442 



The Review of Reviews. 



June I, 1900. 



man, the President of the African Natives' Associa- 

 tion, Mr. Jabavu, and one or two other competent 

 natives and Indians. 



Ti.« <• 1 • , Behind the question of Chinese 

 The Colonists > u i- ^u l 



j„j labour hes the much more serious 



the Nati>es. problem of the natives. Mr. 

 Winston Churchill evidently con- 

 templates setting up a kind of imperium in imperio 

 in the shape of a Downing Street Protectorship over 

 the natives. It sounds well. But those who are 

 familiar with the attempts made by Sir Bartle Frere 

 to play the part of earthly providence to the natives 

 are dubious as to whether the results will be as 

 beneficent as the intentions. Mr. Winston Churchill 

 would do well to look up the address which Sir 

 Bartle Frere delivered to the Colonial Institute in 

 i88i. After deprecating the inherent delusion of 

 the British mind that the South African Colonies 

 cannot be trusted with the exclusive management of 

 their native affairs unless the Home Government has 

 more control than is afforded by the veto on their 

 legislation. Sir Bartle Frere went on to repeat:- — 



My conviction is that our countrymen in South Africa 

 are not only quite capable of dealing with all native ques- 

 tions aa wisely and firmly as we ourselves are in Eng- 

 land, but that the best interests of the natives are quite 

 as safe in the hands of the Colonial Government consti- 

 tuted as that of the Cape is, as thev would be i^ reserved 

 for the exclusive management of the Home Government. 

 . . . I will conclif'e by once more expressing my de- 

 liberate conviction that tie best interests of the nalives 

 of the C'ne Colony are Quite as safe in the keening of 

 the Cape Parliament as thev could he in that of the Par- 

 liament of the Unitel Kingdom. 



And what was true of the Cape Parliament, which 

 was preponderantly Dutch, will be equally true of 

 the Transvaal and Free State Parliaments. It is 

 doubtful whether the Boers will consent to be re- 

 sponsible for the government of their late Republics 

 if the native question is reserv'ed. 



The Crisis 

 in 



The excessive touchiness of South 

 -African colonists on all native 



Natal. questions received a ver\- striking 



illustration last month, when the 

 Natal Ministry resigned because Lord Elgin asked 

 for some information. A death sentence was passed 

 by a Militia court-martial on twelve Kaffirs for 

 being concerned in a murderous attack upoij a white 

 police officer. The Colonial Office telegraphed 

 asking that the execution should be postponed until 

 it had some more infonnation on the subject. 

 Where pon the Natal Ministry resigned, and all 

 British Africa went into hysterics. Wh.nt was the 

 ImjDerial Government thinking of to dare to ask for 

 information as to the right of a responsible self- 

 governing British Colony to shoot twelve Kaffirs to 

 avenge the death of one white man ? Monstrous. 

 And how unfair to the other Kaffirs who had already 

 been shot for the same offence ! Is the Natal Gov- 

 ernment not to be boss in its own house, etc., etc. ? 

 All of which is very edifying reading to the British 

 at home. If the Home Government cannot even ask 



civilly for information in a case where hasty action 

 might precipitate a revolt, which the Home Govern- 

 ment would have to quell, if will be very difficult to 

 convince people at home that there is any really 

 useful tie l)et\veen self-governing colonies and the 

 Empire. The fact will have to be faced sooner or 

 later, and it is well we should come to an under- 

 standing betimes in this matter. 



It is one of life's little ironies that 



Hero '^" "''^" continually go unwhipped of 



and Martyr. justice for their great crimes and 



get smartly trounced for the veriest 

 peccadilloes, which as often as not they have never 

 committed. The fuss that has been made about 

 Lord Milner last month is a case in point. Lord 

 Milner as the author of an unjust and unnecessary- 

 war deserved impeachment. There is no greater 

 crime than that of a Pro-consul who takes advantage 

 of his position to force the Government at home into 

 even the justest of wars for which it is utterly un- 

 prepared, so long as the door of arbitration remains 

 open. How much more heinous the offence of Lord 

 Milner. who made war unjustly, dragging after him 

 the at first reluctant Mr. Chamberlain and the to the 

 last reluctant Lord Salisbury : But although men have 

 been sent to the block for far less flagrant political 

 sins. Lord Milner has not even been subjected to 

 the mildest parliamentary censure for his headstrong 

 p'unge into war which he could so easily have 

 averted that it took him no small trouble to force 

 an appeal to arms. The nation has censured both 

 h'm and his tools at Downing-street in unmistakable 

 fashion by its verdict at the last General Election. 

 But so far as the late High Commissioner was con- 

 cerned, nothing has been said. It happened, how- 

 ever, in the last days of his pro-consulship in con- 

 versation with Mr. Evans, the official charged with 

 the oversight of the Chinese thralls of the mining 

 companies. Lord Milner said, or was believed by 

 Mr. Evans to have said, that he saw no reason to 

 object to the flogging of the Chinese if discipline 

 required it. Lord Milner seems to have forgotten 

 the conversation, otherwise he could not have allow- 

 ed Mr. Lyttelton, after his return to this country, 

 to rep diate indignantlv the accusation that there 

 had been anv flogging in the mines. Months later, 

 when the matter was brought to his attention, he 

 franklv shouldered the responsibility, said that he 

 had done wTong, and was very sorry. 



That Lord Milner had erred no one 

 " '«'s Very Wrong, denies, least of all himself. For 



c^"Lt- ivh"J" error, due apparently to want of 



Say Who Did it." ,, , ' r -n u i..u 



thought, loss of memory, ill-health 



— a dozen excuses may be pleaded. As a result of 



his mistake some hundreds of coolies were flogged 



■ — in flat violation of our Imperial pledge to the 



Chinese Government. Mr. Lvttelton, who was thus 



bndlv befooled bv his subordinate, appears to have 



