It goes without saying that the Transvaal and Free State must become British colonies. Any doubt upon this point has been set at rest by the reply of Lord Salisbury to the huckstering peace proposals of Mr. Kruger and his pawn Mr. Steyn.

Following upon annexation will arise the question of so dealing with the territory annexed as to reduce to a minimum the power for evil of those who will undoubtedly continue for a time to be disloyal to British rule; and before proceeding further, the reader may do well at this point to have before him a recent map of South Africa, showing the counties of the Transvaal and Free State.

The Cape Colony is already too large to be conveniently added to by further territorial acquisition to an extent greater than that indicated further on, and moreover, the addition of much of the territory of either of the rebellious States lying contiguous to Cape boundaries would increase the already too great power of the Afrikander influence in the Parliament of that colony.

Natal, on the contrary, is too small. She is essentially British in sentiment and strongly Imperial. Her Parliament consists almost entirely of Englishmen, there being only two Dutch members in the popular Assembly, both of whom voted for Mr. Baynes's Anti-Kruger resolution which was unanimously passed by Parliament during its last Session before the outbreak of hostilities.

There is thus a waste of loyal influence in Natal which might be used to counteract Boer influence by incorporating with Natal certain of the southern counties of the conquered States. If, then, the counties of Standerton, Ermelo, Wakkerstroom, Pietretief, Utrecht, Vryheid, and Zwazieland of the Transvaal, and Harrismith and Vrede of the Free State (each sending one representative to Parliament), be incorporated with Natal, it would at once dispose of nine more or less anti-British communities, by swallowing them up in an essentially British community.

Such a deduction from the voting power of the anti-British portions of the Transvaal would leave the pro-British party in that country in the ascendent, and as the immigration of Englishmen will undoubtedly proceed with renewed vigour after the country has come under British rule, a year or two will probably see Boer influence harmless as a political factor in the Transvaal.

As regards the Free State, the complete collapse of the army of that misguided community demonstrates the soundness of view of those who, before the outbreak of war, insisted that, as a people, the Free Staters were opposed to the anti-British policy of President Steyn. The Free State contains a large percentage of burghers of British descent and sympathies, and the extraordinary spectacle of the Bloemfontein people welcoming Lord Roberts and his army with loud 'hurrahs' and the singing of British patriotic songs may be taken as an indication of the true sentiments of those living in the

chief centres of population in that country-centres from which, under British control, political views will for the future radiate.

If that arm of the Transvaal which, consisting of the counties of Marico, Lichtenburg, Bloemhof, and the south-eastern portion of Potchefstroom, stretches octopus-like over the northern boundary of the Free State be lopped off and incorporated with Bechuanaland, with one representative in Parliament, there would be some reduction to symmetry, and the addition would not visibly affect political influences in the Cape Parliament.

Some such territorial readjustment having been effected as a condition precedent to the consideration of confederation, would give the Imperial sentiment, as represented by Natal, greater influence in the settlement of a permanent form of federated government under the British flag, and when this shall have been done, a conference of representatives of all the South African colonies would follow, to discuss and settle the terms of confederation, upon some such lines as the Canadian Dominion Act.

Pending the settlement of the terms of confederation, the government of the Free State and Transvaal might be administered by Governors and Executive Councils (with legislative powers) nominated by the Crown, and consisting partly of officials and partly of representative men selected from the people. A great deal will depend upon the selection of persons to fill these offices, and the repetition of the mistake of 1877, in appointing military men, will doubtless be avoided. The appointment of Sir Alfred Milner, with the powers of High Commissioner and Governor-General, to exercise on the spot a supervision which could not be exercised from London, would undoubtedly ensure a successful issue, while commanding the entire confidence of the whole of loyal South Africa.

With the obliteration of the Republics and the power for evil which, under the baneful influence of Messrs. Kruger, Steyn, Reitz, and Leyds, they exerted, race feeling will gradually die out, and a few years hence we South Africans will be wondering why it ever existed. It is instructive to note in this connection that the most ardent opponents of responsible government in Natal prior to 1893 were the more or less Dutch constituencies of Umvoti and Klip River, the former of which returned anti-responsible members to the last because they were told that responsible government meant a throwing-off of the Queen's sovereignty; and while it is true that some of these men have recently thrown in their lot with the Krugerian attempt to make South Africa a Boer oligarchy, at heart they are satisfied with British rule-as, indeed, they can hardly help being, seeing that the rights and liberties which they enjoy under that rule are greater even than those enjoyed by their compatriots in the Transvaal. They saw their relatives and friends cross the Natal border under the Transvaal flag, and they saw the initial

successes which accompanied the invasion, and, believing that Jehovah was on the side of the Transvaal, some of them fell away from their allegiance; but it is nevertheless true to assert that at heart they are perfectly satisfied with British rule in Natal. When the Transvaal and Free State Boers have had a few years' experience of the benignity of British government, they too, like our FrenchCanadian fellow-colonists, will exchange their antipathy for admiration of and love for the flag they now detest; and when that glad day dawns the mists of ignorance and prejudice will dissolve, and South Africa will become as loyal to the Crown as any other portion of Her Majesty's dominions.

Shoulder to shoulder Briton and Boer will stand together in defence of what will then be regarded as a common heritage-the privilege of spreading civilisation and light over this dark continent, with the liberty and scope for expansion which the British flag tells humanity may be enjoyed wherever it flies.

This paper has been written under circumstances of difficulty, where books of reference and records are not available. This must be pleaded as an excuse for the shortcomings in it, of which no one can be more conscious than myself; but I think that a voice from Natal, however feeble, should make itself heard at this crisis.

To sum up my conclusions:

(1) Let South Africa continue to enjoy the fullest powers of selfgovernment consistent with the Imperial idea.

(2) Increase the influence of loyalists by increasing the influence and power of Natal.

(3) Decrease the influence of the anti-British element by a new delimitation of the boundaries of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, and a judicious distribution of constituencies.

(4) Let South Africa herself by a conference of her representative men, settle the form and time of confederation, and in the meanwhile administer the government of the Free State and Transvaal by Governors and Executive Councils (with legislative powers) all nominated by the Crown.

F. S. TATHAM

(Member of the Legislative Assembly of Natal).

Highlands Camp, Natal:

March 1900.

THE FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA

II

THE NATIVE RACES

How we got into the Transvaal war is a question to be discussed more or less profitably by the future historian who will be able to look at it in its proper perspective. We are in it now, and in this fact we have quite enough to think about. There are the two alternatives before us. We may either back out of it, as some would have us do, and repeat the disastrous error of 1881-an error committed probably with the best intentions; or we may set our teeth and go through with the determination that, cost what it may, we are to finish the business in such a way as to secure finality.

The former proposal cannot be entertained. It would be going in the face of the experience of the last twenty years, and we should make the same mistake as that of 1881 on a more gigantic scale, and with our eyes wide open to the facts. We should be no longer making a mistake in mere inadvertence, but grossly shirking an obvious duty.

There is no presumption in taking for granted that we shall win. Looking at the fact of our material resources from the ordinary point of view, we must win. It is a question of so much power on the one side as against so much on the other side-a mere problem in dynamics.

But, over and above this, there is the conviction which seems fixed in the minds of the vast majority of our people, that we are in the right, that the war has been none of our seeking, that it has been forced upon us, and that we could not have got out of it without a grave neglect of duty. These convictions fully justify our confidence that we shall be enabled to bring the war to a successful end, and by a successful end can only be meant, an end which sees British Imperial power predominant from Cape Town to the Zambesi.

I do not wish to ignore the respected minority that does not take this view of the case. All honour to it for standing out as it does against all the rest of the nation. No one questions the honesty of purpose of those who compose it. Under Anglo-Saxon governments

such minorities always exist and have full scope for free protest. They help to purify the national life and to make it certain that the right or wrong of every public act will be duly scrutinised. It may be a mystery to some of us how our friends in the Opposition can look on the thing as they do. It may be a defect of vision, and yet some of them are clear-sighted enough. It may be a defective acquaintance with the facts, for who can know everything? Those who live so near the centres of intellectual activity would have more than human power of discrimination to deal successfully with the rivers of information, erroneous and otherwise, pouring in upon them from every quarter of the globe.

Taking for granted then that this war is a solemn duty imposed upon us, and that we are bound to carry it through with no halting determination, there can be no impropriety in considering some of the problems already shaping themselves and looming up through the mist. No doubt the brains of our statesmen will be much taxed with questions as to how far territorial changes should be made, and what sort of self-government should sooner or later be best accorded to what are now the Free State and the Transvaal. We know that, in the interest of all concerned, such self-government under the British flag will be cheerfully granted as soon as it can be shown to be safe and desirable.

That goes without saying, but there is another question of equal importance which will have to be dealt with-the future position of the native races. Some men speak and act as if there were in South Africa no one to be considered but the 800,000 Europeans who began to come two and a half centuries ago, and have been coming since to find a home here. But such people overlook the fact that the original inhabitants of the country are still here-to the number of about four millions at the lowest computation.

There is a vague idea in many minds that by some law of nature the aboriginal races everywhere die out as the European races advance upon them, occupying and colonising their country. But so far this has not been our experience in South Africa. The natives keep step with us as an increasing population. There is no sign of our gaining upon them to any appreciable extent; even though in addition to our ordinary growth of population we have the immigration from overseas. More than this, they have won for themselves an acknowledged place in our social system, they supply our labour, and there is no sign of our ousting them from that position. The white working-man has no place here, unless he be the possessor of qualifications which take him out of the ranks of unskilled labour. Meanwhile the native by his contact with the white man is going through a change not altogether for the better. Under their own old tribal system the Bantu were ruled according to an unwritten code of law and custom. There were traces of a better