CO885-(18-19) — Page 410

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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continued as an institution by Act of Parliament, but makes its own rules and regulations to carry on its own work. Reference might also be made to the British Army which exists only by the will of the Legislature without inter- ference in its internal economy."

and again (p. 14, par. (2) :—

"Parliament should, therefore, not grudgingly or reluctantly, but in a broad and enlightened spirit, from an honest conviction of its necessity and wisdom, en- trust some of its own powers, formulated as a Constitution, to the Administration for the purpose of securing a more effec- tive and progressive control over the natives. In the Constitution, the powers and duties of the Governor as Supreme Chief should be clearly defined, in the performance of which, as the principal administrative officer, he should be free from the review or interference of any court or person."

A

These words have a strong bearing on, though they do not wholly cover, the second objection, that there might be constant danger of friction between two authorities in the same area. similar point has arisen on the question whether the Governor of the Transvaal should exercise his authority as paramount chief independently or on the advice of his Ministers. It seems to me that the difficulty might partially be met (a) by having a Board to advise the High Commissioner in his control of this Civil Service, but providing that, as in the case of a Governor of a Crown Colony and his Executive Council, he need not necessarily take the alvice of the majority, (6) by placing on the Board all the Prime Ministers of the different States, each Prime Minister being always Minister for Native Affairs, as the Natal Commissioners recommend in the case of Nutal (p. 16, par. 47), and as the Prime Ministers of the Cape and the Transvaal now are, but supplementing them by as many or more suitable. whether officials or unofficials, who will not go in and out with party, so us to give permanence and continuity to the Board. There will be, ea hypothesi, no question involv- ing money votes, for the expenditure will have been settled by a standing law, but the Prime Ministers would, so to speak, have watching briefs in regard to the bearing of the personnel of the administrative service on native policy generally. I assume that under federation the separate Governors or Administrators would no longer exercise any authority-if, as in Natal, they have it now-as Paramount Chiefs, but that such authority of the kind as they possess would be transferred to the one responsible head of the native administrative service the High Commissioner.

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(a) I do not really suppose that anything of the kind sketched above is practicable in its

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entirety, but it may be partially possible. There may be a Civil List not for a whole service but for only a certain number of high officers connecte l with native administration, who will be respon- sible to the High Commissioner alone and not be removeable by the Legislature or Legislatures. The Natal Report gives much support to some- thing of the kind as the passages above quoted show. It says very truly (para. 33), “Parliament stands virtually in the relationship of an oligarchy to the natives"-here is the justification for a separate administrative service for natives. My difficulty in writing about the matter is that I am not clear what the present large establish- ments for dealing with natives are concerned with. Do they deal with natives living inter- spersed with whites, as servants and masters, tenants and landlords, and so forth, or are they concerned only with native locations and dis- tricts which are almost entirely left to natives? Others will be able to answer this question and to criticise the above. Meanwhile, to sum up and supplement what I have said, it is sug. gested-

(i) That we should not press to have uniformity of status in the case of natives in South Africa for fear that the privileges which are not now withheld in the Cape Colony may be commuted for something

lower.

(ii) That we should not encourage further separation in the way of special laws or special courts or special taxes, because all this specialisation is against levelling up to one community. The Natal Commission would (paru. 78) retain the present Native High Court and in some respects increase its powers, but they write "At one time it was thought possible to replace the Native High Court by distributing the work now performed by it between the Magistrates, the Supreme Court, and the proposed Commissioners, the latter to have only a special civil Sir M. Nathan, appellate jurisdiction."

in a letter which is quoted below, says that he would abolish the Native High Court.

(iii) That we should, in the case of federation, try to secure uniformity and continuity in dealing with the natives by means of a Civil Service, wholly or par- tially removed from the authority of the legislature or legislatures, on the ground that the legislature or legislatures are ez hypothesi not representative of the natives. (iv) That this service should be more fully organised than at present, that the Resident should be more in evidence, and that, as funds allow, the magistrate should be more purely judicial, ie., that the two distinct sides should

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