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Page 29
are being raised again the cries for a grand policy. I caution you
against them. Let us manage our own affairs. _Laissez faire,
laissez aller_--that is our policy for South Africa. There are no
nostrums required. The one thing required is the gradual bringing
of the Dutch and English together. There are no two races more
fitted to unite. You know how like they are to Englishmen. The Boer
is as like the English farmer as possible. There are no people more
fond of manly sports than the Dutch; they enter into them
heartily, and in the cricket and football fields they are among the
best players. They are as fond of riding and shooting as Englishmen
are. In fact, the Dutch and the English are as like as Heaven can
make them, and the only thing that keeps them apart is man's
prejudice. The one thing to do is to bring them together. How can
you help that end? Not by girding at them, and writing against Boer
ways, but by recognising the fact that they have been pioneers in
South Africa, and that they are the only people who will settle on
the land. I see there is a great agitation about Swaziland, which
is entirely surrounded by the Transvaal Republic. ("No.") Well,
except as to Tongaland, and I am not going to say anything about
that. The cry is got up, "Don't hand it over to the Boers." In
whose interest is that cry got up? It is in the interest of a few
speculators, and not in the interest of the capitalists, who have
�108,000,000 invested in the Transvaal, and yet are not afraid to
trust the Boers with Swaziland. This girding at the Dutch is
resented, and does incalculable harm. People at home have very
little idea how much influence public opinion in England has in
South Africa. Sir Frederick Young has alluded to President Kruger,
who won't put down prize fights because he might be thought to be
oppressing the Englishman! All I ask is, don't let your talk about
union with the Dutch be mere lip service. Trust them; work hand in
hand with them. Unless you do you will make little progress in
South Africa. By that I mean political progress. The material
progress of South Africa is now secured; therefore my advice
is--cultivate the Dutch, because, unless they are our friends, we
shall be a divided people, and our black and yellow brethren will
get the best of us. Our true policy is, _Laissez faire, laissez
aller_.
Sir G. BADEN-POWELL, K.C.M.G., M.P.: My friend, Mr. Merriman, has
made a speech of the utmost value to South Africa, and it is a
very fitting, I will not say reply, but comment, on the address to
which we have listened with such pleasure; but Mr. Merriman, with
his strong arguments and apt illustrations, came at the end to the
conclusion at which Sir Frederick Young had arrived. I have not
much to add, but I think we have heard from Sir Frederick Young a
view of South African affairs on the political side which, I may
tell you frankly, differs diametrically from my own. I have heard
from Mr. Merriman a view of affairs in which I cordially concur,
but from neither have I heard of that third aspect which, I think,
is necessary to complete the view. Sir Frederick Young has told us
that for twenty-five years, certainly during the last ten years,
South Africa has been mismanaged. I must confess I was sorry to
hear the strong language he used, because one cannot but remember
that for the greater part of the last twenty years most of the
affairs of South Africa have been in the hands of free
self-governing communities. Cape Colony has been under Responsible
Government since 1873, and the Free State and the Transvaal have
always been self-governing. I agree with Mr. Merriman that for the
last twenty-five years affairs in South Africa have progressed,
with one signal and fatal exception, and that was the policy under
which we took over and then gave back the Transvaal. Omitting that,
I think we have but little to be sorry for in the history of South
Africa. There have been troubles, but I, for one, think that all
difficulties, would have been avoided if the phrase "Imperial aid"
had been substituted for that of "Imperial interference" in the
affairs of South Africa. It is the aid which has been given by the
Mother Country which has resulted in developing the material
resources, and, above all, in establishing the security from native
attack of various European States in South Africa. Sir Frederick
Young spoke of the attitude towards the Imperial Government. I
could wish he had been in Cape Town on the day Sir Charles Warren
landed, and seen the ovation he received from all classes. Let me
add this--that the Bechuanaland expedition, which was led by Sir
Charles Warren, and in which I had the good fortune to take part,
cost the Mother Country perhaps �1,500,000, but in the discussions
in Parliament or in the press as to the future of Bechuanaland, the
fact is seldom mentioned that Bechuanaland was acquired for the
Empire at the cost of the British taxpayer. Let me remind you of
another fact, which the Cape Colonist well knows--that when the
Imperial Government wished, from wise motives of economy, to extend
the Cape system of railways to Kimberley, at a time when the Cape
Ministers were not prepared to carry out the extension, the British
Parliament advanced a loan of �400,000, at a low rate of interest,
for that object. Another instance I could quote, in connection with
the history of that interesting native territory--Basutoland. You
remember how that country was handed over to the Cape Colonists,
and that for various reasons the management of the Basutos got
beyond their power, the result being that the Imperial Government
went to the aid of the Cape Colony and took back Basutoland. I
mention these cases because they illustrate an aspect of affairs
which is, I think, apt to be neglected. We at home--and certainly
those who have enjoyed the kind hospitality of their brethren in
South Africa--wish to do all we can to aid our fellow-countrymen in
that part of the globe. We do not wish to interfere, and I should
like to see this put forward as the grand and final policy of South
Africa--that we are ready to aid that portion of the Empire, but
set our faces against interference. In conclusion, I will add that
I am sure all of us congratulate Sir Frederick Young on having so
successfully accomplished his arduous journey, returning to us, as
he does, in better health than when he left. If you wish to renew
your youth, and grow younger instead of older, follow his
example--make a trip through South Africa, sleeping in the open
veldt.
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