The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1906. THE BLACK PERIL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12911, 28 February 1906, Page 4

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1906. THE BLACK PERIL.

The difficulties that arc being experienced at present with a on tain section of the natives in .South Africa, though thus far they have not led to anything very serious, serve to draw attention forcibly to the dar.gcr that Ins b«Ti designated ;s *'lh* Black Peril." Th> is t-:'t little ckud <>n the political horizon it. .Scuta. Africa, and it has inra pie.ixt*-'! that it

is the ii■ri-rTinr.tr •: :r s'.<*;n :',,..' :* dotaned to butst iciij) >,< or.er or laivr. In thai put kin of Afiica which lies south of tie river lire v.L.lc popula.rion art said !■• b:. ■ uic.uml;--el !,y '.bt in the proportion *>i' fix to 'tie. -.vi;ile in the British lemurier- *J.e proportion of blacks to whiles is heid to be five to one, at.d it is ge:cra.lly believed that these istimjtes are well within the mark. What the natives when united are capable of was sh.'-wn not Jong ago in (Jurat an. Southwest Africa.. whe;e the Hererox rebelled and vabjected ibi* G«:oiaa settlers and l*onps to severe hardships and h+uvy losses before ihc outbreak was finally suppje *sed. v Hi::" rising wa.s ;m isolate:! one. a:.d is W or.3y a, partial indication •< f what might **e expected to fellow on the erupt kn that :*■■ forer-barlow, ;5 n: t"ce term "the 3'.]act Peril." During the pis', century the British have devoted a. considerable amount cf time and tni.i.cv to educating and chriMiariri.-g the Sc-uth African nesn ■. ;aid the result of ibise efforts is to be found in the enlarged ideas of growing political consciousness of the block race. Xuxnber* of liberated negroes from ihe United State* have also returned it* 2><>utb Africa, bringing with them'those religious beliefs which. they acquired during their residence among the Americans. These people and tbtir descendants have established churches of their own- the most influential of their religious organisations being lb* AmericanEthiopua Church whose d'rxlrines are described as a debased form of Christiaity. The leaders in the movement known, hr the American Ethiopian agitation are the liberated slaves fnai the .States and their descendants, and they play upon the superstitions .and prejudice*! of the negro with a degree of suwess which it is practically impossible for the while man to counteract. The influence they thus obtain makes them a dangerous set of m*n, and the existence of " the Black Peril" may be traced mainly to their preaching, of which the fundamental doctrine is contained in the formula " Africa for tie Africans." These Ethiopian pteacbers persuade their followers that Africa is destined ultimately to revert to its original 'and rightful owners, and they urge that the negro will «ccure once more possession of the country that- is rightly his by a united effort to throw off the while man's yoke. in the we« there is G*rmat:y, in the centre there is Britain, and in the east there is Portugal, all of which could, according to the Ethiopian leaders, be driven <out of South Africa at one and the same time by a •combined rebellion of the black races. Apparently some day or other—but -whether at a near or a distant date remain* to be »=ecn—the white man in South Africa will hare to enter on a life and death straggle with his black neighbour. The policy of the British in providing schools for the negro and the efforts of the missionaries to inculcate religious beliefs, combined with ibt establishment of religious bodies by lemraed American slaves, have had the effect <f developing a political consciousness in the mind of tlie black man. He is beginning to use thai ia numbers be is far superior to his subjugator, and the development of the political side of his being is forming for him the idea that his race has a future before it and a. country, of both of which it has been deprived by the white 'eppresser. The allirixce of the political doctrine of *' Africa for the Africans"' with the religious teachings of the Ethiopian Church is the chief source of the danger 1<» which we have lefwred. Of all «•«•« ihfisfc based on I'jaoal and religions causes combined are the ok si appalling, aod the problem that face* the white man in South Africa piornise* to assume « serious -aspect in the -* future The importation of Chinese into lb* Tiansvaal has seived t<i increase racial dispropoition, sir<e the place* of Chinamen might have been taken by British Labourers, whose numbers w>ould have helped to swell the ratio of the whit* population. It is said also thai the introduction of the Chinese has irritated the Kaffirs, and that feeling of irritation will lemain for some time whether the Chinaman is bundled back to his own country ior not. Once the Black Peril aßßttmes , serious proportions, it will be followed by at» least one desirable consummation, namely, the consolidation of the British ar,d the Dutch for the purpose of fighting the common enemy; and it rests with the leaders of the two white races in Soath. Africa, to do their best to forward, the only morans?snt that can help, to sneet„tb»coming laager. .■■ *