284 COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS 



and to anv |step^ which might re^^ult in the Central Africans leaving their 

 homes to go far afield for employment. Tliis tv})e of thinker, narrow if 

 earnest, would have preferred that the Central African native should 

 remain in modified savagery, without any wants or tastes than those 

 which could be met by the simple instruction and pleasures of the 

 mission station. Tliis class of missionary did not realise that his work, 

 his noble calling, was a preparatory one; that the i)upils he had taught 

 must take certain risks and go far afield if the race he was teacliing were 

 reallv to benefit by the introduction of Christian civilisation. 'J'hese 

 missionaries, if anv of them still survive witli unchanged views, would 

 have been opposed to the ])eople of British Central Africa going to 

 Khodesia, to the natives of I'ganda visiting the East African coast or 

 Zanzibar. They would have jjrefeircd their converts to attain old age 

 in the natal village with no knowledge of the outer world, in the fear 

 lest h\- travel they should escape the iiiHuence of the })articular inission 

 which had reared them. But the work of the Lovedale College in South 

 Africa, of the T niversities' Mission, the Free Church Mission, and the 

 Church Missionary Society, all of which bodies send their pupils far and 

 wide, is probably overcoming such prejudices. Adlierents of the Church 

 -Missionary Society who may have been taught at Sierra I^eone or in the 

 Niger Delta are now at rtt)rk on Lake Chad. ]\Ien of Lovedale College 

 have made their mark as teachers of fellow-negroes on Lake Nyasa. 



What possible objection can the real ]>liilanthropist — the man who is 

 no faddist, hut genuinely desires the upraising of the black races — find in 

 the intercourse between South and Central Africa ? Provided that the 

 native of Central Africa be ensured absolutely good and fair treatment, 

 and a short term of service is rigidly adhered to, what reasonable objection 

 can be taken to this interchange of laliour and ca])ital ? In the days 

 when the journey from Ug;inda to the Indian Ocean was three months' 

 trani}) o\er unhealthy country and sterile desert, it would have been 

 undoubtedly absurd to advocate Baganda workers proceeding to South 

 Africa ; and in like manner, when the lands north and south of the 

 Ri\er Zambezi were ra\aged by Arab, Goanese, and Zulu slave-raiders, it 

 would have been criminal to suggest that a body of unarmed men should 

 have left the west coast of Lake Nya.sa to march to Buluw^ayo. But since 

 all tliese journeys now can lie made with safety and celerity and under 

 good health conditions, provided that absolute security exists for the fair 

 and humane treatment of Negro workers in South Africa, I can only see 

 that real good would result by this filling up of the labour market in 

 South Africa from the Protectorates north of the Zambezi. 



A minimuni rate of wages should be fixed which shall ensure to the 

 native of Central Africa a reasonable return for his trouble and displace- 



