CO885-(18-19) — Page 407

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

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C.O.885

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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I do not know the political arguments. against union or federation of the Self- ng Colonies alone, excluding the terri nder the direct control of the Imperial ment: but, from the point of view of the question, it seems to be open to grave

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t would in all probability emphasise even inan at present different handling of the by the imperial and the Colonial Govern- to which I have already referred and s and must be an evil, an element of un- white and coloured alike, and the very e of what we are aiming at, viz., some- pproximating to a final settlement.

It would tend to stereotype the principle ve reserves, which. as I have tried to 1. is not good as an ultimate solution but

an interim measure. The whole of Africa is and must be for white and A men alike and interspersed. It is im

to divide it "p and assign one part to

and another to coloured.

Moreover,

night be, as I infer, a telency, having developed and emphasised the system of reserves, to try and make a bargain with perial Government on the basis that Classes of natives might be transplanted reserves, leaving the remainder, even more present, a permanently subordinate non- element to do unskilled labour under a ut white community. Thus, instead of ig up, of very gradually working towards Teitizenship not based on colour, we should nore separation than ever, and be turther d than ever from a final solution of some- like equality of races.

ning then that, in view of the native on, federation or union should be complete, oubl include the whole of South Africa, the

m arises, which would safeguard native ts better, union or federation ? I'nion one law and one administration. What be its basis? We have the two diame- opposite views. There is the traditional d view, so far as previous engagements olitical exigencies have not hampered it, lour shall not be a bar to citizenship, and he goal to be aimed at is political equality es. This is also the traditional view of ape Colony, still outwardly upheld. On

her hand there is the view which appears

y in the Transvaal Grondwet of 1896:

people will not permit any equalisation of

ed

persons with white inhabitants.”

It

the doubtel. I think, that union would be on a compromise, and the compromise well be such as is recommended in the of the South African Native Affairs aission, viz. : that the Cape Colony should up its attitude of political equality and that dives in South Africa -hould be given race entation as in New Zealand.

ave already pointed out that in principle

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(as it seems to ine) this is not defensible, except as a step to something further, and that the danger of it is that its aloption would probably be taken as final, as precluding anything further. There are two special points on which, though they are obvious, it is worth while insisting. The first is that any argument on this head applied to South Africa from, say, New Zealand or any other Self-governing Colony or group of colonies is misleading. Where the natives are a small minority and becoming relatively smaller year by year, race representation may work out fairly or even favourably to the natives. It is not so where the natives fill the place which they do in South Africa and have had the rights which in some parts of South Africa they have had for many years past. The mere fact that they have held their own and are holding their own numerically makes, to my mind, the con. clusion irresistible that, in the distant future, either they must become ordinary citizens or they must become slaves. The second point is this. Looking at what was said (as I have quoted) 50 years ago on the subject of giving representative institutions to the Cape, and considering the present measures and feeling in the Self-governing Colonies, it seems to me that the attitude which is now openly and very generally adopted towards the coloured races,

as regards their political status in the lands where white nen have made their homes, is, on the whole, much less liberal than it was. The objection to the entry of coloured men into lands into which white men came and which they now consider their own is, I suppose, largely economic, but it is also part and parcel of a general tendency to racial exclusiveness. It is only another step, in lands where the coloured men are at home and hold their own numerically, to keep them as

a separate element in the community and to oppose their rise to citizenship.

It seems to me therefore that any compromise which avowedly goes back from what I have called the traditional English standpoint, as long as we are free and unfettered to uphold it, is much to be deprecated. This makes against South African union.

It does not make to the same extent against South African federation. It would be possible

to federate, leaving the separate States to retain their separate laws as regards natives.*

In that

It should be noticed, however, that, even in the absence of either union or federation, the South African Native Affairs Commission recommend more or less uniform race representation. One of their resolutions on the subject (p. 70) runa-

"That the extent of such representation, that is, the number of members to be granted to native constituencies, shall be settled by each Legislature, and that at least one such seat should be created in each of the Self-governing Colonies in South Africa now, and in each colony or possession as it becomes self-governing."

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