One hundred years ago
South Africa is still in unrest. The Basutos have broken out again, and are fighting each other, and President Brand has appealed to the Queen's Govern- ment to carry out the Treaty of Aliwal. Under this agreement, the British pledg- ed themselves to keep the Basutos quiet, and, as the Cape Government is reluc- tant to interfere and has this year a deficit of £500,000 to meet, the work will be left to the Imperial authorities. At the same time, the Government of the Transvaal professes itself shocked with the anarchy in Zululand, where Cetewayo has evidently lost the habit of victory, and asks the Queen's representatives to restore order. The Government will be most unwilling to interfere, but if it does not, the Dutch colonists will declare that it never keeps agreements when they are to the benefit of Boers. The English colonists are eager for more annexa- tions, the Dutch colonists are suspicious of the English, and the Government is so hampered by agreements that it can pur- sue no policy without accusations of bad faith. Affairs in South Africa need a thorough overhaul by a great officer, who can remain long enough to pursue a well-defined policy, intelligible alike to the two white races and the blacks. Nowhere, as we argue elsewhere, is a Viceroy more needed.
Spectator, 19 May 1883
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