No. III.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

No. 111.

He next spoke of the Diamond Fields, Avhero I Avas better informed, for I had been studying tho blue books, and I could appreciate Avhat Mr. Molteno said. He 1 regretted very strongly the action of the High Commissioner toAvards the Dutch States. He had himself, he said, opposed^ the annexation of tho Diamond Fields, aud, if ho could, ho would have pi evented it. The quarrel, he thought, Avas^ being needlessly and unwisely exasperated. It Avas not his business to interfere ; but he wished Avith all his heart that tho Imperial Government Avould adopt more moderate measures, the Dutch people all over the country being greatly irritated. Ho declined to say what he thought we ought to do. Ho was cautious of committing himself; but, his condemnation of the proceedings of the High Commis-, sioner -was- as emphatic As Avords could 'muk<> it. But I was to see the actual scene of the disturbance Avith my own eyes. I Avent on to Natal, and' thence through the TransA-aul, the Diamond Fields, and the Orange Free State. 1 cannot hero describe my journey. I will tell you only the general impressions Avhich I formed. Langalabalele, of course, Avas the one subject in Natal. Three of his sons and several hundreds of his > tube were in Maritzburg gaol as convicts at hard labour. They had not been triad, and they had been in confinement for a year. I saw them and heard their story. The interpreter, who nad no prejudice in their favour, was satisfied that they were speaking truth. The account tlfcy gave mo Avas tho sumo as that Avhich Bishop Coleuso gave, and Avhieh England afterwards ( found to be true. ' The' Natal people Avere proud of, their achievement, and Avoro furious that ifc should be culled in question. They said thut they would like to have responsive government like the Cape. A party among them desired to join the Free Sttitu and be independent. Responsible government Meant that they Avero to take their own defence upon themselves. That, i see, is Avhat the English papers now say that they ouglxt to do. Colonists, it is perfectly true, ought to bo prepared to defend themselves. But I could wish that the English papers would remember that Natal h not an -English colony any more than the Cape.' It i« only the last, or lather it was then only the last, of the conquests which wo had made from tho Dutch. There are but ten thousand Kngliah there, all told, Mvii) of tho.se are no better than tie mean whites in the (southern States of the Union. Hhe utmost that thoy cbutd "do Avould be to bring into the field sevou or eight hundred meu badly nrmed or undrillcd. We ourselves had to scud tAventv thousand regular troops thcro to deal Avith the Zulus, and the effect of respousiblu government could only be that they Avould provoke a Avar in some foolish panic, and if N»tal was ,itUl British territory, wo should bo obliged to go to their help, after all, to savo the survivors, if any survivors were left. The Dutch would say that if wo chose to toko the country we must protect it. With the finest climate and the finest soil in tho Avorld, Natal is a mere wilderness. Hero and there a farmer makos a fortune, but gonerally the av kites will i.ot Avork, because they expect the blacks W Avork for them. The blacks will r.ol Avork, because they prefor to be idle ; and so no ono works at all. Of all tha curious enterprises in Avhich British genius has embarked, the acquisition of Natal has been the costliest and the most Avorthless to us. H Aye had the courage to alloAV it to be independent, the Dutch would occupy it again, and savo us further trouble. Jf the colonists remain in tho same mind in which I left thorn, and Avish to attach themselves to the Free State, I hopo the Imperial Government may see its Avay towards gratifying their wishes. Then, and only thon, shall ws have heard tho last of Zulu Avars. Tho Transvaal Avas imrch more interesting to me. Of the Transvaal, too, Aye have heard lately more than avo lUco, and Aye shall hear further, before it is at peace again. Tho South African Republic, as it was thon called, is larger than tho United Kingdom. The soil is admi: able, the mineral Avealth is as varied as it is boundless. Thero is gold and copper, cobalt, iron, coal, and Aye know not AVhat besides. Scattered over tho surface are eight or nine thousand Dutch households. The Transvaal Boer, Avhen he settles on his land, intends it^for the homo of his family. His estaternf from 6000 to 20,000 acres, and his wealth is in his sheop and cattle. He comes on the ground in his Avagon. Ho builds sheds or pens for his stock. He encloses three or four acres of gaiden, carrying a stream of Avater through it. He plants peaches, apricots, oranges, demons, figs, apples, pears, olives, and almonds. la a few years they aro all in full bearing. The garden being planted, he bTJilds a modest house— a central hall, Avith a kitcthen, behind, and a couple, of rooms opening out of it at each end. In his hall he places his old chairs and tables, Avhich his father brought from the Colony; his sofa, strung with strips of anteLope hide and spread with antelope skins. He breaks up fifty acVes of adjoining land for his corn and green crops. There he lives and begets a huge family, huge in all senses, for he has often a dozen children, and his boys grow to the size of Patagonians. When a soh or daughter marriesj another house is built for them on the property; fresh land is brought under tillage ; aud tho Transvaal is thus being gradually filled up in patriarchal fashion by a people Avho know nothing of the Avorld. and care nothing for it ; who never read a noAvspapor, Avhose one idea beyond their oAvn concerns is hatred of the English, but who aro civil and hospitable to English travellers and sportsmen. They are a proud, stubborn race, free and resolute to remain free — made of the same stuff as their ancestors who droA'o the Spaniards out of Holland. I staved Avith more than ono of them. Tho beds (I may say this for them) were scrupulously clean, the food plain and abundant. Before and afUr meals there is a long grace. The day begins with a psalm, sung by the giils. They are strict Calvini«ts> ignorant, obstinate, mid bigoted. But even Calvinism has its merits. They are, I suppose, not unlike Avhat Scotch farmers were ' tAvo hundred years ago. I enquiied much about the slavery Avhich Avas said to prevail there I never saA>- a slave or anything like one. If they Avere not afraid of us I daro say they Avould treat the natives as their countrymen do in, Java, but otherwise they are not unkind to them. By far tho most thriving native villages I saAv in South Africa were in the neighbourhood of the Dutch toAvns. The Avorst and most miserable Avere a$

Port Elizabeth — the great English commercial capital — wheie, nolAvithstdnding, the coloured people have votes at the elections. At Pretoria, the seat of their Government, I found their Kaad or Parliament in session. There Avas great agitation, for tho High Commissioner had just demanded a sum of monoy as compensation tut sumo trilling injury. TheJtaad had refused to pay it, and Averc Avaiting to see Avhat Avould happen. There Avas much auger, too, at the arming of the native tribes, and the other disputes which had • risen out of the Diamond Field's affair, lhe huts of the chiefa wera said to be' .stacked Avith rifles, like baj-rack rooms.' lhe President, Mr. Burgers, was the person whom I had chieliy corao .to see. iio and the High Commissioner had been cannonading eath other with fiery despatctes, and I wanted to know what he was like. The chief of the Transvaal Boers was anything but a Boer himself. He was an accomplished, clever, Avell-edueated .gentleman. He Avas gracious and agreeable. Ho professed to Avish to be on good terms with the English ; but I doubted if he meant it. He Avas ci edited with the ambifanof being a South African Washington. He Avas in treaty Avith the Portuguese for a- railway to Delugoa Bay. Ho had corresponded Avith Holland. I believe that he had even approached Prince Bismarck. He talked of a Confederation of the South African States, but Avhcn I asked him under what flag it was to be, I got no clear answer. Evidently his opinion was that English rule in those countries Avas near its end. Ho, I think understood tho giving Responsible Government to tho Cape as a prelude to 6ur retiring from it. He supposed us to have concluded that, after the*opening of the Suez Canal, Aye did not nDw require the Cape, and Avere about to abandon it. Had this been so the Washington of South Africa would have had an easy task before him. We had not deserved to find a friend in President Burgers, and Aye have not found oiie. His countrymen did not share the soaring vieAvs of the President, and rather laughed at him. They complained bitterly enough of tho High Commissioner.! They thought that the High Commissionor was deliberately picking a quatrel Avith them as an excuse for annexation. They Avere alarmed " with good reason at the arming of the native tribes. They hfid not muoh hope of psacc. But if they could b» dealt with fairly, if they Avere secure of their independence, and if their coloured subjects Av'cre not encouraged, to rebel agaurtt-them, they Avcro ready to make rcaconnble concessions in their mode of managing the native?, and to meet our wishes in other Ava3's. Tho irritiftion avbs hotter as I appepaohedthe Diamond Ffclds. Farmers olamotfTTO that There Avas no safety' for lifo or property. As long as the frontier Avas unsettled, there could bo neither magistrate* nor police. The chiefs might rise at any moment, and burn their houses over thoir heads. One English settler whom I met at Christiana told mo that he Avas ushan\e < d of his country. I reached at last the {unions mine itself. I A#sh I had time to describe it. Tho spot itself is a geological miracle. TAventy millions -worth of diamonds have, been dug out of* it in tho last ten years, und no one- knows how many more may be loft. The toAtn is like a squalid Wimbledon camp. Bohomians of all nations are gathered there like vultures about a carcase. They may be the germ of a great future colony, or tho diamonds may give out to-morrow, and they may disappear like a locust swurm. It is impossible to say. The diggers were in a state of incipient insurrection Avhon I arrived ; they rebelled openly a few months after, and troops Averesent from Capetown to quiet them. It Aras tho old grievance ; Avith tons of thousands of natives about them, all Avith guns in their hands, they coui^ not protect their property or sleep quietly in their beds. lily own business was to enquire into the circumstances of the annexation. Half tho diggers openly called it robbery, and Avould have preferred to belong to tho Free State. I enquired Avhat hafl become of Waterboer, theGriqua chief, in Avhoso name Aye had occupied the ' place. It appeared that Aye had cracked the nut, kept the kernel, and given Waterboer the shell. He was aAvay somewhere on a slip of Avilderness which had been allowed for himself and his tribe. We had taken aAvay the diamond mine from the Free Stated on tho ground that it belonged to Waterboer; we had then turned out Waterboor, and kept it ourselves. Across the lines of tho original dispute appeared the figures of persons who had boeu speculating in land, ; of some Avho had made great fortunes ; or othew Avho had missed the fortunes and Avere ready to split on their luckier rivals. 1 was in a spider's Aveb spun out of a thousand cross twinings, and where the truth Ava3 I could not pretend to judge. I asked one man who Avas behind the scenes to tell me Avhether Waterboer's claims had any basis in them. "Not a fraction," he said; "the Avhole business has been, a trick and a SAvindle. I Avill prove it so before any arbitrator in the Avorld." My own conclusion, after hearing all that could bo said, was that I was among a people Avhose only language on the subject Avas an infinite conjugation of the verb to lie. A» the witnesses'flatly contradicted each other, hah' of them must havo lied. I could ouly regret that the English good name had been soiled by contact with so dirty a business, and we had broken our solemn word, too. We have heard much lately about treaties and the faith of treaties. In modem European history no treaty has beeu ever broken with more deliberate shameltasnoss thau tho Treaty of Aliwal Avas broken by us when we annexed tho .Diamond fields. I had still to visit Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State itself, aiout 70 miles from tho mine. The President, Mr. Brand, I found in no hotter humour towards England than his brother President at Pretoria. President i Burgers was smooth and polished ; you could see no furthei than the surface of him, and then only the outside objects reflected upon it. President Brand Avas a blunt, rtraightfonvavd Dutchman, who said Avhat ho meant, and Avas incapablo of uttering a single Avord which he did not mean. To me, Avheu I first saw him, he spoke with dignity and somo sternness. The English, a great poAverful nation, has been pleased, ho said, to bretk with a small, Avenk Republic. They have robbed tke Orange Free State and they h»d justified themselves by charging the Free State with crimes which it had not committed. He had asked for the arbitration of a foreign power ; and he had beeu told that England Avould not submit her actions to the judgment of foreigners. He had tried other means of obtaining redress, but they had all failed. He had sent round a protest to the Great Powers, but he could not pretend to resist by force. His people would have resisted",

bu? he had forbidden tbtem ; he Avould not sanction needless bloodshed. I found that ho believed that there Avas a real Providence in this world, and that an unjust action would not be allowed to prevail. It Avas not for me to admit that my own Government had been a& unrighteous as President Brand maintained. He, on his part, did not boom to caro much whether Aye came lo am arrangement Avith him or not. Ho thought, like President Burgers, that our day Avas nearly over in South AJrica. Hihtory, lies-aid^ showed that all coloniss became independent soouer or later. Meamvhilc, 1 suppose, he relied on his friends in the Cape Parliament. They could not undo tho annexation, but they could protect him from furthei violence. Mr. Brand had discharged his resentment upon me as the , first Englishman that came in his Avay ; I liked him none tho Avorse for it, and after a few, days Ava became more intimate. He wished to go into Ma injuries iv detail. As well ,as I could I avoided this. I told him Avhether tho annexation had been justifiabla or not there Avould noAV be an in&uperablo difficulty in undoing i\ ; but I Avas sura tha English Government had no bad intentions against him, >and that if ho could suggest any other Aray in which good feeling could ba restored betwoen us, I believed tho Government would meet him half Avay. With all their stubbornness the Dutch have a vein of sentiment in them. Mr. Brand seemed to think that his people would be satisfied if Aye would acknoAvledge that wo had done them Avrong. He did not a*k to havo the mines restored to him; ho knew that it Avas impossib.e. A fair boundary, with some trifling compensation, Avould meet his wishes and in return, he said, like the Boers in tho Transvaal, that, if wo wished it, he would then make somo modifications in his native administration. He Avas already, indeed, trying experiments in this direction, and going as far as he dared. Part with his independence, however, ho never Avould. He Avas sworn to maintain it, and he Avould maintain it. Tho friend and ally of England ho Aras willing to be; its subject, never. That is tho true Boer feeling"; and no threats, no cajoling, no force, no interest will ever alter it. Such a feeliug, I think, deserves to be respected. I muoh liked President Brand. He appeared to mo a just, upright man, Avho would stand, by his engagements and never utter untrue Avords. 1 thought, for myielf, that the support and friendship of such a man would contribute more to the peace and Avelfare of the English parts of South Africa than a hundred miserable diamond holes. The Engliih Church, you may have heard, has a considerable establishment at Bloohifontein. It is of advanced Ritualistic type, with Avhioh I havo no great sympathy. A leading member of it, hoAvever, Avho is a man of ability, was .good enough to call on me, and to give his vicav of the situation. The English Government, he- said, .avos malting itself so hatod by the Dutch of the Free Stato that, unless there was a change, all the English there might have to leave it. Either th« High Commissioner must folloAr up his threats by annexing the province, or mean% must be found of making up . the quarrel. Which of these tAvo methods would be more politic this gentleman did not express an opinion. My road doAvn from Bloemfontein to tho sea took mo through the eastern or Eughsh province of tho colony. There I found no sympathy with the so-called Dutch Avrongs. Englishmen like to be masters AvhereA'er they can. They approved of the annexation of tho Diamond Field*. Thoy Avere making their fortunes by the trade which had sprung up. The eastern settlers so little liked the Dutch that at this time they were demanding a division of the colony into an eastern and western proviuce. They Avere outvoted in tho Cape Parliament by the Avestern Dutch representatives. They felt as Ulster would feel if the Act of Union Avas repealed and there was i«n Irish Parliament again. The Ulster Protestants would be always iv a minority, and would ask for a separate legislature. Their testimony, therefore, was the more valuable when they protested universally against the Avorrying, harassing policy which had been pursued toAvards the Free States by the High Commissioner. If it did not mean annexation, it Avas as absurd as it was mischievous. As to the actual differences, thoy said that tliero were none which could not be settled in an afternoon if tAvo or three sensible men from the colony, and as many from Bloemfontein and Pretoria, could be brought together to talk matters over. If we did not intend to suppress the Republics and reclaim them under the British Hag, it Avas high time that something of the kind should be done. Thus rose tho proposal for a conference, of Avhich I shall tell more in the next lecture. I have noAv only a few more Avords to add about a cosstitutional hurricane which had broken out at CapetoAvn since I left it, and Avhich I found raging in full fury Avhen I reached it on ' my Avay back to England. Bishop Colenso had gone home. He had laid tho circumstances of tlie Langalalabalele outrage before the Colonial OfhTe : ho had produced hi» evidence — and even without his evidence the official record was itself sufficient to shoAV tho monstrous character of the Avhole pioceedings. The country, careless as if. is in colonial matters, had spoken out. The Government did not need to be urged ; the good name of our administration Avas at stake. Tho Governor of Natal Avas recalled, and a despatch was sent to the Cape Ministry requiring that tho chief should be removed from the convict station, and be provided for in a more decent manner. Ministers and people at the^Cape were sore and irritated. They 'thought that they had done a fine thing, and they were told that it was a wrong and foolish thing. They had received respond sible government; the Cape Avas theirs, and it Avas for them to decide how it ought to. be managed. They had not asked for responsible government ; it had beea forced upon them, to save England expense and trouble. If the natives supposed that, Avhen they thought themselves aggrieved, they might appeal to the Queen and Ministers at Home, it Avould bo impossible for the colonial | Ministers to maintain their authority. They had replied to Lord Carnarvon with j a minute expressing their regret that ] they could not carry out his Avishes. ! I do not blame them ; I blame the system. I believe responsible government to be totally unsuited to the circumstances of South Africa. They had thought so themselves, but, having got it, they naturally insisted upon their rights. j Mr. Molteno, when I called upoli him, was much disinclined to give —ay. But he saAv that English opinion was excited ; he understood that n collision with the Imperial authorities wsuld be prejudicial ,

to the colony, and that, *in the end, ho Avould be obliged to yield. Ho was satisfied with bis protest, and he empoAvered me to tell Lord Carnarvon that, when the Capo Parliament met, he would endeavour to carry out his Avishes. We had little further conversation on tho Diamond Fields question. I told him the impressions which I had myself formed ; his own opinion 1 had already heard from him, and. he said not a word to induce mo to think that he had altered it. Here ended my first visit to the Cape, and, in closing this lecture, I will sum up tho results. The annexation of 1 tho Diamond Fields, whether it was a crime or not, had been a blunder. We had exasperated the whole Dutch population at a moment Avhen the change in the form of Government ought to have made us anxious to conciliate them ; we had quarrelled Avith the two free republics ; avo had broken through our old. .policy and entangled ourselye* ip fresh complications with the riativj2s beyond tho Orange River, and Aye had no longer the revenufe of the Cape at our command to help us in dealing with them. •We had broken a treaty ; we had damaged our reputation for good faith — and all this Avithout one qualifying advantage. The disorders required instant settlement; and the alternative lay before us, cither violently to annex the Free States and tako the responsibility of them on ourselves, or to find some honourable^ means of arranging our differences with them. On the prospect of trouble with the natives I could not tell what to think-i* The excuse for the treatment of Langalabalele was the imminence of insurrection. If the danger was real it had been increased by tho needless cruelty, and the distribution of guns among them was incomprehensible folly. Some rational and consistent system of management Aras evidently desirable. There Avns one policy in the Capo Colony, another in Natal, another iix the Freo State?, and another at the .'Diamond Fields. If the- Cape Government was right, and there avos- an actual likeli* hood of a combined rebellion of Kaffirs and Zulus, it Avas high time that the whole subject should be prudently thought over. With these conclusions I returned to England.