may enter
voluntarily for the four years' peace training in the
Active Citizen Force or he may serve for four years
in a Rifle Association with liability for war service.
The Act provides that 50 per cent, of the total number
of citizens throughout the Union liable to peace training
shall undergo such training, the remaining 50 per cent,
serving as members of the Rifle Associations. The
country is divided into fourteen military districts
arranged on a basis of population and similarity of
political character. Each of these districts has to
produce a certain prescribed number of men for service
in the Active Citizen Force. Whenever the number
of citizens in a given military district who have entered
voluntarily for peace training falls below the prescribed
number the shortage is to be made good by ballot.
There seems little fear at present that South Africa
will be called upon to fall back on the compulsory
clauses of the Defence Act. The youth of the country
have responded to the call for voluntary service in a
very striking way, and no fewer than 55,000 men have
enrolled themselves as members of the Active
Force — that is to say, more than double the number
contemplated. So far, therefore, from having any
difficulty in raising its Defence Force, South Africa

166 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

is in the position of being unable to accept and train
all the volunteers who have come forward. A common
duty and a common service are the best of all methods
for bringing the races together ; but can it be seriously-
suggested that such a measure of compulsory military
service put forward by the South African Unionists
would have had the smallest chance of acceptance
from the Back Veld ? As it is, the Defence Act is not
only accepted but universally allowed to be working
with great success to-day. These are very solid gains
when any long view of the future is taken, and should
help to reconcile fair-minded Englishmen to their
temporary exclusion from office.

So far as the English-speaking section of South
Africa is concerned there is one point to be borne
steadily in mind. We fought the war, not to establish
a racial supremacy differing only in degree but not in
kind from the old mischievous racial supremacy of
President Kruger's days, but to establish the principle
of equal rights. Those equal rights are now assured,
and it is a little puzzling to understand how the English
can doubt their entire capacity of making good their
position in the land without artificial protection of
any kind. It may seem rather hard on the victors in
a great struggle to expect them to win for themselves,
bit by bit and constitutionally, political power which at
one moment rested in their hands by right of conquest
alone. But in due time they will reap the reward of
such forbearance. The generous recognition of the
political rights of the vanquished, the self-denying
ordinance which caused the English to strip themselves
of all prerogatives and meet their enemies of yesterday
on even terms at the poll, was not mere quixotic
magnanimity. It was, however unconsciously, one of

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 167

the most striking demonstrations of political wisdom
ever made by the Anglo-Saxon race, and so history will
judge it. For, perilous though the experiment may have
seemed at the time, it was the only possible way of
dealing with the hard facts of a bi-racial community,
especially a community composed of elements so stub-
born and self-assertive as the South African peoples,
English and Dutch alike. Many people in South
Africa to-day may be heard complaining of the Union,
and declaring that it has falsified the high hopes of its
founders. That complaint is best answered by a query
as to what the position of South Africa without the
Union would have been : four artificially separated
and hostile Provinces struggling among themselves
over diverse political and economic problems. The
Union is still in its infancy, and years must pass before
the new machinery of government can settle down
smoothly and produce really adequate results. Various
departments will probably have their vulnerable sides
for some time to come. It will be easy to grumble
and to criticise — to say how far this or that falls short
of any desired standard of perfection. But the solid
achievements of the Union already far outbalance the
failures of which one is told ; and though the particular
difficulties with which this chapter deals are troublesome
they are not likely to prove permanent obstacles in
the path of national development.

Clause 137 of the South Africa Act — one of the
most important of its provisions — runs as follows :

Both the English and Dutch languages shall be official languages
of the Union and shall be treated on a footing of equality and possess
and enjoy equal freedom rights and privileges : all records journals
and proceedings of Parliament shall be kept in both languages and
all Bills, Acts, and notices of General public importance or interest
issued by the Government of the Union shall be in both languages.

168 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

The recrudescence of racialism, due to the propa-
ganda of General Hertzog, has had a very disturbing
effect among the English in two directions. They are
profoundly uneasy over the question of the Civil Service
and that of education. In both respects they are of
opinion that the weapon of the language is being used
unfairly against them. This question of the language
twines itself in and out of every aspect of South African
affairs. It is necessary, therefore, to glance in some
detail at the particular circumstances to which it gives
rise, both in connection with education and with the
ordinary conduct of public business.

Now there are certain elementary propositions
in connection with South Africa of which a good
many people seem to lose sight. The first of those pro-
positions and one always forgotten by the extremists,
both Dutch and English, is the fact that the country
is bi-racial and bi-lingual ; the Dutch-speaking
population, it is estimated, being 60 per cent, of the
whole. In a state so constituted there is no escape
from a language problem, and the situation is not
rendered more simple by the fact that, unlike Canada
where a somewhat similar problem exists, the
competition between the languages is an uneven one.
Let us admit at once that for all practical purposes
of government, a bi-racial, bi-lingual community is a
great nuisance. From the point of view of the
permanent official there is nothing to be said for it.
It leads to redundancy, multiplication, and expense ;
it does not make for efficiency like a uni-lingual state.
But when the chances of fortune have decreed that
any given country is inhabited by two races, and
races speaking different mother tongues, this particular
problem in government with all its difficulties has to

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 169

be faced. It can ony be faced in one of two ways :
either by the total suppression of one language or by
the complete and full recognition of both. The first
method was the one applied by the Dutch themselves
to the Huguenot settlers of the eighteenth century.
It is not a little amusing to remember that when the
luckless French immigrants petitioned Simon van der
Stel for the use of their language and religion, the only
consolation they received from the famous Dutch
governor was a peremptory order to 'restrain their
French impertinences and remember the oath of fidelity
and obedience which they had taken to the Company/
Such an attitude simplifies government in many respects,
but we committed ourselves by the terms of the South
Africa Act to a wholly opposite principle, and there
is little doubt that in the long run the wisdom of that
course will be manifested.

Under the South Africa Act it was provided that
the appointment of civil servants should be vested
in a Public Service Commission, not in the Govern-
ment of the day. It was a very unfortunate circum-
stance that the first Commission appointed was not
a strong one and failed to command general public
confidence. Colonial governments dealing with the
needs of relatively small communities are peculiarly
liable to charges of favouritism and jobbery as regards
their own supporters, and in the sensitive, not to say
suspicious, state of public opinion this is a point which
the Botha Government would have been wise to safe-
guard with special care. A really strong Civil Service
Commission would have closed the door on many of the
uneasy criticisms and suspicions which have since crept
in. So far, however, as the Civil Service is concerned,
there is very little evidence to support the charges

170 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

freely made as to the wholesale dismissal of British
officials since Union to make place for Dutchmen.
The air is full of such rumours in South Africa, but it
is most difficult to crystallise them into facts. Individual
cases of hardship and injustice may, and probably
have, arisen, though it is not easy to obtain any direct
evidence on this point. The charge of a deliberate
and set policy of exclusion may be dismissed as false.
Retrenchment on a large scale in the Civil Service was
a necessary sequence of Union. One of the great
advantages claimed for the latter was the saving in
expense which would follow from the pooling of four
Civil Services into one. Theoretically everyone thought
this an admirable arrangement ; practically everyone
resented the personal applications which were bound
to take place. The men who were retrenched naturally
sought an explanation of the fact in the supposed
racial bias of the Government rather than in any ques-
tion as to their own capacities. In many cases where
retrenchments were bound to take place among men
of equal intelligence and character, the hardship must
have seemed a very real one to those who were
unavoidably left out. Retrenchment, it must also
be remembered, carried liberal terms. In about 75 per
cent, of the cases such retrenchment was actually sought
by young men who left the service with pensions or
gratuities which enabled them to start afresh in various
walks of life. It must next be borne in mind that,
owing to the overwhelmingly English character of the
Civil Service at the moment of Union, the incidence
of retrenchment was far heavier among British than
Dutch officials. The whole question was the subject
of a three days' debate in the Union Parliament in
April 1912, when the charges brought by the Unionists

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 171

of favouritism and ill will against the Government
broke down. It was admitted during the debate
that 85 per cent, of the existing civil servants were
English ; and to-day, with one exception, the per-
manent head of every department under the Union
Government is an Englishman. It is not unnatural
that a Dutch Government has been anxious to secure
a larger representation of Dutchmen in the Civil Service.
All governments succumb in more or less degree to
the frailty of being kind to their friends, as every person
not a humbug admits. General Hertzog made no
secret of his opinions on this subject, and it is said that
when Minister of Justice he distributed his patronage
on frankly racial lines. This policy, however, has never
had any support from General Botha or the Union
Government as a whole, though in this as in many
other respects General Hertzog's action has probably
coloured the popular view. Though no figures are avail-
able, the complexion of the Civil Service still remains
preponderatingly English, and so long as the latter are
willing to overcome their reluctance to qualify in the
two languages there can be little fear as to their
maintaining that numerical superiority intact.

So far as education is concerned the misconceptions
are even more extraordinary than over the Civil Service.
I was told on several occasions in South Africa what
a cruel hardship it was for English children to have
to submit to being educated in Dutch, as though that
circumstance was the normal position of affairs. I
found on inquiring that the origin of this complaint
lay in the isolated cases of English children living in
purely Dutch districts where, short of providing the
English child with a separate school and teacher to
itself, the instruction had to be given in the language of

172 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the majority. Such cases are rare, and it is absurd to
generalise from them and to base complaints on founda-
tions so slender. The difficulty of bi-lingual schools
is considerable, but after many stormy experiences
the educational systems of the various Provinces
have settled down on the whole satisfactorily. The
unfortunate school-child has been made the shuttle-
cock of politicians in South Africa just as fully as
in England. In both cases the agitation which takes
place on platforms has curiously little relevance to
conditions within the school. It is a lamentable
circumstance that children should be made the subject-
matter for orgies of intolerance among politicians,
as regards either religion or race. The only saving
circumstance is that the little victims themselves are
happily unconscious of the tumult, few echoes of
which really find their way into the class-rooms. At
no point can racial animosity be more disastrous
than over matters of education, and the Hertzog
agitation has merely resulted in many cases in penalis-
ing the Dutch — not the English — child, and saddling
it with a training less efficient than otherwise it might
have received.

The knotty point with which bilingual education
is confronted is that of the medium of instruction.
When either race is hostile towards the language of
the other, the language which manages to install
itself as sole medium of instruction manifestly obtains
a great hold over the childhood of the country.
Education in the Boer Republics was in a most
backward condition before the war. Subsequently the
educational efforts of the Crown Colony administra-
tion were above all praise and achieved remarkable
results. One mistake, however, was made, perhaps

KACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 173

not an unnatural mistake in the circumstances, but
one which led subsequently to considerable diffi-
culty and friction. Though it would be too much
to say that a forcible effort was made to anglicise the
schools, that tendency certainly existed. It was one
which led to much difficulty in the Free State and, as
we shall see in a moment, proved fruitful in trouble.
The one fatal mistake in dealing with the Dutch is to
give them a grievance ; as a people they have a quite
peculiar talent for exploiting the smallest injury, real
or imagined. The school question proved a handle
which the racialists worked with great vigour to
the considerable detriment of educational peace and
efficiency. Matters have settled down in this as in
other respects, and generally speaking the principle
adopted throughout South Africa to-day is for the
child's mother tongue to be the medium of instruction
in the lower standards, English being introduced as
the medium for the Dutch child in the higher standards ;
whereas the English child keeps the English medium
throughout and learns Dutch as a second language.
This broad principle works out in different ways
according to the circumstances of the provinces —
education, it must be remembered, being a matter dealt
with by the Provincial Councils and not by the Union
Government.

In Natal practically no bi-lingualism exists, and
the instruction in the schools is English throughout.

Cape Colony, which has suffered much from the
foolish recrudescence of racialism, has theoretically
stiffened up its educational system in a bi-lingual
sense by the Language Ordinance of 1912, the salient
points of which are described as follows in the Educa-
tion Gazette of the Cape Province :

174 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

They are (a) the instruction of pupils up to and including the
fourth standard in the home language, whether English or Dutch ;
(6) the use above the fourth standard of one or other or both
languages as media of instruction, at the option of the parent ;
(c) the giving of 'adequate facilities for the instruction of pupils
in the language not used as the medium of instruction ; and
finally (d) the conditions in regard to the training of teachers,
candidates being entirely free to choose the medium of in-
struction. A clause which carefully safeguards the rights of
teachers at present employed in public schools is also contained
in the Ordinance.

This system if carried out in its entirety would
require considerable time for its evolution, to say
nothing of considerable expense. If it pleases the
extremists it is certainly desirable to leave both lan-
guages free to be used as media of instruction for the
higher standards. Practically the suggestion is nonsense
and can only be detrimental to the progress of the
Dutch child. The subjects of the higher standards are
best and most easily taught in English, a view which
is increasingly held by the Dutch parents themselves.
It is not a little striking how the latter tend more
and more to dissociate themselves from the edu-
cational absurdities of the Hertzog party. Not the
least of the many ironies in South Africa to-day is
the number of Dutch children who in broken Taal
inform their teachers that English is their home
language and that ' father says they must have lessons
in English.' The educational system of Cape Colony
has as its head an official of great experience and
judgment in the person of Dr. Muir. Dr. Viljoen in
the Free State and Mr. Adamson in the Transvaal are
men of no less capacity and good sense, and the united
efforts of these three directors have done much for
educational peace in South Africa. The systems

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 175

adopted in the Transvaal and the Free State are
suggestive as demonstrating the compromises at which
sensible people of both races arrive — over the heads,
so to speak, of the politicians — when practical work
is concerned. But, in the Free State especially, educa-
tional matters passed through troubled waters before
the present position was arrived at. Here was the
field on which General Hertzog had the most violent
of his racial flings, and as Minister of Education in
the Free State after the establishment of responsible
government he was in a position for a time to make
that fling effective.

General Hertzog had passionately resented the
educational policy of the Crown Colony Government,
which, as we have seen, had a predominantly English
complexion. On the establishment of responsible
government in 1907, therefore, he made a vigorous
attempt to penalise if not suppress English by the
drastic Education Act of 1908, prescribing Dutch
as an equal medium of instruction with English for
all children. To force an English child, not to learn
Dutch as a language, but to be taught all subjects
through the medium of Dutch, is most detrimental
to the educational progress of such a child and a grave
injustice. The policy of the Crown Colony Govern-
ment may have been mistaken, but it was inspired
by a genuine desire to promote educational efficiency.
General Hertzog's policy was not only ruinous to
educational efficiency but was intentionally aimed at
the small English minority in the Free State. Clear
thinking is a mental quality for which General Hertzog
is not conspicuous, and the Education Act of 1908
was so confused in its drafting that a variety of
interpretations became possible in the course of its

176 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

administration. The animus of the whole spirit directed
against the English was manifested in various ways.
Three English school inspectors were dismissed, and
at a later date General Hertzog, when Minister of
Justice, had the humiliation of being successfully
sued by one of them for slander in his own courts.
The Classification of Teachers Act of 1910 was a further
measure aimed at placing disabilities on English teachers.
By this time the British population in the Free State
were in revolt, and a Council of Education was set
on foot in 1910 to provide Council schools where
English children might receive proper instruction in
their own language.

In 1910 Mr. Gunn, Director of Education, resigned
and his place was taken by Dr. Viljoen. Dr. Viljoen
is a South African Dutchman educated at Stellen-
bosch and Amsterdam, and as he owed his appoint-
ment to General Hertzog his advent was regarded
by the English in the Free State as the last rivet in
the chain which it was sought to place on their necks.
But the career of Dr. Viljoen as Director of Education
in the Free State is a most striking demonstration
of the new spirit which is rising in South Africa among
the educated Dutch, and is a proof of their growing
desire to seek the good of the country apart from the
sterile feuds of race.

Dr. Viljoen, appointed to carry out a certain policy
as a racialist, entirely refused to regard the question
from any other standpoint save that of an educationist.
Setting aside all partisan claims he has devoted him-
self to the interests of educational efficiency in the
Free State and of evolving a system which should be
perfectly fair as between the races. Little by little
he has restored peace and order in scholastic affairs,

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 177

and the language question has now been settled on
a fair basis. The feat was a considerable one, but it
is all the more remarkable when Dr. Viljoen's birth
and antecedents are borne in mind.

Broadly speaking the system of instruction followed
now in the Free State, so far as the English child is
concerned, is that the medium of instruction is English
throughout, unless parents agree to Dutch as a subsidiary
medium. Up to Standard IV the medium is purely
English, Dutch being taught as a language if the parent
approves. As in the Transvaal, there are three types
of school. Type A is overwhelmingly English in char-
acter with English practically as the only medium.
Type B is a mixed type, part English and part Dutch,
where instruction is given through parallel classes
or through a dual medium. Type B obtains in rural
districts where a Dutch population largely predominates.
The medium of instruction in such schools is Dutch
in the lower standards for all children, English being
the medium after Standard IV. The settlement
achieved by Dr. Viljoen brings home the truth of the
encouraging words of President Brand that whatever
the difficulties of the present in the long run ' alles zal
recht kom.' Mischievous agitation cannot ultimately
set asunder two races destined to be joined together
by common circumstances and common duties. But
however strongly we British may feel about this, its
truth has to be brought home to the Dutch by the
Dutch themselves. I have spoken before of the hard
pressure of facts which cannot be resisted in South
Africa. Those facts are pressing with great weight on
the educated Dutch, as Dr. Viljoen's action shows, and
are making all along the line for reasonable compromise
between the races in the practical affairs of life. At

178 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the same time scholastic matters in the Free State have
necessarily suffered severely from the incidents I have
described. Despite the better spirit which now obtains,
education in the Province is likely to feel the effect for
a long time of the set-back which has taken place.

Regulations drawn up with a view to the pro-
motion of racial ends rather than of educational
efficiency can only prove stultifying to all progress.
This has been particularly the case as regards the
appointment of teachers, the Classification of Teachers
Act being aimed at limiting the introduction of teachers
from overseas. The more intolerant section of the
Dutch view with great disfavour the immigration of
English teachers into South Africa, and the obscurantist
* sons of the soil ' theory has been worked to death in
this direction. The theory is the more foolish inas-
much as South Africa is unable at present to provide
and train sufficient local teachers to supply the needs
of schools. Racialism is certainly to be found in its
most unlovely aspect when even a tacit preference
in given to inefficiency, and children are sacrificed to
the bigotry which prefers no education for them rather
than the introduction of English teachers. Progress,
however, is being made. At the end of 1912 there
were 750 Government and Government-aided schools
in the Free State attended by 22,500 children. The
teaching staff in the service of the Department amounted
to about 1200 persons. Nevertheless it was publicly
stated by Dr. Viljoen in November 1912 that no fewer
than 13,000 white children are being deprived of
education in the Province and 60 formally approved
schools exist which cannot be opened owing to the
dearth of teachers. There were at the same time
some 200 vacancies on the teaching staff of the Depart-

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 179

ment and a sum of £4000 had actually been expended
in advertising posts for which a wholly insufficient
number of South African teachers was forthcoming.
General Hertzog's campaign has left the Free State
with a very bad name in educational matters, and
many teachers avoid the Province, thanks to the sense
of insecurity which prevails. As the tension relaxes,
however — and Dr. Viljoen's just and conciliatory policy
has already effected this to a large degree — the common
sense of the situation will assert itself, and English
teachers be encouraged to take up posts for which
native-born South Africans are not available.

Education of the modern type is a new growth both in
the Transvaal and the Free State, and the foundations
laid in this respect are among the great achievements of
Lord Milner's administration. It still remains something
of a pioneer venture, and pioneer ventures call not only
for efficiency but for flexibility of mind and character.
To deprive the South African child, Dutch fully as much
as English, of the advantages of being brought into
contact with highly qualified and highly trained teachers
from overseas is an act of unjust obscurantism which
the common sense of the new South Africa is daily
repudiating with greater vigour. Here as elsewhere
there must be reasonable compromise over the language
question. It is quite unnecessary to insist on complete
bi-lingual qualifications for English teachers who are
drafted to schools where the whole instruction given
is through the English medium. It is a matter for
arrangement that such schools should be staffed with
properly qualified Dutch teachers for the instruction
of Dutch. The advantages for an English child in
learning Dutch are indisputable, and it is an advantage
which every sensible person should desire to bring within

N 2

180 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

its reach. But it is wholly unreasonable to demand
that capable English teachers, whose work lies with the
higher standards, should be called upon to have some
abstract qualification, never required in practice, for
teaching history and literature in a foreign language
to children for whom Dutch is not a mother tongue.
These observations about the importation of overseas
teachers apply throughout the Provinces (save Natal),
and it is one of the matters the solution of which must
be sought in the growth of an adequate public opinion
on the whole subject.

Turning to the Transvaal, much the same principle
works out in the following way. As in the Free State,
there are three types of schools designed to meet the vary-
ing needs of the population. Roughly speaking, 55,000
children are being educated in the Transvaal, and
the urban schools in Johannesburg and Pretoria account
for two-fifths of the whole, say 20,000 children, prac-
tically all English. No English child in these urban
schools is taught through the medium of the Dutch
language ; the education given is purely English through-
out. The Dutch language is a compulsory subject in
all schools, but parents may withdraw a child if so
desired from such instruction. Actually less than one
per cent, avail themselves of the privilege.

In the Provincial Dorps — where the needs of a
mixed population have to be met — a different system
exists, Dutch and English children being taught respec-
tively in parallel classes. These schools account for
one-eighth of the whole, say about 7000 children, and
again the English are taught through the English
medium alone, Dutch being taken as a language.

The third type of schools is to be found in the
country districts where the population is over-

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 181

whelmingly Dutch. Some 18,000 children are educated
in these schools where the medium of instruction is
Dutch. A few English children in these districts
receive their education in Dutch, and English is taken
as a language. But this is a question of organisation
and expense, not of racialism. So much for the English
child. As for the Dutch child, it learns through double
or concurrent media. Infants and Standards I and II
are wholly Dutch in medium ; then English is introduced
gradually, till in Standards VI and VII nothing else
is given. This bi -lingual training may seem somewhat
cumbersome, and it is certainly not ideal from the
educational point of view. But as I have had occasion
to say over and over again, the bi-lingual, bi-racial
conditions of South Africa are imposed upon the country
by circumstances, and those circumstances have to
be taken as they are and met accordingly. There
can be no hardship in the fact that the English child
is taught Dutch. A mutual knowledge of each other's
tongue is surely the first condition for arriving at a
good understanding between the races. Anyone
acquainted with social and political life in Canada
can only be of opinion that compulsory bi-lingualism
would be a very fortunate circumstance in that country,
anyway in the Eastern Provinces. The French and
English speaking Canadians are amazingly ignorant of
each other's language. Accordingly the degree of
separation between them is astonishing and it is a factor
most inimical to the growth of Canadian nationality.
The racial question is complicated in Canada by
a religious question, which South Africa is mercifully
spared ; the dividing line in Canada being Catholic
and Protestant as much as French and English. Both
races live in undesirable seclusion, each knowing nothing

182 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of and caring less for the concerns of the other. This
is inevitable ; for without a common language it is
impossible for the one side to arrive at a just compre-
hension of the other's point of view, let alone sympathy
for the latter. A great language such as French holds
a very different position from the Taal, and it is not a
little surprising that no Canadian statesman has arisen
to preach to both races alike how much the intellectual
life of the country would be deepened by a fuller recog-
nition of the great heritage which the joint streams of
French and English tradition bring within the reach of
the latter-day Canadian. Languages are like mirrors
reflecting different aspects of the soul ; the possession
of tongues is at all times a great measure of intellectual
enfranchisement. This is pre-eminently the case with
a language of first-rate importance such as French —
a language which has created and moulded the forms
of men's thoughts, and through the medium of which
great intellectual expressions have taken place. The
acquisition of a second language gives a child a nimble-
ness of mind which otherwise would be lacking, and this
is true even to a certain degree of the Taal and still
more so of the modified form of High Dutch taught in
the elementary schools. There should therefore be
nothing to grumble at, in view of the racial circum-
stances of South Africa, in the fact that English children
are encouraged to learn Dutch. So long as the racial
bogey persists many f oolish and irritating circumstances
are bound to arise over the question of education. Once
that bogey is laid matters will be adjusted amicably
on a common-sense basis. It should be clearly under-
stood that so far as the present educational system
is inefficient the brunt of that inefficiency falls upon
the Dutch not the English child. It is true, however,

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 183

that the latter is often handicapped by teachers whose
qualifications are primarily bi-lingual and afterwards
educational.

The Dutch have a good deal of shrewd good sense,
and they will not be content indefinitely to see their
children penalised for the benefit of a senseless race-
agitation. Signs of this new spirit have already shown
themselves. At an Educational Conference held in
the Transvaal in 1912 at which the Back Veld was
overwhelmingly represented, a delegate who proposed
a vote of no confidence in the Educational Department
for their supposed unsympathetic handling of bi-lingual
instruction could get no seconder for his motion out of
an assembly of sixty-eight people. The Dutchman is
thoroughly alive to the advantages of making the best of
both worlds. If he clings to political power he is also
determined, since the war, that his children should be
at no disadvantage as regards education but be properly
trained to compete for the prizes of the State.

Secondary education has felt the same backwash
of racial agitation that has affected the elementary
schools, and the establishment of a South African
University worthy of the Union has been checked owing
to the language dispute. The extremists take exception
to the site at Groote Schuur which has been offered, and
look askance at the Wernher-Beit donations of half
a million sterling towards the cost of construction.
Some of the existing South African colleges view with
considerable jealousy the suggestion to establish a
Central University, and the language question again
forces itself into the dispute. The acrimony with
which academics carry on their disputes is proverbial
throughout the ages, and a fierce scholastic battle
has raged over the whole question. The decision

184 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

of the Government to refer the matter to a Commission
of Inquiry gives a variety of heated passions time
to cool down, and is probably the wisest course to have
adopted in the circumstances.

No one will, I think, be at any pains to deny that
the actual moment of transition is full of irritating
circumstances for the English, and that they have
much cause for complaint as regards the action of the
extremists. Patience and forbearance can present
themselves at times as extraordinarily objectionable
virtues, and the language question has aspects which
not unnaturally make its frank acceptance a matter
of difficulty. It is undoubtedly true that the circum-
stances of a bi-lingual State make in a curious way
for discrimination against the stronger race and the
stronger language. Place languages such as Dutch
and English on a basis of political equality, and in
practice it works out that English is at a disadvantage.
The competition is obvously not between peers, and
the weaker language imposes its conditions on the
stronger and acts as a drag on the wheel. An educated
Dutchman necessarily knows English ; there is no
such necessity for an educated Englishman to know
Dutch. The tendency therefore in the Civil Service
and in educational matters is involuntarily to penalise
the Englishman at the expense of the Dutchman, and
efficiency in administration may be and often is sacri-
ficed to bi-lingual considerations. Sons of the soil are
appointed, thanks to their knowledge of the language,
who are otherwise possessed of but meagre qualifications.

We have glanced at the educational aspect of the
question and recognised its limitations. Similarly in
the conduct of public business the duplication of all
documents and papers leads to a great waste of time

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 185

and money. Printing which in English costs 4dJ. per
head of the population in South Africa costs 4s.
per head. Reports are delayed and papers held back
owing to the time required for translation. The
evidence of the Financial Relations Committee was
never published at all because the cost of its appear-
ance in both languages would have been prohibitive.
Similarly in the Union Parliament I have often known
a considerable amount of time wasted by the wearisome
repetition in both languages of formal documents
which everyone understood — a very different matter
from leaving members free to speak in their own
language. All this is tiresome enough, but I *can only
repeat it is part and parcel of the conditions imposed
on South Africa by its bi-racial circumstances. Practical
government is no doubt made more simple by the
extinction of diverse nationalites and languages, but
from every other point of view the extinction of such
national characteristics is a disaster. The deadly tend-
ency of the modern world to stereotype conditions
and reduce all nations to one common denominator
is a tendency to be resisted. Diversity is of the very
essence of a fruitful national life. The British of the
Homeland are not one race but four ; and that diversity
of type and diversity of national gift has been our
strength all along our history. Similarly the strength
of the Empire will rest not on its production of one
form of stereotyped Imperial life, but in the fullest
and freest expression of nationality among the different
States. In so far as each Dominion develops its own
national life to the highest point, in so far the corporate
life of the whole is fuller and richer. Not a dull
uniformity, but unity in diversity, should be the ideal
at which to aim. In so far as Canada and South

186 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

Africa base their national life on the elements drawn
from two races not one, just so far will the type of
nationality evolved in the long run be the better worth
having. These advantages are not in the least obvious
to the harassed administrator struggling with the
practical difficulties of a bi-lingual office, but, like all
subtle things of the spirit, the element which defies
analysis may be the most precious of all. Any rough-
and-ready attempt therefore in South Africa to
extinguish the Dutch language and to enforce such
extinction by right of conquest would have been not
only a moral wrong but an administrative foolishness.
Our governing genius, as already remarked, does not lie
in the direction of dragooning a conquered race. Our
problem on the morrow of the war was to associate
our former enemies in the task of government. A
very bold and very simple policy may be the only
safe course amid perilous circumstances. That course
was followed when we offered to the Dutch complete
equality in the State at every point with ourselves.

It may be said that the revival of racialism and
the bitter feeling prevalent to-day hardly point to the
full success of that experiment. But this is to take,
I think, a superficial view of the present situation.
The Dutch are not an analytical people, and probably
the extremists are little conscious of the causes from
which their own actions spring. What the Dutch fear
above all things is an attack on their racial integrity.
Hence they stand out for the utmost letter of the
law as regards equality, and very often by so doing
create grotesque and foolish situations which prove
very irritating to the English section. Much time
and much temper are wasted over these performances,
but what the English in their turn fail to see is the

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 187

true inwardness of the situation revealed by this very
attitude. This passionate assertion all along the line
of race, of nationality, of language which alarms and
perturbs the English is a proof not of strength but of
weakness. The very fact of the assertion points to
a challenge. We never protest about the things of
which we are sure ; we take them for granted as a
part of the unseen and sacred foundations of life.
No English person in any part of the world finds it
necessary to assert his belief in the English language
and the importance of English ideals. He no more
asserts such things than his belief in the principle
of gravitation or the roundness of the globe. And so
viewed there is something not a little pathetic in the
racial assertions of the South African Dutch. This
small and isolated people with their passionate sense
of nationality find themselves menaced, inevitably
and hopelessly menaced, by the great on-coming
compelling wave of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. However
complete the political equality laid down, however
scrupulous the regard for Dutch susceptibilities and
rights, in the long run there can only be one outcome
of any sort of free and even competition between the
races. English methods and the English language
are bound increasingly to win their way and permeate
the whole structure of society. It cannot be otherwise,
because business and commerical development in the
country are bound to follow English lines. The Dutch
themselves recognise this fact in their anxiety that
their children should learn English. It is quite natural
that this process of peaceful permeation should be
hated and resented by the more narrow spirits among
the Dutch Nationalists, and that they should seek
to raise all manner of artificial barriers in order to

188 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

protect the integrity of their race. But those artifical
barriers tell their own tale and in the long run they
cannot endure. No efforts however frantic to keep
the races apart, to cherish old feuds, to cause the
national life to flow in two separate streams can in
the long run prove successful. Dutch and English
are not segregated as the French to a large measure
are segregated in Canada. They are scattered all over
the country ; and time, propinquity, and the actual
needs of a common life can only draw them closer
and closer together. Whatever barriers may be reared
and sustained for a time, they have not in them one
element of permanency. On one basis alone can
Hertzogism flourish and persist — any effort on the
part of the English artificially to hasten a process which
will be effected gradually and peacefully in course of
time. The more the English resent the use of the
Dutch language, the more they grumble at the present
bi-lingual regulations, the more passionately will the
Dutch cling to such things. There was never an
instance more striking of the old adage that the longest
way round is the shortest way home. South Africa
is at all times the land of paradoxes, and the greater
the scope offered to the Dutch language the more
secure the English position will become. The spirit
of nationality lives by attacks upon it. The day that
the English stop girding at the Dutch, the ground is
cut away from beneath the feet of the extremists.

Here as elsewhere in South Africa it is a little
difficult to understand the lack of self-confidence
shown by the English in themselves, their race and their
language. The English language is really quite capable
of taking care of itself without protection of any kind.
It is not likely to succumb before the Taal even though

RACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 189

Taal were installed as the official language of South
Africa. The bi-lingual qualifications for the Civil
Service undoubtedly press very hardly, as we have
seen, on any English officials who have to qualify in
Dutch, but the hardship has two sides, for it would
be equally unfair if officials speaking English alone
should be sent into purely Dutch districts. It must
always be remembered that shortly before Union,
Dr. Jameson, when Prime Minister of the Cape, had
made bi-lingual qualifications compulsory for the Cape
Council Service, a course which was taken in order
to meet the practical necessities of government. These
circumstances are obviously irksome to the English,
who are not naturally good linguists, and as a rule
meet the difficulty by imposing their own language as
much as possible on all parts of the world where they
settle. It is quite natural that some among them
murmur and ask for what purpose the war was fought
if the net result is to make the country more Dutch
than before. It is perfectly true that under the Union
the Dutch language is more to the fore than in the old
days. At the Cape Town railway station, for instance,
information is laboriously put up in two languages
which everyone understands in one alone. I have
heard of Dutch travellers who grumbled that the dining-
car attendants were not all bi-lingual and did not '
produce a menu in Dutch. One section is always on
the look-out for any fancied slight to the Dutch language
and a cry is raised whenever the strict letter of the
law is departed from in these matters. All this may
be very exasperating, but the agitation is essentially
manufactured and its roots do not strike deep. It
only lives on opposition and it will die a natural death
in good time. But while the English fret and fume

190 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

naturally enough at all this ; slowly and silently the
great wave of which I have spoken is washing in all
around. And it will wash in the more rapidly when
both races alike get out of their present narrow rut
and view South Africa from the standpoint of the
needs of a South African nation, not from the sectional
and separatist standpoint which exists at present.

It will be a point of honour with the Dutch to
preserve every aspect of their nationality intact so long
as they fear that the English are bent on forcible
absorption of that nationality. Remove that fear and
the common sense of the situation asserts itself. Neither
race can build up the land single-handed ; neither can
worship at the altars of the other. Both, however, can
worship at the common altar of a South African
nationality, to which each side will bring the best of
its racial endowment. The future of South Africa
will evolve on English rather than on Dutch lines because
for all practical purposes the English methods in
commerce and government will be the more efficient.
But when that day arrives there will be no sting or
mortification in the situation for the Dutch, since the
evolution will have taken place on joint lines, and the
strictly English point of view will have been modified
as profoundly during the process as the strictly Dutch
one. The South Africans of the future will probably
make merry over the perplexities of their forefathers
and wonder how it came about that such molehills
were magnified into mountains. No one can hope or
desire that the Dutch language should disappear ;
but as the two races adjust themselves into one united
people, the language question will adjust itself also.
The equal rights of the Dutch language will be
maintained unimpaired, it will remain the home language

KACIALISM AND LANGUAGE QUESTION 191

of many South Africans and hold its place in all public
and official matters whenever necessary. But as the
friction between the races passes away English, when
convenient, will be increasingly used by general consent
for the prompt transaction of business. The waste of
time, money, and convenience ; the foolish duplication
of business which now takes place — not to serve any
practical end but merely to assert a principle — will pass
away when the principle itself is merged in that wider
whole of a vigorous, self-respecting South African
nationality.

192

CHAPTER XIII

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES

Only a torch for burning, no hammer for building ?
Take our thanks, then, and — thyself away.

Caelyle.

We are no longer citizens of a single nation ; we are participators in
the life of mankind, and joint heirs of the world's inheritance. Strength-
ened by this wider communion and ennobled by this vaster heritage,
shall we not trample under foot the passions that divide, and pass united
through the invisible portals of a new age to inaugurate a new life ?

Arnold Toynbee.

It is not a little surprising in South Africa to-day to
hear the way in which many people speak of the war.
Probably the average traveller lands at the Cape with
much the same feeling as myself, namely that any
casual or haphazard references to the events of 1899-
1902 would be tactless and in bad taste. But after
a time the feeling wears off, thanks to the rather care-
less attitude on the whole subject of the average South
African himself. Sometimes it is difficult to realise
that the country has so recently passed through an
ordeal so great. In the same way as all outer signs
of the struggle have vanished, the social relations of
life, generally speaking, have been resumed without
apparent effort. The enemies of yesterday are to
be found working peaceably side by side, pursuing
their normal occupations as though they had never

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PAETIES 193

exchanged the farm and the counfcing-honse for the
firing-line and the battle-field. The fierce and violent
animosity which lingered on for years in the Southern
States after the War of Secession, and even now persists
in some degree, has not shown itself to anything like
the same extent in South Africa. I was astonished to
realise how much good-natured chaff passed on occa-
sions between men who had fought on opposite sides.
They would discuss their reminiscences and the chances
of the struggle as though they were talking of a polo
match. Facetious remarks as to who was caught or
ambushed on some occasion when the speakers had
met with guns between them are common enough ;
each making merry over the blunders of the other. I
was present at one luncheon party — and a most
pleasant party it was — at which the guests consisted
of a famous Boer general, a redoubtable leader on the
English side, a former Cape minister whose relations
at one time with the Imperial Government were of
the worst, a prominent Milner official, and a well-known
Natalian. No one would have suspected, judging
from the conversation, that any formidable animosities
or differences of opinion had ever risen between any
of my fellow-guests. But for the unfortunate revival
of racialism, which has stirred up anew considerable
strife and ill will, South Africa would have disappeared
by this time into the ranks of the happy countries
possessing no history. Hertzogism is an unfortunate
manifestation, but through some such phase South
Africa had doubtless to pass before the final adjust-
ment between the races could take place. It com-
plicates and embitters political matters to-day, but
it is an agitation stirred up from the top, not an
agitation welling up from the heart of the national

194 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

consciousness. As such it need cause no abiding anxiety,
for when an agitation rests merely on prejudice and
does not spring from real grievance or injustice, its
roots are slender indeed.

The surface appearance of South African affairs
often gives but slender indication of their true aspect.
If one may be permitted such an observation, the
sacred right to grumble is one specially cherished
by South Africans of both races. To discount
a large proportion of that grumbling and not to
attach too much seriousness to current tales of woe,
is a mental process which every traveller is wise
to adopt in the sunny land of Good Hope. The
personal relations of life are much less bitter and
acrimonious than the newspapers and current gossip
would lead one to think. One glance round the
dining-room of the Union Parliament House, where
legislators of all sides and parties may be found hob-
nobbing together in the most genial fashion over
their meals, dispels many illusions about the per-
manence of racial feeling and the total suppression of
the browbeaten English. And yet, though these in-
stances are suggestive and give rise to some interesting
reflections, it would be unsafe to dogmatise from them,
and lay down any general rule about peace and recon-
ciliation. Much bitterness exists among people who
withdraw themselves for that very reason from the
observation of the tourist. The anti-British elements
in the country do not cross the path of the English
traveller, because the company of the English traveller
is the last that they desire. As a traveller, therefore,
one is thrown among the well-disposed and friendly
Dutch, of whom there are large numbers, and the
spirit in which many of them have accepted British

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 195

rale is beyond praise. Other sections, however, exist
in whom the memories of the past rankle fiercely.
Generally speaking they are less educated, less pro-
minent, of less standing than the well-disposed Dutch.
But though it is impossible to judge the actual numerical
strength of this party, the Back Veld, and the spirit
for which it stands, has to be reckoned with through-
out the land. Its influence is a potent force in politics
to-day, inasmuch as it provides the raw material for
any crude appeal to passion and prejudice. Granted
the existence of such raw material, it is a task of singular
simplicity to set South Africa by the ears, a task for
which no special talent is required. In General Hertzog,
a sincere but misguided fanatic, the spirit of racialism
has found fresh expression. And the bitterness so stirred
up is not confined to one race alone : it provokes
as much resentment among the English as the Dutch,
and warps the thread of all social and political relations.
At present there are two classes of extremists in
South Africa — the Dutch extremists led by General
Hertzog, whose ideals are as sectional as those of the
old Krugerism, and the English extremists, who are as
racial and as sectional as the Hertzogites themselves.
Racialism is not a perquisite of one party, little though
the English recognise their own limitations in this
matter. Each side is apt to be full of illusions on this
score, both protesting that the flames are fanned by the
other alone. As a matter of fact both fan them vigor-
ously : a certain section of the Dutch desiring to see the
country run on purely Dutch fines, and a certain section
of the English equally anxious to secure a purely British
ascendancy. These extremists may be left to cancel
out against each other. Midway is a large and rather
bewildered body of middlemen inclining to one side

o 2

196 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

or the other, but all more or less honestly desirous
of doing their best for the country as a whole, and all
increasingly anxious to escape from the vicious circle
of racialism, the evils of which are more and more clear.
This centre party is not a party in the political sense,
for the men composing it are to be found on both sides
of the House. They are the true Nationalists — a title
in no sense deserved by some of General Botha's Back
Veld followers, who only view South African life from
the focus of one race. The hope of South Africa lies
in the spread of this true spirit of Nationalism among
all sections of the community, a Nationalism which is
concerned with seeing things steadily and seeing them
whole. I was told on several occasions that, as in the
Southern States of America, it is the women of both
races who are apt to show the most violence and resent-
ment about the war and are in a large degree responsible
for the perpetuation of bad feeling. * We men have to
meet daily in business and politics,' said a South
African to me, ' and it is not practical to keep up this
sort of feud perpetually. We ask in the end if a man
is a good fellow, not what his race is. But the women
rub shoulders less with each other. They have
more time to sit at home and think, and grievances
which we forget rankle with them.' The influence
of the Predikants is another mischievous one, and
many of them have been responsible for trouble
in the country districts. It seems unfortunate that
strife should be stirred up by women and holy men,
to whom we might have looked for more mollifying
influences. But the Boer woman in particular is
apt to be a fierce and primitive being, and the con-
siderable influence she wields over her menkind has
always been militant rather than conciliatory.

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 197

The establishment of Union caused, as we have seen,
a truce of God to fall for a while on the animosities of
South Africa. The first session of the Union Parlia-
ment passed off peaceably enough, business in the
main being of a non-controversial character. General
Botha on assuming office was called upon by many
people in South Africa to form a coalition government
of all the talents, and to break once and for all with the
old mischievous dividing-line of racialism in politics.
Ideally there was much to be said for the suggestion ;
practically it was not possible. Whatever General
Botha's personal wishes in the matter might have been,
his party was in no sense ripe for so radical a departure
from the fines of government with which they were
familiar. No leader, however far-sighted, can lead too
far ahead of his party or he runs the risk of getting
out of touch with them altogether. Events have
proved that General Botha was wise not to risk a break
with the Dutch at the moment of Union. Hertzogism
would be a far stronger force in the country to-day had
the proposed coalition taken place. Any such action
on the part of General Botha would have been regarded
— and not unnaturally regarded — as treason to his
own people. Many Dutchmen who follow him loyally
to-day would have been thrown under such terms
into the arms of the reactionaries. To say this is not
in any way to support the idea that political parties
in South Africa should continue to organise themselves
on racial fines. The very contrary must, of course, be
the wish of every right-minded person. Moreover the
process is already initiated, for though the Unionist
Party in South Africa is essentially the British party,
a certain number of Englishmen support the Nationalists.
But great changes in South Africa require time and

198 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

patience to carry them into effect, and it is unreasonable
to expect the Dutch, a slow-moving people, to advance
except by stages. They have first to accept the fact
of British rule and a British form of government —
propositions sufficiently difficult already for many of
them. As the new order settles down, little by little
parties will divide themselves on economic rather
than on racial lines. The process, however, cannot be
hastened artificially. The compelling force of British
institutions is one of the most striking features in South
Africa to-day. All the slow, silent influences are working
in the sense of true union between the races, despite
the alarums and excursions which figure largely in
Parliament and the Press. It would be ridiculous to
expect the great mass of the Dutch to have any abstract
enthusiasm for British rule. But the more shrewd
and far-sighted among them are beginning to realise
that the greater life of the Empire has advantages
which do not conflict with their own national ideals.
Some of them, I think, are astonished to find how little
terrible and irksome is the Imperial authority, and are
finding also that British citizenship carries with it
many advantages. In time that feeling will permeate
more and more among the bulk of the population.
Meanwhile it is very important that the enlightened
Dutchmen should remain as the leaven among their
own people, and that no attempt should be made to
drive any wedge in among them before the moment
for the rearrangement of parties becomes ripe. General
Botha's breach with General Hertzog's agitation has
been such a wedge in itself, but it has come in the right
way, not through any action on the part of the English,
but through a natural process of disintegration among
the Dutch themselves. These moments of dissolution and

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 199

rearrangement create great confusion among political
parties, but so long as they are part of a natural
process of growth and development in ideas they sort
themselves eventually, as the South African problem
will sort itself— however turbulent the moment of
transition. The strong wine of British institutions
has been poured into Dutch bottles, and we must be
patient if some of the weaker vessels show signs of
giving way under the process. General Hertzog's
revolt is a case in point, and in its causes and con-
sequences it marks a new era in South African history.

General Hertzog had been from the first the stormy
petrel of the Botha Cabinet, in which he held the posi-
tion of Minister of Justice. During the war he was
conspicuous as one of De Wet's chief lieutenants and
showed great ability as a guerilla leader. Educated
at Stellenbosch and Amsterdam, Hertzog is no illiterate,
but, on the contrary, is a man of distinct intellectual
gifts. My personal acquaintance with him, that of a
few moments, is too slight to have conveyed anything
but the outer impression of the man — a dark, rather
fanatical face, keen searching eyes behind the gold-
rimmed spectacles, a slight, restless, alert personality,
with a dry smile. He has many friends who testify
to his warmth of heart, his absolute sincerity, his
personal charm, his many good qualities. The greater
the tragedy therefore that he has identified himself
with causes and principles which have rendered such
gifts useless in the service of a united South Africa.
We have seen in the previous chapter how provocative
was the part played by General Hertzog in the Free
State prior to Union over the question of education.
Generally speaking the best way to deal with recal-
citrants is to thrust responsibility upon them, and

200 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

General Botha probably thought that by inclusion in
the Cabinet General Hertzog's racial violences would
be kept more in check than if he were left in a position
of greater freedom as chorus leader of the young braves
who roar so vigorously at Stellenbosch. That hope
unfortunately was doomed to disappointment. It is
easy to see now that, from the first days of Union,
General Hertzog flung all his influence against the
task of conciliation and peace with which General
Botha's name, to his honour, must always be associated.
The spirit of the Convention was violated by the
Minister of Justice before the ink on the paper was
dry. I heard it said very aptly in South Africa, that
whereas General Hertzog always thought of the country
as inhabited by Dutch and English, General Botha
always thought of it as inhabited by South Africans.
The radical difference between these two points of
view, with all they imply, and entail, is the measure of
difference between the two men. Hertzogism is in
effect nothing but inverted Jingoism — as bitter, as
regardless of the rights and susceptibilities of others, as
the coarsest school of a degraded Imperialism. Jingoism
and Hertzogism alike stand for doctrines of racial
exclusion, and as such there is no place for them in an
Empire the strength of which rests upon the mutual
toleration and self-expression of the races it includes.
Racial bitterness is of the essence of patriotism
in General Hertzog's eyes. While the Prime Minister
appealed for popular support on the ground that his
party aimed at unity and co-operation between the
two races, his colleague was working in a directly
contrary sense. It is well to be clear as to the real
character of the issue at stake between the two leaders.
It is not so much a question of the relations of South

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 201

Africa with the Empire — a side issue on which the
Hertzogites have been anxious to ride off — as the rela-
tions of South Africa within her own coasts. It is a
question of Nationalism rather than of Imperialism.
South African nationality worthy of the name can
never be evolved on the lines of narrow racial exclu-
siveness for which General Hertzog stands. General
Botha's high merit lies in his recognition of the fact
that South Africa must base her national life broadly
on the best elements of both races. In a country
where the Bantu peoples outnumber the whites as five
to one, and Europeans of whatever nationality are
essentially a white brotherhood in a black continent,
what are we to think of a policy which seeks artificially
to divide the white minority in two paltry and diver-
gent streams, and sets a sword between men confronted
with the common difficulty of some of the gravest
problems in government the world has ever known ?
Nationalism is, and must be, the basis of all true
Imperialism. It is the only foundation for a self-
respecting relationship between the different parts of the
Empire. But it must be a broad, generous Nationalism
which looks out; not a narrow, paltry thing hugging
its own meagre life in its impoverished arms, fearful
of all risks, afraid either c to come into port greatly
or sail with gods the seas.' Patriotism may, as his
friends affirm, inspire General Hertzog's behaviour.
It does not alter the fact that his policy is not only
mischievous but grotesque.

Under the great but peaceable revolution of the
Act of Union four separate and self-contained colonies
and administrations disappeared from South Africa,
leaving in their place, as we have seen, one united
government. The task of readjusting all the interests

202 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

concerned has been one of great difficulty, and was
bound to excite much friction. However fine and
generous the feeling which swept the whole country
into Union, many thorny questions inevitably waited
on the details of the reorganisation. During 1911
the co-ordination of the public services monopolised
Parliamentary attention. A good deal of dissatisfac-
tion and friction naturally arose as the new machine
settled into place. The reconciliation of warring in-
terests is no easy task; and though everyone in the
abstract praised the virtues of economy and the dis-
appearance of administrative redundancy, yet, as we
have seen in the previous chapter, each person regarded
his neighbour rather than himself as the proper subject-
matter for the practice of such economy. In 1912
further political set-backs took place, partly owing to
the discontent which had arisen from retrenchments
in the Civil Service, partly owing to the dispute in the
Cabinet between Mr. Sauer and Mr. Hull, who were
respectively Ministers of Railways and Finance. The
trouble between them, broadly speaking, was concerned
with the old, long-standing friction between the in-
terests of the coast and those of the inland towns.
Mr. Hull resigned, but his resignation left the Cabinet
in uneasy waters and indirectly led to the dropping of
some important legislative measures, including the
Railways Constitution Bill, the Financial Relations
Bill, and the Immigrants Restriction Bill. As against
this General Smuts scored a real achievement in the
passing of the Defence Act, and among other minor
improvements, a commercial change of great importance
was effected by Sir David Graaff in the settlement of
the shipping question and the disappearance of the
rebate system.

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 203

The above chances and changes are, of course,
the common lot of all governments, and but for
another influence at work the Botha Cabinet would
have pursued its normal way along the ordinary switch-
back of party life with a course not more marked by
ups and downs than that which characterises any
government. But while General Botha laboured in
the cause of national unity, leneral Hertzog was en-
gaged in a task of a very different character. The
administration of his own office gave rise, as we have
seen, to grave criticisms as to the justice and impar-
tiality with which he distributed patronage. The cry
grew in force that in the Civil Service there was special
discrimination against the Englishman. General Botha
was more and more subjected to the criticism that
his Government spoke with two voices : that while he
preached peace his colleague was making ready for
battle. Not unnaturally the public began to question
General Botha's sincerity, and a growing feeling arose
that while the Prime Minister applied soothing lotion
to the conduct of public affairs, at heart he sympathised
with the racial crusade on foot. Hence suspicion, dis-
trust, and restlessness spread through South Africa,
none the less mischievous for their intangible character.
The English were sore and irritated, and if, as usual, they
exaggerated the dangers by which they were menaced,
they had considerable grounds for complaint as to the
character of the attacks made on their language and
their race.

Matters came to a head in the autumn of
1912, thanks to a series of speeches which General
Hertzog delivered himself, speeches in which he went
out of his way to set forth a view of South African
nationality wholly at variance with the spirit of the Act

204 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of Union. At Nylstroom he elaborated a theory of
Africander nationality which practically excluded from
it all English-born subjects, and he thought fit to
apply the insulting term of ' foreign adventurer ' to
Sir Thomas Smartt, the popular leader of the Opposi-
tion, who has lived in South Africa for years and done
more for its improvement and development than will
ever be laid to General Hertzog's credit. At Vrededorp
on November 8 he expounded the doctrine of ' separate
streams of nationality ' and the importance of keeping
the two white races apart. At this psychological
moment an election took place at Albany to fill the
seat vacated by Sir Starr Jameson. General Botha
addressed a large audience at Grahamstown on Dec-
ember 6 and spoke as usual on conciliatory fines,
deprecating racialism and accepting South Africa's
place as a free nation within the Empire. The follow-
ing day his obstreperous colleague addressed a meeting
at De Wildt and practically traversed every argument
advanced by the Prime Minister. General Hertzog on
that occasion held up the Empire to ridicule, declared
that except when it was of use to South Africa, he took
no interest in it, and generally went out of his way to
make a series of statements extraordinarily offensive to
the British South Africans.

At this point General Botha's patience broke
down. Like every other party leader he had been
anxious up to the last moment to avoid a crisis
among his own people or to precipitate a situa-
tion full of grave inconvenience for them. He was
roundly abused in South Africa for being patient so
long, and thereby creating a wrong impression of his
Government and himself. Once determined on action,
however, that action was not lacking in vigour. As

HEKTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 205

we have seen, he had exhausted every effort to keep his
impetuous colleague in bounds, but in the end he came
to the reluctant conclusion that a spirit so alien to that
of the Convention which brought Union into being
must wreck Union if persisted in. On December 14,
1912, therefore, General Botha resigned, and on being
charged with the duty of forming a new Administra-
tion, his Cabinet was reconstructed minus the Minister
of Justice. The differences between the two men
were set forth very clearly in the dignified statement
shortly afterwards issued by the Prime Minister, a
statement none the less remarkable for being the work
of a man who twelve years ago was in the field against
the very Power under which he now holds office. It
is desirable to quote this statement in extenso since it
defines the issues with much clearness :

General Hertzog has gratuitously and unnecessarily put the
question whether the interests of South Africa should take preference
over those of the British Empire. This question should not have
been put. There is no reason for putting it, nor should any reason
therefore arise in the future.

The true interests of South Africa are not, and need not be, in
conflict of the Empire from which we derive our free constitution.
The only effect of speeches such as that made at De Wildt will be
to cause doubt as to the real policy of the Government, to create
misunderstanding and estrangement between the different sections
of South Africa's people, and to undo the great work which has been
built up in the past four or five years with so much labour and
devotion.

I wish to emphasise that to me the interest of South Africa is
supreme, and I believe that this view is almost generally shared by
the population of our Union. This, however, does not exclude that I
myself and the South African party fully appreciate the Imperial
ideal.

Under our free constitution within the Empire, the South African
nation can fully develop its local patriotism and national instincts.
In these circumstances, it was unpardonable to suggest, as happened

206 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

at De Wildt, that the Empire is only good so long as it is useful to
South Africa.

Moreover, the pointed condemnation by General Hertzog in his
speech at De Wildt of the policy of racial conciliation, which the
Government defends, has been understood to mean that General
Hertzog's policy was different from that of the Prime Minister, and
that therefore the Government spoke with two voices. In these
circumstances it was impossible for me to continue at the head of the
Government and, as General Hertzog proved to be not prepared to
resign, nothing else remained for me but to dissolve the Government
by my own resignation.

General Hertzog took his dismissal very ill, and has
shown little dignity in the attacks he has since made
on his late chief. He complained bitterly in one
speech at Smithfield of the 'weakness, indecision, and
lack of principle ' in the Cabinet. Since he managed
to support such lamentable moral shortcomings quite
comfortably until his own ejection from office, the
criticism probably leaves his former colleagues with
their withers unwrung. The effect of all this disturb-
ance on South African political life is not very easy to
analyse. It has had a somewhat paralysing influence
on Parliament, owing to certain peculiar conditions to
which I must refer in a moment, where no discussion
of the differences on everyone 's tongue took place till
the middle of April. On April 29, 1913, a motion of no
confidence in the Cabinet was brought forward by the
Labour Party working in conjunction with the Hertzog-
ites. For some reason best known to themselves, the
Unionist Opposition voted with the Hertzog section
on this occasion against General Botha — curious com-
pany to keep for a party who pride themselves on their
Imperial ideals, and a strange instance of the freaks
which the party spirit plays with us all. Even so,
General Botha obtained a majority of 27 on the

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 207

division. He has been courageous enough to put the
welfare of the nation before that of his own race,
and since courage in politics is the one quality which
above all others pays — a practical truth always ignored
by the time-servers — his position will ultimately be
fortified, not jeopardised, by the step he has taken.

The course of the third session of the Union Parlia-
ment which came to an end on June 16, 1913, though
troubled, did not result in that complete deadlock
anticipated alike by friends and foes of the Government.
The session was not fruitless, for though the University
Bill was shelved, thanks to the racial and educational
cabals against the Groote Schuur site, three important
measures, namely the Financial Relations Bill, the Im-
migration Bill, and the Native Land Bill, were passed,
as well as a host of minor legislative bills. A break in
the ranks of the Dutch party has been up to the present
an unheard-of event in South African politics, and
circumstances so novel have tended to baffle all calcu-
lations. Of political organisation in the English sense
there is little among any parties in South Africa ;
among the Dutch such organisation is practically non-
existent. The elaborate arrangements by which party
organisers in this country keep in touch with their
constituencies, the careful checking of the registers,
tracing of removals, &c, have no parallel in South Africa.
Therefore at the moment of the breach between General
Botha and General Hertzog each side found itself non-
plussed as to how to carry out the elementary but
essential calculation of counting heads. The sympathies
of the Free State members are known to be with General
Hertzog ; but long-suffering though General Botha
showed himself to be in his efforts to avoid a rupture,
he is, despite his personal charm and geniality, a man

208 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of great force of character and has both flair and judg-
ment as a leader. In any open struggle between the
two men it is difficult to think that General Hertzog
could come off other than worsted. The Prime Minister
has resisted with great firmness the pressure put upon
him to restore General Hertzog to the Cabinet. He has
entirely declined to make any humiliating compromise
with his former colleague and has held unswervingly to
the path which after long thought he decided to follow.
The most satisfactory feature, however, of the
present situation is the repudiation of Hertzogism
by a section even of the Dutch stalwarts. ' No/ said
an old Boer who had been a stubborn fighter during
the war ; ' Hertzog won't do. We signed a Peace at
Vereeniging and we must keep to it/ I have heard
Boer farmers in the Transvaal express the same
view, though they were obviously torn in two between
their natural sympathies for this champion of ultra-
Dutch ideals and an uneasy conviction that he was
engaged in mischievous courses. A striking speech
in the same sense was made in the House of Assembly
on the occasion of the no-confidence motion by Mr.
Maasdorp, who sits for Graaff Reinet, a stronghold of
Dutch sentiment. Mr. Maasdorp spoke strongly in
support of General Botha and repudiated General
Hertzog's policy in emphatic language as calculated
to create one of the most wicked race-wars that South
Africa has yet known. General Botha's courage so
far has met with considerable success. The reaction-
aries hoped to wreck the Government in the course
of the session which ended in June 1913. So far from
doing this General Botha's position has distinctly
improved since the beginning of the year, and he has
rallied more and more to his side the support of the

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 209

Dutch-speaking population. The common sense of
the average South African, be he Dutch or English,
is growing increasingly weary of the constant appeals
to race. The dislocation of life and work involved by
these sterile disputes becomes a practical inconvenience
and as such causes resentment. In the growth and
spread of this spirit lies the true corrective of
Hertzogism, and all the omens point to such growth.

General Botha has had a task of extreme delicacy, but
he bids fair to emerge from it with his character and repu-
tation both as man and as statesman greatly enhanced.
He has achieved the difficult reconciliation of loyalty to
his high office under the Crown and wise guidance of his
own people. He has not hesitated to protest against
the doctrine that the ' Africander must baas ' when it
was preached by one of his own colleagues. He has
ruled his Cabinet in the spirit of the Convention ; he
has stood, at a personal sacrifice hard even to conjecture,
for the principle that policies in South Africa should
be determined on their merits and not by questions of
race ; that government should be in the interests of
the governed and not in those of one section. He has
taken this course at the risk of a rupture with the less
educated and reactionary elements of his own party,
and — with a few honourable exceptions — he has had
to meet nothing but carping and ungenerous criticism
from the Unionist Opposition, who seem incapable of
making any due allowance for the difficulties of his posi-
tion. But he carries with him the support of the wise
and far-sighted men of both races, and whatever the
strength of the Back Veld may prove to be, General
Botha has struck a blow at racialism in high places
from which that mischievous doctrine can never wholly
recover. The Empire has reason to be proud of this

210 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

adopted son whose services to South Africa in peace
have been as great as those to his own race in war. His
presence among the Councils of our Royal Common-
wealth is a dramatic tribute to the freedom of institu-
tions on which the Empire rests. Widely separated by
age, race, circumstances, and intellectual endowment
from George Washington, some comparisons between
the two men are obvious. But where it was doubtless
the high duty of the one to divide, it has been the
happier lot of the other to unite. No estimate of
General Botha can be complete without a reference
to his wisest counsellor and truest friend — his wife.
A warm-hearted, courageous woman of admirable judg-
ment, Mrs. Botha's real nobility of character silences
even the spirit of querulous criticism often rife in South
Africa. From the Cape to the Zambesi there is but one
opinion of the Prime Minister's wife. She has been the
good genius of his career — happy lot for any woman —
and her qualities compel the admiration and affection
of personal friend and political foe alike.

Despite the angry ebullitions, therefore, of the
moment, there is no reason to despair of the future of
South Africa. There has been, it is true, a note of great
confusion and exasperation in public affairs of late ;
confidence has been disturbed ; capital consequently
is coy and hesitating; business men have the poorest
opinion of the performances of the politicians. In the
very exasperation so created the remedy for such evils
will be found. Politicians may rage furiously together
and tear each other to pieces over such questions as
bi-lingualism and the dismissal of British officials
from the Civil Service. But ' pur si muove.' Step
aside from politics, and the commercial and economic
development of the country, handicapped though it is

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 211

in some ways, gives its own reply to the anxieties
and disposes of many nervous fears. Financially, as
Mr. Merriman pointed out in the Union Parliament in
March 1913 during the Budget debate, the Union is
in an extraordinarily strong position. Against its
public debt of £117,000,000 there were assets such as
railways, telegraphs, telephones, sinking fund, &c.,
amounting to £106,000,000 net, not to mention Crown
lands. Granted sound finance any country can look
the future in the face with confidence. Moreover the
spirit of progress is abroad everywhere. The Union
railways under the capable management of Mr. W.
Hoy are developing a system which can hold its own
for efficiency against all comers. The first South African
railway running between Cape Town and Wellington, a
distance of fifty-eight miles, was begun in 1859. In
1910 the railway system owned by the Union comprised
7039 miles of open lines with gross takings amounting
to £12,056,871, while another thousand miles of lines
were under construction. The impetus of railway
development after the war came, as many other things
came, from the Milner administration, the mileage in
the Transvaal and the Free State having been
doubled during that time and railway construction
in the other Colonies speeded up. And this same spirit
of development is to be found in every other direction.
If Johannesburg to-day has happily lost much of its
old dominating influence in the business world, com-
mercial enterprise is flourishing as never before. New
towns are springing up, old ones have been improved
out of recognition. Last, but not least, agricultural
development, to which I must refer in detail in a sub-
sequent chapter, is revolutionising all the economic and
social values in the land, and agriculture, let it always

p 2

212 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

be remembered, is the great permanent interest in
South Africa. Commerce will prove one of the most
potent factors in the extinction of Hertzogism ; people
who want to make money — and they are a large
company — will not tolerate unnecessary dislocations of
business to please the racial fads of any group of fanatics.

Before bringing this chapter to a close it may not be
out of place to make some remarks as to the character and
composition of political parties in the Union Parliament.

Politically the Dutch are good disciplinarians. They
present themselves at the poll with great punctuality
to vote in accordance with the dictates of their leaders.
They have, however, a much more imperfect sense
of parliamentary practice than that of the average
Englishman. The Union Parliament owes many dis-
tinguished Front Bench men on both sides of the House
to the Transvaal, but, in one respect at least, the old
Transvaal tradition of government as applied to the
public affairs of the Union has not been fortunate.
Parliamentary government in the true sense was un-
known in the Republics. The Executive and the
caucus were all-powerful. So it comes about to-day
that the men from the north, a dominant section in the
House, have saddled the caucus system on the Union
Parliament with very undesirable results. This mis-
chievous form of party organisation throttles the
Assembly, rendering parliamentary life jejune in
debate and wholly unreal in atmosphere. Morning
after morning the two parties hold their respective
caucuses — the Unionist Party have adopted the system
as fully as the Nationalists — and arrange the day's
plan of campaign. Parliament when it meets in the
afternoon is often but a stale record of decisions already
arrived at. As a witty South African remarked to me

HEETZOGISM AND POLITICAL PAETIES 213

on one occasion, the system has been carried to such a
point of perfection that ' it would really simplify matters
and save time and trouble to go a step farther and by a
short two-clause bill abolish Parliament and regularise
the decisions of the caucus.' During the early months
of the year when the country was rent in twain with
the Hertzog schism, and the caucus concerned itself
with little else, Parliament pursued a dull and decorous
path without the smallest public reference being made
to events which at any moment might have wrecked
the Government. Eeticence is a desirable quality
both in public and private affairs, but frank and open
debate is a more wholesome principle in parliamentary
life than party conclaves behind closed doors — doors of
course never fully closed and through which all manner
of gossip and intrigue breaks out.

The composition of political parties in the Union
Parliament to-day is very curious. The Unionists —
for so the old Progressives now call themselves — are
in the main the British party ; the Nationalists in the
main the Dutch party, though they number a proportion
of Englishmen in their ranks. The dividing line between
politicians therefore is still, broadly speaking, that of
race, though it was not a little suggestive that, at the
critical Albany election held in December 1912, the
Unionist candidate had a Dutch name, Mr. Van der
Kiet, and the Nationalist candidate was an Englishman,
Mr. Espin. I have already referred to the sympathies
and relationships which are apt to spring up between
politicians at home and overseas and the somewhat
anomalous situation to which they give rise. This is
particularly the case in South Africa. The sympathy
of the English Liberals for the South African Nationalists
does not rest on any joint stock of ideas or a common

214 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

outlook on life. Circumstances may have thrown them
into each other's arms, but the Dutch as a people are
essentially Conservative and essentially agrarian, and
not in the least enamoured of Progressive legislation
as such. They are thorough-going individualists, and
though the more simple-minded of them regard the
Government as a great benign machine from which
benefits are to be extracted, that point of view is far
removed from the socialistic theory of the State. With
the Unionists the situation is no less topsy-turvy. The
Unionist Party is really the Liberal and Progressive
party in South Africa ; it advocates advanced legislation
in various directions, including schemes for the taxation
of land values, for education, and for immigration. So
far as the tariff is concerned they stand for a lower
measure of protection than the Nationalists. The
Unionist Party, being in a large measure an urban party,
is naturally concerned with any point which affects
the high cost of living in the towns. But thanks to the
more definitely Imperial aspect of this party, thanks
also to the chequered chapter of political history which
we have examined, they are closely associated with the
English Conservatives, though the circumstances of
the two parties are in no sense parallel. The result of
all this upon South African life is very curious. Pane-
gyrics on the wisdom and goodness of the Liberal
Government at home may constantly be found in the
pages of certain Nationalist journals ; whereas a section
of the Johannesburg Press exhausts itself in abusive
articles about the selfsame Government, articles which
might have originated from a party organ in Fleet
Street. All this is natural enough in view of the stormy
relationship which has existed between the South
African Loyalists and the English Liberal Party, but

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PAETIES 215

it creates a somewhat irrelevant situation to-day when
the controversies between the two countries are merci-
fully at an end. Articles on the evils of Home Rule,
for instance, whatever application they may have in
England, read somewhat strangely in the Press of a
self-governing Dominion. Journalistic criticism from
overseas of home politics is welcome and valuable, for
the writers being f urther removed from the fray should
be able to judge the issues more dispassionately. It
should, however, be fair criticism, not the reproduction
of the party gramophones with which we are all
familiar. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule.
The Cafe Times, under the able direction of Dr. Maitland
Park, upholds a very fine tradition in Colonial journal-
ism for fair and broad-minded presentment of Imperial
as well as South African affairs. Only the bigot has
a happy life in South Africa, and that broader outlook
on national affairs for which Dr. Park stands is little
to the taste of the extreme Unionists. A paper con-
ducted, however, with a view not to party ends but
the public welfare, is a valuable factor in South African
life, and it is the honourable distinction of the Cafe
Times to stand for that position. On the purely Dutch
side, Dr. Engelenberg controls the VolJcsstem in a spirit
no less commendable. Between these extremes there
is a wide and wordy margin of journalistic production
and warfare, though the enormous superiority of the
South African to the Canadian Press must strike any
traveller acquainted with both countries.

The charge brought against the Progressives in
former times of being controlled by the capitalists
has less force than of old, for millionaires such as Sir
J. B. Robinson, Sir Thomas Cullinan, Sir George Albu,
and others are now to be found on the Nationalist side,

216 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

a fortunate state of affairs, for nothing can be more
undesirable in politics than the concentration of wealth
in one party alone. But the capitalist element in the
Unionist Party — which is still a controlling one —
together with their hostility to the English Liberal
Party, has had a strange by-product in the creation of
that small and rather exotic body, the South African
Labour party. So far, the Labour Party only returns
six members to the Union Parliament, but it is generally
supposed that they will more than double their numbers
at the next election. The six present members include
one or two thoroughgoing Socialists, and the party of
course has its strength among the white mining popula-
tion on the Rand. The Unionist Party have them-
selves to thank in some measure for the rise of an
organised Labour Party in South Africa. They are,
or they should have been, as we have seen, the real
promoters of Liberal or Progressive legislation in South
Africa. But there can be no question that the British
working-man on the Rand, probably a Radical at home,
views them with suspicion, first owing to their name,
and then owing to the attacks which he finds in the
Unionist Press on his special political deities left
behind in England. In these circumstances he is
not drawn to the essentially British party and feels it
necessary to betake himself to a tabernacle elsewhere.
That tabernacle the Labour Party conveniently pro-
vides, and to it he drifts. As to the functions of the
party, they are, owing to the industrial conditions of
South Africa and the high wages paid to white labour,
of a more academic character than those of similar
parties in the Old World. But the recent industrial
outbreaks in Johannesburg show that organised, or
possibly disorganised labour, has become a force to

HERTZOGISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES 217

reckon with, though at the moment of writing it is
difficult to judge what real pressure apart from
disturbance it may be able to exercise on public
affairs.

The Labour Party in South Africa is relieved from
the care of a white proletariat and is mainly engaged
in maintaining the present high standard of artisans'
wages. They support the spread of white labour in
South Africa, but do not appear to have faced that
inevitable reduction in the rate of skilled wages which
must result from white immigration on any large scale.
On the contrary, their efforts are concerned in keeping
up the present high standard, an attitude which has
earned them trenchant criticism from Mr. Merriman to
the effect that they want the country to be a ' closed
burrow ' industrially. Their native policy aims, if not
at complete segregation, at least at separation, so far
as may be, of the black and white races. They are
opposed to the importation of contract labour, black or
white, and are anxious to abolish the existing system
of indentured labour on the mines. As to the position
of the coloured man, the party as yet has come to
no definite decision. The economic condition of the
coloured labourer is, as we shall see in a subsequent
chapter, a very pressing one in industrial matters.
Common sense points to the fact that since, in the long
run, the value of the work done, not the colour of the
workman's skin, determines the rates of pay, the
Labour Party must either include coloured workmen
within their ranks and seek the co-operation of such
men in upholding the standard rates of wages, or be
subjected to severe undercutting in the open market.
For the rest theoretically they adopt the whole Labour
programme of the Old World, utterly remote though

218 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

even its partial application to South African conditions
is likely to be for many a long day.

The whole character of South African politics differs
profoundly from that of the Mother Country, questions
of race, as we have seen, assuming an importance in the
former case mercifully unknown to us in England.
As between the Dutch and English that racial issue is a
dwindling one and tends to be replaced more and more
by economic considerations. But a racial issue of
another kind remains, and is bound to remain the most
formidable of all the obstacles which confront the Union
Government. The whole question of the relations
between the British and Boers is trivial, transitory,
and unimportant as compared with the vast and menac-
ing question of the relations between black and white.
The problem of the native is the crucial problem which
has to be met. And the future of South Africa will
turn on the attitude her citizens adopt towards it, and
the spirit, just or otherwise, in which they view the
unique difficulties and responsibilities it presents.

219

CHAPTER XIV

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE

In the face of this great problem it would be well that wise men think
more, that good men pray more, and that all men talk less and curse less.

Senator John Williams.

Few changes in South Africa are more striking than
the altered position of native affairs since the pre-war
days. In 1899 the question was a somewhat academic
one. Both the gravity and difficulty of the problem
were fully realised by all concerned with native
administration, but it excited little general attention
among the mass of the people. Naturally at that time
public interest was focused on the struggle between
the white races, and little heed was paid to the infinitely
greater difficulties and perplexities which spring from
the presence of the Bantu peoples south of the Zambesi.
The lapse of fourteen years has wrought a great change
in this, as in many other, respects. To-day the native
question is a very live one in South Africa, and its
discussion crops up at every turn and corner. This
result is in no small measure due to the larger corporate
life secured to South Africa by the Union Government.
Hertzogism is of course a disturbing factor in the present
political situation, but this recrudescence of Krugerism
under modern terms is not likely to alter the funda-
mental facts of the Union of South Africa. Politics

220 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

may for the moment be difficult and confused, but the
very form they take serves to throw into stronger relief
the true genius and statesmanship of the men who
welded the destinies of South Africa into one coherent
whole, and abolished the warring administrative com-
petitions of four petty States. Many years must pass
before the Union is finally consolidated and comes to
its full stature among the governments of the Empire.
But much has been accomplished since 1910, and it is
within this ampler framework of a larger national life
that the native question assumes dimensions of ever-
growing importance.

This difficult question is, however, not peculiar to
the African continent. It hangs like a dark and menac-
ing cloud over the future of nations, and presents a new
and incalculable factor in welt folitik. South Africa
merely provides a prominent example of a class of
political problems which are forcing themselves to the
fore all over the world — problems to the gravity of
which even educated British public opinion is as yet
but half awake, whereas the democracy as a whole has
no conception of the mighty change in progress. What
is to be the political status of educated members of
coloured races within areas governed according to
European ideas ? What in particular is to be their
status within an Empire which calls itself proudly a
crowned democracy ? It is no exaggeration to affirm
that this question is in a very special sense the one with
which the twentieth century will have to make its
count. If the nineteenth century was remarkable for
the adjustment of democratic relations and institutions
as between various classes of white men, the twentieth
century, built up on the foundations of popular govern-
ment, will have to meet a situation infinitely more

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 221

difficult and more complex, namely the adjustment of
democratic relations between white men and civilised
black men. Will democracy itself survive the test
when faced with the application of doctrines of political
equality and equal franchise rights to white and black
alike ? The example in this field of the United States
is not encouraging. The Southern States have passed
through a period of chaos since the war, and though
feeling is less tense to-day, peace only reigns thanks to
the virtual suppression among the negroes of political
rights to which theoretically they are entitled by the
Constitution. Clearly a mere repetition of democratic
formulas at variance with hard facts — a favourite
habit of the mentally slothful — will not provide any
solution of the difficulty. But these same hard facts
have to be faced, and if possible surmounted, if civilisa-
tion, especially that proud European civilisation crowned
with the laurels of centuries of which we make our
boast, is to deal worthily with a novel situation of such
singular difficulty. It may not be out of place, there-
fore, before dealing with the practical aspect of South
African native affairs, to consider in general terms some
of the factors both moral and political to which racial
problems give rise all the world over, and to inquire
what bearing they have on the future of the British
peoples.

The difficulty, of course, is not peculiar to the British
Empire : the political and economic awakening of Asia
is a world-problem and recognised as such. Never-
theless it is the British Empire, with its population of
60 million whites and 370 million black and coloured,
upon which, as the greatest individual arbiter of the
destinies of weaker races and with its unique tradition
in government, the pressure of this question will

222 THE SOUTH AFBICAN SCENE

primarily rest. Administration all over the world is
being challenged by this new force. The fact of Indian
unrest has penetrated even to the notice of the man
in the street : the Indian demand for participation in
government challenges the basis of our rule in the greatest
of our Dependencies. The British public is pained and
surprised that the native Egyptian who has prospered
so amazingly under our guidance shows so little gratitude
for the benefits conferred upon him. Japan has taken
its place among the world Powers, and consolidated
that position by striking victories over one of the
greatest of European nations. And Japan as a world
Power now questions the right of the United States or
any other Government to subject her citizens to rigorous
restrictions merely on the ground of colour. The
awakening of China is fraught with possibilities so
great that the mind halts and stumbles at their very
contemplation. All over the world this unrest is
stirring, all over the world we hear the first notes of
challenge struck as regards that inherent right of the
white man to rule which has become the commonplace
of government. The black and yellow and coffee-
coloured races are arriving : the earth, in Sir Valentine
Chirol's phrase, is ceasing to be the inalienable inherit-
ance of the white man : the pre-eminent dominion of
the European, if not shaken, at least and for the first
time is questioned.

How are we preparing ourselves to meet this new
demand for a fuller life from races who hitherto have
sat in darkness ? Meet it in some form or another we
must if these new circumstances are to evolve without
chaos and bloodshed. From what new focus does this
question compel us to regard the dreary spectacle of
European Powers armed to the teeth and ready to fly

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 223

at one another's throats like dogs ? May not a greater
Armageddon than any at present contemplated lie
behind these suicidal jealousies of nations who, what-
ever their rivalries, nevertheless are sharers of certain
common traditions and methods in civilisation ? In
the more immediate sphere of practical administration,
what is to be the attitude of a great governing white
race to the aspirations of alien races who have absorbed
a measure of Western education, culture, and political
ideas, and now in the name of democracy begin to
speak of equal rights in lands occupied and conquered
by Europeans of which they are the original inhabitants ?
How will democracy discriminate between the political
capacities of the educated native and those of the
degraded white man ? Can tests be applied with any sort
of logic or fairness to the one which do not apply to the
other ? If so, what tests are they to be ? In countries
where the population is predominantly coloured,
what will be the consequences of vesting political
power in the hands of a race but recently emerged from
barbarism ? Do any first principles exist which may
guide the twentieth century in this great task of adjust-
ment between Europeans and native races — a task
likely to be so peculiarly its own ? If so, what are they,
and where should they be sought ? As for the economic
questions which are springing into being alongside the
political ones, they raise issues no less vast and serious.
What is to be the result on white capital and labour
of the competition of skilled and efficient coloured men
whose standards of fife and wages are far below that of
the European ? What readjustments may not all this
entail in the sphere of industry, even admitting that
a rise in economic standard invariably accompanies
a rise in economic efficiency ?

224 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

These are but a few of the questions which crowd
thick and fast, and they are not easy to answer. Obvi-
ously I have not the smallest pretension to offer solu-
tions for difficulties which have baffled the wisest minds
yet brought to bear on them. But such public opinion as
exists upon native questions is apt to be so confused
that it may not be wholly unprofitable to examine the
direction in which minds, both wise and reckless, are
moving, and the various schools of thought springing up
by the way.

We are confronted at the outset of this inquiry
with a preliminary difficulty dogging the whole subject,
namely the appalling atmosphere of prejudice with
which its very discussion is surrounded. Racial ques-
tions, colour questions, raise antipathies and violences
of a character unknown in other spheres. It is useless
to condemn this fact or to argue about it : racial
antipathies have their roots apparently in some of the
deepest instincts which he embedded in human nature,
and we have to accept their existence as much as the
existence of other primary passions. Further, British
public opinion, which condemns such antipathies, is in
the main the creation of men and women who have
never lived side by side with a coloured race and cannot
appreciate the many difficulties to which it gives rise.
Ignorant good-will on the subject abounds, and proves
excessively irritating to those with less philanthropic
instinct but more sound knowledge. Racial aversion
may seem most illiberal in London : it is perfectly
comprehensible in Johannesburg. Instinctive racial
aversion may, and does, seize on kind and humane
people, and this instinctive aversion must be experi-
enced to be realised — it is incapable of translation into
words. But here at once a gulf arises between opinion

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 225

at home and abroad : between those with and without
practical experience of tropical and sub-tropical life.
The Englishman is apt to think the Colonial point of
view hard and unfair, the Colonial retorts by calling the
Englishman a sentimentalist and a fool, and warns him
sharply to keep his hands off this particular galley.
Here, therefore, at the outset we find the first complica-
tion in one of those unreasoning instincts which philo-
sophers may deprecate but no amount of argument will
explain away. Nevertheless, both good will and practical
knowledge must go together if we are to avoid a com-
plete deadlock in our relations with the coloured races.
The problem, broadly speaking, resolves itself into
three aspects, moral, political, and economic. It is
not, I think, too much to claim that the right political
and economic adjustment which we are seeking can
only spring from a right moral view of the whole relation-
ship involved. Democracy, as I have already remarked,
finds that it is running up against some very awkward
contradictions as regards the political status of coloured
races. Theory and practice are coming more and more
into collision. Is democracy capable of such adapta-
tions and developments as will meet these new needs ?
Much will obviously depend on the view we take of
democracy. If one man one vote and universal fran-
chise are to be regarded as the last word in free institu-
tions, a word beyond which nothing can go, then the
outlook is obscure indeed. But we should, I think,
at the threshold distinguish between adherence to the
spirit of freedom and free institutions, and rigid adher-
ence to any one form or forms of government through
which such spirit of freedom has expressed itself. We
are apt to regard a ballot box as the symbol of democracy,
but we may be called upon to go behind that symbol

226 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

to the verity for which it stands — a free chance for
every civilised individual. For, as Arnold Toynbee
says finely :

Democracy is sudden like the sea and grows dark with storms and
sweeps away many precious things, but like the sea it reflects the
light of the wide heavens and cleanses the shores of human life.

If and when the spirit of freedom and the spirit of sym-
pathy are real and active forces in the relations of the
white man with the black, then we may, when dealing
with the latter, be able safely to depart from the letter
of democratic forms evolved to suit the needs of other
racial conditions and other standards of civilisation.
If the point of view towards the black and coloured
man is autocratic and repressive, democratic ideals
necessarily break down in grotesque and humiliating
confusion. If the point of view is fair, generous, and
constructive, then we may hope, however great the
difficulties, that the larger principles from which any
worthy democracy springs will guide us to the evolution
of new forms and new expressions of liberty fitted to
the needs of these unprecedented circumstances. On
both sides two great principles must be accepted at the
start if any sort of wise adjustment is to be made as
regards the political relations of black and white.
The white man must not erect colour per se for all time
as an absolute barrier against the acquirement of the
rights of citizenship. The black man must recognise
no less frankly that he cannot claim equal privileges
as a right in a civilisation to whose growth he has con-
tributed nothing. Those privileges may be won by him
and become the hall-mark of his own progress. But
thoughtful members of the black races, if they are
wise, will recognise the limitations of their own people,

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 227

and waive the irritating abstract claim to equality
which has no existence in fact and only serves to confuse
and exasperate discussion.

We must remember that in many respects the ancient
adage of history repeating itself has to a large extent
broken down. It is the unprecedented character of the
difficulties of the twentieth century which renders their
handling a task of so much perplexity. History can
show no parallel to many of our present circumstances ;
the experience of the past cannot be drawn upon, for
instance, in the particular case which we are considering.
The development of communication, that essential
product of the last century, has revolutionised all
values. From the Christian era till the early decades
of the nineteenth century nations and peoples remained
at much the same distances one from another, distances
presenting great physical obstacles only to be solved by
the few. Now the world has shrunk to the dimensions
of a parish. The morning happenings of London are
the evening gossip of Calcutta. Hence a movement,
a ferment among native peoples unknown before.
Again, popular education, as applied to the citizens of
vast world States, has resulted in the diffusion of know-
ledge, which has led to the creation of polities undreamt
of even by those puissant Greek minds to whom we
owe the existence of political science. To a situation
already sufficiently complex the question of a coloured
democracy is now added — the question of native races
keen to absorb European civilisation and European
education, and to take their place among European
systems of government. The issue must be faced with
courage and with clear vision. Here, if anywhere, the
old mischievous habit of muddling through is calculated
to work disaster. We must seek to evolve a sound

Q 2

228 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

policy resting on sound principles — principles which
cannot be jerrymandered at every turn to suit the white
man's convenience at the expense of the black man's
legitimate rights. We cannot be democrats at one
moment and at the next tear all our principles to ribbons
because certain situations and circumstances happen to
inconvenience our own prerogatives. The example of the
American Commonwealth provides in this respect many
lessons of what to avoid. The trials and difficulties
through which the Southern States have passed are of
no small value to the student of racial questions, and
the moral is writ large for those who care to read it.
Mr. Bryce has reviewed the whole position with great
judgment in his new edition of ' The American Common-
wealth/ a work to which I shall have occasion to refer
more than once in the following pages.

The colour problem in the United States is not on
all fours with the colour problem in South Africa. It
is more limited in area, it is of older growth, it has been
more violent and acute in its practical manifestations.
The evil heritage of a slave tradition has embittered
the relations of races to a degree mercifully unknown
in South Africa. Those relations were further, and
naturally, exasperated by the administrative follies
which followed the close of the Southern war. It seems
incredible that the politicians of the North should
have thrust manhood suffrage and full political rights
without discrimination of any kind on a mass of emanci-
pated savages, for the majority of whom, as Mr. Bryce
remarks, the highest form of pleasure prior to the
possession of these privileges had been to caper to the
strains of a banjo. Experiments in government so
suicidal were bound to issue in the violences and in-
justices which unhappily have been too common in the

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 229

later history of the Southern States. The South felt
bitterly that it had been sold — sold not in pursuance of
doctrines of natural rights, but in order to gratify a
spirit of personal revenge on the part of hostile Northern
statesmen. We may safely affirm that the racial
antipathies of the present are the product less of the
emancipation of the slaves and the sufferings of the
war, than of the orgy of misgovernment which followed
the peace. A white race handed over to the mercy of
a majority of savages, armed with votes and exploited
by the basest type of white political adventurer, will
make good its position, and safeguard its integrity, by
fair means or foul. To this end the South, crippled
and humiliated, applied its mind and applied it success-
fully. By one device after another the American negro
has been practically stripped of all his theoretical
political privileges. Mr. Bryce estimates that only ten
per cent, of qualified negro voters exercise that privilege
to-day. The present situation is less acute, for the white
predominance is again unchallenged. It is, however,
impossible to calculate the evils which have beset the
whole racial problem in the United States, thanks to
the grotesque application of democratic principles
en bloc to a vast and bewildered slave class, the large
majority of whom had not learnt the alphabet of
civilisation. Those who have suffered most from this
fatuous mishandling are of course the negroes themselves.
The bitter spirit created by such blunders has made the
evolution of a sound and wise policy, recognising the due
rights of the negro as man and as citizen, infinitely more
difficult than under happier circumstances it might
have been. Even so, friends among the white race have
been reared up to the American negro and a school of
thought, both sensible and humane, is concerning itself

230 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

more and more with certain fundamental principles
which spring from his presence in the commonweal.
In his admirable work ' The Basis of Ascendancy '
Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy has examined the moral as
well as political factors arising from the juxtaposition
of black and white in a spirit as remarkable for its good
sense as for its humanity. Like every writer who has
devoted serious thought to the question, Mr. Murphy
sees that the choice for the white man lies between a
policy of repression and a policy of construction. He
rejects the former not only because morally it is unsound,
but even if conscience could be cheated, policies of
repression stand condemned on practical grounds —
they won't work.

Mr. Murphy examines in considerable detail the
various elements which go to compose the present
situation — the primitive factor of exploitation, naked
and unashamed, usually the first point of contact
between the white man and the black ; the impulse of
race aggression and race self-protection ; the integrating
force of opportunity ; the disintegrating force of despair ;
the power of social reactions ; the inadequacy of re-
pression. His earnest and brilliant study concludes
with an analysis of the true basis of ascendancy resting on
morality not brute force, in a state which has for its
aim ' for the stronger race so to dwell with the weaker
as to uphold a common state upon the basis of the com-
mon welfare and expressive of the common happiness/

Mr. Murphy's volume, though it deals with American
conditions, should be in the hands of every responsible
South African politician, for his views are not a little
pertinent to kindred difficulties in South Africa. His
dispassionate survey should prove a valuable corrective
to a certain harsh carelessness too common among the

THU COMING OF THE NATIVE 23i

thoughtless. The point of view is that not of a senti-
mental necrophilism but of a wise and constructive
statesmanship. Every clanger, every drawback, every
limitation of the weaker race is weighed and balanced
and duly reckoned with. No wholesale theory of politi-
cal equality and political rights is suggested between
units of such varying capacity. Negrophilism does not
mean cheap sentiment about natives or an ignoring
of obvious facts. It means at bottom the defence of
some of the most sacred principles of justice and right
on which society rests. Where Mr. Murphy points the
way is in his insistence that a generous attitude and a
high morality are the first and the essential conditions
for the solution of the practical problems presented.
Only in an atmosphere so created, an atmosphere
removed from racial hatred, fear and harshness can
the discussion of ways and means become profitable.
The practical aspect of the negro problem in the
Southern States differs from that of the native question
in South Africa. But the first principles underlying
both are the same, and the moral issues raised are
identical. The school of repression and the school of
construction exist in South Africa as elsewhere. There
are just and honourable men among the former and
not a few foolish enthusiasts among the latter. In the
main, however, repression, like all policies of negation,
has nothing to offer but a short view culminating in
chaos ; construction not only looks ahead but shows
guiding posts along the way.

I have no wish to dwell on the painful by-products
which have marked the conduct of extreme adherents
to what is tersely known as ' the damned nigger '
policy. Such policies unchecked by a vigorous public
opinion are apt to express themselves in the labour

232 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

terms of the Congo and the Putumayo — horrors which
bring home to a scandalised world the latent potentiali-
ties of ape and tiger in members of even highly developed
races when organised greed comes face to face with
disorganised weakness. The spirit of oppression lies
terribly near the surface in each one of us ; and in the
great spaces of semi-desert lands, where the checks of
civilisation are few and feeble, white manhood has to
its shame been capable of excesses which put the orgies
of even classical shambles to the blush. This poten-
tiality of white civilisation to break down when con-
fronted with the stupidity and impotence of a weaker
race is one of the dismal facts which has to be reckoned
with in a consideration of the whole question. The
stupidity and powers of irritation of which a native is
capable can at times be past belief. Unless therefore
the moral factors on which I am insisting are kept
steadily to the fore in the relationship of the white man
with the black, harshness and injustice are bound to
arise. These are the extreme cases ; and I do not suggest
for a moment that they would be condoned by many men
who nevertheless support what is known as a vigorous
native policy. A good deal of muddled thinking goes
to make up this point of view in men, who, in other
relations of life, are just and humane. They maintain
that the native is a hopelessly weak and inferior being,
possessing certain useful qualities which cause him to be
regarded benevolently by the white man so long as he
remains a docile worker contributing by his labour to the
white man's wealth. Education, so this theory runs,
corrupts and demoralises him, he becomes uppish and
saucy, a nuisance to himself and a peril to the community.
Education is therefore condemned as at variance with
the Christian virtue of humility, on which great store is

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 233

set. ' The dignity of labour ' is another fine phrase which
crops up at every turn. This is the peculiar ladder of
merit up which the native is urged to swarm — for the
benefit of his white employer. The doctrine of the
dignity of native labour, expounded with force and fer-
vour by a certain type of lazy white who has never done
an honest day's work in his life, is one of the comedies
of South Africa, the humour of which is not always
recognised by the principal actors. Keep the native in
his place and teach him how to work. Give him just
sufficient training to make him useful to the white
man, but never allow him to acquire such industrial
skill as will make him a competitor in the higher ranks
of labour ; treat him justly, let him play at self-govern-
ment if he so wishes in his own native areas, but deny
him all political rights or indeed the power of qualifying
for them in the wider corporate life of the land, and all
will be well both for black and white. Follow this
plan and the native, unharassed by the restless gadfly
education opening out new and unnecessary vistas of
life, social, political and economic, will continue in his
cheerful and convenient ignorance ; a good creature to
be kindly treated, kindly regarded under a system
which safeguards and recognises his many faithful
qualities.

Such is the theory, and in the earlier stages of the
contact between black and white it does not work amiss.
I need not labour its complete incompatibility with any
theory of democracy or the impossibility of reconciling
such a doctrine with the spirit of free institutions.
But the theory breaks down inevitably as time goes on
— breaks down in hopeless confusion. For the fatal
moral flaw in this point of view (which is only that of
the better side of slavery expressed in modern terms)

234 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

is that we cannot institute what is practically a system
of moral degradation for one race and not be degraded
ourselves in the process. We cannot destroy, as we are
bound to destroy by our presence, the whole framework
of existence for the native and offer him in return
nothing but the dregs and the lees of our civilisation.
So to act is in the long run to destroy ourselves. We
cannot drag the native for our own purposes of ex-
ploitation into the orbit of all that is sordid in modern
industrialism and city life and deny to him with the
same breath any power or opportunity to qualify for
the prizes of our civilisation. For the fundamental
paradox involved by the difficult relationship, and one
never grasped by thoughtless adherents of the schools of
repression, is that the penalty of moral exploitation is
exacted primarily from the exploiters not the exploited.
A great governing race can only hope to remain great
by rigid adherence to the most lofty ideals of justice
and rectitude, especially when dealing with weak and
helpless peoples. To barter difficult ideals for easy
gains, to take moral short cuts which will facilitate
present policies and smooth the path for log-rolling
sections, to base ascendancy on principles of repression
and fear rather than on generous wisdom and a far-
sighted rectitude — so to act is fatally easy, a primrose
path of dalliance along which governments may loiter,
but in the end it spells disaster — disaster more irrevocable
for the rulers than the ruled.

What, then, is the alternative — what better plan can
the school of construction put forward ? Can adherents
of that school hope to offer any successful solution for
difficulties and anomalies so great as those which beset
the path of native administration ? For solutions the
time is as yet scarcely ripe ; we are still concerned

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 235

with the preliminary task of the creation of a right
atmosphere and right point of view from which solu-
tions may be viewed. But out of the chaos one great
principle, one test fair to black and white, emerges : the
test of civilisation. Are the governing white races
prepared to accept and abide by that test — a geniune
test be it noted, not one concerned with a little faulty
dictation and bad grammar — in their relations with the
coloured peoples ? Are they prepared to give individual
natives who can qualify under that test a place in the
sun ? If not, on what coherent principle is the govern-
ment of the State to be carried on ? We cannot pro-
fess with one breath to worship freedom and democracy
and talk eloquently of manhood suffrage and one vote
one value, and with the next support policies rooted in
suspicion and fear. Let us at least free our minds from
cant. If the spirit of freedom and of free institutions
is to be put on the scrap-heap in our relations with black
and coloured races, let the fact be recognised honestly
and squarely. The policy of repression, however, is
always a policy of despair, and it is our business to
apply our minds with hope and courage to a more con-
structive point of view. The difficulties of life provide
it not only with discipline, but interest ; and however
great the magnitude of our task, it may be that its
difficulty will serve to temper and keep fine the spirit
of a great race peculiarly subject at this period of its
history to the demoralising influences of wealth and
luxury. The Pax Britannica has not been built up on
repression and harshness. We go back on the genius
of our whole race when we trifle with the possibility of
crushing under foot any sort of new national or racial
consciousness that our own just government has called
into being. From the great principles of liberty and

236 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

civilisation the Empire cannot deviate without signing
its own death warrant.

The test of civilisation applied in the spirit of
liberty, will this give us a basis for the new terms we
are seeking ? Does it offer more hopeful solutions
than the old crude policies of repression ? I am well
aware that the right of an English traveller to have
views on native affairs at all is challenged in many
South African quarters. ' You English people know
nothing about it ; don't come here trying to thrust your
Exeter Hall views on us ; this is our business not yours '
— such is the forcible warning conveyed to one on a
good many occasions. Let it be admitted at once that,
when a certain type of English member of Parliament
lets himself loose in the House of Commons on native
questions, his ignorance of the subject-matter he is
handling is apt to be so colossal that it is not surprising
that such criticism infuriates rather than edifies
the Colonial. But this same humanitarian spirit in
England stands for great and honourable principles
in government and has been the £egis of protection
flung for generations over the subject races in their
weakness and impotence. Those principles are not
affected by the foolishness of individuals, neither does
such foolishness alter the fact of the wider responsibility
involved. Great Britain is a world Power, and the
British democracy, whether or not conscious of the
fact, is at this moment the final arbiter of the destinies
of millions and tens of millions of black and coloured
men in different parts of the globe. The question is
after all, very much our business, for the Mother Country
has not only to deal directly with the native problems
of the Crown Colonies and Dependencies, but to hold the
scales between the warring claims which at times arise

THE COMING OF THE NATIVE 237

between such dependencies and one of the self-governing
Dominions — witness the recent trouble between the
Indian Government and the Union Government over
the Asiatic question. To treat native affairs as a special
overseas preserve, off which all English people are to
be warned, is an absurdity in view of the very practical
responsibility England has to bear in this matter.
In South Africa itself it would be difficult to affirm
that the Protectorates under direct Imperial control
are any less well off than the native areas under the
Union Government ; indeed the unregenerate have
been heard to whisper that administrative efficiency
is far greater in the one case than in the other. The
Protectorates in time are bound to pass under Dominion
control, but the prospect does not excite any particular
enthusiasm in the districts concerned, nor are they in
any hurry to hasten forward the process of absorption.
The more dispassionate temper of the Imperial Govern-
ment is a very sensible gain to the natives, a point which
calls for careful attention whenever the handing over
of the Protectorates takes place. Secondly, this test
of civilisation, this more liberal policy advocated, is
not the product of Exeter Hall alone, but is the policy
to which large numbers of thoughtful men with life-
long experience of native questions give their adherence.
What is known as a liberal policy is apt to excite
considerable fears among men who are perplexed and
confounded by the present situation and are genuinely
of opinion that, unless restrictive measures are set on
foot and the concerns of the two races kept apart,
both will suffer. On the other hand, a more liberal
school of thought is growing up in South Africa, as it
has grown up in the United States. An important
and courageous speech, made by Lord Selborne

238 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

before the University of the Cape of Good Hope in
February 1909, threw certain aspects of the native
question in a very arresting manner before public
opinion in South Africa. Lord Selborne, in his
examination, covered the whole ground of the policy
of repression, and his speech was a noble plea to South
Africa to disregard such a policy and adopt a more
generous and constructive attitude towards the black
man. The main question which he propounded to his
audience — a question commonly shirked by adherents
of the school of repression — was whether the white man
was prepared arbitrarily to arrest the native's develop-
ment or in any case to leave him severely alone to work
out his own salvation as best he might. Failing any
such policy, the preposterous character of which is
self-evident, Lord Selborne pointed out with inexorable
logic that the only alternative was to bring methods of
wise and rational self-development within reach of
the Bantu peoples. Such a pronouncement from
an administrator of Lord Selborne's position and
experience is a very welcome contribution to a difficult
question, and his speech, despite the criticism it roused
in South Africa, sets a standard for which right-thinking
men can only be grateful. Is there any reason to fear
that a liberal native policy, if conducted on right
lines, would create peril for the Europeans ? An answer
to that question must be attempted in the following
chapters.

239

CHAPTER XV

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The great problems of experience are never solved in any mathematical
or final sense. They are solved only in the sense that life becomes adjusted
to them, or in the sense that their conflicting or complementary elements
find a working adjustment to one another, an adjustment consistent
in larger and larger measure with wisdom, right and happiness ; but
always coincident with the possibility of misconception and with recurrent
periods of acute antagonism. The issues of racial cleavage, like the issues
of labour and capital, or of science and religion, yield to no precise formulas ;
they are issues of life, persistent and irreducible. And yet they are
subject to approximate adjustments, increasingly righteous, intelligent,
and effective. Edgar Gardner Murphy.

When I hear a traveller dogmatising about the character of the native
— how he loves being beaten, despises those that are kind to him, admires
those that oppress him — I say to myself that though I have no idea
what kind of man the native may be, I am sure he is not this kind of
man. Never accept from anyone an account of a man which inverts
human nature. J. A. Spender.

According to the Census of 1911 the total population
of the Union of South Africa is returned as 5,973,394.
This total is composed of 1,276,242 whites, 4,019,006
natives, and 678,146 coloured persons. South of the
Zambesi there are in addition in Southern Khodesia
750,000 natives and about 24,000 whites, and another
500,000 natives in round figures must be added for
Basutoland, Swaziland, and the Bechuanaland
Protectorates. Separated from the British possessions
by merely a geographical line is Portuguese East

240 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Africa, whose native population north and south of
the Zambesi is estimated at about 2,000,000, a factor
which must not be disregarded in any general review
of the incidence of population.

The political situation created by this mixed
population is of a unique kind. In the United States,
to whose racial difficulties I have referred in the last
chapter, the negroes number under 9,000,000, a far
larger total than the South African natives. On the
face of it, therefore, the disproportion of the white
population is less serious in South Africa than in the
United States. It must be remembered, however, that
the American colour problem is confined to the Southern
States, and that the black majority in those States,
averaging more than two to one, is counteracted by
the overwhelming preponderance of the white population
throughout the rest of the continent. In Africa, on
the other hand, the general character of the continent
is no less overwhelmingly black. There are no large
white reserves as in the case of America, which may
be relied upon to redress a coloured majority in any
given locality. The total coloured population of the
African continent — north, south, east, and west — may
roughly be estimated at somewhere about 140,000,000.
The white population is between 2,000,000 and
2,250,000. These are figures of which the significance
should not be overlooked.

The large majority of natives south of the Zambesi
are still living in a more or less primitive state, but
everywhere the old order is breaking down and a great
and growing minority of educated Kafirs are emerging
day by day and producing situations of the most
disconcerting kinds. The black races are not only in
a majority, but their relative increase in numbers is

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 241

greater than that of the whites. The problem, there-
fore, does not show any signs of sorting itself by the
ejection of one race by the other. Now South Africa,
like many young countries, is busy with the practical
concerns of her daily bread and butter, and, generally
speaking, each man who considers this question at all
is apt to consider it from the partial point of view of
the particular manner in which the native has crossed
his own path. The missionary, the trader, the artisan,
the politician, all view the native from very different
sides. Hence a variety of scrappy, incomplete, inco-
ordinated ideas, often mutually contradictory and
self-destructive, which serve to add to the general
confusion of public opinion. Practical men are ever
prone to scoff at schools of abstract thinkers, yet it
is impossible to travel through South Africa to-day
and listen to the chaotic views and opinions expressed
about native affairs, without realising that it is precisely
' pure thought ' of which the country stands in need if
this chaos is to be reduced to some sort of order.

In the first place, to what degree is South Africa
a white man's country at all ? Here is a question
more easy to propound than to answer. Nevertheless
the issues it raises are fundamental. How far, for
instance, do climatic conditions support the view taken
by the white labour party in South Africa which aims
at the spread of European immigration for industrial
purposes ? Questions of climate and race go hand in
hand, and obviously can never be separated. The bulk
of the territories comprised by the Union and by Rhode-
sia lies, as is well known, in sub-tropical latitudes.
Johannesburg, for instance, is situated as many degrees
south of the equator as Cawnpore is to the north. It
is only the curious geological accident of a central

242 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

plateau, 3000 to 5000 feet or more in altitude extending
over the whole interior of the sub-continent, which
renders the country habitable on a permanent basis
by white men. In this climate European children can
thrive and grow up, for it is the child, not the adult,
which determines what is or is not a white man's country.
I am inclined even so to make certain reservations as
to the effect of the altitude on highly-strung or nervous
natures. The Dutch have certainly acclimatised them-
selves thoroughly, and become genuine men and women
of the soil. More primitive by temperament, and of a
type less highly evolved than the British, their powers
of adaptation are perhaps greater. But there can
be no question that after a time what has been called
the irritation of Africa is apt to seize on more highly
developed Anglo-Saxons who live permanently on the
high veld. People's nerves easily get jangled and
out of tune ; the sense of proportion vanishes, and a
visit home becomes almost a crying need, not so much
through bodily illness as through a curious mental
and spiritual malaise perhaps induced by the great
silences and the great spaces. Half of British-born
South Africa seems always away in Europe, a fact
realised by the stranger carrying letters of introduction.
Naturally this sort of climatic pressure varies in different
parts of the country, and in the southern portions
of Cape Colony is less sensible than elsewhere. Some
people, again, are much less conscious of its influence
than others ; and it in no degree affects a passionate
sense of attachment for the soil and the real feeling
of homeland for it.

At the same time, if the white man can establish
himself on a permanent and flourishing basis in South
Africa, we must not forget that a strong aboriginal

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 243

race is also installed there on a basis equally flourishing
and permanent ; also that the aboriginal race has
preponderating numbers on its side. The Bantu
peoples are strong and virile ; unlike Maories, Indians,
or the primitive inhabitants of Australia, they have not
disappeared before the encroaching touch of European
conquerors. British rule, which has checked the old
ravages of war, pestilence, and famine, has ensured con-
ditions of peace and protection under which the
numbers of the black race tend to increase more rapidly
than those of the whites. Whether or not as time goes
on this numerical preponderance of the Bantu races
will be maintained is an open question. Certain people
argue that the claim for equal rights by the native
implies the disappearance of the special protection he
receives at present from the perils of free contact
with the lower forms of our civilisation. Liberty to
acquire liquor without restraints of any kind would
undoubtedly result in the wiping out of large numbers
of black men. But apart from any such policy, which
is unthinkable not only morally but in the interests
of public safety and order, the native birth-rate has not
been under review for sufficiently long a period to afford
the basis of much prophecy for the future. To turn
again to America. In the Southern States there has been
of late a distinct check to that increase of the negro
population which at one time caused so much alarm
among the whites. Mr. Bryce points out that this
alarm has now vanished. The negroes, he writes, ' show
in each census a smaller percentage not only of the
whole population of the Union but even of the former
Slave States. In 1900 the percentage of negroes to
the whole population of the United States was 11*6 ;
in 1880 it was 13*1/ Whether or not the same results

B 2

244 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

may after a time become apparent in South Africa
we cannot at present say, but that all weaker races have
difficulty in maintaining themselves in the presence
of a strong one is an established fact, and causes which
have checked the increase of the negroes in America
may operate similarly in South Africa.

The status of the South African native cannot be
summarised in a phrase. That status is as varying and
as complex as the problem itself. It includes the raw
blanket Kafir, on the one hand, steeped in savagery,
witchcraft, and polygamy, and, on the other, the educated
product of higher-grade schools and universities exempt
from tribal law and living according to Christian and
civilised standards. Between these two poles may be
found an infinite variety of men representing every
shade of civilisation from its lowest to its highest
forms. And they live side by side with an alien white
race, or rather races, to whose ideals the thoughtful
natives seek almost pathetically to approximate their
own — an operation which in the main is regarded
with scant sympathy by the Europeans. I am speaking,
of course, of the general tendencies of majorities, for
the best friends of the Bantu peoples have always been
found among a not inconsiderable minority of Europeans
who have from the first recognised a special duty
and obligation to the aboriginal inhabitants of the
country.

It should be added that few inconveniences would
result from the existence of two races in very varying
degrees of civilisation if Africa were a tropical depend-
ency ruled on Crown Colony lines. But the white
population is of course too numerous and too well
established to admit of any such form of administra-
tion. Full responsible government exists, and so far

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 245

as the white races are concerned is the only possible
form. It is the application of democratic principles,
evolved, let it be remembered, by white peoples of a
high degree of civilisation and applied successfully
to white races long disciplined in the use of self-govern-
ment, which involves difficulty and confusion when
applied consistently to a country where black and
white live side by side and the average black lags a
long way behind the political capacity of the average
white. Nevertheless the black man has arrived and is
arriving daily ; for the moment, by ones and twos and
in inconsiderable numbers. The circumstance causes
much heart-burning, however, among British and Boers
alike, who regard this incursion as the first drops of
rain heralding a deluge. The native problem is rapidly
passing from the old, relatively easy position of the
good paternal government of a primitive by a dominant
people. To-day we are confronted with that question
of political adjustment of which I spoke in the last
chapter as characteristic of this problem all over the
world — adjustment between the white governing races
and educated and semi-educated natives and coloured
peoples ; men acutely conscious of their disabilities and
passionately desirous of seeing the latter removed.

Some of the perplexities which beset the discussion
of this most difficult question would be cleared away
were it better realised how unique is the character
presented by the South African polity. South Africa
stands among the nations of the world for a novel
and midway term in government ; a country neither
wholly white nor wholly black, where democratic
principles are installed but democracy itself has a
knack of breaking down. The form of government
is democratic, and yet we are forced to recognise that

246 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in practice it becomes an oligarchy masquerading
in that guise. The essence of democracy is a recogni-
tion of government by majorities, but this is a position
which the million odd whites in South Africa would
sharply repudiate as regards the five millions odd
aboriginal inhabitants. The racial and climatic con-
ditions stand apart, and to deal with them satisfactorily
they will in turn exact new methods of government
worked out on novel lines, involving, it may be, the
surrender of many ancient shibboleths. The political
conditions of South Africa have no parallel in any
other part of the world, and they present problems
unknown before in history. Hence the fuller need
on which I am insisting of a greater recognition of the
midway term in government presented by the country
— of its novelty, of its difficulty, of the immense calls
it makes on powers of wise and constructive states-
manship. The native is developing very definite
aspirations as regards education and political rights,
and we must glance at the present position he occupies
in both respects.

The passionate desire among natives for education
is one of the most striking features in South Africa
to-day. From the Cape to the Zambesi, wherever I
travelled, I was told the same tale — natives of all ages
flocking to schools however inferior. Even in a
country so recently brought within the influences of
civilisation as Northern Rhodesia I heard that the
native eagerness for education entirely outstripped
any means or power of complying with it. The
spectacle of old native men and women bending
laboriously over pothooks and hangers side by side
with the youngest piccanin from the location, is a
strange and striking sign of the times, full of significance.

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 247

Much will turn on the attitude taken up by white
men to this desire for education among Kafirs. It
is one of the touchstones as between the school of
repression and the school of construction. Education
according to the former, as we have already seen, is
supposed to unsettle the native, make him uppish,
and generally unfit him for his natural position as
a docile and willing worker. These arguments have
a strangely familiar ring. We have heard them all
in the past as applied to the education of the British
working classes, and they have about as much value
in the one case as in the other. The type of person
who laments the over-education of the proletariat
at home is no less shrill as to the dangers of flinging
wide the portals of knowledge to the ' nigger/ The
old fallacy that ignorance is the first condition of a
desirable citizenship permeates the whole point of
view of what is at bottom but a thoughtless class
prejudice. One hears, not infrequently, the same
principles of autocracy applied under a racial garb
to the native, which the strong are apt to apply to
the weak of any colour and in any clime. This fallacy
of the steadying powers of ignorance is closely allied
with another economic fallacy equally widespread in
South Africa, that the weakness and degradation
of the native are a source of strength to the European.
Contentions more wide from the truth and from
common experience it is difficult to imagine. Ignorance
and degradation are powder mines in each and every
state where they are to be found. To encourage or
uphold them is to subvert the very conservatism
they are expected to maintain. The desire of the
native races in South Africa for self-improvement is
one which in the long run can only prove of benefit

248 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

to the country and a steadying influence on its develop-
ment. Two courses are open in this matter to the
Europeans. They may set their faces against the
native desire for education and discourage such aspira-
tions in every possible way. That attitude is doomed
to failure. On the lowest grounds it is a foolish course
to follow, since it cannot be pursued with any reasonable
hopes of a satisfactory issue. The native is bent on
education and will get it at any cost — get it in bad,
inferior forms from his own semi-savage brothers or
from American negroes if the white man holds aloof.
Such an attitude leads to the explosion of the powder
mine with a fuse of special violence. Or the white
man may take a higher and better view of his responsi-
bilities, may take hold of this great movement and give
to it the best of his own proud heritage, thus
guiding into wise and fruitful paths a force which,
unguided and unhelped by him, must work havoc in
the land.

Native education is almost wholly in the hands
of missionaries, who receive State aid for their schools.
The native nowadays is not a negligible quantity in
the community so far as taxation is concerned. It
is calculated that he contributes in direct and indirect
taxation about £2,000,000 annually to the revenues
of the State. It is difficult to say what proportion
of this sum is devoted to the benefit of the native
himself, but it does not err on the side of liberality.
The South African Native Races Committee, in their
latest volume (1909), claim that in Cape Colony, Natal,
the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, and Rhodesia
he is entitled to have more spent on him. The grants
made to education are specially meagre, and in this
doubtless reflect the widespread prejudice on the

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 249

subject of which I have spoken above. A prejudice
equally rampant exists in many quarters against
the efforts of the missionaries to fulfil a task which
has been handled perfunctorily by governments. How
little foundation exists for either prejudice is a fact
thrown into prominent light by any study of the
various official reports dealing with native affairs.
There have been very foolish experiments both in
educational and religious work. Missionaries are mere
men and women like the rest of us. Though fired
with a greater devotion and enthusiasm than the
ruck, they are not divinely inspired vessels of
wisdom. They have made mistakes in South Africa
as elsewhere ; wrong methods of work have fre-
quently obtained in the past and form the ground-
work for the cheap gibes readily repeated by the
heedless and the prejudiced. But I have never
heard the principle of missionary work attacked by
anyone in South Africa who was familiar with the
conditions of native races, though criticisms of method
and procedure may be common. Few things in South
Africa are more striking than the wisdom, patience, and
liberality of view, generally speaking, shown about
native affairs by men who have practically handled
natives, as compared with the wild and violent sugges-
tions which emanate from our old friend the man in
the street. The testimony of the South African Native
Affairs Commission of 1905 — one of the most exhaustive
inquiries ever conducted in South Africa as to the
value of religious influence — is conclusive on this
point :

For the moral improvement of the natives there is available no
influence equal to that of religious belief [write the Commissioners].
The vague superstitions of the heathen are entirely unconnected

250 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

with any moral ideas, though upon sensuality, dishonesty, and other
vices there have been always certain tribal restraints which, while
not based upon abstract morality, have been real and, so far as they
go, effective. These removed, civilisation, particularly in the larger
towns, brings the native under the influence of a social system of
which he too often sees and assimilates the worst side only. The
Commission considers that the restraints of the law furnish an
inadequate check upon this tendency towards demoralisation, and
that no merely secular system of morality that might be applied
would serve to raise the natives' ideals of conduct or to counteract
the evil influences which have been alluded to, and is of opinion that
hope for the elevation of the native races must depend mainly on
their acceptance of Christian faith and morals.

The Commissioners in the above paragraph touch
what is the point of departure as regards the relations
of the two races — our destruction of the old tribal
system with all that it held of good and evil, and the
consequent obligation to substitute some standard
in its place. It cannot be stated too emphatically
that no evidence whatever is forthcoming in support
of the widespread generalisation that Christianised
and educated natives are, as a body, less trustworthy
and more disreputable than their savage brothers.
The testimony forthcoming from official reports is all
the other way. The 1905 Commission examines the
point as follows :

By admission to Christian households, and by the example of the
uprightness and purity of many of those around them, a large number
of natives have doubtless been brought under improving influences ;
but to the Churches engaged in mission work must be given the
greater measure of credit for placing systematically before the natives
these higher standards of belief and conduct. It is true that the
conduct of many converts to Christianity is not all that could be
desired, and that the native Christian does not appear to escape at
once and entirely from the besetting sins of his nature, but never-
theless the weight of evidence is in favour of the improved morality
of the Christian section of the population, and to the effect that there

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 251

appears to be in the native mind no inherent incapacity to apprehend
the truths of Christian teaching or to adopt Christian morals as a
standard.

And again :

The Commission is of opinion that education has been beneficial
to the natives of South Africa, and that its effect upon them has been
to increase their capacity for usefulness and their earning power.

Strong recommendations follow for the promotion
of education, and it is interesting to notice that the
Commissioners speak no less emphatically of the dis-
tinct loss which in their opinion would result from the
separation of secular native instruction from moral
and religious influences. I must refer in a subsequent
chapter to the Report of what is known as the Black
Peril Commission, the latest inquiry which has been
held in connection with native affairs ; but it is
interesting to notice that this Report speaks with
equal emphasis of the value of Christianity and
education to the native races :

The evidence of Christian teaching and education on the character
of natives is very strong [says the Report]. These unquestionably
exercise an enormous influence for good. ... In this evolution
the Commission is convinced that the restraining and directing
influence of the Christian religion and education, imparted on
proper lines, are absolutely essential.

We may therefore set aside as wholly unproved
and unjustifiable the assumption that the civilised
native is necessarily a worse man than his savage
brother. Unhappy indeed would have been the position
of the native had he remained in that condition of idyllic
separation from religious and educational influences
contemplated by some good people, and left to struggle
as best he might with the standards and example of

252 THE SOUTH AEKICAN SCENE

the labour tout, the petty trader, and the illicit wine
seller. Can it be seriously maintained that the Kafir,
thus abandoned to the corrupting sides of our civilis-
ation, would prove a more desirable element in the
State than when attempts are made to bring him
under humanising influences ? It is easy to abuse
missions and missionaries — easy but essentially unfair.
The admirable chapter on Missions and Education in
Mr. Maurice Evans's valuable work ' Black and White
in South-east Africa ' should be studied widely on this
point. Criticism might be more fairly devoted to
the shortcomings of the State in its relation to the
native races, than in harping on the mistakes of religious
bodies who have given them of their best.

It will come as a surprise to many to learn that missionary effort
is the only force which has yet in any direct way attempted the
education and uplifting of the Bantu people over a large portion of
South East Africa [writes Mr. Evans]. Governments have given
grants in aid of the work only amounting in all to a niggardly per-
centage of the direct taxes paid by the natives, but there are no
Government schools or a single institution in the whole country run
solely by Government for the training of the natives in arts or
industries.

It is commonly said the mission boy is untrustworthy
and more of a scamp than he would have been, thanks
to his smattering of Christianity. An inherent standard
of rectitude is not high among natives, Christian or
non-Christian, and no sensible person imagines that
thievish tendencies are exorcised in a savage breast
by learning a little catechism and a few hymns. There
are good and bad specimens among both classes of
natives— those who have and have not come under
religious influences. But what education does in
such circumstances when dealing with a rogue is to
change the character of his villainy. The uneducated

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 253

Kafir scamp steals cattle and commits other agricultural
small crimes which often pass unnoticed by the white
community. The educated Kafir scamp goes in for
forgery and other minor peculations which directly
concern his European neighbours. The enormities of
his conduct, therefore, are at once thrown into a
prominent light, and the cry at once arises ' Look at
the fruits of education/ Naturally there are back-
sliders among professing Christian natives. They are
not peculiar to South Africa. Such backsliders exist
among the respectable churchgoers clad in broad-
cloth and top hats of our own land. Again, there is
no evidence to prove the hasty generalisation that
' the nigger educated is the nigger spoilt/ so far as his
economic value is concerned. I have quoted above
the directly contrary opinion put on record by the
1905 Native Affairs Commission, and Mr. Maurice
Evans, who deals at length with the question, produces
further evidence in the same sense.

Much undoubtedly depends in missionary work
on the character and individuality of the missionary.
The personal factor is all-important in dealing with
natives, for the Kafir, like most primitive men, has
an unerring touch and discrimination as regards the
European who is an ' Inkosi ' and the one who is a
4 Boss/ The Inkosi he will respect and serve faithfully
and well ; the Boss he will serve badly and cheat when
possible. I shall have occasion to refer further on to
this all-important question of the character and status
of officials charged with native administration, but
these considerations of personal character are as essential
in the missionary field as in that of government. This is
a call to service of the highest type, and we should
give to it of our very best in training and capacity.

254 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

The higher the type of those who devote themselves to this
work the simpler the task will be. The need is for men and
women not only fired with that true sense of vocation
without which the sacrifices involved by the life would
be impossible, but men and women of the world in the
best sense of the term, knowing its difficulties and
temptations, and fortified for their difficult task with
the broader point of view which comes from a wide
experience of life. We are apt to give too much of
sorrow and failure to the religious life ; to turn to it
when other things fail. Whereas, perhaps, its failures
spring from this very cause — that it has been treated
as a second best and not dowered at the outset with
fullness of life, strength, and purpose. Enthusiasm too,
however great, is a dangerous force in this field unless
directed by knowledge. A story which I heard during
my travels of two young women at a mission station
who, fresh from England and the athleticism of the
modern girls' school, played football with the native
boys and went out for picnics with them, is a good
illustration of the grievous mistakes committed by the
ignorant. Incidents of this kind create enormous pre-
judice, and, as is ever the case, the story of a blunder
rings from province to province, whereas quiet devoted
work carried on month by month and reclaiming little
by little the spiritual deserts of its labours, remains
unnoticed, unknown, uncommented on.

There is room for much diversity of opinion as
regards the best methods of practical education and
religion so far as natives are concerned, and the results
which may be hoped from them. Though repetition
grows wearisome, I must again insist that we must
first establish a right point of view between the native
and ourselves before we can adjust our practical relations

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 255

with him on any sound lines. It is but another
application of the great image of seeking first the
Kingdom of God to which when found the other
things will be added. A broader sympathy, a greater
generosity would avert many of those hasty criticisms
and false prejudices which serve at present not a little
to embitter and confuse the whole subject.

Great improvements are still necessary as regards
the whole theory and practice of native education.
Up to the present it has been conducted without
consistency of any kind. The educational policy of
the Cape has been a liberal one, and in this province
systematic support has been given to native schools
since 1841. In Natal the whole subject excites strong
prejudice, and the educational policy of the province
has been very unprogressive. Still worse is the condition
in the Transvaal, where matters are in a hopelessly
backward state and very little desire is forthcoming
as to their improvement. Basutoland holds the blue
ribbon for native education, and the efforts of the
Paris Evangelical Mission Society in this State have
met with remarkable success. It may well give pause to
the thoughtless that in Basutoland, where educational
and missionary work has been carried out with a
thoroughness unknown in other parts of South Africa,
this proud and independent native people are not only
orderly and law-abiding, but prosperous and hard-
working. As regards the character of the instruction
given, there is a consensus of opinion that the present
system is ill adapted to the needs of native children,
being too bookish and too much modelled on the lines
of white education. Simple technical training, simple
agricultural training are very desirable, but such matters
are not always easy to achieve. There are great

256 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

difficulties in combining an elementary school with
a workshop. There is often a querulous demand for
domestic training from people who lose sight of the
fact that schools do not provide a series of kitchens,
bedrooms, and dwelling rooms where domestic training
can be applied practically. Technical training also is
apt to rouse much jealousy among the more indigent
whites to whom the creation of native masons,
carpenters, and wheelwrights seems very undesirable.
The whole development of native education is
unquestionably hampered by the dead weight of
indifference and suspicion with which the subject is
regarded by the average European. Nevertheless the
' South African Natives ' publication states that in 1909,
150,000 native and coloured children were receiving
education throughout South Africa, and the numbers have
probably received a substantial increase since that date.
Turning now to the existing political status of the
South African natives, we find that their constitutional
position varied considerably in different parts of the
country before the war. Cape Colony had for years
been honourably distinguished by its liberal and
enlightened native policy — a policy, be in noted, which
received the adherence and support of Mr. Rhodes,
whose Glen Grey Act stands as a landmark in native
self-government. Rhodes's speech in the Cape House
of Assembly on the introduction of the Glen Grey
Bill is a remarkable one, and lays down in blunt and
homely language certain sound truths. As happened
too frequently in his case, a lesser end of doubtful
value coiled itself round his larger purpose to the
detriment of the latter. The prejudice excited by the
Labour Tax proposals of the Bill, which led to an outcry
on the subject of forced labour, caused the value of

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 257

Rhodes's very great contribution to the principles of
native self-government largely to be obscured. The
Labour Tax proposals were a dead letter from the
first, and have long since disappeared, but the system
inaugurated by the Glen Grey Act in the Transkei
has grown and nourished, and to-day provides the most
hopeful and useful experiment yet instituted for the
government of native areas. ' Rhodes was too able and
saw too far ahead to believe in policies of repression,'
said a well-known authority on native affairs to me one
day. ' He was too shrewd not to see they couldn't
work in the long run and that some other line must be
tried.' And it is interesting to find that the test which
Rhodes adopted was that of civilisation. ' Equal
rights for all civilised men ' was his famous axiom, and
he gave no greater proof of his genius than by his
adherence to a point of view far removed from that of
the average South African. But though Rhodes was
not in favour of depriving educated black men of votes
when they had proved fitness for the franchise, he
entirely disapproved of the wholesale grant of political
privileges to natives after the manner of the negro
enfranchisement in the United States. He recognised
that a new situation had arisen and that it could not
be dealt with by a stroke of the pen. ' It would be
wise not to deal with the whole native question at once,'
he remarks. ' The natives are children, and we ought
to do something for the minds and the brains that the
Almighty has given them. I do not believe they are
different from ourselves.'

The opinions of a man like Cecil Rhodes are not
lightly to be set aside in a question of this kind, the
more so that he can scarcely be arraigned as a weak-
kneed sentimentalist.

258 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

In the short sentence I have just quoted, four
propositions of great importance are laid down : first,
that the native question cannot be dealt with all at
once or in one way ; secondly, that the natives are like
children; thirdly, that they should be provided with
education ; fourthly, that fundamentally they are human
beings with powers and capacities like other men. The
intervening years between the introduction of the
Glen Grey Act in 1894 and the situation to-day have
only emphasised the importance of the points on which
Rhodes's genius had already seized. South Africa
could raise no better monument to his memory than
the acceptance of his leadership and principles in this
vital matter.

Cape Colony has been remarkable for the number
of distinguished public men who have championed
the rights of the natives from the days of Mr. Saul
Solomon to our own times. Mr. Merriman, Mr. Sauer,
Mr. Schreiner, among the latter-day South African
statesmen, have been conspicuous in this field. This
tradition reflects itself in the franchise regulations which
obtained in the Cape Colony prior to Union, a mixed
property and educational qualification irrespective of
race or colour. The Cape system was, and is, sharply
criticised by many South Africans who viewed with
disfavour and disgust the growing power of the native
vote in various electoral areas. The 1905 Native
Affairs Commission examined this question and
recognised its potential gravity ; though, in view of the
fact that in 1903 only 20,718 black and coloured men
of a variety of races were qualified as voters in the
Cape Colony out of a total of 135,168, the actual anxiety
displayed was somewhat ahead of the facts. Cape
Colony, however, is in a position to retort effectually

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 259

when taunted with her negrophilist policy. Kafir
risings and rebellions have not troubled her peace for
many years. She can point at least to the quiet and
orderly behaviour of the natives within her area, and
the conspicuous success of the administration established
in the Transkei.

In Natal the situation has been far less satisfactory.
The pressure of the native problem is far more
considerable in this province than in any other part
of South Africa, the blacks outnumbering the whites
in a proportion of ten to one. Civil rights, as in Cape
Colony, are the same for black and white, but the fran-
chise regulations are drawn in such a way that all natives
are practically excluded. Hence the Kafir does not
exist as a political factor. The absence of any coherent
policy in dealing with this vast body of black and
coloured peoples has, however, led to much difficulty,
confused thinking expressing itself in confused and
unsatisfactory administration. Matters drifted on till
in 1906 they drifted into rebellion, the causes of which
are clear enough to any reader of that singularly candid
and courageous document the Report of the Natal
Native Affairs Commission for 1906-7. It is greatly
to the honour of Natal that a body of Natalians should
put on record with such frankness the grave short-
comings of their own administration, and it is to be
hoped that the salutary changes recommended will
prevent any recurrence of such unhappy circumstances
as led to the last rebellion.

In the Transvaal and the Free State the old
uncompromising attitude of the Boers to the natives
still colours the whole electoral point of view. The
Grondwet or Fundamental Law of the Transvaal
repudiated all theory of equality between black and

s 2

260 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

white in emphatic terms, and excluded the native
from all civil and religious rights. Civil rights, together
with the power to buy land (a matter which has caused
great heartburning), have been acquired by natives
since the countries passed under British rule, but the
franchise exclusion is still absolute. It is from the
North that the demand for a ' vigorous ' native policy
makes itself heard to-day, a demand which collides
sharply with the contrary opinion of the Cape Province.
This thorny question of the native franchise was one
of the greatest obstacles in the path of the Convention,
and if less skilfully handled might have wrecked the
whole task of Union. The sensible compromise was
arrived at of leaving the existing electoral basis in
each province for the present undisturbed, thus
recognising the Cape principle of the civilised native voter
without outraging the prejudices of the Transvaal and
the Free State. The arrangement is avowedly a tem-
porary one, but it may persist for a considerable period.
The numbers of civilised natives in the Transvaal, Free
State, and Natal who would be qualified under a
property or educational test is very small. The hour for
a popular demand for native votes in these provinces
is not as yet, and so for the moment little practical
injustice is experienced. South African pub he opinion
on the point is as hopelessly divided as at the moment
of the National Convention, and a difficulty which
baffled the group of exceptionally able men who unified
the land is not likely to prove soluble yet awhile
by politicians of smaller capacity.

Meanwhile public opinion in South Africa is finding
itself increasingly occupied with the demand for a native
policy which will meet some of the exigencies of the actual
situation. But in the first place, as already indicated

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 261

nearly twenty years ago by Mr. Rhodes, not one policy
but half a dozen are required. The broad, final compre-
hensive policy for which some people clamour is an im-
possibility owing to the immense diversity of conditions
and degrees of civilisation. No one formula, no one
scheme, can deal with a situation so complex. The
pressure of the native is making itself felt in various
directions, and that pressure creates uneasiness and fear.
He is beginning to emerge as a competitor — political,
economic, even social. He is acquiring both property
and education — is overflowing from his native reserves
and buying land on individual tenure. Skilled coloured
labour in the Cape Province has resulted in the sensible
displacement in certain trades of the European worker.
What has happened in the Cape is likely to extend
in the immediate future over other parts of the country.
And the European begins to ask in dismay where the
process is to end or what may be the ultimate effect on
the white minority of this great wave of ever-growing
conscious black life which is attaining to such dimensions.
How can the European safeguard his political and
economic position, and still more his racial integrity ?
What chance has the white man of maintaining his
footing if exposed to the free competition of these
preponderating multitudes, whose standard of life is
so low that the under-cutting of wages can be of a
formidable character % It is not astonishing that
many people feel that the situation calls for a drastic
change and for drastic measures of segregation, political
disqualification and the like, if South Africa is to remain
in any sense a white man's land.

The industrial competition of the black and coloured
man, to which I must return in detail in a subsequent
chapter, is not the only point at present engaging the

262 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

anxious attention of the European. The purchase
and tenure of land by natives are regarded as hardly-
less important and have been much to the fore of late
in South African politics. The matter has given rise
to considerable feeling. Under the new order natives
have bought land and settled in localities where they
were previously unknown, a circumstance which has
caused indignation and disgust among the Boer farmers
who have little taste for such neighbours. I was told
in the Transvaal that in some districts certain tribes
had bought up large tracts of land and formed them-
selves practically into limited companies in order
to carry out the transaction. The growth of wealth
among the natives is very striking, and many com-
munities are exceedingly prosperous and well-to-do.
The 1905 Native Affairs Commission devoted much
attention to this question of land purchase by natives.
It decided almost unanimously that in this respect it
was necessary to safeguard the interests of Europeans in
the country, and recommended that, in future, purchase
of land by natives should be limited to certain areas
to be denned by legislative enactment, and that purchase
of land leading to communal or tribal occupation by
natives should not be permitted. Colonel Stanford, one
of the Natal Commissioners, dissented from this view
and held that natives should not be subjected to
restrictions from buying land for individual tenure.
Colonel Stanford was of opinion that restrictions on
native purchase of land should only be made in the
event of such purchase leading to the extension of the
tribal system, and that the acquisition by more
advanced natives of vested individual interests in the
land is a powerful incentive to loyalty and progress
in civilisation. The tribal system through which

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 263

administration works in dealing with raw natives
is bound up with so much that is inimical to progress
and development that little by little it must make
way for other methods, a fact widely if reluctantly
recognised in South Africa. Restrictions, therefore, on
land purchased for tribal purposes are quite desirable,
but there seems no justification for imposing any sort
of disability on the civilised native who desires to
acquire land under individual tenure. The argument
as to such men being undesirable neighbours is somewhat
far-fetched. The very people who make this complaint
acquiesce quite happily in whole families of semi-savage
native labourers squatting on their farms for agricultural
purposes. The respectable native who has bought
his land and is living according to civilised standards
cannot be a greater social peril than the blanket Kafir
of whom no one complains so long as he is only a hired
labourer. This is but another instance of the sort
of sub-conscious jealousy to which the progress of the
native gives rise, and its manifestations are not very
happy.

Meanwhile, public opinion has been growing on the
land question, and the matter has come within the
province of the Union Parliament. A Squatters Bill
was introduced by General Botha's Government in 1912
to deal with one aspect of the question which presents
serious sides — the unregulated squatting of natives
on unoccupied lands held by white men. The Bill
was dropped, owing to pressure of other business ; but
during the session of 1913 a native Bill, introduced
by Mr. Sauer, became law, prohibiting any further
acquisition of land by natives pending an inquiry by
a Commission who are to report as to the delimitation
of separate areas for black and white settlement.

264 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

The object of the Bill is to separate as far as may be
the interests of natives and Europeans and to define
the areas in which both in future may legally own land.
It is difficult not to feel considerable misgivings
as to the result of this legislation, put forward though
it is ostensibly on behalf of both races. Theoretically
the definition of separate areas for settlement is not
undesirable, but practically everything will depend
on the spirit in which such a rearrangement of land
tenure is made. Unquestionably this measure opens
wide the door to harshness and injustice as regards the
native. The Bill provides that there is to be no removal
of persons at present occupying land without the
consent first of the Commission and then of the
Houses of Parliament, and that suitable compensation
in such event should be provided as well as land in
place of that expropriated. But it is difficult to avoid
the suspicion that such rearrangements may take place
in a manner essentially unfair to the native, the good
land being reserved for the white man and the native
presented with the leavings. Both Mr. Merriman
and Mr. Duncan drew attention during the debate
to the tendency this Act must have to drive the native
back into barbarism. As Mr. Duncan pointed out,
it does little to limit the really dangerous points of
social contact between the races which occur in the
towns. Mr. Merriman spoke strongly in the same
sense and confessed he voted for the measure ' with
reluctance and apprehension/ The real hardship lies
in the refusal to allow civilised natives to own land
in non-native areas — a circumstance which must
cause great resentment among them. Few things
are more wounding to the native mind than the white
man's apparent incapacity to discriminate between

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 265

a blanket Kafir and an educated black or coloured
man. This Bill is in itself a proof of the hardening of
policy against the native which the dominant influence
from the Transvaal has unquestionably imported into
Union affairs. The Dutch have never been remarkable
for humanitarian principles in their relations with the
native races. Livingstone's indictment of them in this
respect will be remembered by all readers of his Travels.
Their standpoint in the matter at the best is purely
autocratic and personal, at the worst it can be very
brutal. Of the broader aspects of the problem, to
which we have referred in the last chapter, they know
little and care less. But if this spirit is to grow and
spread and is not checked by a very definite sense of
political responsibility, the native policy of the Union
is likely to proceed on lines which may give rise to
considerable anxiety. It is to be hoped that the
practical administration of this Bill on which everything
depends may be conceived in the spirit of the Cape
rather than that of the Transvaal.

From restriction on the rights of natives to purchase
land to a further question of segregation for all purposes,
political, economic, and social, is but a step and one
which not unnaturally follows. Segregation — that is
to say the definite separation for all purposes of the
black and white races into areas specially reserved
for them — is a policy prominently associated with the
name of General Hertzog. It has won the support
and approval of Mr. Maurice Evans, and a policy
advocated by so able and sympathetic a champion of
native rights cannot be dismissed without consideration.
It is very difficult, however, to discover what exactly
is meant by general segregation of this type ; and even
Mr. Evans, in the remarkable book to which I have

266 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

already referred, leaves us little wiser as to its practical

application. It will hardly be denied that the demand

for segregation has arisen thanks to the pressure of the

black on the white in various localities, and that the

white man is casting around to see how he can best

be relieved of a competition so distasteful to him. It

is a policy primarily put forward in the interests of the

whites, and to that extent is sectional. In the first

place, is a physical or merely an administrative separation

of the black and white races proposed ? As Mr. Patrick

Duncan has inquired, is South Africa to be marked

out as a chess-board in black and white squares, the

natives on the black squares being confined to those

squares for all social and economic purposes and not

allowed to go beyond their limits for the purpose of

selling the products of their own labour or of hiring

themselves as labourers to the white man ? The practical

impossibility of such a proposal is self-evident — it would

collapse of itself if attempted. Segregationists, it is

true, point to the fact that the juxtaposition of natives

and Europeans leads to the demoralisation of both,

that race deterioration must follow if the process

continues unchecked, and that natives and Europeans

alike would benefit by a system which left each race

free to develop its own life on lines adapted to such

varying states of civilisation. Segregationists further

claim (and here it must be admitted with truth) that

in Basutoland, the Transkei, and the Bechuanaland

Protectorate, this policy is practically applied at

present, and that the condition of the natives in

these territories is eminently satisfactory. Further, the

segregationist urges that when the native is happily

settled with his flocks and herds in his own areas he

will cease to be a menace to the white artisan as a

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 267

competitor in the skilled-labour market — another in-
stance of that fear of uneasy competition which is not
a little puzzling among the white South Africans.

In a speech at Pretoria on January 20, after his
breach with General Botha, General Hertzog outlined
to an expectant audience the policy of which the
Union of South Africa had been robbed by his exclu-
sion from the Cabinet. The performance was a dis-
appointing one. The ex-Minister's vague and sketchy
proposals on this occasion did nothing to advance
South Africa's practical knowledge of the question.
General Hertzog's main suggestion was the division
of the Union into two areas— a native area from which
Europeans should be excluded, and a European area
from which natives should be excluded. Conscious,
perhaps, of the enormous practical difficulties which
beset any such proposal, the General hastily created
a third area of a mixed character to meet the needs
of the transition. Finally the whole proposals broke
down at their most crucial point — the labour question ;
since General Hertzog, pressed by the practical diffi-
culty which confronts all segregationists, admitted that,
though the native's political and agrarian rights would
be confined to the black area, yet he would be allowed
to work both as a skilled and unskilled labourer in
the European area. So far as the industrial contact,
therefore, is concerned, segregation is given up as
hopeless at the start.

It is difficult to understand how any group of men
acquainted with the peculiar racial and economic con-
ditions of South Africa can put forward this policy
in all seriousness. Ideally the suggested separation
of the races might be desirable, and Mr. Maurice Evans
bases his case on moral grounds of a high order. But,

268 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

however ideal a point of view, it is useless to advance
it unless some good reasons can be shown as to how
the ideal may be translated into practice. Where,
in the first place, is the land to come from where the
natives may be segregated apart from the Europeans ?
The native question is in a large measure a land question,
and the steady growth of population among the Kafirs
is leading to overcrowding in all parts of the country.
A good deal of grumbling may be heard already among
Europeans about the reserves set aside for natives, and
this feeling is reflected in the new Native Land Bill
recently passed by the Union Parliament, at the pro-
visions of which we have glanced. This question of
native reserves may be regarded as one of the illusions
of South Africa, for in view of the preponderating
numbers of the black races, the areas reserved for
them south of the Zambesi — namely 220,470 square
miles out of a total area of 914,773 square miles —
is certainly not an over-liberal one. A policy of segrega-
tion to be carried out with any sort of fairness to
the natives would mean the setting aside for them of
large new tracts of country. Any such proposal,
however, is likely to raise a tumult among the European
farmers, who, as we have seen, have already agitated
successfully for restrictions on the powers of natives
to buy land in different parts of the country. The
new Land Commission, charged with the genial task
of delimiting the black and white areas, possibly of
removing native landowners from some localities and
dispossessing white settlers from others, is a body
which may well excite our sympathies. And the
fatal flaw to which I have already referred — namely
the power left to the native to sell his labour in the
white areas — subjects him to all that is most corrupt-

BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH AFRICA 269

ing in European intercourse, while depriving him at
the same moment of the higher influences of the white
man's civilisation. It is interesting to notice that
Mr. Bryce states that similar theories of segregation
have been put forward in the Southern States only
to be dismissed as outside the range of practical
politics. When it comes to the point, the native is
too useful to be dispensed with as a labourer, and it is
never found to be either convenient or possible to
isolate him in districts apart from the rest of the
country.

No : South Africa, difficult though the problem it has
to face, must face it with more courage and generosity
than is manifested by the policy of segregation, dogged
as it is by the ugly attendants of repression and fear.
Segregation of the Grlen Grey type, viewed as a half-
way house and as a training school where the native
can learn to fit himself for a civilised existence, has
valuable and useful elements. But he cannot per-
manently be thrust into a position of political and
economic helotry. Not by an artificial separation
of the races, but by a fuller recognition of their duties
one to another and their common purpose in the land,
we must seek for an adjustment of our difficulties.
We must face the fact exacted by our own self-respect
that all doors should remain open to the native capable
of passing through them. The only test we can
demand of him in the ultimate issue is the test of
fitness. That test we have every right to exact and to
make as rigorous as we choose. A sympathetic native
policy does not mean an indiscriminate handing out
of votes and political privileges to a race unfitted to
use them. It does not imply a foolish assertion of
equality between units so obviously unequal as the

270 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

black man and the white. It is, I must repeat, an attitude
of mind which expresses itself in liberal experiments.
Above all, it is an attitude of mind which bars no doors
on purely racial lines. But it must be remembered
no less on the other side that if a native is not to
be denied political rights owing to the colour of
his skin, neither can those rights be claimed by an
uncivilised manhood. We are guardians of a great
tradition in government and in civilisation, and it
must not be sacrificed to doctrinaire formulas about
the rights of men apart from the fitness of the latter.
Hence the test of which I speak. The test, however,
must be just and honourable, and once established
we must be content to abide by its results. There are
three special forms of contact — social, industrial, and
political — between black and white which cause con-
siderable anxiety in South Africa. They raise very
important questions which call for detailed examina-
tion if we are to determine whether or not the test of
civilisation can be applied to such contacts so as to
rob them of some of their perils.

271

CHAPTER XVI

THE SOCIAL CONTACT

Human nature is not always the same. It slowly changes and is
modified by higher ideals and wider and deeper conceptions of justice.
Men have forgotten that although it is impossible to change the nature
of a stone or rock, human nature is pliable, and pliable above all to nobler
ideas and to a truer sense of justice. Arnold Toyxbee.

The psychology of the Kafir is not easy to fathom.
The mental processes of one race are always difficult
if not incomprehensible to another. The particular
gift any given race has to contribute to the sum total
of human life and consciousness may be the one
which brings it into most sharp collision with other
types with whom it may be thrown for purposes of
government. The strength of the one often proves
to be the weakness of another, and vice versa. We
need not go far afield, not indeed beyond the limits
of the British Isles, to see how this principle baffles
and confounds the relations of the English and the
Irish. Obviously the margin of confusion increases
as the types diverge more widely. It is a common-
place that the Europeans who have lived most closely
and intimately with native races confess that the
greater their knowledge the greater their ignorance of
the inner meaning of the native mind. With Asiatics
and Orientals, men who are the product of civilisations
as great in their way as our own, but the evolution

272 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of which has followed wholly different lines, the
difficulty of mutual comprehension is enormously
enhanced. Henri Bergson's illuminating theory about
diverse lines of development is one which applies with
much fitness to the problems of race. The Chinaman,
the Indian, the Negro, are not reposing at the lower
stages of Caucasian civilisation nor have they been
shed by us on the upward path of our own development.
They have journeyed along a different channel of the
life process, are a product of a different form of the ' elan
vital.' It would be better if Europeans realised more
fully that these racial questions involve problems
less of superiority and inferiority than of difference.
The practical difficulty, however, which arises is a
serious one. Who will care to say that the high -caste
Brahmin, trained in all the wisdom of the East, is a
less admirable example of the life process than the
harassed city bread-winner scrambling to the Stock
Exchange by the morning train ? For practical
purposes of government, however, the harassed city
bread-winner and his kind have arrived at a point of
efficiency and capacity in certain directions to which
the high-caste Brahmin is wholly alien. The Caucasian
races by virtue not only of the great civilisations they
have evolved, but by their practical successes in
government, hold the field as regards the direction of
human affairs and policies all over the world. And in
this field the Anglo-Saxon race easily dominates the
rest. The mould of government we have created is
the one into which all other forms of political life
find themselves forced so far as practical methods are
concerned. A vigorous race, fired by the spirit both
of commerce and adventure, we have spread over the
globe imposing our civilisation and government on

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 273

alien peoples and alien lands : have imposed them so
successfully that as these alien races are stirred by our
proximity into fresh mental processes, the first desire
of the small minority which assimilates European
education is to approximate their forms of thought
and government to our own. But the operation must,
and does, involve a series of very ragged edges as regards
the points of contact between the educated minority
and the conquering majority, whereas it leaves the
vast bulk of the undeveloped race-consciousness behind
this fringe wholly untouched.

The negro has journeyed less far along the line
of his own development than any other great race.
His contribution to human consciousness is obviously
much inferior to that of the Oriental. Unlike the
Oriental he is not a finished product of his own type.
Whether his development has been arrested, or whether
it is still in the early stages of its evolution, who can
say ? But in any case he has not arrived save in a
limited sense. The fact that so far the native races of
Africa have failed to come near the standard not only of
Europe but of Asia is one which surely should comfort
and sustain the nervous Europeans in South Africa who
fear at every turn and corner that unless artificially
protected they may succumb to Kafir competition in
political and industrial life. The best answer to that
fear is to remember that so far the results of negro
civilisation are nil, indeed they have no civilisation at
all to show. As Mr. Murphy points out, the negro
has behind him no long history of spiritual adventure
or social struggle ; has wrested neither a Magna Charta
nor a Bill of Eights from the forces of tyranny. What
progress individuals among them have made is purely
due to the assimilation of European influences. Under

274 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

those influences the race may, of course, make a start
and journey far. But when it comes to free competition
in a fair field and no favour, the negro, product of a
race which has of itself achieved nothing, can hardly
hope to come out top in any struggle with those Euro-
pean races which have moulded the world to their own
liking.

The mutual misunderstandings of classes are but
too grave and frequent among men of the same nation.
Obviously they must be still graver when units so diverse
as the black man and the white are thrown together,
and the comprehension each of the other's standpoint
is necessarily so limited. Government, a difficult task
at the best, is enormously complicated when profound
differences of race, of mental processes, and of varying
standards of civilisation have to be reconciled under
a common rule. Hence the breakdown to which I have
referred in a previous chapter of the forms of democracy
when they come to be applied to conditions so different
from those under which they were evolved. Hence
the need to go behind those forms to the spirit from
which they sprang, and through the inspiration of that
spirit to work out the forms afresh with due regard
to the new material and circumstances with which
they are called upon to deal.

So far as the Bantu peoples are concerned the raw
material of government is not of a high class intellectually.
At the same time it is no less unreasonable to speak
of the South African natives as wholly contemptible
and worthless creatures. They have certain excellent
natural qualities, some of which their European rulers
could emulate with advantage. The aboriginal Kafir,
uncorrupted by town life, is courteous, loyal, and
obedient. He has a great sense of discipline, and

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 275

is very amenable to control, the product of the
warlike tradition in which the manhood of the
nation has been reared. The sense of family life is
very strong among these people. They have the deepest
attachment to home. The mine manager, the farmer,
and the contractor have all too much practical
experience of the curious heimweh from which the
native labourers suffer. They are no less devoted
to their children and are exceedingly kind to them ;
indeed, it is said that the babies and juveniles suffer not
a little from the excessive petting and spoiling they
receive. No society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children has ever been necessary among the native
races of South Africa. Such institutions apparently
are the off-shoots of our own fine flower of civilisation.
Native life has its other and darker sides, abounding
in customs of the most degrading character which are
revolting to the European moral sense. Their spiritual
ideas also are of a meagre kind, though at a subsequent
stage they become easy victims to religious emotionalism.
I am but concerned to draw attention to the existence
among many limitations of certain undeniable qualities,
since it is always along the line of a person's good, not
bad, points that progress must be sought.

It is, however, over this very question of progress
that the schools of construction and repression join
issue. To adherents of the latter it seems that disastrous
consequences must follow if our deliberate policy is to
be the free encouragement of the native in the fields
we have won and developed. Adherents of the former
school base their views not on sentimental negrophilism
but on the belief that a liberal polity works out
advantageously for the white man no less than for the
black. It is the aim of this and the two following

T 2

276 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

chapters to try to arrive at some conclusions as to
the effect of such a policy on certain questions which
are of pressing importance and concern in South Africa
to-day.

First as to points of social contact. Much is said,
and said with truth, as to the demoralising effects of
the presence of one race on the other ; Segregationalists
of the type of Mr. Maurice Evans base their views
largely on this fact and point to the existence of the
poor white and the half-caste as a proof of their argument.
To which one can only reply that the poor white and
the half-caste will never be eliminated in any state
where one race for its own supposed advantage keeps
the other in weakness and degradation. The very
principle, or lack of principle, recoils on the head of
the race which seeks to carry out any such purpose of
moral exploitation. The half-caste and the poor white
are the fruits of moral failure and they can only disappear
before the influence of a higher moral consciousness
among black and white alike.

Miscegenation is a side of colour questions which
causes profound anxiety among thinking people in all
countries where this problem exists. The anxiety is
entirely natural and entirely right ; the problem itself,
one of the greatest which beset a bi-racial community.
Highly developed racial types are valuable assets and
call for careful preservation ; and the evolution of a
snuff-and-butter race, as it is brutally called at the Gape,
can have nothing to commend it. The contrary point of
view, however, exists. In his interesting and original
work ' White Capital and Coloured Labour ' Sir Sidney
Olivier definitely contemplates the principle of mixed
unions, regarding the half-caste as the bridge across
which the tendencies of separate races may meet to

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 277

the advantage in the long run of both. He does not
adopt the usual view that the half-caste has necessarily
the vices of both races and the virtues of neither ;
he does not regard him as racially more immoral in
tendency than anyone else. Sir Sidney Olivier has
been for many years a distinguished Colonial adminis-
trator in the West Indies and as Governor of Jamaica
has had long and practical experience of the conditions
of which he speaks. It is interesting to find that the
unusual view which he advocates with much courage
receives the adherence of Professor Eoyce of Harvard,
who is also of opinion that we attach altogether too
much importance to the differences of race and have
exaggerated the degree of inherent separation between
black and white. In a great and complicated question
of this kind it is well to have all views expressed, however
repugnant the doctrine of miscegenation may be to the
overwhelming majority of white people. Sir Sidney
Olivier writes as a Socialist, and Socialism with its uni-
versal creed has naturally no affection for racial divisions
and the stereotyping of racial consciousness. But the
very weakness of the Socialist creed may he in its
attempt to ignore the depths and persistence of this
same racial consciousness, even among European
peoples — a consciousness that strikes deep down into
the roots of existence. Mr. Murphy, than whom no
modern writer has treated the American colour problem
with more insight and sympathy, entirely rejects the
suggestion of miscegenation and treats the problem
on directly opposite lines. As he points out with
great force in ' The Basis of Ascendancy/ fusion between
black and white occurs at the higher not the lower
levels. There is an instinctive social segregation of
highly developed racial groups. A cultured European

278 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

man or woman turns with horror from the very idea of
marriage with a negro ; and whether or not the feeling
is prejudice, it is one of the most deeply entrenched
instincts in human nature, and may it always remain
so. Sir Sidney Olivier himself is forced to recognise
the practical difficulty of his own theory by the admission
that the coloured race he contemplates should be born
of white fathers and black mothers. To all of which it
can only be replied that such offspring are the product
of degradation, not love, and as such are the Ishmaels
of humanity. The circumstances of such children can
only move us to profound pity. As Mr. Murphy well
points out, no half-caste child as yet has been born
into the home of the stronger. The home is the starting-
point of civilisation and the half-caste child has no home
in the true sense of the word ; starts life unblessed and
undowered by the greatest of all gifts — the mutual love,
devotion and respect of its parents. Love, duty,
mutual responsibility, the sacred claims of home —
all this happy heritage of the white child it is denied.
In their place stand the sinister spectres of shame,
humiliation, and contempt. And the only way out of
this great and pressing evil which arises wherever the
lower strata of black and white are thrown together,
as Mr. Murphy points out, is to increase the standard
of civilisation and self-respect among the blacks, so
that the higher race-consciousness developed among
them will repudiate such unions for their womenkind
as emphatically as they are repudiated by the higher
race-consciousness of the whites. Increase the self-
respect and education of native men and women alike ;
encourage the native to add to his sense of home, already
so strong, the standards of morality and purity with
which the word ' home ' is associated among worthy

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 279

Europeans ; develop a greater sense of the worth and
dignity of womanhood ; teach him that the protection
of that womanhood is the first duty of a self-respecting
manhood — and miscegenation, though it may, and will,
persist, in individual cases, will cease to be a peril to
the two communities as a whole. Leave the native in
his weakness and degradation ; treat him always as a
chattel, the tool of baser needs and baser pleasures,
and his servile qualities will in the end pull down the
house of life about the shoulders of his white masters.
Over and over again in this question we run up against
the same old dangerous fallacy that the degradation
of the native is the strength of the white man. It
is one which we cannot repudiate with too great an
emphasis. However difficult the relationship into which
both are thrown, it can only be adjusted through
their mutual strength not their mutual weakness.
They rise and fall together, jointly blessed and jointly
banned.

The same set of principles apply to another difficult
and unpalatable subject, which raises the most acute
and violent of all racial antipathies, namely what are
known as * black peril ' cases. That attacks of this
character on white women should rouse Europeans to
the highest pitch of fury is most comprehensible. But
again it is necessary to go behind such horrible incidents
to the causes which produce them, and to do so is to
realise that the white man has his responsibility in this
matter as well as the black. Mass -meeting terrorism
and lynchings are no solution for this evil. Black
peril cases are the peculiar product of racial degrada-
tion and distrust. They do not arise without a whole
atmosphere of social unrest and demoralisation. They
point to a complete breakdown of self-respect as between

280 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

black and white, and the responsibility for that break-
down rests primarily with the white man. Density
of native population and the isolation of individual
European homes have nothing whatever to do with
this evil. In the Transkei, for instance, and the
Native Territories generally, such cases are unknown,
and the handful of European officials leave their
wives and children with entire safety for weeks to-
gether among a teeming black population. But the
Transkei, let it be remembered, has been the scene
of the experiment in self-government set on foot by
Mr. Rhodes, and contains a large proportion of natives
actually engaged in the minor duties of civilised
administration. It presents the object-lesson of a
quiet, orderly, well-governed community, and it is
impossible not to be impressed with the striking
difference it presents from anything which obtains
on the left bank of the Umzimkulu, the river separat-
ing the Transkei from Natal. Race, climate, con-
ditions are identical ; but a different handling of
similar human material has brought about wholly
different results. The Transkei natives — thanks to
the Cape Colony policy, which is based on humanity
and individualism, not fear and repression — stand far
higher in the scale of civilisation to-day than their
kinsmen in Natal. In Basutoland, as we have seen
elsewhere, a large proportion of natives have come
under Christian influences, self-government and self-
respect going hand in hand in that country. What
painful moral therefore must be drawn from the
prevalence of such crimes in other parts of the country
where the native comes in touch with the white man ?
A valuable document, to which reference was made
in the previous chapter, has "recently appeared (1913)

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 281

namely, the Keport of the Commission, known
popularly as the Black Peril Commission — appointed
to inquire into Assaults on Women throughout the
Union. During the period of eleven years between 1901
and 1912, 648 charges of this ] character were made,
resulting in 464 convictions. Such crimes have in-
creased of late years, but the heads of police are of
opinion that such increase is not absolute but one only
commensurate with that of crime generally, which
unfortunately is high throughout the Union. This
exhaustive and dispassionate report is remarkable for
its insistence on all the moral factors on the presence
or absence of which healthy relations between the
races must depend. The Commissioners state at the
outset that they must express their conviction,

that measures to check this evil must be taken not merely by
administrative action but mainly by upholding, and where necessary
uplifting, the status and prestige of the white race, by maintaining
the respect in which it should be held, and by doing away with aught
and all that may tend to diminish that status, prestige, and respect,
and also by securing the moral elevation of the raw, uncivilised
native wherever he comes into contact with a white population.

The Commissioners declare that moral and religious
influences rightly exercised are essential to the native
in present circumstances. Without such restraints
and checks all that is most evil in town life reacts in
a wholly deplorable manner on the natives. Men
of excitable passions and little self-control, the dregs
of our civilisation, watch over them to their undoing.
Drunkenness is a vice to which Kafirs are peculiarly
prone, and the Chief Commissioner of Police for the
Union has stated that liquor is responsible for 80 per
cent, of crimes of violence committed by natives and
coloured men, including^'of '-'course the particular type

282 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of crime we are considering. Nevertheless the adminis-
tration of liquor laws in various parts of South Africa
is scandalously lax, and the illicit trade flourishes
almost unabashed, especially on the Rand. Alcohol,
especially the vile form of alcohol diluted with
methylated spirits and other horrors, sold for native
consumption, drives the Kafir almost mad. White
women and children actually are dragged as purveyors
and hawkers into this abominable trade, with con-
sequences easy to imagine. Yet no one proposes that
the illicit wine -seller should be lynched rather than
the victim for whose crimes he is so largely responsible.
A more drastic and vigilant administration of the liquor
laws is a crying need in South Africa to-day. So long
as the illicit trade is dealt with in this half-hearted
manner, and the disreputable white allowed to make
money not only at the expense of the native but at
the peril of the community as a whole, so long will
circumstances persist of a nature leading inevitably
to the commission of offences against women. When
the atmosphere is further charged with racial hatred
and distrust, when the brute-beast point of view is
continually thrust on the native by the European, what
wonder if the brute within himself takes charge ?
We put the native boy fresh from his kraal by thousands
and thousands through what Mr. Merriman has called
the University of Crime, Johannesburg. At his com-
pound door await him the basest types of degraded
white humanity ready to compass his undoing. The
free circulation of indecent pictures and photographs,
together with bioscope entertainments of a very un-
desirable class, inflame his undisciplined mind still
further with ideas of a perilous nature. We take
practically no steps to preserve him from drink and

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 283

debauchment, save to call down fire from heaven
when payment for such shortcomings is exacted in the
person of some innocent white woman. The miracle
is, not that such crimes occur, but that on the whole
the native returns to his own kraal so little the worse
for the experience from which he has emerged.

The Commission deal at length with another matter
to which I heard constant reference when in South
Africa, namely the grave shortcomings which exist as
regards the employment of native boys in domestic
service, or as nurses for children. It is the house-boy,
not the mine-boy, who in the large majority of cases
is responsible for these particular crimes — a fact which
should give pause to heads of households, who have
their own responsibility in the matter. The social
relations of white employers and coloured native servants
call for more care than generally speaking they receive
in South Africa. The thousands of house-boys who are
admitted to the intimacies of European life raise a
problem of a veryreal kind and one too little appreciated.
It cannot be said that many of these boys pass through
the hands of their masters and mistresses the better
for the experience. The successful management of
servants is at all times something of a gift, and points
to the possession of a certain instinct for rule. And
if this is the case in England, it is tenfold more so when
dealing with native servants. The type of employer
who is turn by turn capricious and familiar, harsh
one day and indulgent the next, is wholly demoralising
to the native morale. The universal distaste for
manual labour among Europeans of both sexes leads
to the employment of house-boys by many women
who have never had a servant in England and have
most elementary ideas of how servants should be

284 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

treated. The unwritten laws which should regulate
the relations of a white woman with a black servant
are wholly unknown to such persons. Hence a degree
of familiarity between mistress and servant of a most
objectionable kind, the house-boy not infrequently
fulfilling the duties and services of a lady's-maid to a
degree which outrages every sense of modesty and
decency. Services of a character, which no white
woman would dream of accepting from a white man-
servant, are accepted casually and carelessly from a
native, in some cases little removed from a savage. It
is merely the point of view which regards the native
as a chattel not a human being which renders such
slackness and lack of personal dignity possible. But
the slackness and lack of personal dignity leave their
mark on the native, and the loss of respect for his
employers throws wide open the door to a flood of worse
evils. Of course there are countless households in
which a different standard obtains, and from such a
training the native emerges improved not disimproved.
In Cape Colony again we find a far better policy in this
respect than what obtains in other parts of South Africa,
the employment of house -girls being more frequent and
more attention being paid to the question of their care
and housing while in domestic service. But the evils
to which I am drawing attention and which were
strongly emphasised by the Black Peril Commission
are too wide spread to be ignored in any consideration
of this particular question.

Few social changes in South Africa are more desirable
than a revolution in the present house-boy system,
and the supersession of men by women servants — one
of the principal recommendations of the Report. But
here again we are pulled up short by another aspect

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 285

of the Black Peril situation from which in common
justice we cannot turn our eyes. The native has a
right to complain that there is a white peril for his
womenkind, as great as a black peril for the European,
and though the one involves a greater element of violence
than the other, the two evils must be considered side
by side. Self-respecting natives absolutely refuse to
allow their daughters to work in towns, so great are
the forces of evil and corruption to which black women
are exposed. The Natal Native Affairs Commission,
taking evidence as to the causes of the rebellion in 1906,
addressed itself with the greatest emphasis to this
point. The words of the Commission on this subject
are very striking :

No nation [they write] can tolerate members of an alien race
tampering with their women, and nothing is more calculated than
the debauchment of their girls to stretch the endurance of even the
most submissive people to the breaking point. The evidence teems
with reference to this unpalatable subject, the cumulative effect of
which cannot be disavowed or ignored. It constitutes one of their
principal grievances and was emphasised by them with an intensity
of purpose and warmth of feeling which showed the extent of the
evil and its resultant injury to themselves.

The Black Peril Commission, who quote the above
passage in their own Report, deal frankly and candidly
with this side of the case, and say that the gravity of it
cannot be over-estimated. They quote the bitter words
of a native, ' What is your value of the chastity of a
young and unspoiled native girl ? It is £5 ; and yet
you value the chastity of a white woman at a human
life.' Segregationists would claim these circumstances
in support of their policy, but segregation, though
naturally it places some check on the social contacts of
black and white, breaks down over the labour question,
for no policy yet put forward proposes to dispense with

286 THE SOUTH ALBICAN SCENE

the hired services of natives for industrial and domestic
purposes. Consequently, it fails to touch the root
of the evils we are considering.

So far as the employment of native women in
domestic service is concerned, much could be done
to render that employment more possible by better
housing conditions. There are few social difficulties
and disadvantages in South Africa either for black
or white which cannot be traced back to the many
drawbacks connected with housing. There is no
point on which it is more desirable to bring active
public opinion to bear. Houses are small and very
inadequately provided with bedrooms. The native
house-girl has to be accommodated in some outside
shanty, the perils and disadvantages of which are
obvious. The native locations are often a collection
of scandalous hovels which are a disgrace to the
community. The provision of decent healthy locations
in the neighbourhood of Johannesburg or other large
towns where families could live together and the girls
sleep at home would do much to help this question.
But when all this has been accomplished, the funda-
mental reform must come from within and not be
concerned merely with better administrative efficiency
or preventive measures. We must look not to artificial
devices to check this evil, but to a better moral atmo-
sphere for black and white alike. Encourage the native to
act and think as a citizen, and his growth in self-respect
will be the measure of the social security achieved for
the community as a whole. This is not merely a
theoretical proposition : the truth of it has been demon-
strated practically within the boundaries of the Empire
itself.

Sir Sidney Olivier 's evidence on the social conditions

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 287

which obtain in Jamaica is most striking, and has
great relevance in this connection. The population
consists of 15,000 whites and some 700,000 coloured
persons. But in Jamaica as in the other British West
Indies black assaults on white women and children
are practically unknown :

No apprehension of them whatever troubles society [he writes].
Any resident in Jamaica will tell the same story. A young white
woman can walk alone in the hills or to Kingston, in daylight or dark,
through populous settlements of exclusively black or coloured folk,
without encountering anything but friendly salutation from man or
woman. Single ladies may hire a carriage and drive all over the
island without trouble or molestation. Offences against women and
children come into the courts : but they are not against white
women and children. Whatever may be the cause it is the indis-
putable fact that Jamaica, or any other West Indian island, is as safe
for white women to go about in, if not safer than any European
country with which I am acquainted.

To what can we attribute this happy absence
of such manifestations of racial disorder in the West
Indies as distract the United States and have been
too common in South Africa ? The Jamaica negro
is not blessed with virtues above the rest of his kind,
neither is he endowed with any inherent superiority.
But the social and political order of the Island has been
developed along wise and enlightened lines. What
has been sown in liberality has been reaped in peace.

Emancipation, education, identical justice, perfect equality in
the Law Courts and under the Constitution whatever the law of the
Constitution might be [continues Sir Sidney Oliver] — these take
away the sting of race difference, and if there is race inferiority it is
not burthened with an artificial handicap.

But no less remarkable is the position of the white
man in Jamaica unprotected as he is by any of those
artificial barriers for which a demand may be heard

288 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in South Africa. A mere handful in numbers, they
nevertheless control the destiny of the island as effectually
as though they were a majority instead of a fractional
minority. They control it, however, with very little
friction. A policy of racial hatred and suppression
would have borne its evil fruits in Jamaica as in the
Southern States. It is significant, and a point to
which we must return subsequently, that the real freedom
and liberality which obtain in the island exist under
Crown Colony administration, not under that of com-
plete self-government. The different results obtained in
the West Indies and in the Southern States by widely
different systems applied to a similar problem and
similar human material are among the most remarkable
object-lessons of modern government. The provocation
of the South, as I have already said, had been enormous ;
an unhappy chain of circumstances had necessarily
exasperated white public opinion against the negro.
The more peaceable evolution of the West Indies
was denied to the American people, who, unfamiliar
with Crown Colony government, could only meet the
political and social needs of the negro with methods
so grossly unsuitable as manhood suffrage and votes.
But whatever explanation or justification is forth-
coming for the policy pursued, the fruits of that policy
followed have been Jbitter for black and white alike,
and it is only with the growth of a more temperate
spirit that the Southern States themselves have begun
to regain something of their old proud position.

So far therefore as social contasts between black
and white are concerned we can put aside the fear that
the development of the native through education and
civilisation will encourage race fusion and the evils of
miscegenation. As we have seen, fusion takes place on

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 289

the lower planes of both races. The most sure way to
promote such evils is to thrust the native perpetually
into a position of outer darkness when he falls back
inevitably on the brute side of himself. On the contrary,
as the native rises in civilisation, so far from blending
with the white man he will probably develop a higher
form of race-consciousness which will tend instinctively
to segregate him. Not a blurring of type but a generous
and free co-operation between different types may mean
the fullest life for both. But there is all the differ-
ence in the world between the tacit social segregation
of two races who realise that their highest interests are
parallel but not joint, and the compulsory segregation
which may be but another name for repression. Political
peace turns on this possibility of self-expression and
development among natives. Teach the Kafir to
despise himself, overwhelm him with the sense of his
own inferiority, and you open the door to all the racial
vices which on the one hand and the other spring from
a lack of self-respect. It is haphazard contact with
the white man's civilisation which produces that
disintegration of native life so disturbing to all
thoughtful observers. It is only when we rouse in the
native some sense of his worth as a man, a workman,
and a citizen, that the process of disintegration is
stopped and he finds himself in a measure again. A
lot that is to serve but never to share, which is to
bear the drudgery of the white man's civilisation
but never know its delights — can we seriously lay down
such a policy for them and for us ? Injustice and
oppression are astonishingly easy methods for the
white man to apply to the black ; but what is as sure
as the rising of to-morrow's sun is that the habit of mind
so acquired will lead to those same methods being turned

290 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in the long run by white men one against another.
Social relations in the more limited sense it is undesir-
able to encourage between black and white, for social
relations imply the possibility of marriage, and this is
a possibility from which the wise of both races shrink
with repugnance. The physical aversion inspired in
many white men by the very appearance of the native
is in itself a salutary check on f amiliarity. But courtesy,
forbearance, above all a strict justice — this the white
race can give to the black without the smallest en-
croachment on the intimacies of life ; and provided this
is given, the atmosphere is created in which certain
inevitable adjustments of life between the races can
then be attempted.

The difficulties of a bi-racial, or rather bi -coloured,
community are at all times enormous. No possible
means of dealing with them can be wholly consistent
or free from certain objections. Education, as we
have seen, is essential to social peace, yet certain
obvious difficulties are bound to arise as the natives
become educated. The first-fruits of education are
almost invariably disturbing and unsettling. Social,
religious, and political movements of a disquieting
and unsatisfactory kind are set on foot. The Ethiopian
Church movement, for instance, has caused much anxiety
in South Africa, though I found that authorities differed
considerably in their estimate of the gravity and
importance of the racial phenomena it had produced.
These ' new movements ' among natives in connection
with religion, of which Ethiopianism is the chief, have
been frequent in South Africa of late years, and are
regarded by some qualified judges as only disguises
for an anti-white propaganda. The whole question
is discussed with great moderation and detachment

THE SOCIAL CONTACT 291

in the 1909 ' South African Natives ' volume. Even
so there is nothing surprising in these manifestations.
Bitterness, if not violence, will no doubt mark many
phases of the transition. But the point to be borne in
mind is that the unsettlement and discontent have to
be reckoned with in any case. The very advent of
the white man creates them in the hearts of the weaker
race among whom he comes to settle. Unless the
growing self-consciousness of the native mind is recog-
nised and guided by the European, the results of a
policy of suspicion, repression, and distrust are calculated
to be far more formidable than the fruits of ordinary
educational methods. As we have seen, there is room
for the widest latitude as regards the type and character
of education given. Education is more than reading
and writing ; it is a drawing forth of a man's nature
and capacity. With the Kafir the nature and capacity
so drawn forth will probably be of a totally different
character from that drawn forth in the white races.
The discrepancies are bound to be numerous and
bewildering. The government of weaker races demands
incessant mental alertness and perennial powers of
intellectual adaptation as well as the moral qualities
on which fine government must rest. The personal
insolence and contempt shown by many Europeans
to natives all the world over is a source of the most
profound mortification and bitterness to educated
members of the coloured races. To drive home the
sense of weakness and inferiority is a singularly un-
generous act on the part of the strong, and few things
are more mischievous politically. It is very desirable,
especially in South Africa, to impress upon the children
the need of dignity and courtesy in their treatment
of the natives. I heard the capable head master

292 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

(Mr. Grant) of the Boys' High School at Salisbury,
Rhodesia, express himself very admirably on this
point. He consistently teaches his boys how great
is their responsibility towards the black race and the
real obligation resting on them as regards behaviour
which in the true sense should be worthy of a gentleman.
Along such lines as these we must work, however obscure
the future. It has been the pride of the British race
to have created and upheld high standards of government
among alien races with whom their lot is cast. However
difficult and novel the fresh aspects of the problem,
to decline at this stage on to a lower standard would
be to fail at a crucial test in the high tradition of our
race. But we shall have to meet this increasing claim
not by the old virtues alone but by the exercise of new
ones. To powers of justice and good government
we must add powers of sympathy and imagination in
our dealings with the educated native. We must
abandon the Olympian altitude of an infinitely superior
being always desirous of doing him good whether he
likes it or not. We must learn to yield, it may be,
something of our proud efficiency in order to guide, to
humour the halting steps of men for whose political
aspirations contact with our own civilisation is
responsible. We must be patient with a whole class
of faults and not infrequently of deceptions peculiarly
trying to the standards of an honourable and high-
minded Englishman. There will be many failures,
many misapprehensions, many grave difficulties of
adjustment. But in the end as in the beginning the
white man will rule ; but it well be the royal rule of
fitness, character, and capacity, honourable to himself
and without humiliation to those he governs.

293

CHAPTER XVII

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT AND THE QUESTION OP
WHITE LABOUR

Our life is turn'd
Out of her course, wherever man is made
An offering or a sacrifice, a tool
Or implement, a passive thing employ'd
As a brute mean, without acknowledgment
Of common right or interest in the end ;
Used or abused, as selfishness may prompt.

WOKDSWOBTH.

One of the exaggerations of South Africa is the
criticism heaped on the laziness of the Kafir. It
springs not unnaturally from the fact that South Africa
suffers chronically from a shortage of labour, one of
the most difficult and perplexing features of its
industrial life. Let it be granted at once that the
native has not the industrial efficiency of the coolie
or the Chinaman ; neither has he any conception of
the European standard which takes a pride in work
for work's sake. Let it be granted also that he has
not the smallest affection for prolonged and regular
occupations of an industrial character. Our social
order has been built up on labour, his has not. The
Kafir is primarily an agriculturist, and his passionate
attachment to the land is as great as his attachment
to home. He farms badly, wastefully, inefficiently,
but farming is what he likes and prefers. He becomes

294 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

a temporary wage-earner working for spells of six,
twelve, or eighteen months, thanks to the economic
pressure which makes it necessary for him to supplement
the fruits of agriculture by those of industry. And,
like all supplemental wage-earners, the standard so
created is not a high one. Neither does he throw all
the agricultural work connected with the kraal purely
on his womenkind : that is a popular illusion. On the
whole there has been a very fair division of labour
between the sexes. In old days when the Kafir was
a fighting man or away guarding cattle, women
necessarily dug the mealie patch and did the work
immediately round the kraal. If a hut was built the
man cut the wattles and carried them in, and the
wife did the thatching. To-day the spread of plough
and farm implements among the natives has decreased
the participation of women in agriculture and increased
the share of agricultural work done by the men.
Feminism is penetrating even among the native
populations in South Africa, and I was told that
nowadays a suitor for the hand of a Kafir maiden finds
himself subjected to a sharp examination from the
damsel as to his possession or non-possession of a
plough ; girls declining more and more to do the hoeing
of the ground or to marry men unprovided with these
luxuries.

The dignity of labour, as I have already remarked,
is a theme on which the European is apt to wax eloquent
as regards the native. This is one of the few paths
of honour on which he is wholeheartedly called upon to
enter, so long as he confines himself to the unskilled
grades. But, as Sir Sidney Olivier dryly remarks in
the work to which I have already referred, ' This is a
theory which coincides most providentially with the

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 295

purposes for which the white man is there, viz. to get
things dug up which the native does not wish to dig
for.' Nobody would pretend that the native is a
diligent or persistent worker, but in view of the fact
that all unskilled labour throughout the land is
practically carried out by him, and by him alone, it
cannot be said he has done so badly.

Discussion of the labour questions and difficulties
of the country would be far easier if the white men
would only realise that there is no earthly reason
why the Kafir should spend his time in gold and
diamond mines for a longer period than is necessary for
the gratification of his own modest needs. As he becomes
more civilised his needs will increase, and he will be
forced to labour more strenuously for their gratification.
No compulsion obviously could, or should, be used in
the matter : it is a process which time alone can effect.
It may be that the native leading the simple life in his
kraal, with ambitions bounded by beads and a
concertina, is a happier mortal than the civilised Kafir
arrayed in the most correct European clothes, who
takes an intelligent interest in political affairs. Here
we touch the eternal question of how far an increase
of consciousness implies an increased power of suffering.
It is impossible not to feel that for the native the path
of knowledge is guarded by a toll-keeper of pain
demanding from him even heavier exactions than
those which befall the white man. He wakes to a
consciousness, not of fullness of life, but fullness of
inferiority, and the measure of his progress is too often
the measure of the antipathy he rouses among his
white neighbours. Be that as it may, the type of
white man who clamours with one breath for unlimited
cheap labour, and with the next for ' keeping the

296 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

nigger in his place,' cannot have it both ways. No
compulsion must be used to make the native work
except the increase in his own needs, and the acquisition
of those needs marks a rise in the standard of civilisation
with all that civilisation implies.

The industrial contact of the black man with the
white gives rise to much irritation and heartburning.
All is well so long as the Kafir keeps to the lower grade
of industry. It is his entry into the skilled ranks which
stirs up strife and once again brings the two schools
of construction and repression face to face. Here it
will be found, as elsewhere, that the policy of repression
proves unworkable and that adjustment must be
sought on other lines. The economic issues raised are
of a most difficult and complicated kind, a labyrinth
in which such slender clues of guidance as exist are
extremely hard to follow. Yet some attempt must be
made to avoid the present piling up of South African
industrial development in a blind alley, a process
which if left unchecked will force the country back
upon itself in dire confusion. However perplexing
the situation, however difficult the solution, it must be
found through hard thought, not through an indolent
policy of drift along the line of the least resistance.

The labour problems of South Africa, of course,
permeate the whole of its political and industrial
life. Mining and agriculture are the two great industries,
and the latter in the long run is likely to be the more
permanent one. But for the moment the mines are
the chief economic factor in the land, and Johannes-
burg is its dominant consideration. It is unnecessary
to repeat here the well-known facts connected with the
discovery of the Rand, and all the weighty consequences
which have resulted from the unique mineral wealth

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 297

of the Transvaal. The gold mines at this moment,
both directly and indirectly, carry the financial super-
structure of the Union. It is much to be hoped that
the healthy development of other industries will in
time bring about a better distribution of economic
interests. For the present the centre of gravity lies
overwhelmingly in the Transvaal, and it is useless
to try to ignore the fact because it happens to be
unpalatable to many people. The formation of the
gold reefs found on the Rand is peculiar to the country
and is unknown in other parts of the world. The
precious metal is deposited in a series of pebble beds
known as banket, and the value of these deposits lies, as
explained in a previous chapter, not so much in their
richness (for the reef is of low grade), as in their singular
continuity. The return of gold per ton milled is not
high, the value being, in 1911, 27*94 shillings per ton
milled, and the process of extraction, as we saw in the
same chapter, is a complicated business involving high-
class and expensive machinery. In December 1911
the working population on the seventy-seven Rand
mines, either developed or in process of development,
consisted of 24,171 white men engaged in duties of super-
intendence, whose wages average £26 to £30 a month,
and 182,958 natives engaged in the rough unskilled
work, whose wages are £3 a month plus their keep.
South African gold mining has been built up on this
combination of skilled and unskilled labour, a relation-
ship corresponding not with capacity but with colour.

Yoked in this uneven comradeship black man and
white man rub along together, and the majority of
South Africans are satisfied that these conditions
spring from the essential facts of the situation and
cannot be altered. More and more, however, the

298 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

question is making itself heard as to whether these
conditions of labour are as final and as inevitable as
we are often led to suppose. When all is said and
done, they postulate a perpetuation of savage con-
ditions on the part of the Kafir races, the persistence
of which cannot be regarded as probable. As the
native rises in the scale of civilisation, as his wants
and his capacities develop side by side, will he be
content always to accept this position of the unskilled
labourer working at a low wage, an industrial chattel
to be used at will by his white employers ? It is self-
evident that the native in course of time will exact
a better position for himself and justify that position
by the increased capacity he will bring to his work.
As already stated, in the Cape Province, where the
coloured population has had a longer period of educa-
tion and development than in other parts of South
Africa, the census returns show that certain trades
are passing from white into coloured hands. Coloured
bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers get the same
rate of wages for skilled work as Europeans, and I was
told that only three white plasterers were left in Cape
Town. Employment, both coloured and white, had
shrunk between 1904 and 1911, and the percentage
of shrinkage in the case of the white artisans and the
corresponding increase among the coloured workers
are striking and disquieting. These facts are bemg
forced more and more prominently on the notice
of the white races in South Africa, and much resent-
ment is shown at the obvious economic rivalry they
demonstrate. But the significance of the facts and
the moral to be drawn from them are less clearly
realised save by the few. The economic competition
of black and white is a point on which Europeans,

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 299

above all others, are sensitive. Yet it is difficult to
feel that this sensitiveness is concerned with a high
degree of self-respect or self-confidence, or that it
justifies much sympathy.

The whole attitude of the white man in South
Africa to labour questions is in the highest degree
unsatisfactory. The slave tradition of the old days,
when Malays were imported by the Dutch in considerable
numbers, has left the legacy of an attitude of mind
about manual labour which succeeding generations
have but too faithfully and too unfortunately adopted.
The Kafir races have never been slaves : that at least
is an aggravation of the position which the country
has been spared ; but their presence in large numbers,
together with their inferiority, has made it fatally
easy for the white man to resign to them the whole field
of unskilled labour, and having resigned the field, to
view it with contempt as a possible sphere of action
for himself. From these beginnings, trivial no doubt
at the outset, a whole social order has been built up
of a very detrimental type. And the results to-day
are of that paradoxical, whimsical character which
is a common feature of South African life. Here is a
country in which the cry perpetually rises to Heaven
that there is a dearth of labour and that industry
comes to a standstill because the supply of Kafirs
willing to do unskilled work is limited and unreliable.
Here, too, is a country where a minority of whites are
anxious to increase their numbers so as to reduce the
disproportion which exists at present between them-
selves and the black race. Now the strength of a
dominant white race can be built up on labour and
labour alone. It is possible to have all sorts of abstract
arguments about the simple life, the higher nature,

300 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

leisure, and the rest. In the evolution of our civilisation
hard work and self-respect cannot be dissociated.
But when we seek to apply that principle to South
Africa we find that at every turn and corner the white
man refuses to undertake ordinary manual tasks which
he stigmatises as Kafir work. There is no class of
efficient hard-working white labourers, and it is their
absence which is the undoing of the land. The only
forms of labour to which the European will condescend
are of a skilled character, as shown by the position
indicated on the goldfields. He must be a boss, a
gaffer, an overseer at the top of the ladder, an industrial
aristocrat regarding with supreme contempt the humbler
avocations which he pursued contentedly enough in
England. Few things are more extraordinary than
to see how rapidly this attitude is absorbed by the
newcomer from England, who may have been all his
life an unskilled labourer. The lordly progress to work,
for instance, of the white painter in South Africa might
well excite the irony of some later-day Aristophanes.
He strolls forth with an air of conscious superiority,
one native carrying his paint pot, another carrying
his brush, a group of satellites waiting on the scene
of his labour to prop up the ladder and minister to any
minor needs which may arise. Efficiency can make
no terms with such a spirit. An instructive * story
on this head was told by Mr. Francis Oats, Chairman
of De Beers. A young European, recently arrived at
Kimberley, refused one morning to assist the overseer
in loading some trucks, declaring such a task was Kafir's
work. The youth was reminded that he had done
exactly similar work in England, to which he replied
that Kimberley was not England and he would rather
throw up his job than load the trucks.

THE INDUSTEIAL CONTACT 301

The result of this prejudice is threefold. First,
it brings immigration almost to a standstill, the degree
of skilled labour which a country can absorb at any time
being obviously limited ; secondly, it results in a serious
loss of efficiency as regards the white man's standard of
work and labour, for skilled employment which qualifies
at the top, not at the bottom, of the ladder can never
be so efficient as labour which has worked through
all the grades ; thirdly, it is directly responsible for the
creation of one of the most difficult problems in South
Africa, the problem of the poor white. So serious
had the question become of the poverty and destitution
of large numbers of white men in the Transvaal and
elsewhere that the Government appointed a Commission
in 1906 to inquire into the subject. The Report of
the Transvaal Indigency Commission is a document
of first-rate importance, and lays bare with admirable
clearness and acumen the causes which serve largely
to stultify social and industrial progress in South Africa.
Few Royal Commissions have carried out their work
more thoroughly than this one, but it must be admitted
that not every Royal Commission is in the happy
position of commanding the services as its secretary
of an intellect so brilliant as that of Mr. Philip Kerr.

The poor white in South Africa, as in America, is
the peculiar product of a bi-coloured state, where
manual labour is despised and vested entirely in the
hands of the weaker black race. The experience of
South Africa and the Southern States in this respect
is identical. Where the white man directs and the
coloured man does the work, the relatively incapable
white man is bound to be unable to maintain his position
as an aristocrat in the economic world, and must either
merge with the coloured population or become a parasite

302 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

on the white community. Mr. Bryce, in The American
Commonwealth, deals at length with this point, and
the passage in which he comments on the shiftless,
ignorant ' improvident class of poor white trash,
economically superfluous, disliked by the planters and
despised by the slaves,' applies almost word for word
to conditions unhappily very similar in South Africa.
There is something almost ludicrous in the circumstance
that a class so worthless is nevertheless the class whose
attitude to the natives is apt to be more aggressive
and arrogant than that of any other section. But
again, as Mr. Bryce remarks, ' The less a man has to
be proud of, the more proud he will be of his colour.'
The Indigency Commission indicated three handicaps
which hamper the white workman in South Africa —
his prejudice against manual labour, his inefficiency,
and the high wages demanded. The apathy of white
men to qualify even for skilled work is a very
unsatisfactory feature of industrial life in South Africa
to-day. The reluctance of young South Africans to
learn skilled trades and the aversion to apprenticeship
for their sons are unfortunate facts commented on both
by Mr. Warington Smyth, Chief Secretary for Mines, and
by Mr. Cousins, Chief Immigration Officer for the Cape,
in the 1912 Report of the White Labour Department.
Out of ninety-two vacancies notified for apprentices in
various trades, not six respectable lads were forthcoming.
Though wages are paid to apprentices in South Africa,
instead of premiums being paid by them, employers
state that the greatest difficulty is found in obtaining
lads to apprentice themselves to such trades as saddlery,
plumbing, tailoring, bootmaking, baking, confectionery,
etc. Despite this reluctance on the part of Europeans,
objections are raised at once when coloured men qualify

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT

303

for these pursuits. The net result is either that
the trade passes out of European hands or that, in
industries and localities where the prejudice is strong
enough to keep the coloured man out, the community
as a whole suffers from the inadequacy or inferiority
of the trades concerned.

Wages in South Africa are high, but owing to the
cost of living they by no means represent a net gain
on the English standard. The Indigency Commission
went exhaustively into the question of wages and
cost of living on the Rand — for the Rand sets the
industrial pace of the country to the annoyance of
other districts, especially the Cape Province, where
the standard is less high. I reproduce the tables,1
though the figures have been subjected to modifica-
tion since 1906. House rents have fallen between
30 and 50 per cent, since that date, and, owing to the
reduction in railway freights, there has been a general
fall in the cost of living, anyway in urban districts,
It is not strictly correct to say the cost of living is still

ARTISAN'.

LABOURER.

Johannesburg

English

Johannesburg

prices
(a)

prices

prices
(a)

prices
00

Expenditure at

English Standards :

Food

335. Gd.

22s. 3c/.

21s. Id.

14s. ±\<L.

Rent .

20s. to 30s.

5s. Gd.

10s. to 20s.

3s. 6c/.

Sundries

16s.

8s. 9c/.

6s. 5c/.

3s. b\d.

Total per week

£3 9s. Gd. to
£3 19s. Gd.

£1 16s. G\d.

£1 17s. to

£2 7s.

£1 Is. Ud.

Prevailing rate of

£6

£1 15s. to

£3

£lto£15s.

wages per week .

, « i,

■

304 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

twice as high in Johannesburg as in England. In
the circular issued by the Emigrants' Information
Office, Westminster, it is stated that in Johannesburg
the average expenditure of an artisan and his wife
and three children under twelve years of age, for food,
clothing, and rent, is estimated at £25 a month, exclusive
of medical attendance, tobacco, and liquor. The same
publication states that the average artisan earns £26
a month, and the average clerk £20 to £24. There
has been no alteration, therefore, as regards the scale
of wages paid to the artisan which, according to the
Mining Industry Commission (1907-1908), is three
times as high as in England and 50 to 100 per cent,
higher than in Australia, New Zealand, and the Western
States of America. Unfortunately there is no increase
of efficiency to set off against this extra cost : on the
contrary, as we have seen, skilled labour in South Africa
is on a sensibly lower plane than that of other countries
unsubjected to the demoralising influence of a coloured
population who are kept on a plane of subservience.
Neither, as the Commission points out, do these inflated
wages represent a higher standard of life among the
white working population on the Rand, nor do they
express themselves in an increased expenditure on
education and refining influences. ' What do you do
with your high wages ? ' I asked of one of these industrial
aristocrats in Johannesburg who had come originally
from my own home and was calling at the hotel. ' Oh,
it all goes in the drink/ he replied cheerfully. My
friend's case may have been an extreme one, but
from what I saw of the working-class population in
Johannesburg their condition struck me as eminently
unsatisfactory. Generally speaking the housing accom-
modation is wretched. Money is spent on extravagant

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 305

living and amusements ; there is very little thrift,
very little to show for the £1 a day wages. The para-
lysing effect of reliance on the black boy spreads to
the woman. Wives and daughters of an artizan, who
at home are hard-working and self-respecting women,
demand black servants and piccanins to relieve them
of household duties. The extra leisure so obtained is
devoted to the cult of clothes and amusement. It is
but another instance of the old, old truth that man
does not live by bread alone, and that an increase of
material means without a corresponding increase in
better interests leaves a man and woman's last state
worse than their first. To this condition of affairs
thoughtful men in South Africa are more and more
directing their attention. Are such conditions com-
patible with a true growth of national wealth ? —
wealth not measured in terms of dividends but in
Ruskin's noble definition : ' there is no wealth but life :
life with all its powers of love, joy and admiration.'
The conclusion to which all such thinkers come is the
same. It is that which is emphasised by the findings of
the Indigency Commission, namely that if the white man
is to make good his position in the country, if he is
to be strong numerically and blessed with the robust
virtues for which we look to a virile democracy, then
these prejudices must be abandoned and he must
enter frankly and freely into the field of unskilled
labour.

This is a proposition to which most South Africans
would give academic support, especially when it is
suggested that white labour should find the scene of
its efforts on the land or in such works of public utility
as railway construction, municipal enterprise, &c.
But Johannesburg and the gold-mining industry set,

306 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

as we have seen, the industrial standards of the country,
and the gold-mining industry professes its incapacity
to deal with white unskilled labour on any terms.

The general discussion of the pros and cons of white
labour is a new feature in South Africa since the war.
In 1899 when I was in the country no such idea seemed
practicable. A certain shortage of native labour was
a chronic condition on the mines and elsewhere, but the
acute shortage which followed the war and led to the
introduction of the Chinese had not yet arisen to throw
the whole question into the melting-pot. Everyone
acquiesced — acquiesced much too lazily, as many of
us now see — in the conventional view then prevalent
of the basis of industrial life in South Africa — namely,
skilled white and unskilled black labour. To many of
us this circumstance entirely justified the temporary
employment of Chinese, honestly convinced as we were
that there was no alternative. But many people,
myself included, who wrote and spoke at the time in
this sense are now, in the light of fuller experience, if
not converts to the extreme teachings of the white
labour school, at least disposed to regard the whole
question as an open one. Whether, or not white men
will bring themselves to do unskilled work, the native
is clearly bound to become a skilled worker, a circum-
stance which of itself revolutionises the whole position.
I am still of opinion that the employment of white
labour on any large scale would have been impossible
in Johannesburg at the time when the Chinese were
imported. The cost of living was then so high
owing to the devastations of the war that the gulf
between the standard of white and black wages could
not have been bridged economically without wrecking
the gold industry itself, a result which would have

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 307

benefited nobody. The employment of unskilled white
labour, it must be remembered, implies an utter
revolution in the whole social and industrial outlook
of South Africa. The change, if it comes at all, can
only come gradually. It could not have been effected
with a rush at a moment of crisis and great financial
strain. The circumstances were abnormal and ex-
ceptional, and to that extent justified measures which
were equally abnormal and exceptional. To say this,
however, is not to acquiesce in the present attitude
taken up by the mining community that no change from
the present conditions now or at any time will be pos-
sible. The subject is one of acute controversy in South
Africa to-day, and among mining circles in Johannesburg
the proposal to substitute even a proportion of white
unskilled labour at 7s. 6d. or even 5s. id. per day for
native labour at £3 per month is naturally regarded
with little favour.

The non possumns of the mining industry as regards
the employment of white unskilled labour was set forth
in detail in a very able speech in the Union House of
Assembly by Mr. Drummond Chaplin on February 26,
1913. The argument is as follows. A native un-
skilled labourer costs in round figures £50 a year,
whereas white skilled labour at present is paid at the
rate of £26 to £30 a month. It is claimed that a white
man could not live at Johannesburg under £150 a year.
Say that two white men could do the work of three
Kafirs, the relative cost per annum of black and white
unskilled labour, on a basis which corresponds to a living
wage for both, works out as £300 for the two whites
against £150 for the three Kafirs. Mr. Chaplin further
claimed that owing to the low-grade character of the
reef, some mines, to retain even a slight profit, could,

x 13

308 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

at the outside, only pay white unskilled labour at the
rate of 5s. 4cZ. per day, or in round figures, £6 6s. per
month. Another undoubted difficulty is that the white
artizans who already hold the skilled labour field and
are paid £1 a day look with but scant sympathy on a
white unskilled labour movement, the first consequences
of which, if successful, would result in a fall of wages.
Six guineas a month is certainly not a living wage
in Johannesburg under present conditions, but are we
therefore to conclude that no modification of these con-
ditions is at any time possible ? Mr. Chaplin's ob-
jections seem insuperable on the present basis : the
whole question hinges on the finality of that basis.
Rightly or wrongly the contrary opinion is held, and
held strongly, in certain quarters. The Mining Industry
Commission of 1907-1908, with one exception, reported
strongly in favour of the use of white unskilled labour
on the Rand, and supported their arguments by a
formidable array of figures and statistics. No docu-
ment of recent times in South Africa has been more
hotly challenged than this one, its data and its con-
clusions being flatly denied by the mining industry.
To all of which in turn the advocates of white labour
reply that industrial experience the world over shows
that cheap labour is invariably dear labour ; that
white labour even at a higher rate is more efficient,
and therefore more economical, in the long run ; that
the last word in working costs has not as yet been said ;
that the cost of living in Johannesburg must in time
be reduced, thereby bringing wages on to a more natural
basis ; that the mining industry prefer black labour,
not only because it is cheap, but because it avoids
industrial troubles and the demands of Trade Unions ;
finally, that South Africa must renounce all pretensions

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 309

of being a white man's country if an oligarchy of white
workers are to entrench themselves in a position which
makes the spread of white labour impossible.

It is exceedingly difficult for any traveller to judge
as between these rival contentions which raise economic
issues of the most complicated kind. One has the
impression that both parties overstate their case and
go too far in the respective directions of assertion and
denial. In the long run the question resolves itself to
one of working costs, but a great many social and
industrial changes may arise which will in turn influence
the whole question of costs profoundly. Obviously
there is a point beyond which no given industry can
support additional charges thrust upon it in the interests
of the community. Over and over again, however,
so-called restrictive legislation, so far from crippling
enterprise, has led to an increase of efficiency which left
the industry in the long run better off than before.
And we need not accept off-hand the statement of any
employer that the breaking-point has been reached.
Employers as a body have an extraordinary affection
for the last ditch and are to be found screaming in it
over and over again in the course of industrial history.
Dislodged from one point they repeat their wails in
another strategic position somewhat to the rear of the
first one. It is always well to remember how in this
country, early in the last century, the excessive employ-
ment of small children in cotton factories was defended
on the plea that without an unlimited supply of child
labour the supremacy of the British cotton trade must
pass into other hands. Arguments of this kind have
been so frequent and so fallacious in the course of
industrial history that they always demand very sharp
scrutiny — in Johannesburg as elsewhere. The practical

310 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

application of the truth may he midways between the
contentions of the rival parties ; but there can be no
question whatever that unless the spread of white
labour is in some measure and degree possible, the
whole future position of the European races in South
Africa becomes precarious in the extreme. There is
sound truth in the dictum of the Mining Industry Com-
mission ' that the people who do the work of a country
will in the end inherit it/ The inevitable corollary,
however, of the teaching of the white labour school
has not, I think, as yet been sufficiently recognised —
certainly not by the South African Labour Party itself,
whose attitude, as remarked in a previous chapter, is
inclined to be that of a careful guardianship of their
own industrial preserve. If there is to be industrial
health in the country, not only must the white man
enter freely into the field of unskilled labour, but the
black man must enter no less freely into the guarded en-
closure of skilled labour. Public opinion in South Africa,
though it has moved somewhat, however reluctantly,
in the direction of the first proposition, recoils with
utter repugnance from the latter. Nevertheless the
inexorable logic of facts points that way if the white
man wishes to make good his position in the land. In
a country so completely paradoxical as Africa we may
find here again that what was expected to work disaster
proves not an avalanche but a steadying influence.

Meanwhile, as we have seen, the question of white
labour is certainly very much in the air and forms the
subject of discussion and dispute in and out of Parlia-
ment. Mr. Creswell, the able leader of the Labour
party, has been for years a consistent advocate of this
course, which he has upheld in the face of much opposi-
tion and abuse. Gifted with enthusiasm and transparent

THE INDUSTKIAL CONTACT 311

honesty of purpose, it is impossible not to regret the
streak of bitterness which robs him of the real
position his disinterestedness and brains should com-
mand in South Africa. His battles with the mining
industry have been severe, and neither side can speak
or think tolerantly of the other. The policy further has
received a valuable adherent in Mr. Patrick Duncan,
one of the officials introduced by Lord Milner into the
Transvaal, whose high gifts, both of character and
capacity, have placed him in the front rank of South
African politicians. Mr. Duncan, who is labelled idealist
and has his opinions dismissed on that ground by men
possessing not a fraction of his ability, as a matter of
fact sees a great deal farther in this question than
anyone else, inasmuch as he not only advocates the
spread of white unskilled labour, but realises that it must
go hand in hand with an increased efficiency of coloured
labour. The explanation of this necessity after all is
very simple. So long as South Africa has to struggle
with two standards of wages so diverse as at present
exist — standards coinciding, as I must repeat, with colour
not capacity — the country is bound to go on in the same
old vicious rut of skilled white labour and unskilled
black labour, with all the attendant evils to which I
have drawn attention. Economic equalisation is the
crying need. Wages require to be raised at the bottom
and lowered at the top. The spread of black labour
must lead to a rise in the standard wages paid to such
labour — economically there is no escape from that.
Every rise in civilisation made by the native, every
increase in his needs, means an escape from wages
which at present are not a living wage for a white. And
when this readjustment has taken place what shall
we find ? The white man outswamped and outclassed

312 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

by the native ? That is the fear which haunts the
school of repression and which seeks to express itself
in restrictive legislation. Restrictive legislation, as
we have seen through every aspect of this question,
is not only morally wrong but futile. The fear of which
it is the expression is surely based on a complete mis-
apprehension of the circumstances which are likely to
arise. As Mr. Patrick Duncan pointed out at the
Unionist Congress in Johannesburg held in November
1912, to increase the efficiency of native work is to
expose the white man less and less to the undercutting
competition of the wages of a savage. Make the native
less of a savage, increase his needs, and the field of com-
petition becomes equalised. It is true that this will
deprive the white man of the artificial protection he
receives at present— the old fallacy of protection dogs
the whole of this argument — and he will have to main-
tain his supremacy through his own merits and efficiency,
and not through any racial airs and graces. That
circumstance will be of the greatest benefit to his
morale. Has the white man so little confidence in his
own civilisation and his own powers as to fear that
he would be pushed to the wall in any sort of even
competition with the black ? If this were really the
case, if white men cannot hold their own in even com-
petition with native races, then it is time for the white
man to go. It is almost unnecessary to add that there
is not the smallest reason to fear any such result. It
is interesting to notice that in America the revival of
the Southern States has coincided with the spread of
the unskilled white labour movement. The poor white
class is being more and more eliminated, thanks to the
fresh and healthy standards brought in by industrial
workers from the north. White industry increasingly

THE INDUSTKTAL CONTACT 313

dominates the situation to-day, and the negro, once the
linch-pin of industry and agriculture, is much less
potent in both fields than in former years. The white
man has established himself and maintains himself in
these new directions not through artificial protection,
but through economic superiority.

But immediately this course is suggested the cry
goes up, ' But if you are going to train the black man
to do skilled work he will take the white man's job,
and Europeans will be pushed out of the country
altogether/ Another economic fallacy dear to the
protectionist is revealed by this plea, the old fallacy
that there is only a fixed amount of work, and that
one man's gain must be another man's loss. The Mining
Industry Commission, with its frequent references to the
encroachment of the Kafir and its obvious anxiety
as to the increasing skill of coloured labour, succumbed
to the same point of view. But the more the wealth-pro-
ducing capacity of a people is increased by education and
civilisation, the greater is the total amount of wealth
produced, and the greater will be the demand for com-
modities the creation of which calls wealth into being.
There is no elimination for any one under such a process,
only a fuller, richer life for the community as a whole.
Trade and industry will prosper and develop with the
fuller life of the community. The mill-stone that hangs
round the neck of South African industrial development
is the present deadweight, with which it is clogged, of
stupid, unintelligent, debased labour, little removed
from servile conditions. No country can hope to prosper
and bear the fruit of a really fine national life, if
at its roots lies the paralysing influence of the savage,
with all that the savage implies in ignorance and
degradation. And the dangerous moral reactions of

314 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

such a state of affairs on the industrial conditions of the
land is a side of the case which seldom appears to cross
the consciousness of the average South African.

The relations of employers and employed may be,
and frequently are, extremely difficult in Great Britain.
We have all had too much experience in recent years
of the bitterness with which industrial strife may be
waged, and of the needless barriers of suspicion and
distrust manufactured by the agitator. But better a
hundred times such difficulties than the less obvious
perils of a society underpinned by semi-servile labour.
The situation is all very well for employers who live for
to-day, not to-morrow, and naturally take a short view.
Indentured labour saves many troubles, and the docile
native naturally proves a more amenable instrument
than the white man with his labour organisations and
industrial demands. The country is still very young
industrially and the moral by-products of its conditions
have hardly had time as yet to leave their mark on the
lives of the people. % But any system of industry with
cleavage absolute and complete between its higher
and its lower ranks — a cleavage coinciding not infre-
quently with ignorance at the bottom and callousness
at the top — is one which may well give us pause. For
the tendency in such circumstances is for every white
man to become not aristocratic in the true sense of the
word, but autocratic in the less worthy personal inter-
pretation. Do such conditions make for a healthy
national life ? That is the question which forces itself
upon one at Johannesburg on Sundays or at other
holiday times when the Kafir is roaming about the
town in listless idleness. What in the long run will be
the effect of these aristocratic and autocratic conditions
of labour, not so much on the native as on the white

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 315

man who directs and exploits him ? We have already
seen their demoralising effect on the poor white and the
nervous jealousy with which the progress of the native
in civilisation is regarded. Most of the objections urged
against the latter are, at bottom, but the selfish argu-
ments of a privileged class who do not wish their own
prerogatives or the unskilled labour market disturbed.
Civilise the native, raise him in the scale, and by so
doing fresh fields of employment are created and flung
open for black and white alike. The one sure means
of thwarting all trade and development is to keep the
native in his present state of economic inefficiency.

All along the line South Africa is crying out for indus-
trial development. Trades concerned with the neces-
saries, let alone the amenities, of life are almost wanting
in certain localities, because, for one reason or another,
no white man can be found to undertake them, and the
native is not allowed. A town or district may go short
of cobblers, painters, tailors, bricklayers, because the
prejudice is too great to allow of any native workman
fulfilling such tasks. And it flatters itself that by so
doing it is upholding the principle of the inherent
superiority of the white man. Such a point of view is
for a country to stand on its head with a vengeance.
Lord Selborne spoke very plainly on this subject when
he told a South African audience that there was a
danger of the energy and grit of the white man being
' mollycoddled out of existence ' by artificial protection
against black competition. The free recognition of the
right of the native to undertake skilled work is resented
by the slack European skilled workman who is naturally
anxious to protect his privileged position in every sort
of way. But though such men would suffer through
any readjustment of industrial conditions both in pocket

316 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

and pride, there can be no question that a more healthy-
spirit and a more vigorous industrial life can only-
spread through South Africa when these facts have
been honestly faced and weighed. Teach the Kafir
the elements of citizenship and self-respect and the
present prejudice attached to Kafir's work must
little by little break down. Unskilled labour, because
no longer the province of a savage, will cease to wear
an injurious air to the white working-man. And when
white men engage more freely in unskilled labour, white
immigration will begin to flow into South Africa, and
the numerical position of the European races be sensibly
improved.

The entry of the white man into the ranks of un-
skilled labour, the entry of the native into the ranks of the
skilled — to these principles, distasteful though they are
to the present temper of the South African community,
we must look for the remedy of the obvious industrial
ill-health which at present obtains, and especially for
some solution of the problem of the poor white. So
long as we are content to stereotype a lower form of
despised native life alongside our own, into that lower
form and lower standards the weaker and less reputable
members of the white race will surely be drawn, to their
destruction and undoing. The spread of ideas so novel
is bound to be slow ; there can be no question of any
sudden or dramatic change. Eeadjustment will come,
at the best, but by degrees. But if only the fallacies
and hindrances of the present position were better
realised, little by little the desired readjustment might
be effected. A great governing race which approaches
its relations with a weaker one in a spirit of duty and
responsibility, not the spirit of exploitation and gain,
has nothing to fear from the final issue, however great

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 317

the difficulties with which it may be confronted. Mr.
Bryce and Mr. Murphy both point out that it is from
the growth of a more generous responsible spirit among
white men in the Southern States that the present ameli-
oration in the relationship of the races has sprung
and that the whole position of the whites has improved
alongside that of the blacks.

To advocate the spread of white unskilled labour in
South Africa is not, however, to accept in toto the prac-
tical suggestions put forward at this moment by the
White Labour Party. A change so fundamental cannot
be effected by high-handed means, entailing as it does
a radical alteration in the mental attitude of the whole
country. Public opinion is as yet scarcely roused,
certainly not converted, and so far as it is proposed to
deal with the matter by legislation, legislation itself
cannot profitably work too far ahead of public opinion.
The White Labour Party are anxious to put their
theories into effect by causing a shortage of native
labour on the Rand. It is proposed that this should
be done by placing an embargo on the present impor-
tation of natives from Portuguese East Africa, who
number about 90,000, nearly half the total labour supply
of the Rand. There are many circumstances connected
with the employment of natives from Mozambique
which are extremely unsatisfactory. The Portuguese
Government receives a solatium of 10s. per head for
every native recruited, a proceeding which raises some
uneasy reflections as to the paternal inducements to
labour which may lurk in the background of the pro-
ceedings. Under the new Treaty the same paternal
Government is no less solicitous that half the contract
wages paid to the natives for the first twelve months
of his eighteen-months' term should be paid to him, not

318 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

on the Rand, but when he comes home to Mozambique —
in the presence of a Portuguese official. The Mining
Industry claim that they have recently sent a Com-
mission to Portuguese East Africa to inquire into the
conditions and that no abuses were brought to light
on that occasion. The whole system, however, is in-
dentured labour of the rankest kind, with breaches of
contract punishable by the penal law, the condition of
all native employment on the Rand. It is yet another
proof of the watertight compartments in which some
people keep their consciences, especially when any poli-
tical advantage is to be gained, that the employment
of the Chinese, who were eminently fitted to take care
of themselves, should have led to such an outcry, while
not a dog barks with reference to the induced, indentured,
and imported labour from Mozambique to the Rand,
even with the consoling figure thrown in of the Portuguese
official watching with tender care over the payment of
the native's wages after the return home. Mr. Duncan,
who has supported the movement for checking the
importation of Mozambique natives, does so on the
grounds that no industrial progress can be made within
the Union so long as the white workman and the more
civilised black workman alike are exposed to the com-
petition of savages imported from without, a contention
which is perfectly true. It is difficult, however, to see
how the creation of a sudden and artifical shortage of
labour on the Rand can do anything at the present
moment except dislocate the gold industry, with un-
fortunate results all round. The prejudices of the
present industrial system are strongly entrenched and
the process of breaking them down has scarcely begun.
To expect under such circumstances that even 10,000 or
20,000 white men could suddenly be employed as un-

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 319

skilled labourers on the gold mines is to lose touch of the
actualities of the situation. Two conditions are neces-
sary to bring about the spread of white labour in South
Africa : the surrender of the white artizan's prejudice
about ' Kafir work ' and his willingness to accept a
more modest wage. It seems doubtful, however, whether
the Labour Party will lend themselves to any reduction
in wages even if the cost of living were more reasonable.
Unskilled white labour paid at the skilled rate would
more probably be their view of the question. Then
again the cost of living itself can only be reduced through
an increase in population and the general industrial
and agricultural development to which it must give
rise. In respect of the present rate of high wages and
high cost of living, South African life is indeed like a
snake eating its own tail, a vicious circle in which there
is perpetual revolution without any progress. Each
mutually devours the other until something very like
an economic deadlock is arrived at. The backward
condition of the country, both as regards agriculture
and a host of minor industries, causes a real shortage
both of the necessaries and amenities of life. It is a
very rudimentary economic law that such production
as takes place under these circumstances is dear and
bad. Until there is a fuller industrial life circulating
freely throughout the land this state of affairs must
persist, and it is no less obvious that the change can
only be effected slowly.

South Africa is the worst country in the world for
the scene of heroic ventures. To carry the aims of the
White Labour Party into effect it will be necessary to
begin with a host of minor experiments in order to
familiarise the white population with the idea of un-
skilled labour and to demonstrate where it can be used.

320 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Certain efforts in this direction have, it must be admitted,
proved curiously unsatisfactory. Some years since an
experiment was made with a White Labour Colony at
Vygeboom in the Caledon district, thirty-five men being
selected out of three hundred and fitted for agricultural
work. They were paid 3s. a day — twice the rate of wages
paid to Kafirs, and their hours of labour were much
shorter. The experiment broke down completely, and all
the men had left within twelve months. Their demands
were impossible ; it is said that they clamoured for
billiard tables, among other trifles necessary to their
comfort and amusement. Matters, however, have im-
proved in this respect as the question of European
employment takes firmer hold on popular imagination.
It has been shown, for instance, that white unskilled
labour can be used successfully in construction works
on the Government railways. Over 5000 men are
at present employed on the Union lines at an average
pay of 4s. or 5s. a day, plus house accommodation.
Municipalities again are making experiments in the
same sense. There have been failures but also successes
in this direction. Naturally such ventures are not
sound economically, as they are open to the charge that
they have the purse of the community behind them
and can bear losses which would incapacitate the private
trader. This is true, but in the very peculiar circum-
stances of South Africa the State would be justified in
a temporary economic loss which might result in so great
a social gain. The Indigency Commission reported
that every effort should be used by the Government to
promote agricultural and industrial expansion, and to
increase the employment of white labour by showing
the way. In agriculture again there is no reason
whatever in many parts of the country why a larger

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 321

proportion of white labour should not be employed
than at present. The disinclination of Europeans for
manual labour has allowed all market gardening prac-
tically to fall into native and Asiatic hands. This is a
field of employment which could certainly be rescued
by any hardworking and intelligent group of Europeans.
I was shown a small market garden in Bulawayo where
an enterprising Scotch family, who dispensed entirely
with native labour, made a prosperous living. Each
effort of this kind is a breach into the wall of prejudice,
and through it the tide of a fuller national life in time
will flow.

The attitude adopted by Johannesburg to these
questions will be of great importance. So far as the
Band is concerned the provision of better houses for
the white employees would go a long way towards
encouraging European settlement. If the native ques-
tion is in a large measure a land question, one comes to
realise more and more when travelling through South
Africa that the industrial question is largely a housing
question. Few things are more unsatisfactory in the
country than the class of accommodation provided in
the towns for white working men, a point to which
I have referred in a previous chapter. The general
condition of such accommodation is wholly unfavour-
able to permanent settlement or domestic life. It is
more than unfortunate that throughout the Dominions
so little attention is paid in these early stages to certain
social questions such as town planning, industrial
conditions, &c. — matters, the neglected beginnings of
which can only bear bitter fruit hereafter in the estab-
lishment of serious evils hard to eradicate. Housing
is not a strong point anywhere in South Africa. The
native locations are often, as we have seen, disgraceful

322 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

hovels of a character which could only be tolerated

by a wholly inadequate public opinion. Town planning

is nil, and houses are run up anyhow with a minimum

concern for the general amenities of city life. Despite

the high rents which obtain, the houses are small,

badly built, and huddled together. With the illimitable

veld around them they are rarely provided with

gardens. The conditions of decent family life cannot

be secured in a country where only two bedrooms, as

a general rule, are provided for artisans' dwellings.

One mine manager in the Transvaal told me that the

cost of building a bungalow with a living-room, two

bedrooms, kitchen, pantry, bath room, and verandah —

the rooms being about fourteen feet square — is £800.

Such a situation calls for individual experiments,

conducted by men who are not afraid to make mistakes

in working out novel ideas. One such employer has

been found in Mr. Raymond Schumacher, Chairman of

the Rand Mines, a public -spirited mine-owner, who

is making a very interesting housing experiment at

Johannesburg with a view to meeting what is admittedly

a grave drawback in the existing industrial conditions.

A model village is being erected, thanks to his efforts,

near the City Deep Mine. The site known as The Hill

is 400 acres in extent, and the scheme is ultimately to

comprise 1000 houses. Mr. Schumacher's idea is to

allot one-third of an acre for each house and garden,

and to allow the workman to acquire the freehold on

easy terms. The houses are of the bungalow type ;

the majority of them are to be built, however, with

three bedrooms. Even so, their cost of construction

seems very high according to English ideas, the average

cost per house being between £400 and £500. Another

company with which Mr. Schumacher is connected,

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 323

namely the Geldenhuis Deep, is also devoting attention
to the housing question. A fine stretch of land, 1800
acres in extent, near Doornfontein, situated close to a
number of mines and yet remote from tailings and
dumps, &c, is to be offered by this firm to their em-
ployees for building purposes as soon as water has been
proved. The price asked will be about £25 per acre
freehold, plus a proportion of cost for obtaining water.
The Greldenhuis Company do not propose to erect a
model village themselves or to give financial assistance
to the men for building purposes. They provide a
site on easy terms and lay down certain broad con-
ditions which prospective owners must comply with.
Since the adjoining township-owners are asking prices
ranging between £800 and £1000 per acre for their
land, the modest price of £25 per acre put forward by the
Company presents many inducements to the superior
artisan anxious to build and to own his house if he can
do so on reasonable terms. It is Mr. Schumacher's
hope that by schemes such as these for the provision
of better houses a more stationary white population
may be secured for the Rand, and the constant changes
in staff and personnel, which at present take place, to
some extent be avoided.

This constant shifting of the population, owing to
changes in management, is another circumstance which
tells against white labour. In his report of the Mines
Department for 1912, Mr. Warington Smyth comments
on the general clearances which are unfortunately com-
mon among the white employees on many mines, and
the hostile effect of these constant changes on the per-
manency and efficiency of white labour in the country.
At present it is a matter of common occurrence that
when mine managers and foremen change, similar

Y 2

324 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

changes take place in every other department, and a
man may find himself dismissed, however good at his
work, at twenty-four hours' notice. Naturally tenure of
employment so insecure gives rise to many complaints,
and married men, as the Mines Department Reports
point out, are loath to bring their wives and children
into the country in such circumstances. A man
may be working under satisfactory conditions and have
made himself a nice home with a garden where he is
raising flowers and vegetables. Then comes a change
of management and he finds himself adrift, his home
broken up, and all the fruits of his labour thrown away.
A true spirit of citizenship cannot grow up in a new
country under such conditions. However much we
may value the functions of the State, apart from good
homes and family life the State itself cannot hope to
flourish, and it is useless to talk of the spread of white
labour when circumstances so detrimental to permanent
settlement and family life are allowed to exist unchecked.
It is not surprising also in view of these facts that much
suspicion and hostility exists between employers and
employed. The mollifying influence of the personal
factor is almost wholly lacking on the Rand, and the
employers who here and there endeavour to get on to
personal terms with their workmen find themselves
subjected to severe rebuffs. The relations between
capital and labour in a country with a shifting popula-
tion like South Africa are much more difficult than in
Great Britain. In our case, at least, masters and men
not infrequently have lived alongside each other and
have worked together for two or three generations, and
the saving grace of human and friendly relationships
is known to temper even the worst asperities of indus-
trial strife. Mr. Schumacher's efforts, therefore, are

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 325

directed to a most important end, and though he has suf-
fered not a little from the figurative half -bricks which the
callous and the thoughtless delight to hurl at new ideas
of any kind, he must carry with him in an uphill task
the sympathies and support of all public -spirited men
in South Africa. Houses built under conditions which
make it reasonably possible for the white artisan to
acquire the freehold and with it some security of tenure
would go a long way to assist and develop white immi-
gration in South Africa. There are many difficulties
in connection with housing schemes owing to the
complicated conditions which obtain on the Rand as
regards proclaimed and unproclaimed land, and the
question of the surface rights. But they are difficulties
which energy and goodwill could surmount.

As so frequently happens, however, in South Africa,
no sooner is the corner of one difficulty turned than
another looms in sight. Industrial employment in
Johannesburg, both black and white, is confronted
with a new and serious trouble — that of miner's phthisis
— the extent of which had not till recently been fully
realised. The prevalence of phthisis among white
underground workmen, due to the inhalation of fine
angular dust suspended in the atmosphere, had been
known for some time, but the statistics and information
which are now available have thrown a most disquieting
light on the ravages of the disease. The Mining Regu-
lations Commission appointed in 1907 (which reported
finally in 1910) first produced definite statistics as to
the serious dangers to which underground workers
were exposed as regards pulmonary trouble. This was
followed by the Report of the Miner's Phthisis Com-
mission, 1912, which revealed the unwelcome fact that
of 3136 underground miners examined, an unexpectedly

326 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

high percentage, namely 32 per cent., were phthisical.
The examination was conducted in a very thorough
way, and the broad deductions drawn from it may
be taken unfortunately as representing the conditions
existing among the underground population on the
Rand. The inhalation of rock dust is the primary
and most important cause of this disease. It is well
established that phthisis is, in the words of the Report,
' a specific occupational disease amongst metalliferous
miners working in hard rock — that this mortality has
greatly increased in each locality since the general
introduction of rock drills into mining practice, and
falls most heavily upon rock-drill miners ' ; also ' that
the objects to be aimed at in all measures to be taken
to obviate the incidence of the disease must be to prevent
the generation and inhalation of rock dust, to prevent
the contamination of the mine air by the fumes of
explosives and by respiratory and other impurities,
and to control the risk of the spread of tuberculosis
infection among miners/ The incidence of the disease
is specially high among machine drillers, 48 per cent, of
the latter being affected as against 32 per cent, for the
general body of miners, and 21 per cent, for those who
have never done rock drilling : 50 per cent, of machine
drillers are affected after four and a half years' work,
and after ten years of underground life approximately
80 per cent, are attacked. No class of underground
worker, according to the Report, is free from serious
attack; cases of the disease are found in every class.
The average duration of underground work amongst
those affected is rather over eight years. Of the men
examined it was found that 57 per cent, were married
men with families, and of this number 84 per cent,
had their families resident in South Africa. The

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 327

mean age of all the miners examined was 33*12 years.
Owing to the shifting population on the Rand the
death returns registered in the Transvaal are not an
accurate guide to loss of life from miner's phthisis.
The dislocation caused by the war has also rendered
the collection of accurate data and statistics very
difficult. But such facts as emerge are most disquieting.
The Mining Regulations Commission, 1910, estimated
that among mining and non-mining males, deaths from
respiratory disease are six times more common in the
one case than the other, an opinion in which the Miner's
Phthisis Commission concurred. Serious as is the situ-
ation thus revealed, the problem is rendered yet more
grave by the fact, now established, that attention devoted
merely to the dust created by rock drilling will in no
sense meet the evil.

It is clear [as Mr. Warington Smyth states] that on the
Witwatersrand mines the atmosphere underground is so permeated
with fine mineral dust that everyone working underground is liable
to contract miner's phthisis. The prevention problem, therefore,
becomes a much larger one than it was originally assumed to be and
will have to deal with the general dust in the mines and with dust
raised by blasting, which latter is probably the principal factor to be
considered.1

It is clear now that jets of water directed on the drills
will not of themselves provide an adequate remedy
for the trouble, in view of the hitherto unsuspected
fact that all men working underground are liable to
the disease. A much more serious difficulty is raised
as regards the question of blasting and the fine dust
it disseminates throughout the mine. Extensive water-
ing operations are now found to be necessary at the
points both of air intake and air outlet of working
places where blasting is carried on. Not only the

l Report of Mines Department, 1912.

328 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

gravity of the complaint, therefore, and its high incidence
are now obvious, but the unsuspectedly large area of
its operations. Phthisis is at all times a very difficult
disease to treat owing to the meticulous care and
attention it demands from the patient — qualities in
which the average working man is distinctly lacking.
The preventive measures are apt to be irksome and are
readily shirked by the careless. A Miner's Phthisis
Compensation and Insurance Act has been passed by
the Union Government, and a Preventive Committee
appointed to study the disease and check its inroads.
The shifting population on the Rand makes the after
history of the cases difficult to trace, but the deaths,
the wreckage, ill-health, and loss of working power due
to this high incidence of phthisis are very serious
matters for the gold -mining industry. At the same time
it should be remembered that happily more than half
the white employees on the Rand work above ground,
and consequently the majority are not exposed to this
peril. The figures for 1911, given in the Report of the
Mines Department, show that of the total 25,239 white
men employed on gold mines 11,490 were underground
workers and 13,749 surface workers.1 The good health
of the surface workers is responsible for the general
death-rate on the mines (estimated at 18*869 per
thousand in 1907 by the Mining Regulations Commis-
sion) being relatively low. But this low general death-
rate conceals a much higher death-rate, as we have seen,
among a limited group. The statistics dealing with
the question of miner's phthisis are all most intricate,
and great care is necessary to disentangle the high
figures relating to a group from the average figures

l These figures apply to the Transvaal as a whole and are not strictly
confined to the Witwatersrand area.

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 329

relating to the health of the industry as a whole. The
general health of Johannesburg is good, the death-rate
for 1911-1912 amounting only to 13*3 per thousand —
a lower rate than that of London, which was 15 "0 per
thousand for the same period. The phthisis rate for
the community as a whole is low, being 0*4 per thousand
from all forms of tuberculosis, and 0*54 for miner's
phthisis.1 But naturally the figures assume a different
character when applied to underground workers in the
mines alone.

It is said that the mine owners have been indifferent
to this question of phthisis, and have not exerted
themselves as they should have done to set on foot
preventive measures. There is no justification, I think,
for so sweeping a charge. Industrialism, as we have
seen, is a new growth in South Africa, and all the com-
plicated social machinery which safeguards labour con-
ditions in England is practically non-existent. Sanitary,
industrial, and health regulations in this country are
the product of generations of social effort and study.
Alongside of them has grown up a public opinion
sensitive about all such matters. It is absurd to expect
similar conditions in a town which but yesterday was a
mining camp. Even now a large proportion of the
Johannesburg population is neither permanent nor
settled, and such shallow roots are very inimical to
the growth of a healthy community. No town is
developing, no industry is working, under desirable
conditions, when the aim of so many people is merely
to amass money and then depart elsewhere, shaking the
dust off their feet. A hard, reckless, indifferent spirit
is inevitable under such circumstances. Nobody takes
any trouble because nobody has any permanent stake

. 1 Report of Medical Officer of Health, Johannesburg, 1911-1912. \

330 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

in the present or interest in the future. Of that spirit
there is still too much in Johannesburg to-day, and it
is doubtless responsible for the somewhat inhuman
atmosphere to which I have already referred in the
relations of capital and labour. The mollifying personal
factor in industrial relations is, as we have seen, absent,
and the treatment of difficulties is not simplified by
that fact. All classes alike have been careless and
indifferent up to the present about miner's phthisis
because there was no public realisation of its gravity
and extent. But it is quite unfair to say that now the
facts have come to light the mine owners are not seek-
ing to remedy them. Great efforts are being made at
present both by the Industry and the Government to
check the disease, but it is impossible not to feel much
anxiety as to their power successfully to grapple with
the situation. Phthisis is of all diseases the most
baffling to combat, and its incidence can prove unex-
pectedly high under very varying conditions. It is a
far cry from the underground workers of the Rand to
the open-air quarrymen of Derbyshire working in a
district which is one of the leading health resorts of
England. Yet Dr. Barwise, Medical Officer for Derby-
shire, has shown that in the districts of Darley Dale
and Matlock the phthisis death-rate among stone
workers is 7 per thousand, and as high as 13'7 per
thousand among the gritstone workers, whereas in the
same county the phthisis death-rate among coal miners
is only "68 per thousand, and among persons employed
in agriculture "66 per thousand. I mention these
figures as showing the special dangers in the matter
of phthisis attached to any exposure to the dust of hard
rock ; and hard rock, as we have seen, is the inevitable
condition of all gold mining on the Rand.

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 331

Serious though these circumstances are for the Euro-
pean worker, his dangers do not exhaust by any means
all the potentialities of trouble in this direction. What
havoc, we many wonder, is caused among the native
boys who come to work at Johannesburg for twelve
or eighteen months and return to their kraals carrying
with them, in all probability, the seeds of this fell disease
throughout the sub-continent ? No statistics on this
subject so far are available, but the liability of Kafirs
to disease, and pulmonary disease in particular, is an
unhappy commonplace of native employment in the
mines, though here again great, and in a large measure
successful, efforts have been made to reduce the mor-
tality. In 1903-1904 the total native death-rate on the
mines was 59*11 per thousand, and in 1904-1905 it
had reached the terrible total of 130 per thousand for
tropical natives. In 1912 it was the lowest on record,
being 22*6 per thousand for all natives, and 47*6 per
thousand for natives north of latitude 22, as against
64'8 per cent, in 1911, a change due to increased sanitary
and medical care. Much has been done, but much still
remains to be done, in the improvement of labour
conditions. Recruiting north of latitude 22 is now very
properly prohibited owing to the high mortality among
native boys from these tropical districts. Many of the
' tropicals,' as they are called, reach Johannesburg in a
weak, diseased state before there is any question of their
commencing work. Natives from the warmer belts
to the north suffer severely from the high altitude and
relatively cold climate of Johannesburg, and the pro-
hibition of recruiting north of latitude 22 is in every
respect a desirable measure.

This liability to disease and the high mortality on
the Rand present yet another aspect of the industrial

332 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

contact between black and white in South Africa
which, calls for most serious consideration. It is
but another proof of the difficulties with which
the whole subject is surrounded and the unexpected
obstacles besetting industrial progress. The Rand, as
we have seen, is the industrial key of the country, but
the high rate of mortality among native workers tends
to upset all calculations as regards the latter's economic
position, whereas the no less high incidence of phthisis
among the white mining population has a most pre-
judicial influence on the permanent settlement of
European artisans in the country. On the possibility
of that settlement and its capacity widely to increase
its scope, the spread of white labour largely depends.
But here, as elsewhere, South Africa does not lend herself
kindly to sweeping schemes of change nor ideal counsels
of perfection. The last word in the industrial relations
between her black and white populations is far from
having been spoken. How many are the perplexities
that relationship presents, the present chapter may in
some degree have served to indicate. One reservation,
however, must be made as regards an important point
about which much careless affirmation may be heard.
To speak of South Africa as a white man's country, in
the same sense as Australia or Canada, is a misuse of
words. These countries are not confronted with the
problem of a preponderating native population, a cir-
cumstance which wholly invalidates any parallel with
the other great dominions. South African problems
must be approached from the standpoint of a bi-racial
community in which the preponderating numbers are
likely to remain black. But the proportion of white to
black could, and should, be substantially increased,
through such changes as we have considered. Other-

THE INDUSTRIAL CONTACT 333

wise a shrinkage even in the present numbers of the
white race is inevitable, and they will drift more and
more into the position of a governing caste. The
presence of the native in industry has to be reckoned
with, and here, as elsewhere, there is no alternative
but to make the best of a fundamental condition. So
far as the industrial contact of black and white is con-
cerned, we find that, like the social contact, the peril
lies in the degradation of the native, the hope of the
future in his increased capacity and powers of work and
citizenship.

Note. — The above chapter was written before the fierce industrial
riots on the Rand early in July took aback South Africa and Europe alike.
The detailed causes of this outbreak, which are to be investigated by a
Commission, will not be forthcoming before this volume is published.
At the moment of writing it is difficult to estimate the real nature of the
riots or the causes which gave rise to them. But the intensity of bad
feeling revealed by this outbreak proves the truth of what has been said
in the foregoing pages about the thoroughly unsatisfactory conditions
of industrial life at Johannesburg, and the grave doubts to which it gives
rise viewed from the standpoint of the needs of a stable society.

334

CHAPTER XVIII

THE POLITICAL CONTACT

A race's life is an organic growth ; it is not like a dead platform that
we can safely build our houses over or our walls about ; it is a living
thing. You can force it back and can lay it prostrate, but when you have
driven it even underground, it will reappear. Its living roots, its secret
and extending tentacles of growth, will search beneath the familiar soil,
will find their way below the foundations of your wall, will come up upon
the outer side — intertwined with your own growth, blended with your
stock, and terrible in their confusions and their fruitage. No ; build
your walls if you will, but give to this race also a garden of noble spaces ;
build your walls high in self-protection, but rear them as no dungeon
above another life. Let its growth have also its own sunshine, light
from the same sun, nurture from the same air and the same rains ; let
all wise and pure conspiracies advance it. Its liberation will mean, not
its encroachment, but its self-fulfilment. Force it downward into
degeneracy and abasement, and, having no garden and no sunshine of
its own, its pervasive and intruding death will seek you out. Your
sounder health depends less upon its repression than upon its freedom.

Edgar Gardner Murphy.

The point of view from which the relations of black
and white have been regarded in the four previous
chapters is not a popular one in South Africa. There
is, of course, no novelty about the opinions expressed.
They force themselves on the attention of thinking
men and women in any country where this great and
difficult problem exists. When for better or worse a
higher and a lower race are flung together, the points
of contact, as we have seen, are bound to produce
situations of a most baffling character. No such rela-

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 335

tionsliip can be ideal, because the ideal relationships of
life are between peers ; and where questions of superiority
and inferiority inevitably are raised, where there
cannot be the fullest and freest exchange of sympathy,
affection, and ideas, the ideal relationship vanishes.
The question then arises as to how these contacts may
be made as little injurious as possible. We cannot
hope or look for any counsel of perfection ; such
accommodations as are arrived at will be at the best
but rough and ready. Experiments are necessarily
tentative ; they are not likely to be logical ; they will
often prove unsatisfactory. But broadly speaking,
as we have seen, the situation can be viewed from two
standpoints : that of repression and that of construction.
It should be made clear that followers of the latter school
are not inspired by any foolish or unreal sentimentality.
They are often driven to the position they hold because
forced to realise through practical experience that
repressive measures break down and cannot be relied
upon to reach the end they set out to attain. To
imagine that a system of even the most benevolent auto-
cracy can deal permanently with the native question is to
take a short view. As we have seen, this question is not
only a South African one, it is confronting civilisation
all over the world ; it is bound to grow in difficulty and
magnitude ; it is calculated to tax the resources of the
most constructive statesmanship to a degree unknown
before in history. The greater, therefore, the need for
clear thinking on the whole subject and for an apprecia-
tion of the issues involved. The diplomacy of Japan
is already proving to the world that an Asiatic nation,
which has won its way into the rank of world Powers,
will not tolerate humiliating restrictions for its subjects
in the matter of racial bars and colour disqualifications.

336 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

And the process initiated in Japan is bound to grow
and gather weight wherever this particular racial
situation arises. Everywhere the test of citizenship is
bound to rest, and rest increasingly, on civilisation, not
colour. For us it will be well if, at this stage of the
proceedings, the old moral of the Sibylline books is
laid to heart. We cannot afford to make mistakes in
a matter which is likely to prove the touchstone of the
whole future of the Empire. Blunders of course there
must be, they are the condition of all human effort, but at
least we can see that they do not belong to that paralysing
class of mistakes which spring from indolence and ill will.
The South African difficulty is for the moment
far less complicated than the Asiatic one. The low
degree of aboriginal civilisation arrived at by the negroid
races makes them easier to handle from the point
of view of government than the Asiatic. As the negro
or the Kafir rise in the scale of civilisation, the standards
of excellence which they set before themselves are
European, and the ideals to which they endeavour to
approximate their lives are ours. It is accordingly
along our line of development that they are content
to work, however much they may straggle by the way.
The system which suits us will, in the long run, and
broadly speaking, suit them. There can be, I think,
no question that the relationship in government of the
European with the Asiatic is rendered incomparably
more difficult from the very fact that the Asiatic
already possesses a civilisation as highly organised in
its way as ours, but a civilisation which clashes at every
point with European methods of thought and action.
The Oriental views the whole question of material
prosperity, for instance, so differently from the
Englishman, that it is difficult to find a common

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 337

term between them. For this reason it must be admitted
that Asiatic industrial competition will always be a
more formidable matter for the white races than com-
petition from the Kafir, however educated. The Asiatic
brings a greater intelligence to the task, and an entire
refusal to devote the fruits of his labours to such luxuries
and rewards as are common among Europeans. He is,
in some respects, ' other worldly ' to a degree absolutely
distracting and incomprehensible to the capable, practical
business mind of the Englishman. It is to the advantage
of South Africa that the much less developed native
races with whom we are brought in contact, in the
absence of any particular standard of their own, are
willing and anxious to adopt ours. The discrepancies
in the social order, great though they are bound to be,
are likely to prove less insurmountable therefore in the
one case than in the other. More than any other con-
dition, as we have seen all along, a generous morality
is essential as a guide to practical policies ; a recognition
that humanity, whatever the colour of its skin, has its
rights, and that there is a dignity even in the weaker
manhoods that we should seek to develop and respect.
The very superiority of the great governing white races
is in itself a talent and a trust ; the very inferiority of
those they rule, an appeal to that chivalry and generosity
which are the true fruit and flower of strength.

We have seen that as regards both social and
industrial contact between black and white there is far
less to fear from a liberal than from a repressive policy.
The ferment of education and of new ideas sweeping all
over the world has in turn swept the black and coloured
races into the stream of modern thought and roused
them to an uneasy awakening. The process is bound to
continue; there is no possibility of checking it. We

338 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

may, as I have said, hold aloof from it and allow this
development to take place on crude, violent, hostile
lines, creating a bitterness of spirit thereby which will
in time menace the very foundations of society ; or
we may stretch out generous hands to the coloured
races in their weakness and impotence, and help them
to find themselves — to find themselves on terms which,
without merging the streams of racial consciousness,
may cause both streams to flow in broad and fruitful
channels. This we must do or be prepared for the
alternative, namely the damming of a mill race which
in time will burst bank and dyke alike in devastating
confusion. The higher altruism in the long run will
prove the wiser course. We must turn a deaf ear to the
old, selfish, nervous cry that to educate and civilise the
native races of the world is to precipitate our own
destruction. We must listen rather to the eternal
truth and wisdom of the words which bids a man lose
his life and thereby the more effectually save it.

And yet — and this I cannot repeat too often or too
strongly — to adopt this attitude is not to urge that at
the present time in South Africa — or elsewhere — wholesale
political rights should be granted to black and coloured
men, the large majority of whom are quite unfitted
for them. It is little short of criminal to imagine that
to toss a vote to an ignorant native is henceforth to be
relieved of all responsibility towards and about him.
The whole point of the long argument I have endeavoured
to set forth is that in a great many respects democratic
institutions, as we understand them, are quite unfitted
for the native in his present transitional stage. Every-
thing depends, however, upon the spirit in which certain
proposed modifications of democratic practice in respect
of the native are put forward. If such modifications

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 339

are but thinly veiled attempts to rob him of his vote
and political rights in order artificially to protect the
white man, the situation remains in its old paralysing
condition of deadlock. But where public opinion is
really humane and fair, and men are seeking for solutions
in a spirit, not of hardness and prerogative but of
disinterested effort, very considerable modifications of
democratic practice can then be made with advantage
to the community as a whole.

One of the worst evils of the school of repression
is that it creates a situation which can only be dealt
with by rigid methods of government, whereas flexibility
is the first condition of successful native administration.
When thinly veiled efforts are set on foot to exploit
the native, one section of public opinion will always
be roused, and the Imperial Government becomes as
restive as the chorus in a Greek play. The atmosphere
so created is mischievous all round, and there is nothing
for it but to adhere to the strict letter of an often
unsuitable law because there is no alternative, in the
lack of an adequate public opinion, which may be relied
upon to safeguard those just rights which the native may
claim from us — rights, be it noted, suited to his own
needs, not necessarily rights suited to ours. We shall
always find in the long run that the best interests of
black and white cannot really be separated in a land
where they live side by side, and that the path of honour
for the one must be the path of peace for the other.

Segregationists like Mr. Maurice Evans are of opinion
that only by a complete separation of the two races can
each develop on worthy lines, and that we should seek
to work out our practical policies on that principle. I
have already expressed my belief that whether or not
desirable theoretically, the actual social and economic

z 2

340 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

conditions of South Africa render any such scheme of
separation an impossibility. Black and white are
scattered together all over the country, and no one
proposes that the black man should not be at liberty to
work for the white man. He is to come to our towns
and industrial centres and absorb all that is worst
in our civilisation, but he is to be warded off from any
other contact with us. I do not know how segrega-
tionists propose to deal with the political rights of the
educated natives, but presumably they would have rights
of self-government in the reserved native areas. Where
these new areas are to be created is a question to which
the map of South Africa at present affords no reply.
1 Create a great black area in Northern Rhodesia,' says
one, a proposal about which it would be interesting to
hear the views of the Chartered Company ; ' Put them
in the Bush Veld ' says another, and the Transvaal
hastily disclaims any possibility of welcoming such
neighbours even in its most hot and unhealthy districts ;
' Put them in the Bechuanaland Protectorate,' says
a third, and the Imperial Government politely remarks
that the general fertility of that district would hardly
justify the encouragement of any wholesale schemes
of immigration. So it goes on. The whole subject
is allowed to drift, while few men have the courage
frankly to face the situation and realise that whatever
the merits of segregation as a half-way house, segrega-
tion can never be a final solution of the position of the
educated native. It is impossible to rear the Common-
wealth on two separate sets of foundations. It rests on a
basis of civilisation, and men who are qualified under
the test of civilisation cannot be excluded from its life.
Once that fact is accepted frankly and freely, once the
native realises that though the way may be difficult

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 341

yet the door is left open, then we can turn our attention
usefully to the evolution of a system in which such
novel elements can be accommodated without peril to
the welfare of the whole.

We saw in Chapter XV what is the actual status of the
native in the different South African provinces, and that
the question of native f franchise was left in statu quo by
the National Convention. The present compromise may
persist, as I remarked, for a long time, but sooner or later
it is bound to break down as the natives grow in wealth
and intelligence in other parts of the country besides
the Cape Province. The fear which haunts many
South Africans of a swamping of the white vote by the
black and coloured vote is both intelligible and justifiable.
No white race can be expected to contemplate with
equanimity, under a system of responsible government,
that the balance of electoral power should pass from
their hands into those of men but recently emerged from
savagery. To do so is to run unnecessary risks with the
foundations of society. The experience of the Southern
States shows that no white race will tolerate such a
situation, and that where political rights are thrust on
black men long before they are fit for the exercise of
such prerogatives, the white race will by fair means or
foul keep the power in its own hands and thus safeguard
its political institutions. There can be no difference of
opinion among sensible men that the native should be
excluded from political privileges until he has given
some real proof of his power to use them wisely. Any
other course is unfair to himself — a fact not always
remembered by some of the less wise of his friends. He
becomes at the worst an object of the crudest political
exploitation, at the best a laughing-stock which
discredits the very name of democracy. Democracy

342 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

cannot wash its hands of him by the gift of a vote and
the regulation of a little political patter. Democracy,
to those of us who believe in it, is a spirit rather than a
system. It is a fatal mistake to seek to stereotype its
condition for all ages and circumstances. We must be
content over and over again to work out new systems in
the light of new experience, and to avoid the intellectual
sloth which acquiesces in the thought of the past without
seeking to make any contribution to the thought of the
present.

Is it possible in South Africa to arrive at any sort
of plan which will adjust the political relations of black
and white on lines less uneasy than those which at
present obtain ? We have seen in the two preceding
chapters that the white race, if it takes a long view of
the health of the State, will assist and not discourage
civilising influences for the native. But if every
encouragement is to be given to him to improve his
position, both as a man and a workman, obviously his
claim as a citizen must follow in due course. Are we
prepared to recognise that claim; and if so, in what way ?

A very elementary study of native affairs in South
Africa drives home the conclusion that no one system
can possibly meet all the difficulties of the situation.
We are dealing with barbarians at one end of the scale
and with educated men at the other. Roughly speaking,
the elements concerned range themselves into three
large groups, each requiring totally different treatment.
There is first the raw savage, for whom good personal
government is the only possible system ; there is next
the native of the transition stage, the man who has learnt
to read and write and may possibly have come under
Christian influences. He is neither wholly savage nor
wholly civilised, and for him political segregation of the

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 343

Glen Grey type, with areas of local self-government,
is a very good plan. Finally we have the civilised and
educated native living under European law and con-
forming in all respects to European standards. From
this man political privileges of the European type can-
not be withheld, though in view of the recent date at
which he has emerged from barbarism we have a right
to exact an adequate test from him as to his fitness for
citizenship.

It is not possible to consider the problems of these
three groups without realising how profoundly the needs
of the black man differ at times from those of the white ;
and also how impossible it is, so far as government is
concerned, to force them all into the same mould.
Specialisation and differentiation are required all along
the line. Good paternal government is a form of
administration for which the Anglo-Saxon race has
shown a special genius. Slow, unimaginative race
though we may be, nevertheless it is our special pride to
have reared up a type of native administrator who, all
over the world, has made the Lex Britannica intelligible
to subject races. This has been done in the main
through two great qualities — truth and justice. In this
first and easiest stage of contact the personal equation
of the native administrator is the all-important factor.
When it is satisfactory, the less he is hampered by
administrative regulations the better. Bureaucratic
rule and red tape may irritate the European ; they
dumbfound the native, to whom they are absolutely
inc omprehensible.

The Natal Native Affairs Commission of 1906-1907,
which examined with such admirable candour the
causes of the Natal Rebellion, stated emphatically that
the natives in this particular province were over-

344 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

administered and ignorant of many of the laws affecting
them. We are apt to complain of the various ways in
which the presence of the native is inconvenient to
ourselves. We show less imagination in trying to
realise in what ways our presence may inconvenience
him. It is easy to talk of our great governing mission
to weaker races, who are at the best disorganised children,
a task which to our credit we always recognise when
we establish ourselves among an alien people. But as
Sir Sidney Olivier again remarks with the same dry
humour which characterises his book, ' the white man
does not come to the black treating him as a child. He
either comes to him setting up an industrial relation and
calling for him as a labourer, or setting up a State
and calling on him for taxes/ We come into his country
seeking our benefit, not his ; our motive is commerce,
expansion, self-interest, not altruism. And though
there are many evils, such as plague, war, and famine,
which we check and control, others of a more insidious
character are bound to follow our advent. The dis-
integration of family and tribal life, which results
from the presence of the white man, fills the native
partly with recklessness, partly with despair. The rough-
and-ready systems of government he has known crumble
before his eyes,andin theirplace a remote, unsympathetic,
incomprehensible force is established which harasses
him in various ways. New laws, new restrictions,
new demands for rent and labour and taxation, perplex
and confound him. With patience and trouble these
measures, if just, can be explained to him, but where
the personal explanation is lacking the case of the
native is indeed parlous. The very evils from which
we save him had their joyous side, such as war and
slaughter, and he finds it not a little hard to be cut

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 345

off from excitements of this kind. The seat of
authority from whence these demands spring commands
neither his understanding nor his respect. Abstract
conceptions of government lie beyond his ken ; all
that he can grasp is the personality of the men who
are responsible for carrying out changes so strange
and so unwelcome. Hence, as the Commissioners
pointed out, a growing chasm between the races, com-
bined with an attitude on the native side of distance
and distrust. The breakdown of the tribal system is
commonly lamented in South Africa, but the passing
of the tribal system is inevitable with the spread of
European settlement. It is bound up with some of
the worst and most demoralising of native customs, and
however gradual the change, it is generally recognised
that the old order cannot be maintained on its present
lines. But as it breaks down it is essential to remember
that for a long time to come any system which replaces
it must reckon carefully with the feudalistic traditions
on which native social life has been built up, and above
all with the factor of personal influence personified
in the chief. That is to say the new system must be
moulded on what was best and most helpful in the
old. No sweeping changes in the tribal system are
contemplated in South Africa ; the process of silent
disintegration is being carried on rapidly enough. But
as the power of the chief wanes that of the native
commissioner will grow, since for many years to come
the native, to be successfully governed, must be brought
in contact with a personal influence as real as that
of his former rulers, but an influence it must be hoped
of an altogether higher type. It is to this personal
and sympathetic influence of the European officials that
we must look to carry the native through the difficult

346 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

period of transition. His future turns on vesting it
in the hands of men whose standards and methods
will lead him little by little to a new conception of
himself and the social order to which he belongs. It
on this element of personal rule that the Natal is
Commissioners insist over and over again in the course
of their remarkable Report, and their opinion in this
respect will be upheld by every student of the question.

The first business, therefore, of a vigilant Government
who are seeking the welfare of the native races under
their rule is to secure men of high character, capacity,
and sympathy for all posts concerned with native
administration. Such men must be just, humane,
courteous, accessible. They exist in large numbers
in South Africa, and the peace of vast coloured areas
in different parts of the country is in a large measure
the work of their hands. Harsh judgments of the
native seldom proceed, so far as my experience goes,
from the native commissioners. The accusation too
often brought against them is that they ' think native/
which means that their minds are not weighted with
the prejudices of the heedless and the ignorant. They
know their subject and they know their men, and
their views seldom coincide with those of the baser
adherents of the school of repression.

One change in native administration is very desirable,
though it is a change repugnant, if not actually alarm-
ing, to the sense of the average Englishman. There can
be no question whatever that so far as dealing with
native crime is concerned our whole judicial system is
out of place. The forms of trial which we use, and
rightly use, in dealing with white men are often inade-
quate and incomprehensible when dealing with the black.
It is one of the points where we require to depart from

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 347

the letter of democratic usage in order to achieve its
spirit. The native requires something far more direct
and simple than the English methods of prosecution
and defence. Our law of evidence, as applied to cases
of Kafir crime, murder, and witchcraft, is wholly
inadequate. Many a ruffian escapes on a technicality,
especially in the difficult cases where witchcraft is
concerned. The criminal returns to his kraal, where
the facts are perfectly well known, and his position is
stronger than before, inasmuch as he brags openly that
he has cast a spell over the court and is free, thanks
to the power of his magic. In the Pretoria district it
is known that children have been murdered in pursuance
of the blackest rites of witchcraft, and yet the murderers
escape scot-free under the present system.

So far as crime is concerned, the native mind moves
on planes where European systems of law cannot
possibly follow it. When I was in Bulawayo seven
men were charged with the murder of an old woman
whom they had taken and deliberately beaten to death.
They made neither apology nor excuse for their conduct ;
the woman was a witch, so they said, and had been the
death of some of them already — would have been the
death of them all if they had not cut her career short.
It was quite impossible to make them believe that their
action was other than meritorious and in the public
interest. The murderers were condemned to death with
a strong recommendation to mercy. Obviously there
could be no question of capital punishment in such
a case. But the incident is instructive as showing that
justice for the native may be hampered, not promoted,
by rigid adherence to those legal forms which were
evolved under different climes and for other civilisations.

Simple, direct personal rule — such is the need of the

348 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

native in his aboriginal state. That condition, however,
is passing daily, for the growth of education, to which
I have repeatedly referred, is transforming the whole
situation and is stirring the native consciousness to
an extraordinary degree. The transition stage between
savage custom and civilised practice is better provided
for under the den Grey system than any other.

The Glen Grey Act propounds a system of local
self-government in native areas where the progress of
the population justifies the experiment of associating
them with the management of their own affairs. The
Act provides for a system of allotments held under
individual tenure, and the establishment of district
councils with local rating powers which are responsible
for education, the construction of bridges, roads, &c,
and other local matters within the area. Eighteen
such District Councils at present exist in the Transkei,
as well as a General Council which is the governing
body for the whole area. Experience has led to certain
modifications both of the system of tenure and entail,
and also of the actual management of the councils.
But the broad principles of the measure are firmly
established in South Africa to-day, and are universally
regarded as admirably adapted to the end in view.
The communal system of land tenure among natives
which characterises the tribal system is wasteful and
unproductive, and provides no incitement to individual
effort. Individual tenure gives the native a more
direct and personal interest in agriculture, and develops
his sense of responsibility. The District Council and
the General Council are under the direction of European
officials, but on such boards the native is provided
with an outline of civilised administration, and learns,
so to speak, the rules of the game. The peace and

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 349

order of these large Transkeian districts are the best
testimony to the success of a system which is one of
the greatest memorials to the genius of Cecil Rhodes.
The introduction of Glen Grey methods, both in Natal
and Rhodesia, are developments earnestly to be desired
in the near future. It is true, as pointed out by the
writers of 'The South African Natives,' that the Cape
Province has been in a better position to deal with this
question than Natal, inasmuch as the bulk of its native
population is accidentally segregated in the Eastern
districts at a long distance from the big centres of
European population. In Natal, on the other hand,
large native areas are in close proximity to the towns,
a circumstance which complicates the relations of
black and white to a serious degree. But the old
moral crops up here, as elsewhere — leave the native
to struggle on alone without help and guidance, and
he becomes far more perilous as a neighbour than when
he is being taught the elements of civilisation and
self-respect.

Under the Glen Grey system natives do not exercise
the franchise, a circumstance which excites criticism
in certain quarters. The whole question of electoral
rights bristles with difficulty, and solvitur ambulando
is the only principle which can be applied to them.
Here again we must look to the spirit rather than to
the letter of the law. Where natives are being trained
and civilised under the Glen Grey or some kindred
system, where administration is being carried on
with a view to their welfare, broadly speaking I for
one do not feel that the restriction of the franchise is
a real grievance. The more thoughtful and educated
natives must appreciate the very natural reservations
on the part of the white man to any wholesale

350 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

admissions of a black race to the franchise. This is,
after all, to reap in a field where the native has neither
sowed nor tilled ; to acquire the fruits of civilisation
without the long disciplinary processes through which
the white democracies have passed. Whatever the
future may hold, for the present the white man must
rule. He alone is strong enough to battle with the
situation. The whole difficult point of discriminating
against a respectable native and yet allowing a worthless
white to vote, turns on the different hereditary values
which each brings to the situation. Behind the worth-
less white stand nevertheless the accumulated civilising
influences of centuries ; behind the respectable native,
the accumulated influences of centuries of barbarism.
It is only, therefore, little by little that this new element
can be absorbed safely into the white commonwealths.
It is at this point that we are justified in demanding
from the native a real test of fitness and capacity before
we call him to our councils. To give him at this stage
of the proceedings any sort of preponderating influence
in them would be as undesirable for him as for us.

This brings us to the third class of natives, those
who have parted with the last remnants of the old bar-
barous life so far as its outer framework is concerned
— men of education who are living under European law
and according to civilised standards. The mixed
property and educational qualification in the Cape
Province can be easily complied with by an intelligent
native, and though certain natives are not only
educated but highly educated, it is impossible not to
feel that, as time goes on, a class of quite unsuitable
voters may be created who nevertheless can hold
house property to the value of £75, be in receipt of a
salary of £50, and achieve a little dictation and reading.

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 351

That many semi, or indeed quarter, civilised natives are
at present enfranchised in the Cape Province under
this plan is indisputable. It may be said that many
of the poor whites are no better qualified, and may
be less desirable as citizens, but for the reasons already
stated it may be claimed that the poor white starts
from a different standpoint. If this objection as
regards the poor white is pursued to its logical con-
clusion, the question of the native vote is left in hopeless
confusion. Common sense, not logic, is necessary to
meet the point, and common sense justifies the adoption
of a special standard of fitness in the case of the native.
One fact becomes obvious when one is dealing with
the franchise regulations of a mixed population in
varying degrees of civilisation. Whatever the merits
of one man one vote as a principle applied to great
white democracies, the same principle is not desirable
when applied to such conditions as exist in South
Africa. The experience of the Southern States in
this respect points in the same direction. Universal
franchise and the celebrated ' fifteenth Amendment
to the Constitution ' broke down completely as applied
to black and white alike, and by a series of devices
the existing electoral system in the negro districts is safe-
guarded by both property and educational restrictions.
A property qualification is of course repugnant to
the sense of many English people, to whom man-
hood is the basis of franchise. I can only repeat we
must adopt such methods as most truly attain the
end in view, namely the liberty and self-expression
of the individual. Where the conditions are novel and
difficult we must be prepared to recognise that the
principle, and the sound principle, of one land may be
the hindrance of another. Manhood suffrage is clearly

352 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

impossible for the black man ; to adopt it is only to
involve the whole democratic principle in hopeless
confusion and widen the cleavage between the two
races. Nothing is more cruel than to give the native
an abstract privilege and then adopt every possible
means to see that he does not use it. Such a process
is demoralising and embittering for black and white
alike. For this reason it is impossible not to regret
that the electoral situation, both in the Transvaal
and Free State, was complicated, as unquestionably
it has been complicated, by the establishment of man-
hood suffrage on the grant of self-government. This
was done, no doubt, to bring the new order in line with
the old system of the Republics under which every
full-grown man was a burgher. For the moment no
difficulty arises ; but whenever the question of the
electoral status of the native has to be faced by the
Union Parliament — and this must arise sooner or
later — manhood franchise in the Transvaal and Free
State will prove a great stumbling-block in the way
of any attempted adjustment. It is always a mistake
to dot the * i's ' and cross the * t's ' of any difficult situa-
tion too vigorously. True statesmanship lies in fitting
the black and coloured vote into our system without
too much friction for the Europeans and without
emphasising disabilities too forcibly for the native.
And for this reason a property, and above all an
educational, qualification becomes essential.

There are two ways by which the native vote
could be dealt with in South Africa. The one is by
following the present Cape system, <plus a more definite
test, in the case of the native or coloured man, that
such a voter is really living according to civilised
standards. It would not be easy to devise such a

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 353

test, which probably would require a judicial tribunal
before whom the native would be called upon to make
good his claim for citizenship. This is the method
suggested by Lord Selborne in his address to the
Cape University, to which reference has already been
made in Chapter XIV, and on the whole it seems the
best plan available. It may be urged that such tests
are harsh and discriminating, to which I can only reply
that discrimination is necessary and need not be harsh.
Everything obviously depends on the spirit in which
such discrimination is carried out. Even a difficult
test, so long as it is fair and honest and administered
in a just and generous spirit, should prove less daunting
to native ambition and less wounding to native pride
than the grant of unreal privileges, which by one device
or another he is not allowed to enjoy. In the one case
he knows that to prove his capacity is to win an
honourable reward frankly granted ; in the other,
whatever his merits, he is always haunted by the fear
that some effort may be made to rob him of the fruits
of his labours. Any electoral system which, as between
black and white, is bound to lead to trickery, is the
system of all others to avoid. It is a sham, and a
sham which creates exceeding bitterness. But such
a situation is bound to arise when votes are granted in
a haphazard manner to natives. The end in view is to
see the native happy, free, self-respecting, developing
his powers of intelligence, independence, and citizen-
ship. He may possess a vote and have none of these
realities. But on the other hand such realities may
be achieved for him outside the parliamentary franchise.
The second method for dealing with the native vote
is to divide the country into so many coloured con-
stituencies returning|special members, and give the

2a

354 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

black man votes in these areas alone. This is the
system recommended by the Native Affairs Com-
mission of 1905, and a recommendation coming from
such a body must have much weight. Unquestionably
such a plan of electoral segregation avoids many of
the most undesirable forms of political contact between
black and white. The native votes in his own con-
stituencies and for his own candidates, and he is not
flung into any sort of general electoral competition
with the Europeans. Very unsatisfactory features prior
to Union had already developed in the eastern districts
of the Cape Province where, as the Commissioners
pointed out, the native vote controlled the situation
in no fewer than seven constituencies. No one will
pretend that the spectacle of European candidates
going cap in hand suing for the native vote is other
than most unedifying. It leads to a great spirit of
rivalry and antagonism in all districts where the native
vote is powerful, and such a process, if it were to spread
over the country, would produce in time an intolerable
situation. On the other hand the system of separate
voting is an unsatisfactory one in many respects for
the native. The number of seats allotted for such
purposes would be very small and the constituencies
of unwieldy size. The native voice could make itself
heard through such a channel but its practical influence
on public affairs would be nil. Nevertheless the
1905 Commissioners were of opinion that this plan
would avoid racial strife and would free all questions
affecting the progress of the natives from considera-
tions consequent on their increase in political power —
the point on which so much of friction and jealousy
turns. They held that the establishment of a uniform
political status for the native throughout South Africa

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 355

would be a great gain, and that it would lead to a direct
and continuous exchange of views in Parliament on
native questions.

Whatever the merits or demerits of this plan, it did

not carry the assent of the National Convention prior

to Union, which, as we have seen, left the matter in

statu quo. But the question will have to be faced

in a not remote future, and the harsh doctrines of the

school of repression will not solve the political status

of the native any more than they can solve the other

social and industrial contacts already considered.

South Africa for the moment has not adopted Cecil

Rhodes's view of ' equal rights for all civilised men.'

The whole atmosphere will clear whenever she feels

able to apply that principle with consistency to her

political concerns. The native has to be fitted in

somewhere, either on the lines of separate constituencies

or on those of an adequate test as a voter in ordinary

constituencies. Whatever efforts are made, none is

likely at present to be final. Separate voting may

form a useful bridge at one period ; a genuine test

of civilisation as an ordinary voter, at another. The

situation is changing so rapidly, the developments are

so marked, that the desirable policy of to-day is

antiquated and mischievous to-morrow. We cannot

stereotype any system or any method. Neither need we

imagine that having made a great effort to devise a

plan suitable at one moment, we can henceforth go

to sleep on both ears and give the matter no further

thought. Constant vigilance, constant care, last but

not least an attitude of mind not only sympathetic

but receptive to fresh ideas — these are the essentials

of the situation so far as the white race is concerned.

A suggestion has been put forward for one great

2 a2

356 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

administrative change which has much to commend
it. Many authorities in South Africa, including Mr.
Evans, advocate the creation of a Permanent Board
for Native Affairs, to which Parliament should delegate
a large measure of its powers. This Board would
be composed of members and officials selected for
their special knowledge of native affairs, men of high
character, practical experience, and proved administra-
tive capacity. Such a body would not only be in a
position to revise the existing Code of Native Law —
a very necessary proceeding — and to deal with general
administrative matters ; it would also have very
important functions as regards legislation. One of
the most undesirable circumstances which can arise
in South Africa is that native affairs should become
any sort of pawn in the party game. It is idle to shut
one's eyes to the fact that this process is in evolution
at the present time. The land interest, the liquor
interest, the mining interest, among many others, are
all concerned with the native, and the placating of
great interests in one form or another is a severe
temptation for any government. Uniformity and
continuity in administration are specially necessary
when dealing with natives ; any sort of chopping
and changing as regards policy — often an inevitable
consequence of the fluctations of party government —
bewilders and unsettles them. The situation becomes
still worse when their direct interests may be sacrificed
owing to party exigencies. The more personal and
continuous direction of a Native Board in close touch
with their needs would have a very steadying effect on
the tribal and semi-tribal natives throughout the
country, and it would prove a channel through which
the ideas and aspirations of the more educated natives

THE POLITICAL CONTACT 357

could find expression. As regards legislation, it would
be the duty of the proposed Board to subject any
measures for dealing with native affairs to close scrutiny
and examination and report thereon to Parliament,
and similarly to initiate legislative proposals. Such
a proceeding would avoid the danger of sudden legis-
lation being sprung on the native or slipped through
Parliament without adequate discussion. It would
also make for that greater personal element in native
administration which, we have seen, is essential to
success. That remote entity the Minister, who appears
and disappears in so incomprehensible a manner, would
be replaced by a more direct and intelligible authority ;
one, too, whose permanency would reassure the native
mind. Matters for which Parliament has no time could
be dealt with carefully and thoroughly by such a Board,
to whose duties it would fall to render the whole system
of native administration far more elastic than it is
at present. Conditions vary so greatly that a variety
of policies is required to meet them. Ideally the
country should be divided up into administrative
districts of different sizes with policies adapted to the
varying types of civilisation reached by the natives.
Better progress could be made if greater flexibility were
introduced, and the bureaucratic administration of a
department replaced by more personal methods. Such
a scheme would not abrogate the sovereign power of
Parliament ; but by the delegation of these duties
the whole question of native administration would be
raised on to a higher and more efficient plane. Many
causes of friction, too, between the races might be
avoided by the tact and vigilance of such a Board,
one of whose duties of course would be to keep in touch
with all aspects of public opinion on native questions.

358 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

The present troubled condition of political affairs
in South Africa is a very unfortunate circumstance
in view of the great and growing gravity of the native
question. The absurdity of General Hertzog's grotesque
theory about the two streams, so far as English and
Dutch are concerned, is never more apparent than
when we approach the problem of black and white.
Strife between the European races indeed assumes a
fratricidal aspect when we remember the common
task in this respect with which they are confronted.
It will not be easy to the average Boer to adopt a
constructive attitude towards the native. His whole
standpoint is apt to be harsh and repressive, and he
makes little count of any abstract rights of man. But
among the English in South Africa, as indeed through-
out the Empire, a new school of thought is springing
up about native questions — a school at once politic
and humane. Among the States of the Empire Cape
Colony will always rank high for the liberal and
enlightened policy she pursued at a time when the
true wisdom of such a policy was little understood.
Much will turn in the Union Government on the degree
to which the spirit of the South succeeds or fails
to succeed in leavening the crude spirit of the North.
If South Africa as a whole, Dutch as well as English,
is won round eventually to the more constructive view
of native affairs, a change so vast and so far-reaching
would be worth the price almost of the South African
war itself.

359

CHAPTER XIX

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every
virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. We
balance inconveniences ; we give and take ; we remit some rights, that
we may enjoy others ; and we choose rather to be happy citizens, than
subtle disputants. As we must give away some natural liberty to enjoy
civil advantages ; so we must sacrifice some civil liberties, for
the advantages to be derived from the communion and fellowship of a
great Empire. Bubke.

The status of the British Indian within the South
African Union is a very interesting by-product of
those larger racial problems which determine the
social outlook of the country. It is no less interesting
for the flood of light it throws on the ethics of Imperial
responsibility. This question of the political status of
the coloured races within the Empire is a touchstone on
which great issues are going to turn. It is one which
invests the whole Imperial relationship in a novel
and, to some people, a perturbing light. In drawing
attention to the importance of colour questions and
the part they are likely to play in the future of the
British race I do not, of course, underrate the magni-
tude of other aspects of the Imperial relationship. The
British Empire is infinite, not only in its variety, but
in the complexity of the problems to which it gives
rise. But we have all a tendency to speak of the

360 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Empire as though it were concerned merely with the
self-government of white men or the paternal government
of subject races. In both respects the arrival of the
educated native throws a new counter on to the board,
which disorganises all the old-established rules of the
game. With this new counter we have not as yet learnt
sufficiently to reckon, though it must enter into every
calculation as regards defence, trade, organic union, &c.
So far as the Asiatic in South Africa is con-
cerned, not the least striking aspect of the situation
is the curious companionship into which it throws
persons who on other subjects are poles apart. Over
this question the Back Velder and the extreme Jingo
have a knack of falling into each other's arms. It is
only fair to General Hertzog to remark that he is not
unique in his ' in and out ' view of the Empire — an
institution to be made use of when convenient and
repudiated when inconvenient. This parochial view of
national life crops out very frequently among people
to whom the pomp of the Empire is pleasant and
desirable, but the obligations of the Empire are apt
to be irksome. Flag waving or the chaunting of
patriotic songs is a task which makes few demands
on any person's powers of intelligence, let alone those
of discipline and citizenship. To drift without personal
effort of any kind on the stream of a great Imperial
life, the channels of which have been dug by the labours
and sacrifice of others, is an operation of singular ease.
It is one to which we are all prone without realising
either the character or the direction of the current.
But the Empire rightly regarded is not a question of
pomp and circumstance, it is pre-eminently a question
of service and sacrifice. It offers a great life and it
demands great living in return. It offers a fuller

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 361

relationship, a wider horizon, a broader, more compre-
hensive citizenship, and in return it exacts a better,
more generous manhood and womanhood from those
who owe it allegiance. Like all great relationships
it takes its toll in the call to surrender something of
individual life and purpose in order to arrive at a
greater life and purpose. It cannot possibly grow or
endure on any other principle than the subordination
of selfish individual interests to the just claims of that
wider citizenship which is its noblest gift. The essence
of the Imperial relationship, its greatest value as a
moral force, is the corrective it supplies to the tendencies
of national selfishness. It brings to each one of us the
discipline of the family, it strips us of the undesirable
prerogatives of the only child. It is responsible at
the present time for the peace and good government
of a quarter of the whole globe — no mean charge to rest
on the shoulders of any race. To think Imperially
does not mean to think only in terms of armaments,
conquests, and material prosperity. It means anxious
thought as regards a thousand complex social problems
in the government of the diverse races beneath the flag.
It means incessant care as regards the mutual relations
of the scattered whole, and the maintenance among
them of high standards of justice, rectitude, and good
government. From the watchmen set about its walls
must ever come the old probing question of the Psalmist,
' Are your hearts set upon righteousness, 0 ye people ? *
— for without righteousness the foundations of those
walls must crumble. Does the Imperial relationship
make for greater vision, greater sobriety, greater
faith in those who believe in it ? We have to confess
that these qualities are often sadly lacking among
the blatant school of so-called Imperialists. But the

362 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

errors of that school ought not to blind us — as they
blind many people — to the really great ideal which
lies behind the Imperial relationship rightly viewed,
and the power of that ideal should be in the solution
of many difficult problems of government.

To develop the strength and individuality of each
national unit concurrently with the broader life of the
whole : such must be our purpose. But it is a task of
extreme difficulty and one which runs up against whole
cohorts of self-interest and prejudice. Willing though
we are to obtain the advantages of the Imperial relation-
ship, we are less willing to make the sacrifices which,
as I have already said, any fuller life demands. And
subordination of the lesser interests of the parts to
the greater interests of the whole is inevitable if the
Empire is to have any sort of common life. We cannot
have it both ways — all the advantages of a separate
unit with none of the limitations which spring from
being forced to consider another point of view besides
our own. Among the younger nations there is often
considerable inability to consider any point of view
but their own, and this particular form of national
selfishness often crops out among the very people who
are the fair-weather friends of the Empire and are
apt to be most aggressive and intolerant in thrusting
the more blatant forms of Imperialism on their
neighbours. The greater corporate life of the Empire
is either worth having and an ideal for which we are
ready to make sacrifices, or it is not. In the latter
event we should face the issue frankly and be prepared
to renounce obligations and advantages alike. But
to hang on to the Empire for such benefits as it can
offer, and then repudiate it when in return it demands
some yielding up of the individual national will, is

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 363

morally the most stultifying of all processes for any
people. If Imperialism is to be nothing but a system
of organised self-interest, the sooner Imperialism goes
by the board the better. The true glory of the Empire
must be that of the essential morality on which it
rests, and essential morality can make no compromise
with the in-and-out view we have just considered. The
Imperial citizenship is going to be less and less a ques-
tion of pomp and circumstance, more and more one of
difficulty and trial. But in so far as it offers discipline,
it brings a gift worth having ; and rightly viewed as
a great instrument of peace and order, it is an ideal
worthy of a sober-minded citizenship. i

Now the crux of the Imperial relationship, as we
have seen it in the last chapters, is likely during the near
future to lie in the adjustment of political rights between
white and coloured men. We have considered at length
the actual position with which the Government of
South Africa is confronted as regards the aboriginal
population. The Asiatic difficulty is, as I have already
remarked, a by-product of the situation, and not one
of great importance numerically, the total number of
Asiatics within the Union being about 150,000. But
it is of special interest for the many questions it raises
as regards the whole problem of Imperial citizenship
and the reconciliation of the legitimate rights of that
citizenship in different parts of the Empire. The
Imperial Government, the Indian Government, and
the Union Government find themselves brought face
to face over this matter in a very curious and interesting
manner. There could be no better demonstration than
this fact affords of the diversity of races, institutions,
and political methods which find expression within
the bounds of the Empire. And it suggests a conclusion

364 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

no less important: that some common policy, some
common instrument of government, for dealing with
matters which have Imperial as well as local import,
may be the real need of the future.

The chronic labour shortage in South Africa, despite
its large native population, is one of the peculiarities
of the land, and this circumstance led to the introduc-
tion of the first Indian immigrants to Natal in 1860 as
indentured labourers for the tea and sugar plantations
of the lowlands. The climate along the Natal coast
is semi-tropical and not one in which Europeans could
do manual work, but the plantations are valuable
and are a great and growing source of wealth to the
country. Kafir labour being uncertain and unreliable,
the arrival of the Indians was hailed with delight
by the Natalians and for a time all went well. Each
labourer was indentured to serve for five years, at the
end of which period he might either return to India
or reindenture for another term of years. The virtues
of the newcomers were applauded and their industry
and law-abiding qualities made the subject of many
encomiums. Little by little, however, a change came
over this happy state of affairs. In the wake of the
indentured Indian followed a new and superior type
of free Asiatic immigrants, clever, intelligent men who
set up trading operations in the Colony much to the
disgust and discomfort of the European merchants.
Little by little the Asiatic population began to overflow
from Natal into the other colonies. The Natalians
took fright, and in 1894 and 1897 legislation was passed
excluding any Asiatic from the suffrage. The impor-
tation of indentured labour has now been stopped by
the Indian Government, but not before the Indian
element in Natal had reached a total of about 110,000,

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 365

consisting, roughly speaking, of 40,000 Indians, men and
women, under indentures, 60,000 ex-indentured, and
8,000 to 10,000 free population. Both in Natal and
the Transvaal an annual poll-tax of £3 is levied on every
Asiatic who remains in the country after the period
of indenture has expired, and does not reindenture.
The white population in Natal, it should be noted, is
98,114 and the Kafir population 953,398.

The accumulation of this great alien element, in
a colony where the pressure of the black on the white
is already so considerable, was bound to produce grave
difficulties — another instance of the troubles which
attend on any short haphazard policy when the conse-
quences have not been fully thought out. Naturally
it was impossible to confine the operations of the coolies
simply to plantation work. They have overflowed
not only into the other provinces but into other classes
of work, where they have become serious competitors
with the white man. They are formidable by reason
not of their vices but of their virtues. It should also
be added — and the point is an important one — that
as citizens the Indians have proved not only hard
working and industrious, but quiet, orderly, and law-
abiding. During the war they stood loyally and
courageously by the British. In 1899 they were anxious
to take some share in the struggle on the English side ;
and though debarred from any participation in the
actual hostilities, Mr. Ghandi, himself the leader of
the recent agitation in the Transvaal, was active in the
organisation of an Indian Ambulance Corps which did
good service in the field. A thousand Indians, free
and indentured, came forward in response to this call,
and it was a special source of pride to them that, after
the tragic loss of the guns at Colenso, it was an Indian

366 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

contingent which bore Lord Roberts's gallant son when
mortally wounded to the base hospital. A monument
to the Indian stretcher-bearers exists in Johannesburg,
commemorating in English, Urdu, and Hindi their
services and their dead. It is a monument which may-
well excite some curious reflections to-day in view of the
treatment since meted out to the Asiatic population.

Hostility to Asiatic work and influence is a very
strong feature in South African life to-day. But as
frequently happens when the attitude of the Europeans
seems unnecessarily harsh, it is essential to appreciate
the special circumstances of the case and not to enter
into judgment as hasty as the harshness. The English
man or woman without any practical experience of
the pressure of a coloured race impinging at every point
on European life and customs can hardly realise the
irritation, indeed the sense almost of suffocation, to
which contact with such conditions gives rise, let
alone the instinctive racial repugnance which waits
on the whole of this difficult question. The conditions,
as we have already seen, are curiously hostile to the
creation of any sort of dispassionate public opinion,
but if the European attitude seems full of prejudice it
is only fair to realise from what causes that prejudice
springs.

The Asiatic case against their British rulers in
South Africa may be stated as follows. All the
Provinces except the Free State (which bars its doors
resolutely against the introduction of Indians on any
terms) are affected in some degree, and we must consider
their circumstances in detail. It is claimed that
the largest measure of injustice and difficulty takes
place in Natal where the Indian population, as already
stated, numbers about 110,000.

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 367

Natal. — Four classes of Indians are affected in
the Province of Natal to-day.

1. Indentured labourers.

2. Ex-indentured labourers.

3. Free traders.

4. Members of liberal professions : Professors,

Doctors, Lawyers, who are educated men.

Class 1. — The further introduction of indentured
labour, as we have seen, has already been stopped by
the Indian Government, except in so far as it is recruited
from Class 2 or indentures have not run out. This
class, the coolie class par excellence, does not aspire
to political rights, but complains of brutal treatment
from employers and inability to get justice before
the Courts.

Class 2. — This, which is composed of descendants
of indentured Indians, presents in many respects the
hardest case of the whole situation. Born in South
Africa, these men have no ties in India and no rights
in Natal. Neither in the land of their ancestors nor
in that of their birth have they place or lot. They are
free labourers, but as such are subjected to the £3
licence levied on all ex-indentured labourers. The
£3 licence is an impost which falls with great weight
on this class, women being subject to it as well as
men, and members of it have a tendency to become
reindentured in order to escape from the burthen.

Class 3. — It is to this class, that of the Free Indian
traders who have followed in the wake of the indentured
labourers, that the European population takes the
strongest exception. With a lower standard of life, and
in many respects it must be owned a greater standard
of thrift and industry, these men have crushed out
the English trader in many localities, especially the

368 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

small trader in Kafir truck. Such a process was bound
to rouse fierce opposition and jealousy, and attempts
have been made to check the encroachments of Asiatic
competition by the revocation of trade licences however
old and well established. The Indians claim that
this has been done in a harsh and unfair manner and
many men reduced to penury in consequence. The
Indian traders make no demand for the political
franchise, but this class has the municipal franchise.

Class 4. — Class 4 is a very small one, consisting of
the educated Indians who supply the amenities of
life to the Asiatic population. Though men of culture
and refinement, they are subjected to the identical
restrictions laid upon a coolie or a blanket Kafir.
They complain of injurious personal treatment, that
they have to conform to curfew restrictions, may not
enter an hotel, must ride on the outside of the tram-
cars, &c. Like the trading class they have the municipal
franchise, but have been debarred from the parliamentary
franchise since 1895.

Cape Colony. — The Asiatic question in Cape Colony
is not a serious one, about 2500 Indians in all being
scattered over the province. Thanks to the liberality
of the Cape view as regards native questions, these
Indians are in a much better position than their kins-
men in Natal. They have equal franchise rights in
a province which does not discriminate against colour
and they do not work under any system of indenture.
But their trading operations here, as elsewhere, have
excited friction and jealousy, and similar attempts to
those already noticed in Natal have been made to
extinguish their licences.

Transvaal. — Here, from the Indian point of view,
the situation has been the worst of all. It must be

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 369

owned that the treatment meted out to them during
the last twelve years is an astonishingly unsatisfactory
page of history and one calculated to cause considerable
heartburning among those who value the good name
of the Empire.

Prior to the war the position of British Asiatics
in the Transvaal, and the harsh treatment to which
they were subjected, formed a very definite charge in
the indictment of the Kruger regime by the British
Government. English statesmen made eloquent
speeches at the time, in which the wrongs of our
Asiatic fellow-subjects were the theme of impassioned
periods. That since the war Asiatics in the Transvaal
have been subjected to disabilities far more injurious
than any which obtained under Boer rule is one of the
most cynical and inexcusable circumstances of latter-
day history. To use the Indians as a pawn in the
game when they were useful, to toss them aside
subsequently — for such a course there can be no
justification.

Prior to 1899 there were about 10,000 Indians in
the Transvaal. The Boer laws were brutally anti-
Asiatic, no discrimination being made between the
status of an Indian and that of a Kafir. But though
the law was bad, in many cases it was not enforced.
Since the war the situation has disimproved from the
Indian standpoint. In 1907 a new Registration Law
came into force, the main provisions of which were to
exclude the admittance of any new Indians into the
Transvaal, and to enforce rigorous registration regu-
lations, including the finger-print system, on Asiatics
already in the Province. Arbitrary though this action
may appear, it must be added that the Transvaal
Government had reason to complain both of forgery and

2b

370 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

personation as regards many Indians who evaded, and
evaded successfully, the existing regulations. Though
ostensibly immigration was at a standstill it was
claimed — I believe justly — that a subterranean influx
of Asiatics was proceeding steadily. It was determined
therefore to check such immigration with a firm hand ;
and it is also claimed that since the finger-print system
is used by the Indian Government in pension cases,
such a principle of identification was neither novel
nor humiliating. Be that as it may, the Act created
great feeling among the Asiatics, and led to a disturbing
passive-resistance movement being set on foot : 3000
Indians resisted the finger-print regulations and went
to gaol — 5000 of them in the intervening years have
been broken up and disappeared — hence great unrest
and bitterness among the British Asiatics. They claim
to-day that total prohibition of immigation should
not be enforced, that explicit racial discrimination
should not be carried out against them, and that a
maximum of six higher-grade Indians should be admitted
annually to carry on those social services to which
I have already referred. Lord Ampthill, in a striking
preface to a biographical sketch of Mr. Ghandi (the
leading Indian of the Transvaal community and author
of the passive-resistance movement), points out that
under these new regulations Indians for the first time
have been deprived of that legal right of migration
on the same terms as other civilised subjects of the
Crown. In Lord Ampthill's view the Indian com-
munity were struggling ' for the maintenance of a
right and the removal of a degradation/ and he asks
whether we as Englishmen can find fault with them
for such an attitude.

This state of affairs in the Transvaal excited very

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 371

strong feeling in India and led to serious representa-
tions and remonstrances both from the Imperial and
the Indian Government to the Transvaal Government.
Native public opinion in India is a factor which has
to be reckoned with nowadays. It is sufficiently
educated and sufficiently well informed bitterly to
resent any ill-treatment of Indian subjects in any part
of the world. Before the war it was commonly said
that knowledge of the disabilities to which British
subjects were liable in the Transvaal and their inferior
position filtered back through the Asiatic population
to India, and was becoming a source of uneasiness
and unrest. If this was the case it will be readily
understood that grievances affecting Indians themselves
are a matter of very active concern in India to-day,
and also that the Indian Government is in no position
to allow such a state of affairs to pass unchallenged.
Here then we find a most practical illustration of
collision between the needs and interests of two different
parts of the Empire, interests which can only be
reconciled through the submission of both sides to a
broader principle.

A compromise was finally arrived at in 1911 between
General Smuts and the Indian passive resisters in
the Transvaal, under which the Indian community
undertook to suspend passive resistance pending the
repeal of the present Registration Act and the intro-
duction of a new Immigration Act in general terms.
In October 1912, as already described in Chapter I, a
visit was paid to South Africa by the Hon. Gopal
Gokhale, member of the Viceroy's Council, and one
of the most distinguished of Indian statesmen, in
order to examine on the spot the grievances and dis-
abilities of British Asiatics. It is no small matter of.

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372 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

congratulation to the three Governments concerned that
the investigation of this thorny subject was undertaken
by a politician so able and so responsible as Mr. Gokhale.
During the weeks he spent in South Africa, where he
was received with great courtesy by the Union
Government and accorded a very nattering reception
from the responsible bodies throughout the country,
Mr. Gokhale impressed all with whom he came in
contact by his fair and reasonable treatment of the
subject and the real appreciation he showed of the
South African view of the difficulty. ' Mr. Gokhale's
attitude has been perfectly reasonable/ said General
Smuts on November 14, and it is a fortunate circum-
stance that a task of so much difficulty should have
been vested in the hands of a man whose character
and brilliant intellectual gifts are in themselves a
sufficient demonstration of Oriental capacity to
assimilate Occidental culture.

Since Union two efforts were made by General
Smuts, prior to 1913, to carry an Immigration Bill
which would not discriminate against Indians by
name, but in both sessions of Parliament the Bill did
not get beyond the prehminary stage. A third Immi-
gration Bill was finally carried by the Government
during the session of 1913. The principle which the
previous Bills embodied — a compromise acceptable
to the Indian Government and to the South African
Asiatics — was that of checking undesirable immigration,
not by specific racial discrimination but by administra-
tive agency and dictation tests. The Bill, which has
now become law, is in some respects more stringent
than its predecessors. The dictation test (copied from
Australia), though still retained, has been fortified and
preceded by an economic test borrowed from Canada —

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 373

a curious instance of the influence which legislation
in one part of the Empire may have on another. Large,
and indeed autocratic, powers are conferred on the
Government by the new Act, by which any person
may be declared an undesirable immigrant on economic
grounds, and no appeal save on the fact of domicile
is allowed to the Courts. Much will naturally depend
on the spirit in which such an Act is administered, but
its passage through the Union Parliament has given
rise to much criticism and many doubts as to its wisdom ;
politicians of such widely different schools as Mr.
Drummond Chaplin and Mr. Schreiner being at one
in their predictions that the measure would settle
nothing, but only increase the existing dissatisfaction.
Asiatic discontent has certainly not been allayed by
it, and threats of renewed passive resistance are already
audible. The Indians claim that existing rights secured
to them in South Africa are infringed by the Act
which sets up new interprovincial barriers and appears
to invalidate the right of domicile at present belonging
to Indians in Natal. It is more than doubtful therefore
whether any final settlement of the trouble has been
arrived at.

The South African side of the question must now
be considered, and that side, though it may appear
harsh, rests on some very real apprehensions which
cannot be dismissed lightly. South Africa takes its
stand on the undoubted truth that all civilisation in
the land springs from European effort, energy, and
intelligence. It is the white man, alone and single-
handed, who has built up the framework of society
into which the black and coloured man have entered.
The land is the white man's heritage and that of his chil-
dren, and to expose that heritage to the free competition

374 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of a coloured race whose standard of living undercuts
his at every point is to sound the death-knell of
European supremacy. The whole trouble arises from
the fact that the Asiatic lives on a plane far more simple
and, from our point of view, lower than that of the
European. There is no comparison between the living-
wage of the Indian and the European. The housing
accommodation of the former would be condemned
as unfit for the animals of the latter. At the same
time the Indian is thrifty and industrious, and there
can be no question that, unless some check on his free
entry into South Africa is made, whole branches of
trade and industry must pass from European into
Asiatic hands — a state of affairs no one could wish or
commend. The desire of white South Africa therefore
to preserve its racial position when confronted with
such unfair competition is perfectly intelligible and of
itself can only command sympathy.

Obviously, however, everything must depend on the
spirit in which such a situation is met and the practical
methods set on foot to keep Asiatic competition within
bounds. Outbursts of racial hatred and efforts to crush
the Indians by unjust and unfair means can only in the
long run result in the normal harvest of such proceed-
ings— namely trouble and confusion for all concerned.

So far, the general dislike of South Africans to
Indian competition springs from much the same causes
as explain the dislike to native and coloured competition.
But an additional element of difficulty is presented
in this case, which does not arise as regards the native
question proper. These men who are being subjected
to injurious disabilities in South Africa are themselves
citizens of another portion of the Empire ; have a right
to claim the proud title Civis Britannicus sum ; have a

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 375

right to ask by what process of justice or logic any one
section of the Empire can treat the inhabitants of
another as serfs and helots. Unless some adjustment
can be arrived at on this point, Imperial citizenship
becomes a mockery and a dream. The point is no
academic one. In an Empire where there are 370
millions black and coloured men to 60 millions white,
it is bound to be an ever-growing problem. If one
portion of the Empire is to repudiate any sort of re-
sponsibility to the corporate whole about a question
so vital, the future of the Empire becomes impossible.
We fall back at once into the terms of a vicious in-
sularity, a narrow, self-centred nationalism, which
declines to look beyond the margin of its own coasts
when called upon by the demands of the fuller life
of the whole to make certain sacrifices of personal
convenience and interest. The average South African
is not prepared to admit the essentially Imperial aspect
of the whole Asiatic problem. He is apt to remark
hotly that this is a South African question, and he is in
no way concerned with the Imperial side of it. That
attitude is a possible and a comprehensible one, and
it exists elsewhere in the Empire besides South Africa.
But wherever it crops up throughout the Empire it is
desirable to realise clearly that it is only compatible with
complete national independence. It is impossible to
reconcile it with any great and growing corporate
life of the Empire as a whole, the essence of which
implies the subordination of the lesser to the greater
interests.

So long as the corporate life exists it must remain
an elementary duty of one member not deliberately
to manufacture any difficulty for the others. ' If
this Empire was to endure/ said Mr Gokhale with

376 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

absolute truth, * it could only do so on the basis of
justice for all ; it would not endure upon the basis
of selfishness by any particular class or section/ It
is on this nice poise between national and Imperial
claims that the whole policy and future of the Empire
turn. Last, but not least, that Empire cannot hope
to endure unless the white races recognise not only
the difficulties presented by the preponderating black
and coloured elements beneath the flag, but also the
real responsibility which rests upon them as regards
these weaker brethren. If the Empire is but an institu-
tion for organised self-interest, if it refuses to conform
to that great law of the spiritual life by which a man's
loss becomes his gain — in a word, if there is nothing
in it but cash values, its disintegration can only be
a question of time. As rival interests spring up, as
they are bound to spring up along the course of five
diverse national lines of development, they are bound
to come into collision, failing some coherent principle
which will bring them into line.

Now as regards this question of Asiatic immigration,
it is not capable of any hard-and-fast logical treatment
any more than those other difficult aspects of native
affairs which we have already considered. There is no
greater proof of Mr. Gokhale's wisdom and statesman-
ship than his full recognition of this fact. His plea
in South Africa was for an adjustment between the
conflicting claims of the European and Indian popu-
lations, and for justice and greater generosity in the
consideration of those claims. Wisely he made no
extravagant demands. There must be give and take
in the very attitude from which both sides approach
even the question of discussion. So long as educated
members of the coloured races will realise that the bulk

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 377

of their own people are living on a much lower plane
of civilisation than that of the European, so long
as they realise that the European has a natural and
legitimate desire to protect his own standard of
living, such an approach does much to allay European
prejudice.

Further, we must look to co-operation with men
of Mr. Gokhale's type for a general understanding
throughout the Empire of this vexed question of
emigration and immigration. It is more and more
obvious that to throw two races on different levels
of civilisation into political and economic competition,
the one with the other, is a disaster for both. Half
the troubles of South Africa arise from the fact that
she is struggling with diverse standards and diverse
needs. This is not a situation which any states-
man will deliberately provoke, and it is not a situation
into which any country should be allowed carelessly
to drift. Throughout the Empire there are areas
obviously best adapted to European settlement and
political methods ; there are others no less adapted
to the needs of the black and coloured races. At
certain points the areas will touch, and then it is a
question of arriving at the best local arrangement
possible. But that the Empire as a whole should
arrive at some understanding — it is a question for
mutual understanding, not for the rigid enactments
of legislation — as to the direction of emigration and
the areas most suitable for the government and peaceful
development of the respective races concerned, is one
of the most great and urgent needs of a not distant
future. It is essential that such understanding should be
arrived at in a manner which is devoid of aggression or
humiliation for the coloured people ; that the arrangement

378 THE SOUTH AFEICAN SCENE

should be acceptable to them and one in which they will
be willing heartily to co-operate. Areas peculiarly suit-
able for European settlement should as much as possible
be reserved for white men. In so far as European
hostility to Asiatic immigration in South Africa is
concerned with the lower standard of life and civilisa-
tion imported by the coolie, such a principle must
command our sympathy, strongly though we may
dissent from the practical measures set on foot to
crush out such competition. The principle breaks
down at once when the South African refuses to dis-
criminate in any way between educated and cultured
Indians and the coolie labourer on a sugar plantation.
Restrictions justifiable in the one case become humiliat-
ing and grotesque in the other. If the Europeans are
willing to deal fairly and justly with the grievances
of those who claim Imperial protection no less than
themselves, then with a reasonable attitude on both
sides accommodations should become possible leading
to a less tense state of feeling.

Mr. Gokhale remarked fairly enough that there
would have been no Indian question in South Africa
at all if the Natal planters for their own benefit and
convenience had not introduced indentured labour
on a large scale. Having brought Indians into the
country, the material resources of which they have
enormously developed, having allowed a second genera-
tion to grow up who have no birthright either in India
or South Africa, the Natalians cannot repudiate the
obligations incurred. Any other course is to adopt
the policy of the squeezed orange in a very cynical
form. However inconvenient the presence of the
Indians to-day, their circumstances should surely
make some appeal to the inherent justice and generosity

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 379

of a great governing race. On the other hand the
facts of the situation must be no less recognised by
the Indians, as Mr. Gokhale frankly admitted. ' In
making their claims to fair treatment,' he said, * they
must not expect more than that this treatment should
be reasonably satisfactory. It could not be absolutely
equal, it could not be absolutely just even ; but it
must be so far just and humane as to be reasonably
satisfactory.'

The lines of compromise which detach themselves
from this difficult and intricate dispute are, on the
European side, fair treatment* for the Asiatics already
in the country, and, on the Indian side, an undertaking,
tacit or otherwise, that there should be no further
influx of Indian immigration beyond the handful of
educated men who are required annually to make good
any social shrinkage among the Asiatic community. The
trading question is a very difficult one, the Indian
having already captured the Kafir market. On the
other hand it is only this small class of business which
has been lost, and it is interesting to notice that for
larger commercial operations requiring organising power
and ability the Indian has shown no capacity. It is
the old story which runs through every phase of this
question ; when the white man chooses to make good
his position by bringing his superior intelligence to
bear upon it, he has little to fear from competition of
any kind. At the same time no one will dispute his
claim that free Asiatic immigration into South Africa
constitutes a very unfair handicap on European
standards of life, and it is one from which he has a
right to be relieved. If South Africa could be re-
assured as regards the major fear which haunts her
on this question, namely that continued immigration is

380 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

a deliberate ambition on the part of the Indian leaders,
she would in turn be prepared to deal more generously
with the Indians already in the country. Mr. Gokhale's
assurances on this point should do much to facilitate
a peaceable settlement of existing grievances.

As regards unfair commercial competition, there
is no reason whatever why Indian traders should not
be subjected to stringent sanitary regulations which
would make them conform to European standards in
these matters. One of the great complaints made
against the small fruit-trader, for instance, is that his
housing conditions are of a most insanitary kind, and
that fruit and vegetables may be purchased by Europeans
which have been subjected to conditions of dirt and
overcrowding intolerable from the European stand-
point. Sanitary regulations administered in a fair
spirit and in accordance with a standard of civilisation,
not that of persecution, would do much to put the
trading question on a better footing. The sense of
irritation and injustice among the Indians springs
from the fact that at present they feel that tricks and
devices are resorted to for the suppression of their
licence without any regard to fairness and justice.

As regards political rights the South Africans say
firmly that Indians who have no votes in their own
country are not in a position to demand them else-
where. The question of the political franchise affects
a small class alone, and it is a claim which, for the
present, even the educated Indians would be wise to
waive. There is neither logic nor finality in any of
these arrangements, as I have remarked over and over
again. We can only deal in a rough and ready way
with a given situation at a given moment. No other
course is possible with a situation the essential con-

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 381

ditions of which are constantly changing and call
for constant readjustment. The practical question,
in view of the facts, is to arrive at the best measure
possible of justice, freedom, and good government,
and to come as near as may be to that desirable end
with a minimum of friction. The Europeans in South
Africa, outnumbered as they are by the black and
coloured races, are bound to be curiously sensitive on
franchise questions, and to reassure them on that point
is to relax tension. If the Indians are relieved from
many of the harassing restrictions to which they are
at present subjected — such as the £3 tax, the harsh
operations of the Immigration and Registration Laws,
and unfair attempts to suppress their trading licences
— the gain would be so great that they in turn would
be wise, anyway at present, not to press for further
rights which tread particularly on European sus-
ceptibilities. Along these lines it is earnestly to be
hoped that South Africa will arrive at the solution
of a difficulty which unsolved will create trouble for
the Empire, besides reflecting injuriously on her own
good name.

This question of Asiatic competition in European
areas confronts the Empire in Australia and Canada
as much as in South Africa, though the South African
aspect of it has up to the present developed in a more
acute form than in the other Dominions. I have
dealt with this South African aspect at length, not so
much for its local interest but for the reflections to
which it gives rise as regards the great problem of the
political and economic inter-relations of the Empire.
Like other phases of the colour question we are only
at the beginning of the difficulties, and to arrive at
some coherent principle in our own minds for dealing

382 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

with them is one of the first essentials of the situation.
How complicated is the whole theory of citizenship,
national and Imperial, which is involved in the
question, I have endeavoured to show. It has been
shown also that much in the future of the Empire
will turn on the attitude it collectively assumes to the
new demand for rights and recognition among races
we have hitherto regarded as subject. We have given
of our best to those races in the past under a paternal
form of government, but their growing claim to meet
us on even terms is a very different matter and is apt
to stir in each one of us depths of prejudice and resent-
ment. Short of that, the most wise and humane of
men may well ask in profound perplexity in what way
and to what degree it is possible and practicable to
meet this new demand. The white races have white
civilisation to guard and uphold — a trust and heritage
of the first magnitude. Men like Mr. Gokhale who
have absorbed the best side of that civilisation must
be our mediators with their own people in making
it clear that in defending our race integrity we are
defending more than an arbitrary principle of political
supremacy. One thing, however, is certain : if pre-
judice rather than principle takes charge of the
situation, our future becomes precarious indeed. The
Empire cannot shirk this question, which, like the
immediate question within South Africa itself, is bound
to grow more and more pressing. But if each section
of the Empire, when in turn confronted with it, adopts
the standpoint of a selfish parochialism — for it amounts
to that — coupled with policies of injustice and fear,
we are steering straight for the rocks of chaos and
disintegration.

Our prayer must be that the nobler vision of the

THE ASIATIC DIFFICULTY 383

Empire as a world-wide instrument of peace and
civilisation will not fail her statesmen in the great
readjustments which unquestionably lie ahead of us
all ; that the true ascendancy of the British peoples
may rest in the future, as in the past, not so much on
their armaments and their material prosperity as on
their adherence to those principles of justice and
generosity of which any great civilisation, any great
life, national or Imperial, must eternally be the expres-
sion. Videant Gonsules.

384

CHAPTER XX

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE jj

Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, some rush into arms, some
work their way into courts, and the palaces of kings. The husbandman
cleaves to the earth with a crooked plough ; hence the labours of the
year ; hence he sustains the country, and his little offspring ; hence
his herds of kine, and deserving steers. Virgil.

There is no particular which separates the old order
in South Africa more sharply from the new than the
position of agriculture. The Transvaal Agricultural
Department was in a very special sense the creation
of Lord Milner, who recognised from the first that the
permanent interest in South Africa was the land.
Under his administration an impetus was given to
methods of scientific farming which raised agriculture
to a plane unknown before in the Boer Republics,
and proved no less stimulating to the other Colonies.
The results of Lord Milner's far-sighted policy in this
respect are of incalculable importance to the whole
future of South Africa. The war coincided with the
breakdown of the old patriarchal system of farming
in the Boer Republics, and this psychological moment
was seized upon to turn matters into a wholly
new channel. The old-fashioned Boer farmed in the
High Veld during the summer and trekked to the Low
Veld in the winter. Stock raising — and stock of a
very inferior kind, the herds running wild at their

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 385

own sweet will on the veld — was his principal concern.
The farms were of huge size, holdings of 6000 to 8000
acres being common, but practically no use was made
of the land save for cattle grazing. Just enough of
the soil was scratched to produce sufficient wheat
and mealies for the needs of the household. The
Boer farmed purely for himself ; there was no question
of an export trade or fulfilling the exacting conditions
of a strict market. The rise of Johannesburg and
other centres of population found the resources of
the country therefore quite inadequate to meet their
demands in the matter of foodstuffs. Famine prices
obtained, thanks to the total absence of any local
supplies, and before the railway was made the early
settlers on the Rand fared badly. No effort was made
by the Boer farmers to cater for the great market which
had sprung up under their eyes ; they pursued the
even tenor of their way placidly and slovenly as before.
When disease swept down and decimated their herds
they sought to avoid such evils by a trek into another
district — the result of which, generally, speaking was
to spread infection broadcast through the country.
But this primitive method became impossible as dis-
tricts grew more populous, and little by little definite
demarcation of farms took place.

The question of the poor relations settled on the
Transvaal farms was becoming an acute one prior to
the war. Vast though the acreage, it could not under
such unproductive terms provide a living for all the
families who desired to live the simple fife on the High
Veld without effort of any kind on their own part. It
is impossible to say what action this growing difficulty
would have forced on the Republican Government had
the old order remained intact, but we may hazard the

2g

386 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

conjecture, without much fear of contradiction, that a

liberal policy of doles would have been forthcoming for

the relief of indigent farmers. It is no less certain that

such a policy, so far from having any beneficial effect,

would in the long run have aggravated the whole

situation. Inefficiency invariably desires to prop itself

up with protection ; and beyond the imposition of heavy

import duties on foodstuffs and the exemption of the

land from taxation, the Republican Government viewed

the economic problem which was arising with helpless

impotence. Fortunately for the whole future of South

African farming, different principles and methods

supervened after the war. Not doles but first principles

of agricultural development were the keynote of Lord

Milner's work. When the moment of Union arrived

the Transvaal Agricultural Department, on which so

much care had been lavished, became the basis of the

Union Department, and Mr. F. B. Smith, the energetic

director of the Milner regime, its permanent head.

Mr. Smith conducts the large Department of which

he is now Secretary with the same success that marked

his career in the Transvaal. The Union office has hardly

settled into its final place yet after the enormous

reorganisation incident on the pooling of four

agricultural bodies into one, but work of the highest

importance both practical and scientific is already being

carried on under Mr. Smith's direction. The Union

Department consists of no fewer than twenty divisions,

comprising such subjects at Botany, Plant Pathology,

Horticulture, Viticulture, Entomology, Chemistry, &c,

and at Onderstepoort, near Pretoria, the Government

possesses laboratories for the study of veterinary

science and disease more elaborate and complete than

those in any other institution in the world.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 387

The condition of the country at the end of the
war seemed well-nigh hopeless. In the Transvaal
the land was swept bare. Buildings, stock, houses,
had for the most part disappeared. Afrikander cattle,
acclimatised to the country and its peculiar conditions,
had gone the same way. Similarly farm seeds adapted
to the country had been lost. But from this devasta-
tion one good result was to spring. The old agricultural
system was hopeless, and the first condition of more
progressive methods was the clearing away of the
obstacles which strewed the path of progress. This
at least the war effected, and effected thoroughly,
however grim the method. Everything had to be
started afresh; but thanks to the prescience of Lord
Milner, the new start was made on the best possible lines.

I have before me as I write the first Report addressed
by Mr. Smith to Lord Milner in June 1903. It is in
size a modest document, but it is written with the
high faith and spirit which characterised the officials
who were confronted with the appalling task of economic
reconstruction after the war. So far as the former
Government was concerned Mr. Smith pointed out
that the only assistance given by the late South African
Republic to agriculture was a sum of £15,000 distri-
buted among various agricultural societies. The very
foundations therefore of agricultural organisation were
lacking. It is not a little interesting to compare this
slender Report of 33 pages with the bulky volume 663
pages in length which tells of the work of the Union
Department of Agriculture between May 1910 and
December 1911. No less interesting is it to compare
the 1903 Report with the 1913 Union estimate for
agriculture, which show that the activities now under-
taken cover an expenditure of over £600,000. These

2c2

388 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

figures tell their own tale of development. They are
the best answer to the legend industriously circulated
that since Union an effort has been made to destroy
the efficiency of the Department. But it is necessary,
perhaps, to travel far and wide through South Africa
to realise how great is the change that has come over
the land and the degree to which the old slovenly slip-
shod manner of farming has given place to new and
progressive methods. Agriculture, too, is essentially
in the air to-day. I have referred elsewhere to the
relatively unimportant part played by Johannesburg
in South African affairs compared with its former
overwhelming domination. And the fact that mining
questions have retreated not a little into the background
marks one of the most wholesome changes in public
opinion — the realisation that agricultural not mineral
wealth is the permanent basis of the nation's life.

The Boer as a farmer has always been a contradiction.
Passionately attached to the land, he has nevertheless
shown less skill for agriculture than any other race
of farmers in the world. Vast tracts of country given
over to cattle -rearing were, as we have seen, the basis
of the old Boer farming, and little or no attention was
paid to improving the stock. Consequently South
Africa as a whole remained in a state of unproductive
idleness, and the degree to which she still remains un-
selfsupporting in the matter of foodstuffs is, I imagine,
not generally realised. The Union trade returns
show that for the nine months ending September 30,
1912, articles of food and drink to the value of £4,440,550
were imported into the country, a total which includes
the item of £86,091 for corn, grain, and flour, and
£41,966 for meat. These figures reveal a very undesir-
able state of affairs, and constitute a reproach which

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGKlCULTUKE 389

it is the business of the Agricultural Department
little by little to wipe out. Large areas and a small
population make for wasteful farming. Land is squatted
on and sucked dry — not cultivated — and without
proper cultivation no country can provide foodstuffs,
adequate both in quality and quantity, for the needs
of the population. Whether or not South Africa may
aspire to the position of being an exporter of natural
products, she should at least do a great deal more in
the way of feeding herself. Imports of tinned milk
to the value of £35,529 seem peculiarly ironical in a
country where cattle are a primary source of wealth.
At the same time it must always be remembered that
agriculture labours under some very special difficulties
in South Africa, and the important questions of land
settlement and intensive farming must be approached
with great care. Politics have mixed themselves up
with this question as with many others, and an im-
pression is abroad that the Government for political
ends have steadily discouraged immigration and the
settlement of European farmers on the land. What is
seldom realised is that the real discouragement to such
immigration under present terms springs not from the
Government but from the natural conditions of the
country itself. The baffling habit of most South African
problems of standing on their head has to be reckoned
with at every turn. Natural productiveness of a high
order goes hand in hand with animal and vegetable
pests of a virulent kind. What Nature gives with one
hand she is apt to snatch away capriciously with the
other. Prizes and risks alike are great. No country in
the world calls for more rigorous application of scientific
methods to its farming concerns, and up to the present
few countries have had less.

390 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

It is one of the best and most hopeful signs of the
times that the Department over which Mr. Smith
presides is increasingly winning the respect and liking of
the old Boer farmers, and that large numbers of them now
seek for its help and advice. The Department has a
sympathetic and capable Minister at its head in the
person of General Botha, himself a practical and success-
ful farmer. The Prime Minister is never to be seen to
better advantage than among his own flocks and herds
at his farm near Standerton, where, politician and soldier
cast aside, he gives himself up enthusiastically to the
occupation which lies nearest his heart. Hospitality,
patriarchal in its geniality and kindness, reigns in the
roomy stone house near Rusthof, where, out of the
session, General and Mrs. Botha are to be found
surrounded by children, grandchildren, and friends.
An amusing story is told in South Africa as to the
General's practical ability as a farmer. On one
occasion, being in France, he was anxious to pay a
visit to the celebrated Government farm near Ram-
bouillet with a view to purchasing merino rams
for export to South Africa. The French Government
precipitated itself in true French fashion at General
Botha's feet. His personality and dramatic career,
first as a Boer General, then as a British Minister,
appealed in a special degree to their imagination.
Every facility for the visit was at once accorded. The
only point on which the officials had not reckoned was
the practical experience of their distinguished guest
whom they were regarding primarily in quite another
light. But the story runs that the Government authori-
ties of the farm were reduced to complete and entire
despair when after a prolonged examination in the pen
General Botha herded into one corner the six prize

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 391

pedigree rams of France, and then remarked pleasantly
that this was the selection he had made for South
Africa. Compromise on the point had to be effected,
but the Rambouillet authorities are probably a little
shy now of visiting Prime Ministers with a taste for
agriculture.

So far as the conduct of his Department is con-
cerned General Botha has set his face as steadily as
Lord Milner against the policy of doles, and has dealt no
less thoroughly in first principles. Union can point to
no better proof of its value and justification for South
Africa than in the case of agriculture. Once again we
are confronted with the thoroughly artificial character of
the political divisions into which formerly South Africa
was grouped. The disadvantage of disunited States
was never more marked than in dealing with agricul-
tural matters ; nor the opposite advantage of one strong
Department with an organic policy, more obvious.
One unifying element of a very unfortunate character
has always existed in South Africa — the contagious
diseases which sweep through the country without the
smallest regard for political boundaries. Prior to
Union all the colonies were liable to infection one from
another. In the absence of a vigorous and systematic
policy the supine indifference of one State might wreck
the progress and efficiency of another. There was
little encouragement to adopt a progressive policy when
the fruits of that policy were liable at any moment to be
stultified by the carelessness of a neighbour. Yet the
eradication of disease is necessarily the first concern
of South African agriculture. Such banes as horse
sickness, rinderpest, redwater fever, pleuro-pneumonia,
and scab — to name but a few of the many pests — have
resulted in enormous losses in the past, and poisonous

392 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

plants and insect banes are also plentiful. The first
business therefore of an efficient Department was not
to tinker with palliative measures as regards the ravages
of such diseases, but to apply itself vigorously on the one
hand to a study of their origin and possible eradication,
and on the other to show by demonstration and experi-
ment what progressive farming might achieve. Such
principles were very novel to the Dutch population,
and it is much to their credit that many of them
have recognised so fully the value of the new methods.
Mr. Smith's own words on this point are worth
quoting : —

Owing to the comparatively isolated existence led by farmers
and the habits of conservatism and self-reliance which their occupa-
tions and mode of life engender, and also to the struggle which many
of them have in order to make both ends meet, and to the reverses
to which they are constantly liable, it is not surprising that farmers
should be somewhat deficient in imagination and breadth of view,
and that when the possibility of State aid is mooted, their thoughts
turn to some form of direct and immediate relief from the strain to
which they are subjected, such as loans or subsidies, the reduction
of taxation, or the inflation of prices by protective duties and so
forth, rather than to work of a more fundamental character, though
the future prosperity of the industry or possibly its very existence
may depend thereon.1

Under the South Africa Act it was left for Parlia-
ment to decide what functions should be fulfilled by
the Provincial Councils in the matter of agriculture.
The Provinces, as the Report points out, are not homo-
geneous agricultural areas nor do they constitute very
suitable administrative units. There is far more to be
said for grouping areas such as the High Veld, Low

i Paper read at the making of the South African Association for the
Advancement of Science, held at Grahamstown, Cape Colony, July 1908.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 393

Veld, Karroo and Coast Belt together for administrative
purposes, but such divisions do not coincide with the
Provincial boundaries. Administrative decentralisa-
tion, as we have seen, is very necessary in a vast country
such as South Africa, but so far as organisation is con-
cerned the establishment of a single Department for
Agriculture was judged to be best fitted to the needs
of the country. Equality of treatment and uniformity
of legislation — crying needs — can be best achieved
through such a Department, and recommendations to
this effect were made both by the Majority Report
of the Financial Relations Committee and by the
Report of the Public Service Commission, 1911.
Mr. Smith and the Union officials, however, are very
much alive to the importance of administrative de-
centralisation of the kind which not only makes ample
allowance for the variation of local needs, but also
brings farmers and others into close and practical
touch with the work of the Department. This end can
best be achieved by the establishment of Agricultural
Schools and Experimental stations in different parts
of the country, centres of light and learning which
illuminate their own districts.

I visited the Agricultural College and Experimental
Farm at Potchefstroom, which is the largest of its kind
in South Africa. Potchefstroom, distant about eighty-
eight miles from Johannesburg, is one of the most
attractive of the South African dorps. It is a bright,
pleasant little town and remarkable for the number
and variety of the trees with which the streets are
planted. The town dates back to the earliest days of
the Voortrekkers, for this was the first capital of the
struggling Republic, and some fine oaks remain as a
legacy from that period. The Agricultural College

394 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

was started by Lord Milner in 1903 on what was then a
strip of bare veld. Now there are over 4000 acres in
occupation, 240 of that total being irrigated by a canal
from the Mooi river six miles away. Handsome build-
ings, orchards, and plantations have sprung up on what
but a few years since was a windswept wilderness. The
objects of the institution are fourfold : —

1. Education — the training of well-informed, up-to-

date farmers, experienced in the practical and
scientific aspects of agriculture.

2. A Stud Farm, for the breeding and encourage-

ment of pure-bred stock.

3. Experiment and Demonstration, with a view to

improving the yield and quality of crops.

4. A Seed Farm to grow improved and tested

varieties of crops for disposal as seed to farmers.
These objects are being prosecuted with great
energy and success at Potchefstroom under the direction
of Mr. Holm, who has built up the farm from its earliest
days.1 Very satisfactory results are being achieved as
regards the training of young farmers. The College
has sixty-five students, and the demand has already
outstripped the accommodation. It is difficult to
exaggerate the importance for South Africa of this
annual output of trained agriculturalists fitted, as their
forefathers have never been, for dealing with the peculiar
difficulties of the land. The work of the College is not
purely educational. In addition to the stud farm, a
poultry section, a seed farm, a forest nursery, a farm
dairy, orchards, &c, are each in turn carrying on
work or developing produce of a kind which will raise
the standard of crops and live stock throughout a large

l Mr. Holm has recently given up his position at Potchefstroom for
a post in the Agricultural Department.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 395

area. How much this side is appreciated is proved by
the fact that pure-bred stocks and seeds to the value of
between £3000 and £4000 are disposed of annually
to between 500 and 600 farmers. The correspondence
carried on at Potchefstroom is not the least important
side of the work, and the secretarial staff are kept fully
occupied by the needs of over 1000 farmers who write
to the College seeking advice and other information.
Over 2000 farmers visit the institution annually, and
the effect of this spread of knowledge throughout
the country must in time make itself felt all along
the line. I speak of Potchefstroom because I have
seen it, but at Elsenburg, near Cape Town, Grootf ontein,
near Middleburg, Cedara in Natal, Tweespruit in the
Free State, Grootvlei, near Bloemfontein, Lichtenburg,
Ermelo, and Standerton in the Transvaal, similar
institutions exist. Special branches of farming adapted
to the needs of particular districts are carried on at these
experiment stations; Grootvlei, for instance, devoting
itself to dry farming, Ermelo to sheep farming, while
Elsenburg, it is hoped, will become the centre for viti-
culture. Obviously the highest point of perfection
has not yet been reached by all these farms, and no
doubt there is still room for considerable improvement
in practice and method. A farming tradition so careless
and so fatalistic as that of the Boer is not uprooted in a
dozen years by even the most enterprising Government
Department. The readiness, however, with which the
Dutch farmers have availed themselves of these new
opportunities is of good promise for the future.

As time goes on we may hope to see the exports and
imports of South Africa assume a different character as
regards foodstuffs. As it is, the country is miserably
supplied with such necessities as fresh milk, eggs,

396 THE SOUTH AEKICAN SCENE

butter, &c. — fresh milk being practically unobtainable
in many places. I found myself fighting my old battle
against tinned milk as vigorously as before the war,
and in this respect little progress seems to have been
made. Dairy farming, poultry raising, &c, are con-
cerned with the question of closer settlement, to which
I must refer in a moment ; but however irritating their
absence, these amenities of life can only be produced on
any large scale when certain more fundamental obstacles
to South African farming have been removed. A
regular milk supply is an impossibility when disease
may wipe out a herd at any given moment, or when
winter feeding is neglected during periods of drought.
Winter feeding for cattle is a prinicple which has only
recently forced itself upon the attention of the average
South African farmer, and the great drought of 1912
has driven home some hard lessons in this respect.
But nowadays the old-fashioned farmer, who sees his
cattle die off one by one, has it borne in upon him that
such losses do not overtake his neighbour who has
adopted more progressive methods of winter feeding.
In the old days of large, unfenced farms, cattle shifted
for themselves as best they might, and when the veld
was cropped bare in one direction a trek was made to
another district. This primitive system, bad at the best,
has broken down completely now that the age of fenced
farms has supervened and treks to more favourably
situated localities have become impossible. Winter
feeding for cattle is essential if the animals are to sur-
vive the privations of the dry season. Winter feeding in
turn implies silage or hay and a different method of
cultivation for the land. One of the objects to which
all the Government farms devote much attention is the
raising of grasses suitable for acclimatisation in the

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGBICULTURE 397

country. Mexico, a hot, dry country of considerable
altitude, whose natural conditions approximate in some
respects to those of South Africa, has proved a favourable
field for experiment as regards the importation of trees
and grasses. Some Mexican grasses have been estab-
lished and do well. At the Government farm near
Pretoria I was also shown a Saskatchewan grass which
was growing vigorously. The general adoption of
winter feeding will bring about a great change in South
African farming, and the existing scarcity of milk
will be remedied when more attention is paid to dairy
work.

In the meantime considerable patience is necessary
with the limitations of South African farming, in view
of those fundamental obstacles of drought and disease
on the solution of which the future turns. To the up-
rooting of those obstacles, together with the spread of
first principles of scientific organisation, the Agricultural
Department rightly and properly is devoting its atten-
tion ; and for the moment schemes for land settlement are
left aside. The moment for such schemes will come in
time, but the land has to be purged and cleaned before
settlement on any large scale is possible. Some grum-
blers in South Africa give one to understand that but for
the wickedness of the Government, farms might spring
up on the veld with the ease and rapidity with which
a child constructs castles out of a box of bricks. As a
matter of fact, the whole question of land settlement
and intensive farming must be approached with the
greatest caution in South Africa. The subject bristles
with difficulties too often overlooked by the enthusiasts
who discourse so eloquently on the prospects of South
African agriculture. A good deal of wild talk may be
heard — perhaps more in London than in South Africa
itself — about large land settlement schemes which are

398 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

to bring hundreds of farmers into the country. I have
no hesitation in affirming that, for the present, at any
rate, such schemes are quite impracticable, and can
only lead to confusion and disappointment. There is
every prospect that in the future South Africa will
take a high place among the agricultural countries of
the world. For the moment, however, the admirable
motto, ' Chi va piano va sano, chi va sano va lontano/
is the principle to which she must adhere. Considerable
misconception about this point existed during the
Crown Colony period, and the large and expensive
schemes of land settlement set on foot at that time
produced meagre results quite out of proportion to their
cost. The country is not in a position at present to
deal with immigration of the flood type — it can deal
with it, and deal with it successfully, if it comes in by
degrees. Unlike Canada, South Africa is not a great
sponge which can absorb everything which is poured on
to it. Neither is it at present a country well adapted
to the needs of the small man with a small amount of
capital. No parallel of any kind can be made between
the farming conditions of Canada and South Africa.
Many people ask in surprise why immigration to the
one country is not as feasible as to the other. To
which an answer must be sought in the wholly different
circumstances of the two cases. Canada is essentially a
poor man's country. A farming man who can scrape
together £180 to £200 capital — and this feat is not im-
possible in Canada between savings, loans, and the
easy terms provided — can take up his quarter section
of 160 acres, grow wheat, and make a living off it. No
such operation is remotely possible in South Africa.
The presence of the native dislocates, as we have seen,
the whole position of unskilled labour, agricultural as

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGKICULTURE 399

well as industrial, and casts a more aristocratic tinge on
farming. There is no one crop which can be grown
with the regularity and continuity of wheat in the
Canadian North-West, and with so sure a prospect of
profit. South Africa has not passed out of the stock-
rearing stage : holdings generally speaking are large
in size, ranging from 1000 to 3000 or even 6000 acres,
and few people would be well advised to come into
the country without at least £1000 of capital. Animal
and vegetable pests, as we have seen, are not as yet
wholly surmounted, and until this happens closer
settlement schemes must necessarily remain in abeyance.
' Our first business is to set our house in order ' was the
remark made to me by one of the leading agriculturists
in South Africa ; ' the risks are at present too great for
the small man. We must get rid of the pests, develop
the large holdings, and then small holdings and inten-
sive culture will come along in their wake. But for
the moment we cannot force the pace, and any such
attempt would be folly/

The great laboratories at Onderstepoort near Pretoria,
to which I have already referred, are devoted to research
work as regards animal disease throughout South and
Central Africa. Dr. Theiler, a Swiss expert formerly
in the service of President Kruger's Government, is at
the head of this establishment. He has under him a staff
of between thirty and forty assistants and the labora-
tories receive a grant of £50,000 annually. Infection,
as we have seen, is no respecter of boundaries, and the
scourges which sweep down from the tropical regions
in the north have to be watched with the greatest
vigilance by these scientific Keepers of the Marches.
These men bending over the microscopes and test-tubes
in their quiet laboratories hold the agricultural, and to a

400 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

large extent the political, future of South Africa in their
hands. Behind their yea and nay lies the destiny of
races. Horse fever, East Coast fever, rinderpest, tsetse
fly — all these and many other scourges, in the ultimate
issue, reduce themselves to the power of these patient
investigators to deal with the revelations of the smears
on the glass slides before them. To wring the secret
from one drop of blood or from the cultures of bacilli
flourishing in their bottles of bouillon is to be in a
position to hunt down disease and throw open areas
otherwise closed to European settlement. East Coast
fever and horse fever have already been successfully
treated at Onderstepoort ; science, it may be said, has
routed the anopheles and solved the problem of malaria.
But the tsetse fly still baffles research, and a cure for
its ravages has yet to be found. Sleeping sickness
remains one of the gravest problems with which Central
Africa is confronted, and neither prevention nor cure
for this dire disease has yet been established. I was
shown the bacillus of this dread scourge on a smear
through a microscope — a wriggling red thread of most
objectionable appearance. The system of vaccina-
tion for East Coast fever discovered at the laboratory
has proved capable of immunising 60-70 per cent, of
the animals subjected to it. The inoculation of mules
against horse sickness has also been attended with
considerable success. Serum vaccines, &c, are issued
for inoculation against the various types of disease ;
and farmers, if their animals develop suspicious ill-
nesses, can send a blood smear to the Laboratory which
is reported on by the pathologists. Some 5542 smears
and pathological specimens were investigated during
the last period (1909-10) covered by Dr. Theiler's
report. A large stock of animals is kept at the

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGKICULTUKE 401

Laboratory for inoculation purposes — a somewhat sad
and sorry sight many of them present in the various
stages of sickness and cure. But on the sufferings of
the few the safety and the health of innumerable cattle
depend, a somewhat strange and suggestive instance of
the universal character of vicarious pain. The Onder-
stepoort Laboratories are of world-wide fame, a result
largely due to the character of the remarkable man,
Dr. Theiler, who is at their head. It was not pleasant
to hear that the one Agricultural Department which
shows neither sympathy nor interest in their work
is the Department at Whitehall. While the Onder-
stepoort establishment is in close touch with foreign
institutions of the same kind, there is no link or corre-
spondence with the home department. I heard the
Olympian attitude of the English Board of Agriculture
subjected to some very sharp criticisms at Pretoria, and
it is a criticism to be doubly regretted by those who
believe that the bonds of Empire are of a personal, not
a commercial, kind.

The great difficulty to be solved in South African
farming, next to disease, is drought. The question of
water is a very pressing one and affects the prospects
of agricultural settlement at every turn. South Africa
is but poorly supplied with rivers. For months no
rain falls ; then devastating storms sweep over the
country, when an enormous amount of water runs to
waste in a very few hours. The average rainfall in
some parts of South Africa is not far short of the total
average rainfall in England. But whereas we receive
our rain distributed over the twelve months with a
continuity and regularity which at times proves highly
exasperating, South Africa, with her wanton tastes,
either for a feast or a fast, crowds it into a few days or

2 D

402 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

weeks, and then gives herself up to sunshine and dryness
for the rest of the year. The high plateau of the interior
does not make for the conservation of moisture. Water
runs off such a plateau and rivers cut deep into it.
Such streams as exist therefore are for the most part
sunk at considerable depths and their overhanging
banks make them of little use for practical purposes of
irrigation. During the rainy season, however, these
attenuated streams become swollen to the dimensions
of a torrent, and the conservation of this floodwater
is one of the most urgent questions in South African
farming. Dry farming is carried on successfully over
large areas, but closer settlement and intensive culture
both imply irrigation. Irrigation in turn demands
water on a large scale, since between half and three-
quarters of a million gallons of water are required to put
one acre under crops. It also means the power to
distribute water with regularity, for intensive culture
cannot be conducted by spasms — a deluge one day and a
trickle the next.

The question as to whether South Africa as a country
is more dry than in the early days of European colonisa-
tion is one often propounded, but no very satisfactory
answer to it is forthcoming. People of long experience
talk in general terms of greater drought and the drying
up of river beds. But there are no definite figures to
confirm these statements, and the rainfall statistics, so
far as they are available, do not show any decrease
in the average. The question of afforestation and
of the wholesale destruction of timber is a different
matter. The process which doubtless in years past
has gone on in the territories comprised by the
Union may be seen to-day in operation in Rhodesia.
The destruction of timber to provide fuel for the mines

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 403

is lamentable, and the great stacks of wood at such
places tell their own tale. Much of the Rhodesian
timber, especially the predominating M'Sasa, is not of
good quality, but it serves the natural purpose of con-
densing atmospheric vapour and checking the loss of
soil moisture ; functions which cannot be fulfilled unless
afforestation follows hard on the wake of demolition.
Mr. William Macdonald, the able Dry Land Agronomist
of the Agricultural Department (more tersely and
generally known as f Dry Mac '), writes strongly on this
question of deforestation in the Union Blue Book.
He takes the view that the aridity of Bechuanaland
and the Cape North- West is due to the persistent cutting
down of trees by natives, pioneers, and settlers ; and
that this destruction is primarily responsible for the
drying up of such rivers as the Molopo and the Kuruman.
' This is a matter of national importance/ he writes,
* and calls for much more vigorous action on the part
of the Forest Department than has been adopted in the
past. Afforestation is much more vital than either
dry farming or irrigation. The desert country of the
Union will continue to increase so long as the native
trees are ruthlessly destroyed. We preserve the game
of the desert but we pass no laws for the protection of
the trees of the desert. Yet plantations are surely of
far greater value to the nation than hordes of royal game/
It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Forestry Depart-
ment of the Union will bring all their energies to bear
on this subject, though in so vast a country as South
Africa it is almost impossible at this stage to make good
the ravages in which carelessness and lack of foresight
have resulted.

The question of the storage of underground water
is another disputed point which has much bearing on the

2 D 2

404 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

future of farming. Dry though the surface land is,
water is always obtainable by sinking a bore hole.
One of the obvious changes from the pre-war days is
the number of windmills attached to pumps which
may be seen all over the country. They dominate
the veld in a curious, almost eerie, way, and as they
creak and turn convey an uncomfortable suggestion of
vitality. One is reminded of Mr. Wells' Martians
terrorising the countryside on their monstrous stilts.
Whether or not the large and increasing number of
wells which are being sunk will have the tendency not
only to exhaust the accumulated underground supplies,
but also will serve to drain the country still more
thoroughly, is a point which gives rise to many uneasy
fears. Here again the question is more easy to ask
than to answer. Statistics must be collected over a
long term of years before any accurate deductions can
be drawn from them, and in South Africa statistics
are in their infancy.

But important though the factor of bore-holes may
be, obviously they can only supply the personal needs of
the farmer and provide his cattle with water. For
irrigation on a larger scale the construction of dams is
essential. The construction of dams has increased by
leaps and bounds since the war. It is striking to notice
up and down the country how frequent now are the
small dams built by farmers on their property : dams,
the presence of which is recognised at once by the
brilliant green fields of lucerne or other crops standing
out in vivid contrast to the dusty veld. But irrigation
on a larger scale is a costly matter and one beyond the
needs of the small farmer, however well-to-do. Never-
theless it is the property of this same dusty veld to
bear good fruit a hundredfold if water can only be

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 405

brought to it. Here the conditions of South Africa
approximate not a little to those of Egypt. Sir William
Willcocks visited South Africa after the war and re-
ported enthusiastically on the potentialities it possessed
for irrigation. But the schemes he put forward were on
so vast and costly a scale that they somewhat alarmed
the various South African governments, and State enter-
prise so far has not attempted to give practical expres-
sion to his views. Irrigation schemes of a more modest
kind would have been better adapted to the needs of a
not over wealthy country. But short of designs run-
ning into millions there is a great deal to be done in
South Africa by enterprises in the tens of thousands,
and to this matter more and more attention is being
directed. Experiments beyond the reach of the small
man can be undertaken with the most valuable results
to the whole country by the Government or by a group
of private individuals. It says much for the spirit
of private enterprise that the greatest experiment in
irrigation ever undertaken in South Africa and carried
to a successful conclusion is the work of Sir Thomas
Smartt and the syndicate who have erected the great
dam at Britstown in the Karroo.

Few districts in the world have an appearance so
utterly desolate and forlorn as the Karroo. But this
desert, like that of Egypt, has the power of blooming
like the rose when brought under the influence of water.
Without water, the Karroo as it stands is not a worth-
less agricultural asset. On the contrary it possesses
much value as a sheep country. The dry, drab land,
devoid of a blade of grass, is covered with an edible
shrub, or rather shrubs (for there are no fewer than
thirty varieties of Karroo bushes) on which the flocks
subsist. It takes four acres to keep a sheep in the

406 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Karroo. When one breaks a twig of a Karroo bush,
however dead it may appear, the twig is found to be
green and succulent inside, and on these twigs sheep
and oxen exist during the dry season, and practic-
ally the season is always dry. The roots of these
bushes strike very deep into the earth, their fine fila-
ments extending sometimes, so I was told, to twenty
and twenty-four feet below the surface, a circumstance
no doubt connected with their power to absorb moisture
in so arid a district. These dusty-looking plants are
covered in springtime with little yellow flowers which
have a strong aromatic scent and possess medicinal
qualities. It is to these qualities that the health of the
sheep is attributed, for the Karroo is more healthy,
from the cattle point of view, than the grass veld
further north, and is not subject to disease in anything
like the same degree.

Great though the importance of this unpromising-
looking desert as a sheep country, this does not
exhaust the potentialities of the land. Under irri-
gation the soil is found to be amazingly productive and
capable of raising heavy crops of lucerne, wheat, &c.
This brings us to the great experiment, mentioned
above, which is now being carried out by the Smartt
Syndicate.

The Smartt Syndicate Farms owe their origin to the
energy and enterprise of Sir Thomas Smartt, who some
thirty years ago was practising as a doctor in Britstown,
a small town in the heart of the Karroo. In 1884 he
bought his first farm in the district at Ercidoune, and
now the Smartt Syndicate formed in 1895 owns 100,000
acres comprising twelve farms. The average rainfall
in the Britstown district is about 11 inches. This, if
reliable, would be sufficient for the purposes of dry

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 407

farming, but the rainfall, like other matters, shares the
eccentricities of South Africa. There are years when
17 inches of rain will fall ; others again when the
amount will drop to 4 inches. Irrigation is therefore
essential for the regular cultivation of crops. Some
years since a dam was constructed on Houwater Farm
to catch the surface water. The dam is 600 feet across
with an average depth when full of nine feet and holds
220 million cubic feet of water. It irrigates 700 acres
of land mostly lucerne. There is no stream or regular
supply which feeds this dam, and I cannot better illus-
trate the character of the torrential rains which now
and again fall in this dry district than by the remark
that when I saw Houwater, the spillway had been
destroyed by a sudden rush of flood water. This enter-
prise, however, is a trivial matter as compared with
the great dam at Kaffirs' Poort on the Ongers River,
completed in August 1912, at a cost of £160,000 by the
Syndicate after nearly five years' work.1 This is the
second greatest irrigation scheme in the whole African
continent, yielding place in size only to the Assuan dam.
Somehow one learns without surprise that the inspira-
tion of Cecil Rhodes was one of the main factors in the
construction of this great work, though he did not live
to see it put in hand. Where big ideas are being carried
out in a big way in South Africa, over and over again
one finds the trace of that same great influence. The
Ongers River intermittently pours down volumes of
water, and a natural basin was selected in the hills
at the head of an alluvial valley of rich soil to catch the
flood. When full the dam will cover over ten square miles
or an area of 8000 acres and hold 25,000 million gallons

l A further capital expenditure will be necessary to carry out the
development schemes in full.

408 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

of water. It is hoped that it will bring an area of 20,000
acres under cultivation.

I was fortunate enough to stay with Sir Thomas
Smartt's manager, Mr. Mugglestone, at Doorskuilen
Farm, and by motor we made a tour of the works
and farms alike. In the whole of South Africa I know
no sight more extraordinary and unexpected than
suddenly to come across this great sheet of water
in the heart of the Karroo. Except the Zambesi,
water seems a negligible quantity in South Africa,
and this lake created in the centre of the most arid
of all its districts affects one almost like a mirage.
Still more extraordinary are the flocks of wild geese,
duck and coot already attracted to its shores. There
are two dams : the main dam, with which the canals and
sluices are connected, 1620 feet in length at the base,
and a subsidiary dam of reinforced concrete 857 feet
in length and 23 feet in height, to fill up a depression
on the right bank of the lake 400 yards from the main
dam. This dam is lower in total height than the main
dam, and in floodtime will form the overflow and spill-
way by which the surplus water may return to the dry
and depleted bed of the Ongers River. The discharge
of water is controlled from a water tower at the far end
of the main dam and passes into a concrete culvert
through two 36-inch pipes. This culvert empties
itself into a small canal 20 feet wide which in course
of time will be carried for fifteen miles down the valley
and bring a great area of land under irrigation. The
valley will be intersected by subsidiary channels and
distributing branches. Unirrigated Karroo land is
worth about 18s. to 20s. a morgen : irrigated land is
worth from £80 to £100 and even £150 per morgen —
figures which convey some idea of the change in value

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 409

which results from the introduction of water. About a
thousand acres have already been put under irrigation in
connection with the Ongers River dam, and are growing
mealies, lucerne, &c. Lucerne, fine crops of which can
be reaped in a year, is most profitable. It is perennial,
and once planted requires no further attention save
periodical flooding with water. It fetches on an average
£4 10s. per ton and is indispensable, for another impor-
tant branch of agricultural work in this part of South
Africa means the rearing of ostriches.

There are few birds or beasts in which the most
desirable qualities of family life shine more admirably
than in the ostrich. It is a little hard upon it, in view
of its domestic virtues, that it should have become the
symbol of consistent avoidance of obvious facts. The
parent birds are models of conjugal devotion — I was
told in many cases they fret if separated from each other
— and devote the greatest attention to the bringing up
of their families. The birds take it in turn to sit on the
eggs, the hen by day, the cock by night. It has been
suggested that this division of labour arises from the
fact that the hen's drab feathers mimicking the colour
of the Karroo make her a less conspicuous object by
day, than the cock bird with his black plumes. The
wild ostrich is, as is well known, an exceedingly fierce,
not to say dangerous, bird, and in order to tame the chicks
the latter are removed at an early age from their parents
and put in charge of a Kafir boy whom they follow about
in the most docile manner. The drawback of the Kafir
boy usually lies in the fact that being lazy he prefers
to take a siesta in the shade rather than to spend his time
in the hot weather giving the chicks all the exercise
they require. The parent birds walk them up and
down the enclosure the whole time, constant exercise

410 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

being apparently the proper education for a young
ostrich, and the first condition of its health. This
ceaseless promenade of the entire family is very amusing
to watch ; the old birds hustle the chicks along if they
show signs of laziness and generally maintain strict
discipline. So possibly the slacker methods of the
Kafir boy are not wholly inacceptable to the feathered
juveniles. It is necessary to separate the chicks from
the parent birds, because, if left with the latter, they be-
come so wild that they are difficult to handle. Ostrich
farming is very lucrative work. Four ostriches can be
run to the acre, and on an average £6 to £7 worth of
feathers is produced from each bird annually. The
birds five to a great age and will give a feather crop for
thirty years, but their best plucking period is over a
term of ten years. Good feeding is essential if feathers
of a high price and quality are to be produced ; the
feathers of the wild ostrich are only worth half the value
of those produced by the domesticated animal. Hence
the importance of lucerne, which is specially suited as an
ostrich food. High prices are fetched by these birds.
A good cock ostrich costs £200, and a hen bird £100,
but a really fine cock bird may fetch as much as £500.
The irrigation scheme at Britstown is still in its
infancy, but there ought to be a great development of
agriculture in the district when the canal and subsidiary
channels are finished, and the 20,000 acres provided for
are brought under cultivation. Closer settlement and
small holdings become practical propositions at once
when the conditions for market gardening, dairy work,
&c, are thus fulfilled. But the development of the
Smartt farms proves the truth of the words already
quoted, that small holdings can only be introduced grad-
ually in the wake of large ones. It is a wonderful sight

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 411

to see the desert being reclaimed in a manner so pur-
poseful, and as one looks on the acres of lucerne already
flourishing in the Karroo and the object-lesson in
irrigation provided by Sir Thomas Smartt for the whole
of South Africa, General Hertzog's jibe of ' foreign
adventurer ' assumes a peculiarly unworthy aspect.

Fruit farming and viticulture have been developed
in a striking way of late years in the south-west district
of the Cape Province. This is the oldest settled part
of South Africa, for here, as we saw, the Dutch pioneers
established themselves in the early days and built the
beautiful homesteads which remain so delightful a
feature of the country-side. Citrus fruits can be grown
up-country, but owing to the summer rains stone fruit
cannot be grown successfully in the north. In the
Cape the rainy season comes during the winter — the
right period for stone fruit ; and dry warm weather—
another essential condition — obtains when the crops are
ripening. It is claimed that this beautiful and fertile
country of hills and valleys has a great future before it,
being specially adapted to the cultivation of fruit, vines,
tobacco, and grains ; indeed Mr. J. X. Merriman, himself
a successful fruit and wine farmer, has expressed the
opinion that the country within a hundred miles of
Cape Town could, if developed, feed the whole white
population of South Africa. The export of fruit has
grown by leaps and bounds since the war. Some twelve
or thirteen years ago little bullet -like apricots and
peaches were to be found in the London fruit shops
during January and February — curiosities from the
Cape which excited a sentimental interest in some of us.
Now the Cape plums, pears, and peaches which figure in
every greengrocer's shop during the English winter are
often of fine size and quality. In February 1913 the

412 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

fruit exported from South Africa amounted in value to
£11,238 : the principal items being pears, £4257 ; grapes,
£2779 ; peaches, £1702 ; and plums, £1555. There is
still room for improvement both in the packing and
grading of fruit for the London market. There are
numerous complaints of bad packing and short weight.
But in spite of some drawbacks the South African fruit
trade has established itself on a firm basis and has a
promising future. Here again we find the influence of
Mr. Rhodes as a mainspring of much activity. With
his wonderful instinct for seeing the essentials of a
situation, he was one of the first people to realise how
greatly the fruit industry might be developed in this
part of the Cape Province. Shortly before his death he
started a syndicate known as the Rhodes Fruit Farms
in the Paarl and Stellenbosch districts. The syndicate
controls about thirteen farms, some directly managed,
some leased out, others worked on varying terms.
They have fulfilled Rhodes's aim by rendering valuable
pioneer work in the district, where fruit and vines are
now firmly established. The price of land in this south-
western district varies considerably, position, soil and
irrigation determining prices which run from 10s. an
acre in the Bokke veldt to £100 per acre for irrigated
lucerne land ; £50 per acre is not an unusual price for
deep vlei land where the rich pockets of earth are
specially suitable for the cultivation of fruit. Land
suitable for orchards but not irrigated may fetch from
15s. to £7 per acre. It is calculated that out of a possible
863,137 acres suitable for cultivation in this district
only 165,588 are at present occupied, which leaves an
ample margin for future settlement. The size of the
holdings varies considerably, viticulture and fruit being
supplemented by wheat and^tobacco in many instances.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 413

Fifty-acre lots under fruit can produce a living, but
100- and 200-acre farms are also common. In the
' Farm Lands of the Rich South- West/ a publication
of the Cape Publicity Association, Mr. Abrahamson,
a well-known agriculturist living at Wellington, gives
the estimated cost and returns of a 50-acre farm. He
holds ' that some of the land now used for wheat and
oats is available for vines and orchards and can be had
at 30s. to 40s. per acre.' This land, he suggests, should
be bought up by ' Land Development Corporation/
cut into 50-acre lots, fenced, tilled, planted, and pro-
vided each with its homestead. This could be done at a
capital outlay of £675, and 50 acres sold at £5 per acre —
making £250 and bringing the total indebtedness of the
settler up to say £1000. The land would be planted
with 3500 fruit trees and 25,000 vines, and by the fourth
year the return would be by his estimate £400 from vines
and £850 from fruit. During the interval of four years
the settler would live on ' snatch ' crops, pay little or no
interest, with nothing off the capital. By the fourth
year the settler's land, carrying 100 trees to the acre,
would be worth £150 per acre, and the land carrying
1600 vines, worth also £150 per acre.

Since the failure of the ' snatch ' crop would leave
the settler indigent during the years when his fruit-
trees were under development, further reserve capital
beyond the £1000 estimated for initial expenses would
seem desirable in view of the caprices of the South
African climate. Whether Cape wine can ever hope
to compete with the French and German vineyards is
more doubtful, but there is room for plenty of develop-
ment as regards the domestic needs of South Africa
itself : 90 per cent, of the existing demand for wine is
for a heavy inferior article pernicious to black and white

414 THE SOUTH AFKICAN SCENE

alike, and there is but a small demand for superior light
wines. Even so, sound claret and hock are now pro-
duced in South Africa, though I was told on one wine
farm that owing to the heat and the character of the
soil, the natural wine of the country was of a Madeira
type — not a light wine.

In one respect South African agriculture has much
to learn from Canadian enterprise. Canada has carried
the gentle art of advertisement to a high point of per-
fection. Every little town, village, and district in the
Dominion knows how to boom itself and thrust its
prospects and capacities on the notice of the emigrant.
Very different is the position in South Africa, where it is
exceedingly difficult to obtain any information about
the natural resources of the country and what prospects
of success are offered by the different branches of farm-
ing, such as viticulture, fruit growing, ostrich rearing,
tobacco, wheat, &c. The Cape Publicity Association,
to which I have just referred, is a useful body which has
come into existence to meet this very obvious need of the
provision of better information about farming matters.
They have produced the excellent book, from which I
have just quoted, dealing with the south-west districts
of the Cape Province, and it is to be hoped in time that
their example will be followed in the Transvaal, where
cotton, tobacco, and citrus fruits all offer possibilities,
apart from the growing of cereals and stock raising.

With time and patience therefore, the future of
agriculture in South Africa promises well, and if for the
moment settlement seems in abeyance, the explanation
must be sought in the peculiar conditions which obtain,
and in the experimental character of much agricultural
enterprise. The Government would have been ill
advised to set on foot any flamboyant schemes which

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE 415

could only have resulted in loss and disappointment.
But the steady research work which is being prosecuted
quietly but vigorously at present, together with the
development in a cautious manner of the resources of
the country, will bear good fruit in time ; and though
South Africa can hardly hope to welcome those teeming
millions on which Canada delights to dwell, she can
offer wholesome, prosperous, and happy conditions of life
to newcomers from the Old World in her cloudless
climes under the Southern Cross.

416

CHAPTEE XXI i

EHODESIA AND THE CHARTER

Plantations are amongst Ancient, Primitive, and Heroicall Workes.
. . . But moile not too much under Ground : for the Hope of Mines is
very Uncertaine, and useth to make the Planters Lazie, in other Things.
For Government, let it be in the Hands of one, assisted with some
Counsell : And let them have Commission, to exercise Martiall Lawes,
with some limitation. And above all, let Men make that Profit of being
in the Wildernesse, as they have God alwaies, and his Service, before
their Eyes. Bacon.

The relations of Rhodesia and the Union are not the
least interesting of the multifarious problems presented
by South Africa. They have also a slightly humorous
side, for the whole situation between them reminds one
irresistibly of the conflicts of Benedick and Beatrice
in the early stages of Much Ado about Nothing. Like
that hero and heroine, each is apt to indulge in
considerable protestation about the other. Rhodesia
delights in representing the Union as an aggressive,
undesirable suitor, seeking to sweep an unwilling maiden
off her feet by force, and therefore to be snubbed and
rebuffed and generally taught his place. But at heart
she rather enjoys the wooing even while declaring that
under no possible circumstances would she ever lend
an ear to the suit. The Union, on the other hand, does
not take these rebuffs lying down, and retorts — in the
vigorous spirit of

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 417

If she be not fair to me
What care I how fair she be — ■

that Rhodesia has wholly exaggerated and magnified
the character of the advances made to her, and that she
need not cherish the illusion of a love-lorn swain to the
South sighing out his heart in despair. Whether or not
in the long run this particular Benedict and Beatrice
will end by falling into each other's arms, who can say ?
One thing at least is certain : the point is one which
they alone can decide, and to be successful it must be
a marriage, not of convenience, but of affection.

It was in 1890 that the Pioneer Force of the British
South Africa Company entered and occupied Mashona-
land. We are concerned in this chapter with the present
position of affairs in Rhodesia, and the chequered history
of those early days need not detain us here. A more
tangled skein of motives, good or bad, than those con-
cerned with the acquisition of the country it would be
hard to unravel. Amazing things were done and left
undone, valour and commercialism, high patriotism
and sordid gain, jostled and elbowed each other turn
by turn. The dominating influence of a personality so
vast as that of the founder routs all calculations and
upsets all judgments. For greatness, even when it falls
below itself, as too often befell the greatness of Rhodes,
still remains great ; and he has left in the country which
bears his name a spirit and a tradition which set
Rhodesia apart in some intangible way from the rest of
South Africa. Somehow here the atmosphere is more
spacious, the spirit more keen, the point of view
broader than in the other provinces. In 1914 the Charter
granted originally to the British South Africa Company
will have been in operation twenty-five years, an
anniversary which all concerned recognise as marking

2 B

418 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

an important date in the history of the country. War,
pestilence, rebellion, drought, and famine have been
crowded into the varied course of the twenty-five years
under review. The Company has so far been unable
to fulfil the hopes of speedy profits with which in old
days Rhodes was wont to charm — some people say
bemuse — a City audience. Rhodes in such matters was
a veritable Pied Piper of Hamelin, and had an amazing
power of turning the most sober financial heads and
making them trip to his tune. He piped, and at his
word a stream of gold would flow. Those were the old
sporting days of adventure, when the structure of
government in Rhodesia was of the most crazy kind ; and
when the coffers ran dry, as not infrequently happened,
Rhodes would appear himself in the country with a
cheque-book and pay out large personal sums right and
left to bridge whatever financial chasms yawned before
the feet of his enterprise. The true record of those
days, whenever it comes to be written, will read like
one of the extravaganzas of history, so wild and
incredible seem much of the things which then occurred.
The whole situation to-day is totally different. What
Rhodes limned in outline with large and impatient
hand, lesser men with a greater power of detail and
more sober administrative ability have patiently filled in.
After many difficult and critical years the Company has
turned the corner and come into altogether smoother
waters. The extravaganza has yielded place to solid
and successful enterprise. So far as Southern Rhodesia
is concerned, revenue now exceeds expenditure.
According to the last balance sheet of the Company, dated
March 1912, the administrative revenue is returned at
£808,602 lis., and administrative expenditure (exclu-
sive of amounts charged as capital outlay to public

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 419

works and buildings account) at £737,948 15s. lOd.
Even that long-suffering body of involuntary Empire
builders, the shareholders, begin to entertain hopes, less
sketchy than in the past, of dividends in a not remote
future. Administration is well established, government
is paying its way ; and a civilised community of some
24,000 white men, provided with most of the amenities
of life, is now peaceably engaged in commerce and
agriculture where twenty-five years ago the Matabele
warriors of Lobengula devastated the country-side.

On the face of it, therefore, the Chartered Company
has deserved well, both of South Africa and of the
Empire, in the reclamation of this vast country from bar-
barism and in providing the amenities of civilised life
within relatively so short a period. The Company has
many enemies who attack it somewhat unreasonably, not
only for present shortcomings but for those darker inci-
dents which cloud the early days. Rightly or wrongly, in
popular imagination it never wholly escapes from a
touch of suspicion, though that suspicion is a question
of innuendo rather than of definite charge. The
Chartered Company may be, and probably is, vulnerable
in many ways, but whatever its shortcomings, nothing
can be more unfair than wholly to ignore the outstanding
item on the per contra list — that without the Charter
Rhodesia itself would have no existence. If the terri-
tories north of the Limpopo are British to-day, that
result is due to Rhodes and his Company alone. It
requires but little imagination to judge the character of
the situation which might have confronted South Africa
as a whole to-day, and the Union Government in
particular, if the territories south of the Zambesi had
passed under foreign rule. That alternative was no idle
chimera ; it was a real danger which Rhodes recognised

3 e 2

420 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

and averted. Rhodes, it is often said, did not go to
Rhodesia for his health, but to make money. Like
many other men he often acted upon mixed motives, but
money was to him merely a lever for the prosecution of
larger ends, and African policies he viewed on a scale
unknown to his contemporaries. He probably thought
the acquisition of Rhodesia good business ; he also
thought such acquisition a matter of high Imperial
concern. Hence his intervention and the creation of
the Charter. The day must come eventually when the
government of Rhodesia passes into the hands of the
people, and the administrative functions of the Company
will be at an end. Whenever that great day of settle-
ment and reckoning takes place between the Charter
and the people, these fundamental services to British-
speaking South Africa must be allowed the full weight
they deserve.

The territories under the rule of the Chartered
Company lie respectively north and south of the Zam-
besi, and to all intents and purposes may be regarded as
two separate countries. The high uplands of Matabele-
land and Mashonaland, geographically and climatically,
reproduce much the same conditions as are to be found
in the Transvaal and other parts of the South African
plateau. The beautiful and fertile districts of the eastern
border adjoining Portuguese territory are more tropical
in character, but generally speaking Rhodesia has a
fine climate where white men can live and bring up
their children. I have made in a previous chapter
some reservations on the subject of white settlement in
general in South Africa, and referred to certain climatic
drawbacks which exist and must be reckoned with.
But owing to the high altitude in Rhodesia these draw-
backs are not more conspicuous than elsewhere. There

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 421

is a certain magnificent champagne quality in the air
which brings with it keen exhilaration and almost
life-giving power. And this was remarkable even in
midsummer when I was travelling through the country
at a very hot time of the year. So far as Southern
Rhodesia is concerned, the country is as well adapted to
white settlement as the Transvaal and is capable of
supporting a large population. North of the Zambesi
the position is quite different. The area is a tropical
one, and though some white farmers have settled in the
neighbourhood of the Kafue river, their presence cannot
be regarded as an earnest of future European immigra-
tion. The permanent European population in Northern
Rhodesia is approximately 1500, whereas the native
population is estimated at the large total of nearly
900,000. The commercial and agricultural possibilities
of this great district, 291,000 square miles in extent, are
at present conjectural rather than established. Copper
ore is already being worked advantageously, and indica-
tions of other minerals are established. Agriculturally it
is hoped that Northern Rhodesia may develop a con-
siderable trade in cotton. Nearly 5000 acres are already
under cotton cultivation, and the Company is devoting
much attention to the matter. Rubber, tobacco, and
maize all present possibilities, but at this initial stage no
forecast can be hazarded as to their future development.

The character of the administration in Northern
Rhodesia differs in many respects from that of Southern
Rhodesia. In Southern Rhodesia the administration
in nearly every particular follows the lines of the old
government of Cape Colony. Roman Dutch law has
been established, and the officials are in the main South
African. North of the Zambesi there is a different
legal system, the officials for the most part are English,

422 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

and the whole administration is of an Imperial rather
than of a colonial character. The Cape system and
Roman Dutch law were deliberately adopted by Rhodes
for the government of Southern Rhodesia, a circum-
stance which indicates the view he took as to the ultimate
future of the country. The tropical districts under the
control of the Chartered Company may therefore for
practical purposes be separated from any consideration
of the question now to the fore as to the status and
government of Southern Rhodesia. Before considering
the question of what political changes may have become
desirable, it is well to glance at the record of the Com-
pany as a governing body so far as their practical
development of the country is concerned.

Communication is a matter of great importance for
Rhodesia. An inland state, her remoteness from the
seaboard is no small handicap to her commerce, and is
largely responsible for the high cost of living in the
country, a matter on which a committee of inquiry is
at present engaged in reporting. Cape Town is distant
by rail 1360 miles from Bulawayo, and Beira in Portu-
guese East Africa is 675 miles. Beira is bound more
and more to become the chief port for Rhodesia, and
in course of time the country may be linked up with
Lobito Bay on the west coast, where the Germans are
engaged in railway construction. Meanwhile the growth
of railways within Rhodesia itself has been striking;
an asset to the community provided by the Chartered
Company, the value of which is perhaps not fully
appreciated. Over 2400 miles of railways have been
constructed, and the linking up of districts and systems
is being pushed ahead ; communication between
Johannesburg and Bulawayo having been reduced over
250 miles in 1912 by the new line between Mafeking and

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 423

Zeerust in the Western Transvaal. The development of
light railways would be of great benefit to the farming
community, and with the growth of agriculture the
present high prices for foodstuffs would be reduced.
Viewed as a mining country Rhodesia's output of gold,
which for the year ending 1912 amounted to £2,707,369,
is, of course, a modest production when compared with
the enormous total of the Rand, but it is a respectable
position to hold among other gold -producing countries
apart from the unique area of Johannesburg. Up to
the present twenty-two and a quarter millions of gold
have been produced in Rhodesia, and Sir Starr Jameson
stated at the annual meeting of the Chartered Company
on February 24, 1913, that at that moment gold to the
value of thirteen millions was in sight.

The pioneers of the Chartered Company were not
the first-comers on the field so far as gold mining in
Rhodesia is concerned. The * ancients/ whoever they
may have been, exploited the country very thoroughly,
and it is estimated from evidences of the workings they
have left that gold to the large total of at least seventy
millions — some say a hundred millions — sterling was
extracted in those far-off days. Few mysteries are more
impenetrable than that which shrouds the history of
the ancient gold miners and ancient ruins in Rhodesia.
Theories of the most fascinating character have been put
forward linking the country in the dawn of history with
the mighty nations of antiquity. We have all cherished
the hope that Rhodesia was the land of Ophir and that
the Queen of Sheba — that delightfully feminine person —
was somehow connected with it. The Phoenicians are
constantly invoked as builders and miners, and so are
the Sabseans. Unfortunately there is no evidence of
any kind in support of all these pleasant speculations.

424 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

They may or may not be true, but they do not rest on a
solid basis of fact. Our information about the Phoeni-
cians is at the best extremely meagre, and for that very
reason they are the handy men invariably produced
whenever some outside agency is required to fit in with
the needs of any particular theory. Very much the
same applies to the Sabseans, a people of whom little
is known. Meanwhile other and more prosaic theories
are coming to the fore. The ruins of the Great Zim-
babwe, round which centre so many speculations about
the Phoenicians and other Semitic civilisations, have
been subjected to somewhat destructive criticism from
Dr. Randall Maclver of Oxford, who considers them
to be the medieval buildings of an aboriginal negroid
race, superior in civilisation to the present Bantu
peoples. Such a doctrine comes as a severe shock, but
it is one apparently which is commending itself more
and more to scholars. The entire absence of writing or
inscriptions of any kind, the rude character of the
building and of the implements found, do not point to
a high degree of civilisation. Even the soapstone
vultures at Zimbabwe, with all the speculations about
Astarte to which they have given rise, are now dismissed
as totems by adherents of the medieval school. The
older theories put forward by Mr. Bent and Mr. Hall
are infinitely more attractive — which of us can yield
up the Queen of Sheba without a sigh ? But so far as
evidence is concerned, we are forced to admit that this
Phoenician superstructure rests on but slender founda-
tions and has principally been deduced from the
supposed trading operations of this people on the East
Coast of Africa in ancient times. The identity of the
Rhodesian gold workers of that remote period remains
a mystery, and archseologists have still to settle among

RHODESIA AOT> THE CHARTER 425

themselves to what race and age we must attribute
the builders of the Great Zimbabwe and of kindred if
lesser ruins in other parts of the country. Let us hope
that some wealthy and public -spirited South African will
equip an expedition composed of trained archaeologists
who will make a thorough investigation of these interest-
ing remains, a process to which, despite much disturb-
ance and spasmodic digging, they have not as yet been
subjected. They raise some problems of high interest to
which it would be satisfactory to find an answer.

But I have digressed from the present to the past
so far as mining in Rhodesia is concerned, and must
now return to its latter-day aspects. It is impossible
not to feel at times that the ancient workers were almost
too thorough in their operations and have taken the
cream of the country, leaving modern enterprise less
favourable material to work upon. But if individual
mines are often small propositions, the fact that they
are not concentrated in one district but are dotted about
all over the country is a very fortunate circumstance.
These small mines have had an excellent influence on
agricultural development. They have provided centres
and markets for farming produce which otherwise could
have found no sale. Mining and agriculture have
therefore gone hand in hand in Rhodesia ; for agriculture
here, as further south, is the great permanent interest
of the country, and not the least value of the mines, quite
apart from the gold produced, is the stimulus they have
given to farming. Mining carries agriculture in the
early stages till agriculture is able to stand on its own
feet. I have spoken in the preceding chapter of the
spread of agriculture in South Africa and the elaborate
organisation maintained by the Union on behalf of the
farming interest. Owing to the prevalence of pests and

426 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

disease, scientific research is, as we saw, essential in
South Africa, and experiments on a large scale are neces-
sary in order to cope with the peculiar circumstances of
soil and climate. The conditions in Rhodesia in this
respect are practically identical with those farther
south, and the creation of an efficient agricultural
department is as necessary in her case as in that of the
Union. Very excellent work has been carried out by the
Rhodesian Agricultural Department, both on its scientific
and on its advisory side. As in the Union, experimental
farms and stations have been created in different dis-
tricts where scientific work is pursued in connection
with the composition of soils, cattle diseases, insect pests,
fertilisers, &c, matters of the first importance if Euro-
pean settlement in the country is to spread and grow.
South African conditions do not, as we have seen, admit
of sensational progress in agricultural affairs, but
Rhodesian agriculture has established itself on a satis-
factory basis ; and, apart from stock raising, maize,
tobacco, citrus fruits, and the cultivation of cereals,
all promise well for the future.

Education is another matter on the progress of which
Rhodesia is justified in congratulating herself. In 1912
forty-one Government schools and five aided schools
were in existence with an attendance of 2540 children.
High schools also exist both at Bulawayo and Salisbury.
The large sum left by Mr. Alfred Beit for the endowment
of education in Rhodesia has been a great boon to the
country. It is rather surprising that Rhodes's great
testament made no provision for Rhodesian development,
a somewhat curious omission in view of his relations with
the country. Mr. Beit's benefactions have had a most
stimulating influence both on education and on railway
development, and his generosity is bearing good fruit

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 427

to-day. That parents respond readily to the educational
facilities brought within their reach is proved by the
history of the Eveline Girls' School at Bulawayo, one of
the secondary schools financed partly by the Govern-
ment and partly by the Beit Trustees. The school was
opened on July 28, 1910, with 207 pupils, 77 of them in
the infants' department. By August 8, eleven days
from the opening, the numbers were 240 and the school
was overcrowded. By August 22 it was necessary at
once to add two more class-rooms. To-day there are
320 children attending the school, and the buildings are
again overcrowded. The school fees vary from 15s. to
30s. per term. Greater attention to technical education
and domestic training is desirable throughout all the
schools in South Africa with which I am acquainted, and
Rhodesia is no exception to this rule. There is a tend-
ency for education to be too literary and too theoretical
for children whose main business in life is to deal with
its practical needs. Children with really marked intel-
lectual qualities should, of course, be provided with
every opportunity for developing such talents as they
may possess. But so far the system seems more adapted
to the needs of the exception than of the rule. Home-
making is a very important matter for girls who live in
pioneer countries. The standard of comfort and refine-
ment they set is an all-important matter for the future.
The influence and example of the right type of European
home, too, on the native mind is another side of the
question too often ignored. ' Shakespeare and the
musical glasses ' are pleasant accomplishments and not
to be discouraged. But large numbers of children have
no taste in that direction, whereas it is very important
to teach a girl on a Rhodesian farm the elements which
go to make up a good wife and a good mother. After

428 THE SOUTH ALBICAN SCENE

Standard V it would be a real advantage to institute
two necks to the educational bottle — one a literary
neck for children whose taste and capacities lie that
way, the other a more practical neck of domestic science
for girls, and training in such subjects as agriculture,
chemistry, and book-keeping for boys.

It is pleasant to notice the pride of the Rhodesians
in their schools and the real importance they attach
to them. The spirit is a healthy and intelligent one,
and shows more than common appreciation for those
vital influences which are brought to bear either for
weal or woe on the youth of a country. Generally
speaking, it may be said the future prospects of Rhodesia
are solid if not sensational. It is a beautiful country,
and from the agricultural point of view has a great
future. If it is far from beng the El Dorado of the early
dreams of the pioneers, it has won its way to a respectable
position among the gold-producing countries of the
world. The population, essentially British as they are in
character and outlook, are keen, intelligent people full
of kindness and hospitality to the stranger within their
coasts. They possess a fine asset in their country, and
their position and influence are bound to be increasing
factors in South African affairs. In the person of Sir
William Milton, the Administrator, the Company has
had the good fortune to be served by an official the
measure of whose influence will best be appreciated
whenever the day comes for it to be withdrawn. A
silent, rather stern man, he has set a standard of rectitude
and uprightness in the conduct of public affairs which
have been invaluable to the whole spirit of administra-
tion. Whatever storms may arise, they have no power
to deflect him from his path. He has had a difficult,
often a thankless task ; the perpetual repetition of

EHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 429

' no ' is a wearisome and uncongenial office, and Sir
William Milton has been called upon to say ' no ' on a
great many occasions. But he is respected from one
end of the country to the other for the steadfast,
uncompromising manner in which he has met his
difficulties, and he has never succumbed in the smallest
degree to the fatal error of weak men — the desire to
make ' no ' appear to be ' yes/ when ' yes ' is impos-
sible of fulfilment but ' no * disagreeable of utterance.

Under the original grant of the Charter it was pro-
vided that after twenty-five years the administrative
clauses should come up for reconsideration and revision :
a circumstance which excites great interest and contro-
versy at present in Rhodesia. If a large measure of
political unrest is affecting the Union, similar unrest is
no less marked north of the Limpopo. I have com-
mented elsewhere in this book on the sacred right to
grumble so prevalent in South Africa, and it must be
admitted that this same spirit obtains as strongly in
Rhodesia as in any other part of the country. The
new arrival is seized upon within twenty-four hours of
his or her advent by outraged inhabitants, who pour
forth a string of grievances against the Company and
the dishonour to their manhood of the existing political
regime. As one is called upon to listen ' down south/
as they say in Rhodesia, to much the same account of
the enormities of the Union Government, it is inevitable
that one accepts these stories of woe and injustice with
considerable reservations in both cases. Constitution
making was apparently the principal diversion of the
population when I was in Rhodesia at the close of 1912.
First one group and then another issued manifestos
dealing with the political affairs of the country. A new
scheme appeared, so it seemed, every other day, until

430 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

Sir William Milton was in the happy position of being
able to paper his office, had he so desired, with the instru-
ments of government elaborated by the community.
A morning unmarked by the appearance of a fresh con-
stitution seemed flat and stale indeed, even though one
was irresistibly reminded of the section in Carlyle's
' French Kevolution ' termed ' The Age of Paper/ But if
these events wore a slightly humorous aspect to the
tourist, to the Rhodesians the issues they raised were
of a very serious and practical character. To have
a chance of changing your form of government is an
opportunity which does not occur easily in old and
established communities. Little wonder, therefore, that
the more enterprising souls in Rhodesia are seized
by a spirit of legislative adventure and are anxious
for changes of all sorts and kinds.

The actual situation which presents itself in 1914
admits of four alternatives. Rhodesia might acquire
responsible government — the creed of one group ; she
might become a Crown Colony — the creed of another ;
she might join the Union — the secret creed of a few
but not one now openly professed ; she might continue,
with certain modifications, for another term of years
under the Charter — no one's creed in particular but
the probable outcome of the present agitation.

To examine these alternatives in detail — the sug-
gestion at this date of Responsible Government may
be dismissed as an absurdity. The white population
of Southern Rhodesia, 24,000 people scattered over
an area of 148,575 square miles, is altogether too small
and too sparse to provide the adequate material, political
and financial, necessary to conduct the affairs of a
self-governing colony. Any such venture would break
down of itself and end in legislative fiasco. The case
for Crown Colony Government stands on a wholly

EHODESTA AND THE CHARTER 431

different footing, and through such a development
the country in course of time must pass. The Lyttelton
Constitution as provided for the Transvaal — the
Constitution which never came into being — finds much
favour among the upholders of the Crown Colony idea,
and its merits are warmly advanced by them. The
question of joining the Union is one which makes the
average Rhodesian almost hysterical with wrath. The
racial troubles in the south have created the worst
impression in Rhodesia, and a passionate desire to
keep clear of the Union and all its ways is at this
time practically universal. There remains the fourth
alternative — compromise and accommodation with the
Charter and the renewal of the present administrative
system for a further term of years. Not the least
interesting aspect of these various alternatives lies in the
fact that through each one of them in time Rhodesia
is not unlikely to pass.

At first sight it is a little difficult to understand
why there should be so much grumbling and dissatis-
faction with the Company, even when the heavy dis-
counts for this universal South African failing have been
made. On the face of it the Administration certainly
does not seem to have done badly by the country.
Within twenty-five years a flourishing and civilised
community has been called into existence literally
from the bare veld. Towns have sprung up : railways,
telegraphs, telephones, electric light, and many of the
luxuries as well as the amenities of life are common.
The Rhodesian country house in the neighbourhood
of Salisbury and Bulawayo has in some cases all
the charm and appearance and comfort of a similar
home in England. The newcomer in Rhodesia, as in
the Union, can only be struck by the high measure
of achievement attained and is at a loss to understand

432 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the causes of the existing discontents. It is not very-
easy to discover the concrete grounds of objection to
the Company's rule. The objections are usually made
in general terms of distrust and lack of confidence.
This indefinite character of the discontent and the
lack of concrete examples force the conclusion that
the trouble is concerned far more with an unsatisfactory
personal equation between the Company and the people
than with any abuse by the former of its powers. That
this has been the case seems on the whole certain.
After Ehodes's death in 1902 the country went through
a period of extreme despondency. The man on whose
personality the country relied as a house of defence in
any trouble was no more. The Board of Directors in
London seemed immeasurably remote. Dr. Jameson, to
whom failing Rhodes they turned, was, they complained,
absorbed with political affairs in the south. Rhodesia,
like the unhappy little child in the story-book, was of
opinion that no one loved it, and the only possible
course was to sit out in the garden and eat woolly
worms. Since 1907 matters in this respect have greatly
improved. A personal visit which some of the London
directors paid to the country during that year, brought
the government and the people face to face to their mutual
advantage. The personal relationship is now carried
out systematically by a succession of visiting directors,
and the mutual alienation and ignorance of former
years can hardly recur. The chief matters in dispute
between the Rhodesians and the Company may be
grouped under four heads : — (1) representation, (2) debt,
(3) title to land, (4) commercial and administrative
assets. In view of the declaration of policy on behalf
of the company made by Mr. Rochfort Maguire at
Salisbury in March 1913, it cannot be said the Board
has shown itself intractable on any of these points.

RHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 433

Rhodesia is governed by an Administrator — appointed
by the Company but approved by the Crown — an
Executive Council, and a Legislative Council. The
Executive Council consists of officials, the Legislative
Council of seven elected and five nominated members
who legislate by means of ordinances. From such
beginnings all colonies start on the path of self-govern-
ment, greater powers being introduced with the spread
of population. The increase of population in Rhodesia
has led to the claim for increased popular representation
in the Council, a claim which the Company has conceded.
In future the Legislative Council is to consist of twelve
elected, as against eight nominated, members, an increase
which gives greater proportional power to the elected
element. By such steps are popular Assemblies built
up till they control the Executive itself and the stage
of full self-government is reached. The question of
the debt was also one most disturbing to the Rhodesian
mind when I was in the country. In the event of
Crown Colony government being established, would
they be saddled with the past deficits of the Company
and start life with a public debt ? This was the question
commonly propounded, and the possibility of such a
position was vigorously repudiated. This point the
Company have waived and it was stated by Mr.
Maguire that no claim would be made for the
accumulated deficits upon administration and finance
amounting to 7|- millions sterling, which would be re-
garded ' as part of the cost of acquisition, maintenance,
and development of the land and minerals of the
Territory/ The question of the debt is closely concerned
with that of the ownership of the land — a point round
which considerable controversy wages. The Company
declare that their title to the land is complete and

2*

434 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

unchallengeable ; the Anti-Charter section declare that
the land belongs to the people. In forgoing any claim
for the debt the Company certainly strengthen their
hold on the land, for the Rhodesian cannot have it
both ways — repudiate the debt and claim the land,
which is the attitude not uncommonly taken up. At
the same time the Company would be well advised
to simplify both their land laws and the whole procedure
of land purchase in Rhodesia. There are great and, I
think, genuine grievances as to the way large blocks of
land are held up by the land companies to the detriment
of settlement in general. The taxation of land values
is by no means an academic question in South Africa,
and some measure of the kind is desirable not only in
Rhodesia but in the Union, so that land may not be
held up in unproductive idleness while its owner sits
by waiting for a rise in price. The formation of a Land
Board is pressed for in some quarters. This demand
seems to be a very reasonable one, and, if granted, would
go a long way to allay friction and discontent.

The question of the commercial and administrative
assets raises a large number of irritating points in dis-
pute between the two sides. The Rhodesians complain
that government by charter cannot be disinterested,
that the interests of the shareholders are necessarily
preferred to those of the inhabitants, and that when
a company fulfils both administrative and commercial
functions, the commercial side will obtain a variety
of advantages at the expense of the administrative.
A definite division therefore is demanded of assets
which come to the Company as a government, and
those which it earns as a commercial undertaking,
so that the one should not benefit at the expense
of the other. Here again the Company has made

EHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 435

concessions. The revenue on the two sides is to be
separated henceforth as far as practicable, and the
Company is to pay taxes from its commercial branch in
future as any other trading body in the country would
do. In the light of these concessions therefore the whole
question of the political stocktaking in 1914 assumes
a somewhat different aspect. The main grounds of
complaint against the Company, save the important
question of the land — which after all will not run away
— have been adjusted in favour of the community.
There remain certain general complaints which exist of
inefficiency here and there in administration, of indiffer-
ence to the concerns of the country, and of a tendency to
make promises which are not carried out or are delayed
till they can be safely pigeon-holed. As against this it
may be said that the real mistake of the Company has
been the extent to which it has spoon-fed the popula-
tion ; that money has been poured out like water for a
host of experiments no ordinary Government would dream
of undertaking ; that Rhodesia grumbles, not because
it is misgoverned, but because it has been spoilt ; and
that since the interests of the community and those of the
shareholders must be one and the same — inasmuch as
dividends depend on national prosperity — it is absurd
to suggest that administration is sacrificed to commerce.
In this instance, as in many others in South Africa,
the truth probably lies in the mean between these
two extremes. No one acquainted with South Africa
will take any long string of complaints quite literally ;
at heart, the grumblers themselves would be surprised
if their statements were accepted without qualification.
The practical question before Rhodesia is how she
may best ensure her future during the next decade.
The instinct which makes many people in the country

2v2

436 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

desire the status of a Crown Colony is certainly not
one to be regarded with any lack of sympathy by an
English person. It was striking to hear how certain
Rhodesians spoke of the Imperial Government and
the absolute confidence they felt in its justice and
impartiality. The only reservation one made on that
score was the curiously different attitude assumed
towards the Imperial Government ' down South,' where
abuse of its methods is apt to be plentiful. ' I would
rather have the Crown, the obstinate unthinking Crown,
than any Board of Directors charm they never so
wisely.' So I was told on one occasion by a thoughtful
Rhodesian, and I was loath to discourage my friend's
admiration for the abstract sovereignty of the Empire
by certain reservations in my own mind as to the
roles of King Stork and King Log so far as Downing
Street and London Wall were concerned. But the
feeling for the Crown displayed in Rhodesia of late is
certainly a valuable sentiment, and the last one which
any believer in the wider citizenship of the Empire
would seek to discourage, even though certain thankless
suspicions cross the mind as to whether this sudden
affection for Downing Street is inspired by admiration
for the Empire, or the desire to be rid of the Company
at any cost. To the status of a Crown Colony Rhode-
sia must assuredly attain on her progress towards
complete legislative independence. Government by
Chartered Company, it must be admitted, is, in the
abstract, a curiously unsatisfactory form of rule, and
one which no one could desire to see stereotyped.
Questions and disputes must constantly arise as between
the commercial and the administrative sides. The
governing body must always be an easy target for
charges as to their sacrifice of administrative efficiency

EHODESIA AND THE CHAETEE 437

to commercial gain. Government by Chartered Com-
pany may have undoubted advantages in the pioneer
days of opening up a new area for settlement. It is
less bound by precedent and red tape than Imperial
administration ; it can make more experiments ; it
pushes work forward with more rapidity. But as time
goes on it becomes less happy in its administrative
faculty. A great trading corporation cannot usefully
fulfil the functions of government when the white
population grows in numbers, and the phase of personal
rule comes to an end. Administration must then be
vested in other hands. For Ehodesia therefore it is
merely a question of times and seasons and the best
moment at which to make the change.

The further question then presents itself as to whether
that best moment has arrived. In view of the concessions
recently made by the Company, the balance of argument
appears to be in favour of a continuation of the present
state of affairs, anyway for the next ten years — the
reconsideration of the Charter being decennial after
1914. It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that
what the country most needs at this moment is not
political upheaval but economic development. Africa
from the Cape to the Zambesi is calling out at present
for more work and less talk. * Back chat ' is the curse
of the country at present. Ehodesia's first concern
should be, not constitution-making, but her own increase
of strength in population, commerce, and revenue.
Her game for the time being, viewed from any broad
standpoint, should be a waiting one. Many questions
and problems are in a state of flux south of her in the
Union. The influence she will be able to exercise
ultimately in South Africa will be proportionate to
the strength of the hand she is able to play, and foi

438 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

the moment she needs to strengthen that hand by the
vigorous development of her resources. The Chartered
Company are probably fully alive to the grumbling
of which I have spoken. The capable and shrewd
men who sit on its Board must realise the importance
of doing away with such real causes of complaint as exist.
From the point of view of the people, the stronger the
population the more effectually will they be able to stand
up to the Board when the day of reckoning comes. There
is, after all, no question of the disappearance of the
Company as a Company — a point of which many
people seem to lose sight. The position of the in-
habitants, therefore, composing a small Crown Colony,
faced by a powerful commercial undertaking towering
head and shoulders over every other concern in the
land, and entirely relieved from any administrative
responsibility, would not seem a happy one. Granted
good and efficient administration, there is really very
little difference between the present status of Rhodesia
and that of a Crown Colony. It is rather difficult to
see at this moment what she would gain by the change.
Her business for the present should be not agitation
but an increase of strength so that she may talk on even
terms when occasion rises either with Pretoria or with
London Wall. There is much to be said at present for
putting aside abstract theories about the rights of men,
and pushing commercial and agricultural development.
South Africa of late has had a surfeit of political
controversy. A change of constitution in Rhodesia
would mean a fresh element of disturbance cast into
the seething pot ; would set on foot a fresh series of
agitations, and discussions, and intrigues. Time is
the solvent of many of her difficulties, and all agitation
which has as its result the rousing of racial and other

KHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 439

controversies from the slumbers in which sensible
people must desire to see them repose, is to be deprecated.
One thing is certain : the longer those questions are
left in peace the more complete will be their final
solution. Marking time, as the phrase goes, is not a
very exhilarating proceeding, but there are moments
at which it may be a wise policy, and at this juncture it
would appear to be a wise policy for Rhodesia. In ten
years' time the whole situation in South Africa may have
changed profoundly, and by that period Rhodesia will
be much better fitted to judge the character of the
changes she should make than in the present confused
state of public opinion. A renewal of the Charter for the
next ten years gives her breathing space and time to
look round, and to mark the solution of events elsewhere.
It is impossible to hazard a conjecture for how
many years, after that period, Rhodesia might find it
well to maintain a position of complete legislative
independence under either representative or responsible
government. But sooner or later the question of her
organic relationship to the rest of South Africa is bound
to arise : the suit of which I spoke in the opening
sentences of this chapter will force itself again on her
notice. Africa south of the Zambesi, as we have all
seen all along, is one land. The dry bed of the Limpopo
river separating Rhodesia from the Union, separates
nothing racially, geographically, climatically. That
Rhodes's ultimate dream for the country which bears
his name was to see her part of a great united British
South Africa, there is of course no question. But
Union has come wearing a somewhat different aspect
from what he contemplated, and the emphasis on the
Dutch note has thoroughly alarmed the Rhodesians.
They cling very naturally and rightly to the essentially

440 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

English character of the country, to the freedom from
racial and language questions, to the greater simplicity
of administration and education, thanks to the absence
of the bilingual incubus. Above everything else they
fear to jeopardise these real and undoubted advantages
by being forced against their will into the orbit of the
Union. That any such pressure would be exercised
is an impossibility. The idle talk of the Chartered
Company selling the population over their own heads
in a comprehensive deal with the Union Government
may be dismissed as an absurdity. No such disposal,
indeed no radical change of any kind in the government
of the country, could be attempted or effected against
the will of the people themselves. They and they
alone — and very properly so — in the ultimate issue will
be the arbiters of their own destiny. There is
no question therefore of forcing the pace as regards
the relations of Rhodesia with the Union; indeed the
Union, for the moment at any rate, repudiates the
desire to add Rhodesia to its burdens as emphatically
as Rhodesia repudiates any closer tie with the Union.
At the time of the Convention the idea was certainly
in the air ; and granted suitable terms, the Union
Government doubtless would have lent a willing ear
to the suggestion of taking over the country. Since
then, however, the position has changed. Rhodesia has
drawn much farther away ; the Union has its hands
full to overflowing with its own affairs, and for the
moment has no ambitions whatever to extend its sphere
of operations farther north. Nevertheless the question
is bound to arise again, even though years may pass
before it becomes a pressing one. That Rhodesia
should set before her eyes the deliberate ideal of the
evolution of a British dominion always distinct and

EHODESIA AND THE CHARTER 441

apart from the Union, seems to me a mistaken one, and
an ideal far remote from the purpose of the founder.
Any such separation in the long run will be as
mischievous as the separatist existence of the Republics
prior to the war. Despite the thoroughly British
character of Rhodesia, there is no hard-and-fast line
of racial demarcation between her population and that
further south. Both the Union and Rhodesia are
confronted by identical problems ; both have common
difficulties to meet. The white races in South Africa
are a small minority facing a preponderating black
population ; drought, pestilence, disease, are common
burdens which compel co-operation at every point.
That two countries so situated should seek to work out
separate national existences on diverse, and even hostile,
lines would be a calamity for South Africa as a whole.
However potent political friction in the present, it
must be the hope of all right-minded people that, as
years go by, conditions in the Union itself may change
to a degree which will dispel all the legitimate fears
Rhodesia at present may entertain. Deliberately and
without adequate cause to play the part over again of
Newfoundland would be a position unworthy of Rhodes's
spirit and tradition. That Rhodesia ultimately may
not hold aloof from the larger corporate life of the
Union is to be desired in her own interests no less than
in those of South Africa as a whole. But it is no less
clear that the moment for such a change has not yet
come. When and if Rhodesia joins the Union, it must
in truth and in fact be a question of union, not of
absorption. It is altogether undesirable that she should
throw in her lot with the south until her own numbers
and political strength give her an adequate voice in
the conduct of public affairs. Standing as she does in a

442 THE SOUTH AFRICAN SCENE

very special way for the English aspect of government
in South Africa, it is important she should be in a position
to give that aspect its due place and weight. Similarly,
the Union must realise that, so long as racial strife is
allowed to run riot within its jurisdiction and there
is any question of unfairness or favouritism in govern-
ment, it is quite unreasonable to expect Rhodesia to
forgo her present advantages. If suspicion and unrest
were to persist in the south, Rhodesia would be amply
justified in retaining her immunity from many irritating
problems which distract her neighbour. Time will help,
however, in this direction as elsewhere. When the
Union of South Africa has been consolidated in the
spirit of the Convention, there will be nothing in the
aspect then presented by the South African nation to
cause Rhodesia anxiety as to a future bound up with
such a country. As we have seen elsewhere, all fuller
national life involves the sacrifice of certain individual
characteristics, which have to be yielded up in order
to arrive at a broader whole. Rhodesia will have to
make her sacrifice when the day comes, but she has in
turn a right to demand from the Union that such a
sacrifice should be made for a worthy end. It is the
business of the Union therefore to create and maintain
a type of national life, strong, free, and self-respecting,
which in the end will win Rhodesia to its side ; not
reluctantly, not unwillingly, not with mutual bargaining
and distrust, but in that free and generous surrender
which is always the mark not of the weak but of the
strong.

' And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is
that which I desired: but if slenderly and meanly, it is that
which I could attain unto. And here shall be an end.''

INDEX

Abrahamson, Mr., 413
Act of Union, 154-6, 203
Active Citizen Force, 165
Adamson, Mr., 174
Albany, 204, 213
Albu, Sir George, 215
Algoa Bay, 15
Ampthill, Lord, 370
Amsterdam, 102
Anreith, Anton, 107-8

Bacon, quoted, 416
Baines, quoted, 59, 63-5
Baker, Herbert, 19, 100-2
Bantu peoples, 201, 219 seq., 238,

243-4, 252, 274
Barnard, Lady Anne, 105
Barwise, Dr., 330
Basutoland, 31 seq., 90, 239, 266,

280 ; increase in population, 35 ;

education in, 255
Bechuanaland, 239, 266, 403
Beira, 16, 422
Beit, Alfred, 426
Beit Trustees, 427
Bembesi, 77
Bent, Mr., 424
Bergson, Henri, 272
Beyers, General, 117
Black Peril Commission, 251 ;

Report, 281-5
Blake, quoted, 94
Bloemfontein, 18, 32, 155
Bloemfontein Convention (1854),

127

Boer Republics, 127 seq.

Boer War (1899-1902), 128

Boer women, 196

Borden, Mr., 139

Botha, General, 30, 85, 90, 109,
114-17, 137, 140, 150, 153,
156-7, 163, 171, 196-204;
quoted, 91 ; resignation, 205 ;
differences with General Hertzog,
205-8, 267 ; in France, 390-1

Brahmapootra, river, 57

Brand, President, 149, 153, 156,
177

British South Africa Co., 417 seq.

Britstown, 405, 406, 410

Browning, Robert, quoted, 15,
161

Bryce's ' American Common-
wealth,' 228 seq., 243, 269, 302,
317

Buller, General, 90

Bulawayo, 25, 56, 63, 69, 70, 321,
347, 422, 426-7, 431

Burke, Edmund, quoted, 359

Burroughs & Wellcome, 63

Caledon, river, 33, 37
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry,

136, 142-4
Camps Bay, 9
Canada, 398 ; language difficulty

in, 181-2 ; Press of, 215
Cape Castle, 103-7
Cape Flats, 8, 95
Cape Parliament House, 111

445

446

INDEX

Cape Publicity Association, 413-14

Cape Times, 215

Cape Town, 9-22, 122, 154, 157

Cape Town station, 189

Carlyle, Thomas, 192, 430

Cathcart, Sir George, 35

Catullus, quoted, 93, 96

Caucus system, 212-213

Cedara, 395

Central Africa, 66

Chaka, Zulu chief, 36, 80

Chaplin, Drummond, 307-8, 373

Chartres Cathedral, 105

Chaucer, quoted, 94

Chinese in South Africa, 49-51,

135-6, 142-4
Chirol, Sir Valentine, 222
Civil Service, 203
City Deep Mine, 322
Claremont, 21
Classification of Teachers Act

(1910), 176-8
Colenso, 85, 87, 90, 365
Congo, 231

Connaught, Duke of, 157
Constantia, 21, 98, 102-3
Cousins, Mr., 302
Creswell, Mr., 310, 311
Cripps, Mr., 27
Crown Mines, 44
Cullinan, Sir Thomas, 215
Curtis, Lionel, 149
Customs Union Convention (1908),

150-1

Db Wet, General, 199

De Wildt, 204-5

Defence Act, 165-6, 202

Devil's Peak, 23

Dingaan's Day, 82

Doornfontein, 323

Drakensberg Range, 8, 81, 87-90,

95
Drakenstein Valley, 95, 97

Duncan, Patrick, 118, 149, 264-6,
311-12, 318

Durban, 15-16

Durham, Lord, 127

Dutch East India Co., 23, 106

East London, 15
Education, 171-184
Education Act (1908), 175
Education Gazette, 173
Elgin Constitution, 152
Eliot, George, 85
Elsenberg, 395
Engelenberg, Dr., 215
Ermolo, 395
Espin, Mr., 213
Ethiopian Church, 290
Evans, Maurice, 252-3, 265-7,
276, 339, 356

F airbridge, Dorothea, 100-108

False Bay, 8, 95, 104

Farrar, Sir George, 156

Feetham, Mr., 150

Financial Relations Bill, 117, 202,

207
Financial Relations Committee, 185,

393
Fingoes, 75-6
Finn, Bertie, 77

Fischer, Abraham, 117, 137, 156
Fitzpatrick, Sir Percy, 156
French Hoek VaUey, 95, 98
Froude, J. A., quoted, 17
Fruit farming, 411-14

Garrett, Edmund, 13, 88

Geldenhuis Deep Co., 323

Ghandi, Mr., 365, 370

Gibbon, Perceval, quoted, 3

Gladstone, Lord, 109. 119

Glen Grey Act, 256-8, 269, 343,

348-9
Goethe, quoted, 125
Gokhale, Hon. Gopal, 6-7, 371-2,

375-382
Gold mining, 39 seq. ; output, 43 ;

interests, 130 ; in Rhodesia, 423
Goujon, M., 103
Graaf, Sir David, 202
Graaff Reinet, 208
Grahamstown, 204
Grant, Mr., 292
Great Exhibition(1851), 125-7

INDEX

447

Great Zimbabwe, 424-5

Green Hill, 91

Green Point, 9

Grey, Lord, 30, 133

Groot Constantia, 98, 104, 107

Groot Drakenstein, 98

Groote Schuur, 18, 23 ; site of, 183,

207
Grootflei, 395
Grootfontein, 395
Gunn, Mr., 176

Kaffirs' Poort, 407

Kafue River, 421

Karoo, 405-408

Kerr, Philip, 149, 301

Kimberley, 48, 82, 300

Klip River, 87

Knight's ' South Africa after the

War,' 56
Koopmans de Wet, Mrs., 11-12
Kruger, Paul, 29-30, 130, 369
Kuruman, river, 403

Haldane, Lord, 116

Hall, Mr., 424

Hennepin, Father, 62

Hertzog, General, 109, 119, 120,
159, 160, 163, 168-176, 179,
192 seq., 265-7, 358-360, 411

Hex River Mountains, 93

Hichens, Lionel, 149

Holm, Mr., 394

Hottentots Holland mountain, 8,
24, 95

Hottentots Holland valley, 97

Houwater Farm, 407

Hoy, Mr., 16, 211

Hull, Mr., 202

Immigrants Restriction Bill, 202,

207, 372
Indian Ambulance Corps, 365
Indigency Commission, 301-5, 320
Ingogo Heights, 81
Innes, Sir James R., 112-13
Isandlhwana, 80

Ladybrand, 32

Ladysmith, 9, 80-92 ; siege of, 35 ;

clock tower, 85
Lancers Gap, 35
Land Commission, 268
Language Ordinance (1912), 173
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 139
Lawley, Sir Arthur and Lady, 70
Leibbrandt, Mr., 96
Lerothodi, Basuto chief, 37
Letsie, Basuto chief, 36
Lichtenburg, 395
Limpopo, river, 439
Lion's Head, mountain, 3
Liquor traffic, 281-2
Livingstone, Dr., 55-6, 60, 63-5,

265
Livingstone town, 65-8
Loanda, 63

Lobengula, chief, 70-74, 419
Lobito Bay, 422
Lourenco Marques, 16
Lyttelton, Alfred, 136
Lyttelton Constitution, 141, 152,

431

Jamaica, 287-8

Jameson, Sir Starr, 117, 150, 156,
163-4, 189, 204, 423, 432

Japan, 222, 335-6

Johannesburg, 19, 39-54, 131, 180,
211, 214-16, 224, 241, 282, 286,
296, 304-14, 321, 325, 329-31,
366, 385, 388, 422-3; riots at,
333

Maasdorp, Mr., 208
McCarthy, Justin, 125
Macdonald, William, 403
Maclver, Dr. Randall, 424
Mafeking, 422
Maguire, Rochfort, 432-3
Majuba, 80-1, 142
Malays, 10, 115, 299
Maluti Mountain, 35-6
Marimba, native piano, 51

448

INDEX

Maseru, 32-3

Mashonaland, 70, 417, 420

Matabele tribe, 27 ; location, 69-80

Matabeleland, 69-70, 420

Matoppos, 26, 78, 113

Meintjes Kop, 19

Mexico, 397

Meredith, quoted, 23, 125

Merriman, J. X., 114-115, 120,

156, 210, 217, 258, 264, 282, 411
Mhangwa Ndiweni, chief, 72-4
Michaelis, Max, 119
Milner, Lord, 134-7, 143-9, 179,
211, 311 ; and agriculture in
South Africa, 384-394
Milton, Sir William, 428-30
Miner's phthisis, 45, 325-332;
Commission on, 325-7 ; Com-
pensation and Insurance Act, 328
Mines Department Reports, 323-4,

328
Mining Industry Commission (1907-

8), 304, 308-10, 313
Mining Regulations Commission

(1910), 325-8
Missionary work, 34
Molopo, river, 403
Molyneux, Arthur, 64
Morgenster, 99, 102-4
Moshesh, Basuto chief, 36-7
Mozambique, 317-18
Mugglestone, Mr., 408
Muir, Dr., 174
Muizenberg, 15, 16, 19
Murphy, Edgar G., 230-1, 239, 273,
277-8, 317 ; quoted, 334

Namaqualand, 97

Natal, 80, 154, 173, 255, 259;

Indians in, 364 seq. ; Native

Affairs Commission (1906-7), 259,

285, 343, 346
National Convention, 151, 154, 260,

341, 355
Native Affairs Commission (1905)

258, 262, 354
Native Labour Compound, 48-51
Native Land Bill, 207, 268
Native Protectorates, 37, 237

Native question, 218 seq.
Newfoundland, 441
Niagara Falls, 57-8, 62
Nooitgedacht, 99
Nylstroom, 203

Oats, Francis, 300

Olivier, Sir Sidney, 276-8, 286-7,

294, 344
Onderstepoort, 386, 399-401
Ongers, river, 407-9
Ostrich farming, 409-10

Paardeberg, battle of, 35
Paarl Drakenstein, 11, 95-9
Paris Evangelical Mission Society,

255
Park, Dr. Maitland, 215
Peace of Vereeniging, 134, 208
Pericles, quoted, 80
Phillips, Sir Lionel, 44
Pietermaritzburg, 81
Portuguese East Africa, 48, 239-40,

317-18
Potchefstroom, 393-5
Premier Mine, 48
Pretoria, 17-18, 22, 119, 154, 180,

347, 401
Public Service Commission, 169, 393
Putumayo, 231

Queen's Mine, 77

Racial question, 218 seq.
Railways Construction Bill, 202
Rand, 40, 43 seq., 130-1, 296-7,

304, 308, 317-328, 332
Registration Act, 369-71
Reitz, ex-President, 117
Renan, Ernest, quoted, 23
Rhodes, Cecil J., 18, 24-30, 48, 56,
69, 75, 113-14, 280, 349, 355, 407,
412, 432, 441 ; his Glen Grey
Act, 256-261 ; his fruit farms,
412 ; founding of Rhodesia,
417-26

INDEX

449

Rhodesia, 29, 56-7, 239, 241, 246,

402-3, 416 seq.
Robben Island, 21
Roberts, Lord, 366
Robinson, Sir J. B., 215
Rondebosch, 21, 23
Rorke's Drift, 80
Rosebery, Lord, 118
Royal Geographical Society, 63-4
Royce, Professor, 277
Ruskin, John, quoted, 305
Rusthof, 390

Salisbury, 292, 426, 431-2

Sand River Convention (1852),
127

Sauer, Mr., 113, 202, 258, 263

Saxon, R.M.S., 6

Schreiner, W. P., 112, 258, 373

Schumacher, Raymond, 322-4

Sea Point, 9, 15

Selborne, Lord, 136, 237-8, 315,
353

Selborne Memorandum (1907),
149

Servants of India Society, 7

Shelley, quoted, 94

Silver tree, 96

Smartt, Sir Thomas, 113, 204,

y. 405-11

Smith, F. B., 386-7, 390-3

Smithfield, 206

Smyth, Warington, 302, 323, 327

Sloly, Sir Herbert, 37

Smuts, General, 86, 116, 117, 140,
150, 156, 371-2; his 'Defence
Act,' 165, 202

Solomon, Sir Richard, 113

Solomon, Saul, 258

Somerset West, 11, 95, 98, 103

South Africa, Asiatics in, 6, 364 ; its
capital, 17-18, 154 ; native Pro-
tectorates in, 37, 237 ; gold-
mining industry, 39 seq. ; old
Cape houses, 98-108 ; first Parlia-
ment of, 109-122 ; racial ques-
tion in, 218 seq. ; population of
the Union of, 239 ; rainfall,
401-2 ; fruit export, 411-12

South Africa Act, 152, 392 ; Lan-
guage Clause in, 167-9

South Africa Native Races Com-
mittee, 248-251

South African Convention, 17

' South African Natives,' periodical,
256, 291, 349

Spender, J. A., 239

Spion Kop, 85, 87-92

Sprigg, Sir Gordon, 113-15

Squatters Bill, 263

Standerton, 85, 390, 395

Stanford, Colonel, 262

Stellenberg, 99

Stellenbosch, 11, 95-9, 103, 107,
200

Stevenson, R. L., quoted, 31, 109

Steyn, ex -President, 119
Swaziland, 239

Taal, 182, 188-9

Table Bay, 11, 106

Table Mountain, 3-4, 7, 19, 96;

funicular railway for, 20
Tagore, R., 2

Taylor, Commissioner, 71, 74-6
Thaba Bosigo, mountain, 35
Thaba N'chu, mountain, 32
Thabas Indunas, 70
Theiler, Dr., 399-401
Thibault, Louis M., 107-8
Toynbee, Arnold, 192 ; quoted, 226 ,

271
Transkei, 257-9, 266, 280, 348-
Trade Unions, 308
Transvaal, education in, 180 seq.,

255
Transvaal Indigency Commission,

301-3
Trotter, Mrs., 101-2
Tugela, river, 87, 90-1
Tulbagh, 107
Tweespruit, 32, 395
Twelve Apostles, mountains, 9, 19

Umbulwana, hill, 87
Umzimkulu, river, 280
Union Railways, 16

So

450

INDEX

United States, 221-2, 228, 237,

240, 243, 287
University Bill, 207

Van dee Byl, Mrs. A., 103
Van der Riet, Mr., 213
Van der Stel, Adrian, 104-6
Van der Stel, Simon, 96-8, 102-6.

169
Van der Stels, family, 21 ; country

of the, 93 seq.
Van Reenan's Pass, 81
Van Riebeck, Jan, 23, 97, 105
Vereeniging, Peace of, 134, 208
Vergelegen Farm, 104
Victoria Falls, 55 seq.
Viljoen, Dr., 174-9
Virgil, quoted, 384
Volkstein, 215
Vrededorp, 204
Vygeboom, 320

Wagner's ' Rheingold,' 61
Wagon Hill, 86-91

Wallace, Mr., 66-7

Washington, George, 210

Watts, G. F., 24

Wankies collieries, 57

Wellington, 211

Wernher-Beit, Mr., 183

Westminster, Duke of, 32

White Labour Colony, 320

White Labour Department, 302

Willcocks, Sir William, 405

Williams, John, 219

Wine growing, 413-14

Witwatersrand, 39, 327 (see also
under Rand)

Witwatersrand Native Labour Com-
pound, 48-51

Wordsworth, quoted, 69, 293

Wynberg, 9, 21, 98

Wyndham, Hugh, 118

Zambesi, river, 55 seq., 420-1
Zeerust, 423
Zimbabwe, 424
Zulus, 82
Zululand, 80

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