296 COMMERCIAL TilOSPECTS 



with which to speculate on the Stock Excliange, and who are likely to over- 

 ride roughly existing native rights and industries. I earnestly hope that our 

 Government niav share these views to a reasonahle extent. At any rate, 

 until, say, ten or fifteen years hence, we find that the natives of the Uganda 

 Protectorate are hopeless, that they will do absolutely nothing to develop 

 under our direction and for their profit the resources of tlie country in 

 animal, vegetable, and mineral wealth — until then I consider we ought to be 

 most careful not to repeat a ])o1icy wliich lias been shown to be disastrous in 

 the Congo Free State and in certain l"'rencli colonies. 



Commerce ought to be absukitely free and uru'estricted in the Uganda 

 Protectorate. If the native jjrofits In' developing the resources of his 

 countrv, the Administration of the Protectorate will ];rofit also; for the 

 native will have money with which to pay liis hut and gun taxes, the ex[)ort 

 dutv on certain goods, or the import duty on otheis. 'Jlie luu'Opean 

 merchant will tind his gain in the eheapness of native labour, and con- 

 se(juentlv the low price of the native products whic-li will lie tendered to 

 him for p.urchase. liut do not let us — at any rate, until we have tried 

 other expedients ami faileil liand oxer lai'ge districts as exclusive 

 concessions to this or that com})any for rubber, timber, ivory, or cofiee. 

 Special arrangements in regard to mining may ])Ossibly have to be made 

 owing to the utter inability of the native to develop that particular 

 source of wealth. At the jiresent time any European or foreigner (or, 

 for the matter of that, any native can purchase from the Crown an estate 

 of UOOO acres in any one place, proxided such estate be the pro[)erty of 

 the Crown and not of a native or natives, and unless it contains an 

 amount or special ])atch of forest whicli for good reasons the (iovernment 

 may not wish to sell, 'i'herefore there is no hindrance in the way of 

 modest enterprise. At to ///anodest enterprise — a single association buying 

 up a whole province or obtaining an exclusive rul)ber concession over 

 25, ()()() s([uare miles — I for one am totally op[;osed to any such Jiolicy — 

 at any rate, until it has been shown that a mass of small traders and 

 4,0()0,0(*0 natives cannot between them develop) the resources of their 

 country in a nianner productive of profit and happiness to all. 



The British *'\^' ^er has had to i)ay for the establishment of the 

 Protectorate ov ■ uida since 1894 about £1,394,()C0, and £'4,9()C).t)0() 



for the coustiui;- ^ <..f the Uganda Kailway. For ten years to come he 

 will have to pay, let us say, another €2,200, 000 for the maintenance of 

 the Uganda Kailway until its revenue makes it a self-supporting concern, 

 and a yearly contribution to the revenues of the Protectorate to meet the 

 deficit between the revenue and expenditure, wliich will not entirely cease 

 to exist, let us suppose, for another ten years. This means that the 



