Three of the Zulu chiefs, including Dinizulu, Cetewayo's heir, have
been tried at Ekowe before a British Court for high treason. They were found guilty, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, the shortest, that inflicted on Dinizulu, being ten years. The sentences are considered severe, and while they were being delivered, the Court was surrounded with soldiers. We do not like these trials and sentences. It is necessary, of course, if conquered chiefs revolt, to shoot them in battle, and sometimes to hold them in custody for long periods; but these criminal trials of men who have been independent chiefs, and still hold themselves to have an inherent right to struggle for independence, are repellent. The Indian system, under which the Crown detains, without trial, any one visibly dangerous to the State, a dacoit chief, for example, known to be such but skilful in suppressing evidence, seems to be far preferable. There is no hypocrisy about it; it is a pure act of force, deemed by a wise and lenient Government essential to the protection of the community.
Previous page
