SOUTH AFRICAN LETTER

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14170, 19 September 1906, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN LETTER

[From a Coeuespoxdext.] THE ZULU RISING IN NATAL. JOHANNESBURG. July 28. i Tho day 'before yesterday, the first oontingoJit of Transvaal troops sent to. aid Natal in her trouble against the Zulus, returned to Johannesburg. The remainder, will probably not leave the Garden Colony for, three or four' weeks, possibly later. The Natal Militia ana Reserves have already returned to their homes, and it is proposed to have a composite regiment to patrol the disaffected districts and 'generally impress the Zulus with the sense of the readiness of the authorities to, put down any attempts at rising. It is not likely that we will experience any trouble in that l quarter until the majority of the troops have returned to their homes, and perhaps not even then, i although it is asserted that the Rondos, on the Natal western border, are inclined, to try a hand in the game, not feeling satisfied with the experiences of their neighbours. It seems to be a general impression outside of South Africa that this rising was caused through the imposition of a poll tax. A cable message some months-ago from New Zealand, which appeared in the newspapers, attributed that expression of opinion to Mr f3eddon, and it seems to be generally held, not only in the United Kingdom, but in Canada and Australasia. Such, however, is very far from the case. Although it has not been made known through the papers here, I learn from high official sou ices that during the last eighteen months messengers have been going to and from a number of prominent Zulu chiefs and the other native tribes* in Swaziland, Northern Transvaal and Basutoland, as also to the Rondos and Tembus in Cape Colony. The text of these communications was nearly identical in_ every instance. It stated that the natives were in an overwhelming majority, if they joined together they could sweep the whits men out of South Africa, that the British and Dutch were at deadly enmity and would not fight together, and that the Imperial Government was not going to interfere any more in South Africa. Several messengers with these communications have been intercepted in Basutoland and far to the north of tho Transvaal. The object, so far as I can learn, was, to make each race paramount in its own district, but all were to act together with one object. The authorities acted very discreetly' in this matter, the public have known nothing of it, and identical letters have been sent, with the cognisance of the Native Department here, to certain chiefs who were suspected of being disaffected. Their replies were received, and as a consequence several of them have been made to sit up. One good effect of this will be that' in future they will bo loth to act on communications of this kind, though such may come from, to thorn, perfectly reliable sources. , With regard to the poll tax in Zululand and Natal, that is quite a minor matter. They objected to it certainly, as every man objects to direct taxation, but they paid, and some of-those who went into rebellion had paid before doing so. As a matter of fact, all these natives pay a poll tax to their chiefs. Swazis who are acting as houseboys in Johannesburg have to send £2 per annum to their chiefs, and those who are working on the mines are compelled to make similar “ presents” on their return. The power of the chiefs over their, tribesmen is incredible to an outsider. Boys have to go when they .are sent for, although they do not want to, and are here under a fixed Government which would prevent anything being done to them; but they seem afraid-to disobey. The chiefs appear to hold a power over them which inspires terror. They would rather fight and be killed than they would risk refusing. During this Zulu embroglio a great number of indunas were sent up to make the boys go back, and I have known of cases where the boys have hidden from them and tried to get out of their way. _ With regard to the fighting itself, it has, I think, proved 'conclusively that the celebrated Zulu rush which proved so disastrous to the English troops twenty-five years ago, is quite ineffectual against machine guns and magazine rifles.' In several cases our men would have been swept away were they armed only with the weapons used in former Zulu fights. Possibly the successful conduct of the campaign was also* largely due to tho fact that all the officers and men employed were colonials and not regular soldiers. I think had the fighting been entrusted to regular troops under English officers the Zulus would have led them a _ merry chase, and broken back on their flanks and rear, cutting them up in sections. It fortunately happened that they were encountered by men who knew their work, and consequently tho success was complete, and the loss on our side infinitesimal. Even one success would have had the whole of the Zulu race in arms. I said tliat some time ago mcsengerc had been intercepted convey big communications to tih© tribes living; in* re-

mote districts. The plan, so far ae the Zulus are concerned, was to re-establish the old royal house of Tchaka, under Dinizulu, and give to the race the prestige Which it enjoyed in the past. Their loss in the fighting was enormous. Messini had 2500 fighting men, of these 1500 have been killed and 1000 are still in hiding. It is probable that had Messini been able to gain a little time he would have offered , a much, more effective opposition. He is credited with being the beet general they could put in the field. Probably you have heard a great deal of the atrocities. which the troops are supposed to’ have committed. I need scarcely say. that in every case these have been refuted by those who are best able to know. The slaughter was very great, but in a number of \ instances a large percentage of that slaughter took place before our men eaw the enemy. The so-called bush country is fairly open, with thickets interspersed in a park-like stretch of country. The whole of this was “searched” with cannon, and great numbers of natives were found dead from the effects of this fire. They ware in hiding in the various thickets waiting to rush on our troops as they passed by, and. the bullets found them there i and spoilt their plans. Had our men marched through they would, _in some instances,'have been cut to pieces; in fact, it would have been a case of Isandlwhana over again. '■ ■’ POLITICAL. Politically the condition.. has not changed Very much. We have two extreme parties, the Progressives, who are strongly. capitalistic and Imperialistic, and. Het Volk, who! are strongly Dutch, and perhaps I should say republican. Then we have the responsibles, who are chiefly • British and who were originally in opposition to the attempts | of the Progressive Party to stave over the granting'of responsible government until such time as they could he sure of a good working majority. There was a distinct cleavage between these two sections of the British population at that time, and the responsibles allied themselves with Het Volk and the Labour Party in order to procure the grant: of self-government at the earliest possible time. The Labour Party are split up into several sections, chiefly, I fear, because so many aspire to be leaders, but. they are still a power to be reckon-, ed with in some constituencies. The Progressives have a nominal membership of 40,000, hut I think this strength is more apparent than real. The men 1 working on the mines have to belong | to the Progressive Association’s branch in their midst, or they would probably, find that there was .no more work for them, and so they are members of the I Progressive Association, and ,in some ! instances members of the: committee, but how they will vote is quite another matter. * I have never found greater difficulty in predicting the; result of elections than in this case, that will be lonus in a few mouths’ time. lam inclined to think that the Independent • British, be they Responsible® or Labour, ; will secure several seats in' Johannesburg and along the Rand, so that when Parliament meets Het-Volk will'have the strongest voting power'of any party and possibly stronger than .that of all the British parties put together. ■ Some leaders of the Progressive party are now in London, endeavouring to influence the Imperial Cabinet in favour of their particular views. It is claimed by their organs that they haye been fairly successful, that Pretoria will, hold the balance of power, that is, the country constituencies supporting Het Volk candidates will not be able to do more than equal the British candidates elected for the Rand. It is rather amusing-to note that whilst these gentlemen are industriously at work in London a number of Independents interviewed the Acting Lieutenant-Go-vernor, Sir Richard Salomon, and asked him to cable to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, stating that these Progressive leaders did not represent the British community of the Transvaal, and had no mandate to speak on their behalf. The Lieutenant-Governor said he would not cable to that effect, but if they liked to forward him their cable he would send it through, which, I believe, was done. Speaking of Sir Richard Solomon reminds me of a persistent rumour to the effect that he will be the first Premier. He has already indicated an intention of re-entering political life, and rumour says that he will bo entrusted with the formation of tho Ministry. How long that Ministry will stand we are unable to say, it may he for a week or for a year, but it seems unlikely that he would accept tho, task' of forming a Cabinet unless ho was tolerably sure that he could do some good work. His name will probably be remembered by most of your readers as the Cape Colony Minister who at the time of tho crisis gave the weight of hif influence to the British side, and materially assisted in averting what threatened to ;be at that time a subversion of Brii thsh interests in the old colony. ‘When Lord Milner cam© to the Transvaal ho asked Sir Richard Solomon to accept the Attorney Generalship, and he has been the High-Commissioner’s trusted authority in all tho complicated le^al

» questions that, have arisen since. H« i is a, very able man, a keen debater, and ; ; • one who has a grip of South African I politics possessed by' very few. The majority of the Progressive leaders here would be mere ciphers beside him, • , : so far as intellect is concerned, though :; ( as to money they could buy him out • w ; dozen times over. i : i > ’ FOOTBALL. l It will interest a number of your - readbrs who were so keenly elated over - 1 the success of tKS .conquering “All (Blacks” in England to know, that the [ ( annual tournament under the auspices ; , 'of the South African Rugby Union has [ i just been held, and resulted again in s j a win- for the Western Province (Capo , Town, district), with the Transvaal j runners-up and Griqualand West (Kimberley) taking third place. The other . teams competing represented Eastern’ [ Province (Port. Border (East London), Natal, Orange River Colony, / - ; aiid Rhodesia. The Western Province • were easily first, although in the total* they were ahead of the Transvaal by : two points only, and' in their match [ 1 with that team secured only five points, , a converted goal to nil. The forma- ; ; i _ \ tion of all these teams is very muchtha ; | (same as in the United Kingdom,eight '■ ’ in the scrums, two threes and' a two, . . two half-backs, four three-quarters and a fulLback. The play was not very much to look at from a spectator’* : point of view, and Mew Zealand Rugby players would consider it out-of-date. In some instances team* would be able to -work a screw , scrum- and get ( the ball fairly well . but in most instances it was heavy > pushing. The team that gets-the baft • try to get it as far down towards tha - opponent’s goal as they can before it ■ goes out. It is almost invariably , thrown in crooked with the view of = > getting another scrum, and by this ! means they endeavour to got as close ■ to "the line as possible before they ; < charge over. The forwards do riot pass »' at all. One team, the Border, did * • lot of dribbling, hut they generally sent • the ball too far ahead and there wa* , ; ' not much combination, in their play. ‘ Individually a number of the men ‘ were very good, arid one in particular,, ' a youngster named Joubert, full-baok • ’ fox- the Western Province, was a mar- ; vellous kick. I suppose the average of 1 hi® kicks, whenever the ball came -ta ■ 1 him, would be over thirty yards, and. ’ he found touch every time: They say- ' he is a good tackier also, but ho had no ’ ooaeion to do .anything of this, the hall t generally came to him before the -op- , posing side could get near. At the o«a-< | elusion of the tournament the Selec* : r tic-n : Committee .chose the team to g®,., 5 - to England.- It is comprised of the fob j lowing; players ; :—Thirteen from tha j , Western Province, six from the Tran*- , vaal, five from Griquoland West, three • from the Bolder, and one from the Eastern Province, making twenty-eight 1 playera in all. It is noteworthy , that! 3 three-quarters of these are Dutch, and, some of the others are half-Dutoh, only ’ ; three of them have clayed football ouH , of South Africa, aoritis purely a r«- ■ presentative South African team,_ with, as I have said, a -great-.majority of young Dutchmen: They play a very fast, hard game, and did they: underv.,, stand the scientific features as...played by your men, would give a remarkably good account of themselves. How they ' will fare in the United Kingdom cay ‘ only bo a matter of conjecture. _ ■. The South African, team of Abbocm ’ ation olayers that went to tho Argon* tine, have had a remarkably sucoear p ! fill tour, being beaten but onoe., ; but the team that achieved suooeas ori 1 that occasion was very easily disposccj 1 of in a return match. They were exr coptionally fortunate in doing so well, . ‘ because some of their best players wer* ‘ 1 fighting in- Zululand, and consequently ' unable to go; still to have won every - : match but on© is a very good perform- • anCe ‘ THE LATE MR SEDDON. ' By the time tire reaches -you the 1 keen sorrow felt throughout New : Zea- r. land at the loss of its Premier will,- to ’ some extent, have died away, though the many regrets felt at hia death will last for a long time. Throughout South , Africa the universal feeling was one of deep sympathy with New Zealand in its loss. Nearly all the papers had sympathetic notices, and . some gave lengthy descriptions of ■ his political career. Amongst the general public. also i the expressions of regret at hi* -death ’ - I were very marked, and to those of u* | who happened to be New’ Zealander* | the majority of people with whom w« ■ ( came in contact expressed . sympathy, k ' not only : with ourselves,' but with tha ■' Empire. In the large town*, especially Johannesburg and Gape Town, ■ • meetings were held and cable messages 1 of sympathy forwarded. Although Mr Seddou was Jjere but a short time, -h* • had, in that period, impressed hi* per- ' eonality on. all with whom he became :- - i associated, and most South Africans - • appreciate in the highest degree hi* \ strong Imperialism and tHe assistance ■ he'lent to this country at a very orit41 cal period of its history.