FOR THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 146, 18 December 1933, Page 17

FOR THE EMPIRE

SAVING SOUTH AFRICA

THE WORK OF LORD MILNER

MNGEEOUS DAYS

When, in 1902, Cecil Rhodes was being moved to Muizenberg to die, his last words to Sir Abe Bailey were: "They tell me lam going to die. I must live live years. I must live fivo years. But you have Milner. You have Milner" (writes* J7 B. Firth in the London "Daily Telegraph"). It was the Empire-buildor's consolation that, though he was mortally stricken just when he had vowed all that remained to him of . life to repair his> one tragic blunder,- there was still Milner, the great Pro: Consul, to carry on in South Africa, ..-nd Joseph Chamberlain, the great Colonial Secretary, to carry on at Whitehall. At the outset of the war the High Commissioner passed through a terrible time. He wrote early ;n 1900: "The moro I see of the Army, the more unhappy I feel about it. We have been saved by two .men, especially one of them, that wonderful old courtier with a heart of gold, who alone seems untouched by jealousy, egotism, pettiness. Not that others have not done good work—many have—but it needed someone like him to bring out the good there was. Othewise,... I believe we should still have gone stumbling from disaster to disaster." The heart of gold was Lord Roberts's. Kitchener's heart was of steel, and he and Milner wore engaged in constant duel, though, as Mr. Cecil Head-lami acutely says: "They fought, but. they never quarrelled." The contest was more severe over tho terms of peace at Vereeniging, when Milner, knowing that Kitchener was tired of South Africa and anxious to return to India, was afraid that he would make dangerous concessions to the Boer envoys. He felt that ho alone could put through a satisfactory "Kaffir bargain" with the wily Boer. Today it reads like a tale of long ago. v The Great Wan has dwarfed all that went before. Yet the British Empire was at stake in South Africa in those days. CRITICAL YEARS. Calm, inflexible, adamant, glowing at heart, though the "red fire was rarely seen, Milner, with Joseph Chamberlain's loyal backing, saved South Africa for the British .Empire in most critical years, though the way of salvation broadened out later on lines which neither could foresee. 1 All this belongs to history, and to my mind the main interest of this book lies in its clear revelation of Milner s mind and its special -significance for the actual politics of today. Milner's experience at the Cape convinced him that the working of the British Parliamentary system was disastrous in its effects upon Imperial policy. The following is from a letter some time after he .had refused Balfour's pressing invitation to succeed Chamberlain at tho Colonial Office:— "I am an anachronism. It may oe I was born too late. It may be I was born too soon. In the latter, 1 think the less probable, case I may be of some use in politics as hn outsider, though never again as an active participant in the fray. But I am not 'coins' to make myself miserable any more, or to embarrass any Ministry or party by holding office on the terms on which under the c6nditions of our day it can alone be held. Every man can afford to hold some unpopular ideal. But I have amassed all the most unpopular." That was penned, no doubt, somewhat whimsically. But the kernel of his inability—like Cromer—to become a strict party man is to be found in a /sentence written" in 1905 to Lord Selborne, who succeeded him as High Commissioner: — "Without the, tomfoolery_ of home party politics interfering with a sane Imperial policy, we should, I think, be safe.'* . x . The national character is tenacious in adversity, but a^l too vacillating when it desires a change. "It is more than any man can do," wrote Milner m 1902 "to avert the consequences of the ignorance, self-sufficiency,- proneucss to optimistic self-delusion and fetishworship of'shibboleths, which at once resume their sway over John Bull, when you cease kicking him." Have we"-not had abundant examples of this since the war? TOO MUCH. "I could wrestle with Boers ,for over," Milner wrote, "but British infatuation is too much for me. What with our sentimentality, our party system, our Government by Committee, our Mandarins, our society, our generals—the game is just hopeless. Our political organisation is thoroughly rotten, almost non-existent. It's Carthaginian. ... "Joe is a strong man. Under other stars, he might be as big as Cavour or Bismarck. But all he can. do is to maintain himself. K. is a strong man, but all he is doing is to paralyse me.' •At one time Milner was inclined to pin his faith to the Liberal Imperialists, "if only he could have been quite certain that they meant to have the courage of their opinions and were prepared to be out in the cold for some time." But to stay too long out in the cold did not at all suit tho "book of Asquith, Haldane, and Grey, who hurriedly made their peace with Campbell-Bannerman arid the Little^ Englanders, as soon ,as "C.-B." was in a position to form a Ministry. Moreover, in their particular variety of Imperialist creed there was no room for that Imperial preference which was an essential part of tho MilncrChamberlain Imperialism. They therefore sank their Imperialism for Tthe sake of Free Trade, and plunged into the "Chinese slavery" agitation. That agitation arose from a proposal to, import indentured Chinese labourers for t.he Rand mines, and it drove the last nail'into the coffin of the Balfour Administration. , "THE SYSTEM IS HOPELESS." In a striking letter to Lady Edward Cecil, Milner wrote:— "We have got as' good raw material of statesmen as any country ever had. But the system is hopeless. .Only one man in a hundred dares give_ effect or utterance to the statesmanship that is in him,.and he, being a Solitary incident, is of little use. 7 • _. • There is no consistent national mind, about any political question, no standard, no cohesion, system, training anywhere,'' And'then follows a sarcasm as blistering as any of Dean Swift's:—- - "Perhaps a great Charlatan—political scallywag, buffoon, liar, stump orator, and in other respects popular fayourite-^-may some day arise who is nevertheless a statesman —the combination is not impossible—ran'd;;who,.having attained power by popular, _acts, may,use it for national ends. It is an off-chance, but I do not see any other." Make all the necessary allowances for bitterness of spirit and depression of soul—the point of the sarcasm pierces still. The "tomfoolery" '■: remains. There is no- consistency of policy. . . ' ■ . The gravest Imperial issues lie' at the mercy of an election lie; and the capitalist system and the entire Constitution are" to be thrown in with them—if the. Socialists have their way —to make sure that the catastrophe,is total.on a single day of wrath. It is,

that, which, has produced and..is. pro--ducing Fascism in the countries of Europe. Tho other Milner as he saw himself in retirement,is given in the,words:- — My desire now is all and. only for the big, quiet things, "In the highlands, in. the country places," I want travel, not too hurried. Books, not too many. A country home, I don't care where, not too big. I want art, music, of which I have been quite starved. . . '.-. But neither honours, wealth,' society, or;. power have any spell for me—they never had much —any more. Nevertheless, further honours remained in store for him during the Great War, when tho nation in its extremity again remembered the mkn with clear mind and purpose aeep, retired a.mong his books and "dear old rubbish" at Sturry Court, and once more found him splendidly strong to save. -' '