Reneir of Reiiews, 1;10/0S. 



Character Sketch- 



361 



your confidenre," he used to say. " If onK 1 felt 

 that they would not meddle with the flag which 

 stands for the Empire I would gladly let them have 

 responsible government. For some reasons I would 

 prefer to have to deal with a Colonial Ministry com- 

 posed of Boers than with a Ministry filled with 

 Britons. We know what Colonial Ministries are in 

 Australia. The Boers have much more respect for 

 the rights of property than the Colonial British, 

 working man. But until I feel sure that the flag is 

 safe I hesitate hefore giving them responsible go- 

 vernment.' 



THAT THIRTY MILLIONS. 



On another subject he was verv emphatic. He 

 always protested that the Transvaal could and would 

 and ought to pay the thirty millions promised to 

 Mr. Ciiamberlain as its share of the cost of the war. 

 But of course everything hinged upon the prosperitv 

 of the mines. Mr. Beit, like many other British 

 South Africans, was reluctantly driven to the con- 

 clusion that it was imiMssible to develop the mines 

 without Chinese labour. To that conviction he ad- 

 hered to the end. He was ready to admit that poli- 

 tically it had been a bad move, but he maintained 

 it was a matter of life and death. .Unless the mines 

 were kept going the bottom would fall out of the 

 economic situation in South Africa. As he was 

 firmly convinced the mines could not be kept going 

 without the Chinese, he accepted them as a disagree- 

 able necessity. In that conviction he remained to 

 the end. 



HOW TO CIVILISE AFRICA. 



Mr. Beit was one of the original promoters of the 

 Chartered Company. He felt he owed it to Mr. 



Rhodes's memory to take a close, keen, and con- 

 tinuous interest in the development of Rhodesia. 

 His last will and testament contains an emphatic 

 confession of his faith in the Cape to Cairo Rail- 

 way. Listen to his Credo: — 



I believe that by the promotion, construction and fur- 

 therance generally of railways, telegraphs (including wire- 

 less* telegraphy), and telephonea. and kindred or other 

 methods of transmission of persons, goods and messages, 

 civilisation will be best advanced and expedited in Africa 

 for the benefit of the inhabitants thereof, whether native 

 or immigrant. 



As helxicked his Credo by a legacy of ^g'l, 200,000 

 his faith was one which brings forth works. He 

 also left _;^2oo,ooo to be devoted to educational, 

 public, and other charitable purposes in Rhodesia, 



WHY HE WAS A PROTECTIONIST. 

 In his later \ears Mr, Beit was much bitten with 

 the heresy of Tariff Reform, alias Protection. When- 

 ever he talked on this subject it was evident that 

 what lay at the back of his mind was the menace 

 of the cheap labour of the Orient, He was largely 

 interested in gold mines in Korea, and the cheap- 

 ness of labour in the Hermit Kingdom appalled 

 him, "How are you going to compete with yellow 

 labour which is contented witli a wage of sixpence a 





dav ?'' to which the inevitable answer was that it was 

 a remedy worse than a disease to erect a tariff wall 

 round these islands which would artificially place us 

 at a still further disadvantage in the open market. 

 Mr, Beit was convinced the game was up so far as 

 the open market was concerned. We were to be 

 ruined by Chinese cheap labour, and unless we 

 adopted the panacea of Tariff Reform we should 

 not be able even to hold the home market. I con- 

 tented myself with predicting the wholesale smash 

 of the Unionist ixirty, but that also he disbelieved, 

 even down to the days the polls opened. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF ALFRED BEIT. 



Both Mr, Rhodes and Mr, Beit were born in the 

 same year, 1853 ; both were of such weak and deli- 

 cate constitutions that they were sent to Kimberley, 

 not so much to make their fortune as to save their 

 lives, Alfred Beit's father was a merchant in Ham- 

 burg, His mother — now an old lady of eighty-four, 

 who was the observed of all oLiservers at Tewin — 

 seems still to be in good health. Alfred had one 

 brother, Otto, and several sisters now married, one 

 of whom is now Countess Ludolf. Alfred's schoo'- 

 ing was much interrupted by his ill health, and he 

 never enjoyed the advantages of a university educa- 

 tion. He Went as a lad of seventeen into the office 

 of L, Lippert and Co., a Hamburg firm which did a 

 large business in South Africa. After he had been 

 a junior clerk for five years, the discovery of dia- 

 monds at Kimberley led to Alfred Beit's being sent 

 out to South Africa. He was young, industrious, 

 and capable. His health would benefit by the change. 

 Off he went at the age of twenty-two with command, 

 it is said, of about ;£2ooo capital. He travelled 

 up country 400 miles in a bullock waggon, and ar- 

 rived at Kimberley just in the nick of time, Wernher 

 (now Sir Julius) had been there four years earlier. 

 Mr. Rhodes had but just arrived in Kiml>erley from 

 Natal the previous year. The two men were 

 strangers to each other, diverse in nationality, lan- 

 guage, and temperament. Wernher and Beit met as 

 emplfvv6s in the fiirmi of Jules Forges and Co., in 

 which thev subsequently became partners. 



HIS FIRST MEETING WITH MR. RHODES. 



When Beit first met Rhodes I do not know, but 

 the following anecdote of how- they met is credited 

 to Mr. Rhodes himself. Everybody in Kimberley 

 knew everyone else, and Rhodes soon became aware 

 that Beit was one of the few men who counted in 

 the diamond fields. .Sooner or later it w-as certain 

 they would come together. Beit worked early and 

 late at the office. Rhodes used to be much more in 

 the open : — ■ 



" I called at Forges' late one evening," said Rhodes, 

 " and there was Beit working away as usual. ' Do you 

 never take a rest ' I a.sked. 'Not often,' lie replieO 

 "Well, what's your game? said I. 'I am froinff to control 

 the whole diamond output before I am mucli older,' ho 

 answered, as he got off his stool. ' That's funny,' I said, 

 'I have made up my mind to do the same; we had better 

 join hands.' " and join hands they did very shortly aftei. 



