FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19970, 11 December 1926, Page 4

FROM FAR AND NEAR.

LIGHT ON EMPIRE SETTLEMENT. Bt Constant Reader. I.—SOUTH AFRICA. The attention devoted to the important subject of Empire settlement during the deliberations of the Imperial Conference renders of value authoritative information regarding the history and the conditions of life in the overseas dominions. Especially is this true of South Africa. For this and other reasons Mr Manfred Nathan’s book on “South Africa from Within,” together with the Rev. W. A. Cotton’s companion volume on “The Race Problem in South Africa,” will be welcomed by the student of affairs as shedding light upon the past, present, and future of a country which promises to wield an important influence in the counsels and development of the Empire. Mr Nathan is a Johannesburg lawyer who has given time and attention to the history of the land of his adoption and is the author of previous volumes on the subject. The book begins with an account of the Dutch occupation of South Africa and the Great Trek of 1836, but in large part it deals with South Africa after the Union. Indeed, the author claims that his is the first attempt to give a detailed account of the history of the Union since its inauguration in 1910. Accordingly Mr Nathan has divided his book into two parts, the first being a historical retrospect sketching the days of the Boer republics, tlie Boer War of Independence, and the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, this leading up to the first years of the Union. In the second part Mr Nathan deals with South Africa as it is* the country, the people, the government, its industries and commerce, its political parties and problems, and its social life. The part played by New Zealand in the Boer War lends interest to this retrospect, and Mr Nathan, who writes clearly and well, shows great skill in condensing into moderate space all the exciting events and influences which culminated in the South African Union. The most valuable part of this record, however, is that'which deals with the present and the future. Mr Nathan, following a detailed description of the several provinces, gives it as his opinion that at the present time South Africa does not offer much encouragement to the would-be settler, but he adds that “it is an exceedingly attractive country to visit or to explore.” In this connection he writes: — Smith Africa has always been regarded as the hunter’s paradise—to such an extent that several varieties are now, unfortunately, extinct, while others are rigidly prohibited. Nevertheless its fauna is distinctive and in many respects unique, and presents many features of interest to the naturalist. Apart from the game reserves, there are still many varieties of antelopes to be met with in the Transvaal, the northern part of the South-West Protectorate, and in Rhodesia ; lions and leopards are still plentiful in the Eastern Transvaal, hippopotami are to bo seen in the Komati, and buffalo in the thickets of Zululand. Giraffes and zebras still survive in the Eastern Transvaal, Bechuanaland and Rhodesia. Of birds there are over a thousand species, including many varieties of sunbirds, pigeons, and eagles.

Mr Nathan point out that it is impossible to state- precisely how many of the million and a-half European inhabitants at the time of the Union were of British and how many of Dutch birth. The census returns indicate only the number of Eng-lish-speaking and of Dutch-speaking persons respectively. Since large numbers speak both languages, and more Dutch persons speak English than English persons know Dutch, the probability is that the peoples of Dutch origin outnumber the English-born. In addition, the Dutch are more prolific than the English. At the same time, “the Englishman dominates tho situation in South Africa. Practically all the commerce, and most of the wealth of the country are in hie hands.” One of the problems of the present is the ever-increas-ing number of 1 poor whites.” Almost invariably they have largo fami lies, for whose future they are unable to make any provision. They have no capital, and no training to give them; and the inevitable result is that their children drift into the slum areas of the towns and become part of the submerged population. Other “poor whites” remain on the land doing little or no work, gradually sinking in the social scale, and often contracting marriages or alliances with coloured persons; The Native' problem, however, is that which presses most urgently for solution. There are in all British South Africa about six and a half million natives, and Mr Nathan holds that their subjection to European- rule has been of great advantage to them, both economically and as regards general well being. In addition there are the Asiatics who, however, number Jess than 200,000. “It is not likely,” says Mr Nathan, “that the Asiatic population will prove to be relatively a more serious factor than they are at the present time.” Discussing political parties and problems, Mr Nathan puts lightly on one side all probability of succession from the British Empire. “It must, however, bo recognised," he writes, “that a new spirit is abroad, not only in South Africa but in the other dominions as well. Without having last any of their sentimental and loyal attachment to the Mother Country, their citizens feel that they have emancipated them selves from control, and that they must no longer be kept in leading strings. . . While their education and civilisation will, for many years to come, be predominantly British in orientation and outlook,. it is certain that, human nature being what it is. they will give the first place to self-preservation and self-interest, and for this reason their own native soil will be dearer to them than any other. This need not imply any weakening of their sentimental attachment to the Mother Country, which, founded as it is on grounds of history and tradition, is probably as strong as their patriotic devotion to the interest of the Empire as a whole.” In his introduction to the Rev. W. A. Cotton’s- book the Rev. Edwin Smith, literary secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, refers to the race problem of South Africa as “of appalling complexity.” A more difficult situation,” he says, “is not to bo found anywhere in the world. We must be grateful to Mr Cotton for helping us to consider it in a Christian spirit.” Tho solution which Mr Cotton suggests is a segregation of the races, incolving the division of South Africa into two areas—one, for whites and the other for blacks. “Not the rising tide of colour,” declares Mr Cotton, “is the terror of tho age, but rather tho rising tide of racial passion whipped up by windy writers. . . . If there are coloured races of whom there is cause to be .afraid, they are not those of Africa.” Mr Cotton contends that every thing that prudence requires should be done to reduce the causes of inter-racial friction in Africa, and in addition, to “a righteous segregation” he advocates the giving of legal and social sanction to the marriage of white with coloured persons, of European with Africans. Only in this way ‘'can the past he retrieved or the future be secured for and honour and respect in our relations. lI.—'WEST AUSTRALIA. Mr E. O. G. Shaun, of the University of Western Australia, has compiled, under the title “Cattle Chosen,” the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, covering the years 1829 to 1841, using for the purpose the diaries and letters of John Garrett Bussell, his family, and friends. John Garrett Bussell was the eldest sou of a vicar in Hampshire whose mother and six of his brothers and sisters joined him in colonising the country behind Cape Leemvin in the extreme south-western corner of Australia. The book forms an instructive page in earlv colonisation, the Bussells being led to adventure forth, partly by the,depression following the Napoleonic wars, and partly by letters from officers on service in New South Wales to their friends, which told of rich fortunes to be made at wool growing and land owning in faroff Australia. The compiler says; It was inevitable that the service families in crowded England should sigh for new settlement, blessed by rude plenty, but free of convicts. There were then no free Australian colonies. More- j ton Bay and Van Dieman’s Land were

more besmirched than Sydney and its adjacent “nineteen counties. South Australia and Victoria were not yet. But the dream of free societies, in which the first arrivals might be granted wide areas, and thus found landed families like the old Norman barons, was being spread by every letter from Sydney. When, therefore, in 1829, Captain James Stirling, a fellow-officer of the Bussell’s kinsman, Captain Robert Yates, R.N., called for settlors to colonise the Swan River district in Western Australia, the lively hopes of . favours to come from the governor-designate reinforced the prospects of free grants of land in an area pronounced by Stirling “not inferior to the Plain of Lombardy. Thus it came about that John, Charles, Vernon, and Alfred Bussell, with a servant, embarked in the Warrior on October 19, 1839, carrying with them their goods and chattels, which entitled them under the regulations then in force to a land grant of some 5500 acres. John was 26, Charles 19, Vernon 16, and Alfred 14 when they set out. The women of the family followed in 1832, and the stqry of their pioneering makes a fascinating recital.- Their experiences with the natives in those early days are especially instructive. Mr Shann’s book is of particular value at the present time as revealing what the pioneers had to put up with in the shape of deprivation and hardship, in contrast with the easy conditions of the migrant to-da'-. lII.—INDIA. “I propose to prove in the following pages that British rule in India is inefficient in the matters that concern the nation’s life: that India is slowly wasting away and will inevitably perish unless she regains the right to rule herself.” This sentence from the introduction to Mrs Annie Besant’s book, “India Bond or Free,” sufficiently indicates its purpose and scope. Another extract from the same introduction should prove enlightening:— My own life in India, since I came to- it in 1893, to make it my home, has been devoted to one purpose—to give back to India her ancient freedom. I had joined the Theosophical Society in 1889, and knew that one of the purposes for which it was intended by the everliving Rishis, who sent to the Western world, as its founders, their messengers H. P. Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott, was the rescue of India from tha materialism which was strangling her true life by the revival of ancient philosophical and scientific religions, and by the placing of India as an equal partner in a great Indo-British Commonwealth would avert a war oij colour and bind and West together in a brotherhood* which should usher in an era of cooperation and peace. When due allowance is made for the evident bias of the book, as shown in the foregoing paragraph, there is a meed of useful information in what has manufestly been issued for the purposes of propaganda. Mrs Besant describes in detail the lives of the natives in the Indian villages, and she charges against British rule that the former prosperity of the villager has been replaced by a continuous scarcity of the necessaries of life, leadiu'g to more or less acute famine. She declares that the only remedy is the establishment of Indian local government. In like manner she makes a charge against British rule in regard to Indian education and Indian industry, contrasting a splendid past with a deplorable present. Mrs Besant next sketches the movement for self-government, or “Swaraj.” which is ascribed to the awakening of the Indian nationals. The beginnings of that movement are thus outlined:— Meanwhile the movement for National Education was teaching patriotism and pride of race and country, aided lay the spirit of Freedom breathed through English literature. The movement for National Education was its child It began by lectures about 1895. The foundmg of the Central Hindu College and School at Benares in 1898, in which Hindus and Englishmen worked as professors and masters side by side on subsistence wages, in thorough equality, was by other institutions inspired by a similar spirit; girls’ schools followed under the samo inspiration, and religion became an integral part of the training -of patriotic youth, while the story of India’s Past fired their enthusiasm. Religious Reform had led to Educational Reform, and Social Reform followed in their wake. } The burden of Mrs Besant’s book is an impassioned plea for Home Rule for India. “If India,” she writes in conclusion, “bo duly; admitted into the Commonwealth of Nations, if she possesses dominion status at homo as well as abroad, then may a world peace brood over our seething nations. . . . The future of India will, I hope, be united with that of Britain for the sake of both nations, and for the sake of humanity at large, for they supply each other’s defects, and united can do for the world a service that neither can do alone Let India have freedom to develop on her own lines and she will again rival her ancient glory, and even excel it in the future. Robbed of liberty, she is treading the path of death and will soon leave the world only the memory of what she was. . . . Her salvation lies in Swaraj. Self Rule, Home Rule, and in that alone.” IV.—AMERICA. Mr John St. Loe Strachey, for many years editor of The Spectator, has been to America, where he had a good time and enjoyed a hospitality “at once so generous and so gracious, so overwhelming and so delicate, so ample and yet so intimate, so spacious and yet so kindly.” He disclaims any idea of attempting to repay such hospitality by writing a book full of hypocrisy and humbug, his aim being rather to present both for American and for English consumption some of the problems which the future of the United States involves. He has called the chapters of his book “American Soundings,” because he felt as he wrote them as if he were dropping the lead into American shore waters. The problems ho seeks to discuss are briefly stated: Whither is the American Ship of State going? Who lare to be the men and women who will frame her sailing orders? Who will choose iicr course? Who will form the crew? Who will take charge and bo responsible for the safety and welfare of the vessel? Who will see that she is well equipped, well staffed, well - victualled, and adequately insured? In what language will the word of command be given ? Under what rules and principles will the ship be navigated. The author disavows any idea of describing America; ho merely aims at dealing with the anxieties and discontents which he found prevalent among the best sections of the American people, and especially the men of Trans-Atlantic lineage. The acuteness of Mr Stracov’s observation may be illustrated in a sentence. “The American Republic itself,” he writes, “may be said to have been founded upon a particularly violent contrast between thought and speech and action. . . No one who does not possess the sympathy of comprehenson for this racial trait will ever understand the Americans.” Mr Strachey’s first glimpse of American life was gained during a motor trip of 826 miles to Philadelphia, which occupied four days. This trip through Pennsylvania introduced him to American life at its sanest and best. Ha then visited New England, but the great West, with Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco, and Los. Angeles, went unvisited. This omission obviously limits the extent of Mr Strachey’s “Soundings.” The chapter on Prohibition will naturally be one of the best road in the whole volume The conclusion is reached that while America is not likely to retrace her steps and go back to the oupn saloon, there are alternatives which she may ultimately adopt. Mr Strachey insists that Prohibition has been a great and polent form of advertisement, since to create a popular demand there is nothing quite so good as prohibition. The prohibition of the liquor traffic “lias had a special and curious reaction on voting people of both sexes —though it should be noted that this particularly sad result is for the most part confined to the youth of the rich professional and well-to-do classes.” In addition, “Defiance of the prohibition law has come to be regarded, as one of the luxuries of the rich,” arid to supply these luxuries new and valuable inicrests in lawlessness has been created in the United States, which result in a profit of millions of dollars reanod by the bootlogging fraternity. Mr Strachey inclines to the Quebec plan since “it ought to be impossible for anvone to have an ardent interest in the sale of liquor.” Among the other subjects touched upon in this book are the American women, the American universities. American language, and the American press. The papers reveal a keen power of observation and an insight into character combined with a fluent style of writing. The book is eminently readable, besides conveying an adequate idea of Amarioi. and its oaanla.