CECIL ERODES AND SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 161, 10 July 1899, Page 5

CECIL ERODES AND SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEMS.

(By F. G. Ewington.)

According to recent, cablegrams Mr Rhodes has left London for the Cape. No man has done more for South Africa, except, perhaps, Sir George Grey; and no man is able and willing to do more for it than Cecil Rhodes is. He is not only a man of the day, but one of the century, towering head and shoulders above nearly all contemporary politicians. Let us look at this remarkable man.

But how shall we form an estimate of him? Shall we judge him by the standard of the Little Englander, who considers colonial expansion an expense to the tax payer and a menace to the Empire? Or shall we judge him by the standard of Imperialists who place Mr Rhodes amongst Britain's adventurous worthies, like Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, and other heroic builders of the Empire who carried the Union Jack to victory over the Spanish Main and planted it in the New World?

The historian, Dr. Lecky, says:— "One of the first tasks that every sincere student should set before himself is to endevour to understand what is the dominant idea or characteristic of the period with which he is occui pied; what forces chiefly ruled it, j what forces were then rising into dangerous ascendency, and what forces were on the decline; what illusions, what exaggerations, what false : hopes and unworthy influences chiefly prevailed." JNTow, if we recall to mind the his- : tory of the last ten or a dozen years, during which Cecil Rhodes has figured iso prominently, we shall find the ; dominant political characteristic has I been territorial expansion. The dominant idea has been that might is right, j and the

Old rule, the simple plan, That he should take who has the chance, And he should keep who can.

has risen into dangerous ascendency. For instance, wliat have we seen? Germany, France and Britain each seizing over a million square miles in Africa and China, Italy doing likewise in Africa, Russia doing- so in China and Central Asia, the South African Republic seizing- vast territories also, and a general scramble going on.

Hence, if Cecil Rhodes did not rise superior to all other statesmen in his public policy of grab the spirit of the age will explain, although it may not justify, his departure from worldly wisdom and political rectitude in reference to the Jameson raid. Let us then judge Mr Rhodes merely by the political ethics of the day. We judge Britain, Russia, Germany and France by this low standard in regard to the dismemberment of China (alias stealing it from the Chinese). We will observe the same rule now.

Cecil Rhodes was born in Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, near London, in 1852, consequently he is now 47 years of age. His father was an English clergyman. There were six boys in the family. Four of them turned soldiers. One of them lias been through the Soudan campaign. Cecil was a delicate child and privately educated. A former medical attendant, who hod no ver.» fixed belief about resurrection from the dead, once had ft great shock on meeting Cecil Rhodes. The story of his discomfiture says that the doctor had long before pronounced his doom. Meeting him years afterward he exclaimed: "You the same Rhodes, sir? Impossible. According to my books you have been a corpse ten years. Here is the entry; Tuberculosis; recovery impossible." But Mr Gannett, editor of the "Cape Times." says "impossible" is a word wanting in Mr Rhodes' dictionary.

At fifteen years of age, Rhodes, a lad as dull as he was delicate, set sail for the Cape. He began as a planter in Natal, but left there for the Kimberly diamond fields in the early seventies, where he personally supervised woivk in the mines. His industry was, and. still is, untiring. Working at the mines in the day he pursued his studies at night, and went to England for a season for two or three years to study and pass his University examination. At the De Beers mines no fewer than 6000 . natives and 1400 whites were employed, and if anyone will turn to chapter ii. of Miss Shaw's "Letters from South Africa" they will see how humanely Mr Rhodes pro* vided for the material and moral welfare of the workers. In connection with the mines he did a great work, giving evidence of rare administrative ability. He converted disaster into success by getting 1000 companies to amalgamte into 40, with a capital of £30,000,000, paying U millions sterling in annual dividends. More could have been paid except for a regulated output. Even when he was only 26 years of age he was imbued with patriotic and Imperialist aspirations, which are his marked characteristics. Moving- his hand over the map of Africa he said, "That's my dream —all English." If anyone desires to see how that dream has been realised let him turn to the map accompanying Cecil Rhodes Imperialist. It is astonishing how much the extension of the British Empire is due to private enterprise. Elizabethan seamen planted our flag1 in America and West Africa; Clive and the East India Company secured India; a private company secured vast territories on the Niger; private persons literally thrust New Zealand upon the British Government, and saved it from the French in a neck-and-neck race; and Cecil Rhodes virtually secured Rhodesia for Britain; also a road northward through Bechuanaland.

Entering1 the Cape Parliament in 1892 as member for Barkly West he took a seat in the Ministry. In 1890 he became Premier, and he resigned in 1895, consequent on the Jameson raid. Although an indifferent speaker lie has great magnetic influence, and is therefore effective.

President Kruger hates him and fears him. Well he may. Cecil Rhodes instigated the Warren expedition that drove the Boers out of Gosher and Stattaland at a cost of £2,000,000 to Britain. He forestalled the Boer Commissioner in Matabeleland by getting a treaty signed with Lobegula. He checked the Boers in Amatongaland, carried the Cape railway past the Transvaal, agreed with Britain that the Cape should pay half the cost of a war if it resulted from compelling Kruger to reopen the Drifts; got a protectorate over Zululand, and barred Boer access to the sea when they were almost within reach of it; hemmed the Boers in by occupation of Rhodesia; and blocked the Boers at Delagoa Bay. His political position at the Cape gave him great power, which he used against Kruger in Imperial interests; hence the Boers hate him.

His native policy was enlightened and humane. lie laboured to conciliate Dutch and English. His public schemes are bold and progressive. By his own pluck he has led timid men into great entei-prises by the infection oi' example. To the moral courage of the statesman he adds the physical courage of the soldier, and, almost single-handed, at the risk of his life, he pacified the Matabeles in the rebellion in 1896-

His generosity is princely, and he loves money only for what it will do. His patriotism is boundless, hence his relentless opposition to German and Hollander cliques in the Transvaal, the special taxes on Uitlanders, the hostile Transvaal railway tariffs, and Boer exciusiveness.

His position as a financier is unique, and at a meeting of the South Africa Chartered Company in London in May last he justly prided himself on the ease with which he had negotiated a loan of £10,000,000; whereas the Transvaal liepublic could not borrow a fifth of that sum on any bourse in Europe. It ia said that the only difference between Mr Ehodes and a Government guarantee is one per cent.

His successful personal negotiations with the German Emperor for the Trans-Continental telegraph line and the Cairo-to-Cape railway, show that he has the mind to conceive and the vigour to carry out great schemes; and his advent at the Cape in the present juncture will afford the requisite inspiration of an over-master-ing will and directing mind. I believe that his great power will be exerted in the interests of peace; but, alas! the Boers seem too obtuse to discern the things that make for peace. Whether there be peace or war, whether the Uitlanders be enfranchised or no, whether the Transvaal remain a Eepublic or no, whether South African confederation eventuate for or against, Great Britain, and whether the British or Dutch become the dominant race in South Africa, are problems that Cecil Rhodes will take a great part in solving.