CECIL RHODES’ VISION

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1929, Page 10

CECIL RHODES’ VISION

ANGLO-SAXON UNITY

EMPIRE BUILDER’S IDEAS.

THE FAMOUS FINAL WILL.

(By Thomas Compton, in New York

Times.)

Few documents can be so revealing as to the character and aims of a man as his will. Cecil John Rhodes in his comparatively short career planned much that remained uncompleted, but that the burden passed to his tried lieutenants might not be too heavy Rhodes assured himself that his plans would duly materialise and, at the same time, proved that an oft-questioned singleness of purpose had actually guided his actions. While further providing for schemes already on foot, lie demonstrated his vision by launching new projects. He was looking ahead several decades at least, and by his foundation at Oxford he was making what he considered the first short step toward a great ideal —the rule of peace and justice in the world.

It is often asked why Rhodes, with his occasional tendency to flag-wagging and his perpetual imperialism, gave the United States such a large number of scholarships. Some have suggested John Hays Hammond, others maintain that the generous allotment recognised the efficiency of the many American engineers who served his interests. The facts tell a. different story. Rhodes dictated the terms of his last will to his solicitor in the London office of the latter during 1899. Having reached the scholarship section, he called off the various self-governing British colonies and then considered the United States. On what basis could apportionment be made? The solicitor, Hawksley, thought they might be allotted on the basis of States.

“How many are there?” Hawksley considered and, his mind running back to the War of Independence, announced. “.Thirteen.” “Good. We <.n give them two each. Put that down. Two to each of the States of America —” There followed some question as to territories and the thing was done. In making his last will, the only one in which his pet educational scheme appeared, Rhodes was giving definite shape to ideas he had held since he was in his teens. At 17, on the point of going up to Oxford, an affection of the lungs sent him, instead, to South Africa. Under what amounted to a death sentence from the English specialists, he joined his brother, Herbert, who was planting cotton, with little success, in Cape Colony, in September, 1870. Having proved he could raise cotton, he trekked 400 miles to the north-west, to the diamond fields where “Rhodes luck” soon became proverbial. Every thing he touched turned out well. Claims bought at any price, so it seemed, produced a profit—-but it was hard work. With the lungs working, the heart went, and his elder brother dragged his nose from the grindstone t' accompany him on one of his prospecting treks, nominally after more diamonds or gold, but actually in search of adventure. By this time, he wrote to his mother, the 20-year-old Cecil was averaging a profit of £lOO a week, and while on the trek, thinking of his claims at Colesberg Kopje and his deposits in the bank at Capetown, ne drew up his first will. Considering the age and experience of the testator this is one of the most extraordinary document.-, ever put together. By 'it, in a single sentence, he left all his possessions to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in trust, to be used for the extension of the British Empire. No comment, no instructions, no explanation accompanied the bald statement of his wishesENTERS CAPE PARLIAMENT. In 1880 Grlqualand West was annexed to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and Rhodes, alternately diamond grubber anfi Oxford under-graduate, was •eturned to the Cape Parliament from the new constituency of Barkly West. By this time experience had revised his ideas as to the Secretary of State. During the South African months he shared a cottage with Neville Pickering, near the famous Kimberley Club. To his messmate, a young man of his own age, Rhodes confided all his growing dreams. Long into the night he would lecture Pickering on the future he was beginning to see. For Cape Colony to live it was essential that England control the middle of Africa-—“ All red, I want that part of the way, from Capetown up here to Cairo.” But the Cape politicians were blind. It was in 1888 that Rhodes made his celebrated 12,000 carat haul of diamonds which contributed to the capitulation of his chief competitor on the fields, Barney Barnato, and immediately thereafter was formed the De Beers Consolidated Company . By this time he became a man of means 'with little to worry him on the score of finances. He now had the education and the means. His “bread and butter,” as he always called De Beers, brought him in a regular income, which he used in forwarding his upcountry (Alatabele and Alashonaland) schemes. ’ On July 17, 1890, Cecil Rhodes moved across from the Opposition side of the Cape House and made up his Cabinet as Prime Minister. Together with managing directorships in the De Beers Compay/the chartered company and other commercial enterprises he held the Premiership until his protean activities placed him in the equivocal- position in which he found himself upon the failure nf the Jameson Raid, and it became necessary for him to resign. Almost immediately on his return from England, where he went at once to face the music, occurred the Alatabele rising, which he followed up by that remarkable series of indabas in the Matqppos, where, by reason of his marvellous patience and the manner, in which he handled the situations arising out of the conflict, satisfying insurgent chiefs without yielding an inch of his rights or duty, he crowned all his labours toward expansion and justified himself in the minds of a host of de- f tractors.

THE FAMOUS WILL.

In the peace which followed he strengthened the country, now rechristed with his name, working against time —the heart was insisting that his clays were numbered —to bring prosperity to the settlers attracted by his unquenchable optimism In this peace he turned to the making of his last will, which, after long discussions on a trek through Rhodesia with Sir Lewis Mitchell, was drafted in jondon on July 1, 1899. The scholarship clauses began with a dissertation on education and colonies, made favourable reference to Edinburgh University on account of its medical school, and recommended a similar institution to Oxford, and then accounted for the only allotment given outside Empire:

“Whereas I also desire to encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages —from the union of Englishspeaking people —and to encourage in students from the United States —an attachment to tho country from which they have sprung, but without, I hope,, wwithdrawing them or their sympathies from the land of their adoption or birth, now, therefore, I direct my trustees to establish for male students the scholarships hereinafter directed.” Back in Capetown in the autumn Rhodes was sitting in the House when Kruger’s ultimatum was issued. Seeing that war was inevitable, he decided to go to his “place of destiny,” Kimberley, the town he had been mainly instrumental in raising from the veldt and which promised to be the first objective of the Boers in the event of hostilities. On the night of October 9, 1899, he slipped away from Capetown to enter Kimberley on the last train, as the burghers were gathering round and effecting the investment. A tower of strength during the siege, his lavish plans for the defence of the town and relief of the citizens might have been more useful had he been able to realise that the responsibility lay not with a private citizen but with Colonel Kckewich, in command of troops. On February 15, 1900, the relief forces under French raised the siege, and Rhodes was again at large, and Kruger’s Boers who had the promise of the sight of their uncle’s pet aversion in a circus waggon, were doomed to disappointment. Almost at once Rhodes was looking over the Rhodesian situation, sitting at board meetings and preparing for peace before leaving for England to find more capital. During this period he decided to create one “test” scholarship, and in 1901, while in England and at the time he added several codicils to his will, finding his friends pessimistic about the outcome of his project, he gave an experimental scholarship to the Diocesan College of Rondebosch, near Capetown. REQUIRED TYPE DEFINED. The codicils added to the will at this time revoked the appointment of W. T. Stead as a trustee “on account of his extraordinary eccentricity” —a vacancy filled with Dr. Leander Starr Jameson —and created five yearly scholarships at Oxford for students of German birth. The-e were revoked by Act of Parliament in 1916 and have now been revived. In October of the same year, by further codicil, he endeavoured to define the type of man he wanted for his plan: “I do not want simply the bookworms, I want men of good literary attainments with a taste for outdoor sports.” He even concocted a formula calling for literary attainments, sporting instinct, manly qualities and force of character in three, two, three and two paits respoctively. «■ There, but for the disposal of real property in England, it rested. Then, in Janouary, 1902, he was required to return to Capetown, and the voyage was too much for. him. His health became daily more a cause for alarm. Soon he was forced to retire to his seaside cottage at Aluizcnburg, where, on Alareh 26, he died. But his schemes and plans still went on, falling on the shoulders of carefully chosen assistants, who, together, found no easy task in taking over the activities of the man who before he was 24 had Written a pamphlet, audaciously entitled, “Some of my Ideas,” in which occurred the remarkable lines: “It often strikes a man to inquire what is the chief good in life. To one the thought comes that it is a happy marriage, to another great wealth, to a third travel, and so on; and as each seizes the idea, he more or less works for its attainment for the rest of his existence. To myself, thinking over the same question, the wish came to render myself useful to my country.”