The Youngest British Consul.

Manawatu Herald, 16 April 1892, Page 2

The Youngest British Consul.

Mr Johnston, when first he went to negotiate African treaties with Portuguese, was looked at a little askance. They could not realise that he was in truth the ambassador of the British Government. To them he appeared to be a boy. Johnston was not old enough even to have grown a moustache. He was, in fact, little more than a boy ; and today I suppose he is the youngest of all her Majesty's consuls. I remember meeting him with some others to say "au revoir " to Mr Stanley on the occasion of his second great excursion through "Darksst Africa." Johnston had just published a volume on the River Congo. When his health was proposed in eloquent and appreciative terms by Mr Stanley, one looked round the room to see some big strong fellow get up and reply. Johnston had made a descent upon Central Africa with little or no assistance, and without any official recognition. " When 1 heard of him," said Stanley, "I thought the first of Cook's tourists must have arrived." Instead of that it was an English youth, with little more than the physique, as it seemed, of a girl, and with the gentle manners of a boy from school. But Stanley had reason later on to applaud the boy's pluck and to commend his wisdom. 11 1 found that in a serious controversy with a powerful savage chief, Mr Johnston had won his way all along the line." And so he had, but at the dinner in question we were all surprised to see a slight boyish good-looking young fellow get up and respond to the toast of his health. He spoke well and with great modesty ; but with a certain quiet firmness that indicated the iron beneath the velvet.

In 1890, on the publication of Stanley's latest book, I met my young friend again. He had since that first meeting once more pierced Africa from various points and had narrated his work and adventures with pen and pencil, both pen and pencil equally clever and graphic. The scenes of his latest exploits, however, had been in the regions of the Zambesi and Shire rivers, and Mr Searle, one of the Sampson Low partners now, on behalf of the gathering congratulated him on his diplomatic successes in which he had won the approval of the Government and the gratitude of his country-men in safe-guarding British interests as against the pretensions of another nation. To-day " the boy Johnston " (as a famous explorer called him even on that last occasion) is her Majesty's Commissioner for Nyassaland, and in recent complications is acting for the Government. He is at the same time administrator of the Briti-h South Africa Company. His mission is to put an end to the slave trade in those regions, and I will back the boy to do it. Imagine a slim gentlemanlike youth with the suggestion of a moustache upon a gentle lip, soft brown hair, five feet seven or eight, of modest well dressed boyhood, a soft voice, amiable manners, a clever artist, a pleasant talker ; this was Johnston two years ago. Yet he had done successful battle with savages, and in diplomacy with the sages of Portugal ; he had undergone the hardships and trials of African travel, physically and morally, without turning a hair ; and to-day you hear of him having the confidence of the Government and its authority to put down the slave trade in Nyassaland.