A Diplomat's Tasks
A Diplomatist in the East. By the Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Hardinge, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., P.C., M.A. (Jonathan Cape. 16s).
THIS book is really the second volume of Sir Arthur Hardinge's diplomatic reminiscences ; the first (A Diplomatist in Europe) was published some little time ago.
This volume is to our thinking, more interesting than its predecessor. The best chapters are those which deal with Egypt, where Sir Arthur served under Lord Cromer, and on the Abolition of Legal Slavery in Zanzibar. Sir Arthur Hardinge played a prominent and creditable part in this undertaking. He produces an interesting instance of the well-known economic fact that paid labour is more economical than slave labour. At one time during the process of emanci- pation it seems that slavery still existed, but that any slave could procure his emancipation by the simple application for a certificate. It was soon found that the plantations which employed 'free labour at a paid rate were doing better than those which still employed slave labour. Accordingly
" the Arab clove-owners started a new policy. They paid their slaves, whether formally freed or not, in cash for every day's work done by them during the clove-picking season, thus stimulating their efficiency as workmen, and compensating themselves for the outlay involved in the payment of their wages. The common benefits thus accruing to slave-owners and slaves alike induced- the latter to work of their own free will, on the lands of their former masters, for five -hours on three days in every • week. Another happy effect was an increase in the value of landed property, espe- cially in the Pemba clove plantations ; and a further result of these better relations was a decrease in the number of applicants for certi- ficates of emancipation,. the slaves being content with.the substance of freedom, and therefore indifferent to its forth."
the abolition of slavery, was not Sir. Arthur's_ only_task in Africa. He was largely responsible for the delimitation of boundary with the Belgian Congo—a tricky .piece of diplo- matic work. Later he was required to settle the Jubaland troubles. Altogether this section of the book should prove interesting reading to those familiar with the surprisingly rapid development, of our East African Possessions. How different are the modern Kenya and Uganda from the East Africa of Sir Arthur's time !
On the eve of the South African War Sir Arthur visited South Africa. Finally, Sir Arthur was transferred to Persia, and he has a long chapter on that still mediaeval land..
We cannot resist quoting, though it belongs to the first chapter of the book, an excellent new Curzon story which Sir Arthur relates :— " That reminds me that Lord Curzon paid us a visit when I was still a Secretary at Therapia. He was then on his way to Persia, where he afterwards collected the materials for -his admirable and almost monumental work on that ancient Asiatic Empire. He had . a somewhat comic experience, with the venal functionaries of the Turkish CUstoms, for he had filled his boxes with gold watches, snuff-boxes cigarette-cases and other trinkets for presentation to Persian local chiefs and potentates. I sent an Embassy cavass to meet him, but the latter, with Oriental procrastination; arrived too late to be of much assistance, and I found him, when we met, indignantly protesting against the attempts of the Turkish Customs officers to compel him to pay duty on these goods. His protests were roughly overruled, and when he pleaded that, as a member of the House of Commons, he ought to be treated withgreater respect, these harpies added insult to injury. ' You are a member of Parliament,' they exclaimed somewhat to his amusement. You are nothing of the kind. You are only a commercial traveller in cheap jewellery and will have to pay the full usual duty on it ! ' " Altogether, the volume proyides an interesting picture of English diplomatic life in Africa and the Middle East- in the 'pre-Wai period.
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