MR. LOWE AND HIS ZANZIBAR CONTRACT.
REPORTING is so completely a lost art, that it is very diffi- cult to understand the " case " about which Mr. Lowe is to be attacked on Monday, but after careful reading, we find it difficult to imagine that he can be altogether acquitted of a blunder, due either to zeal for a particular mode of suppressing the Slave Trade, or to the physical incapacity which forbids him to be eternally reading manuscripts. It appears that in 1870-71 the Government was desirous of putting down the East-African Slave Trade, and among the schemes adopted for that end was one for a line of steamers between Aden, Zanzibar, and the Cape, which it was thought would foster new trades. The project was in one way a good deal bigger than it looks, or perhaps than Mr. Lowe quite saw, for besides affording England an alternative steam route to India and China—always a great object of desire, the Cape people, with their horses and diamonds and what not, want direct and quick communication with India, Ceylon, and China very much—and getting a line which "hitched in " at Aden with the gigantic lines of the P. and 0. Company, they got everything they wanted. If the finance of the Cape had only been in a little better condition we should have said it would have paid that stingiest of Colonies to do the work all for itself. Well, it was agreed with the Indian Steam Company to run a line between Aden and Zanzibar for £10,000 a year, probably a fair sum, though we have a bit of suspicion that the Company would not, if it took less, lose, for though letters and even goods might be few, pilgrims might be many. If they can get to Aden, they can get to Jeddah in native boats. The business, however, was still incomplete, and Mr. Lowe offered the Union Company that if they would run their Cape steamers a little faster, and take £26,000 instead of £29,000 for that service, they should have £15,000 for the long run between the Cape and Zanzibar, and an extension of contract for three and a half years, making eight in all. The Com- pany, which knows a good deal about the Cape, and knows also what an alternative line from England to the far East must yield, was most civil, and contented, and spirited, and all that sort of thing, and "cracked on" speed at once. For some reason unexplained, the extended contract was with- drawn, but Mr. Lowe, thinking the Company had behaved beautifully, thought it unfair to stick to the contract for convey- ing mails from the Cape to Zanzibar, though that contract was separate, and acceded after some haggling to a demand for £26,000 a year for that service. In fact, he gave the Company £11,000 a year to give up their extension. Now that must, on the face of it, have been rather stupid. The Com- pany, which seems to be a spirited one, had originally asked only £15,000 for the Cape-Zanzibar section, and as to the extension of time, can have cared very little about
that. A Company holding, as the Union would have done, complete control over our alternative sea steam route to India and the East would have got any needful ex- tension—or the merchants of the City would have stung the Treasury to death—and knew very well that one price from the Treasury would pay them very nearly as well as another. Mr. Lowe therefore made a mistake on the side of generosity —not his usual failing—and then stuck to it, as far as we can see, under an idea that his personal honour was pledged. As to the approval of Cape Colonists, while they grant no subsidy their approval is no part of the business. They get all the benefit, which is immense, for a Cape diamond dealer can, under Mr. Lowe's directions, get to Aden, Bombay, Calcutta, Galle, and Shanghai, all except Aden good places to sell dia- monds in, and the Cape Government does not pay a sixpence for the convenience.
So far Mr. Lowe might defend himself on the plea he puts forward, that the Government owed to itself to be extra liberal to a Company so prompt in coming to its aid, but there was another element in the matter. Another Company, the British Indian Steam Navigation Company, offered to do the service between the Cape and Zanzibar for £16,315, or £10,000 a year less—a fact mentioned by Lord Kimberley in an official despatch to the Cape—and not getting an acceptance, set to work, Mr. Holrus says, to help the Union, the Chairman of which was perfectly contented, as Mr. Helms affirms on documentary evidence, with the original £15,000. Clearly, therefore, Mr. Lowe, though he had a big and sound scheme in his head, which would have egregiously benefited the Cape, and slightly bene- fited Zanzibar, and greatly checked the slave-traders—who could not live under fortnightly reports of their doings sent to Bombay and London—did throw away £11,000 to do his work his own way, and this after an offer to do it cheaper had reached a colleague in his own Cabinet. He may, for aught we know, have a distrust of the Indian Steam Navigation Company—quite unreasonable, we believe, if it exists, the Company being both wealthy and spirited—or he may have liked the sort of monopoly he was creating —the monopoly of the P. and 0. Company on the other side of Africa has worked splendidly for twenty years—or he may have a reason still unrevealed ; but he has, on the face of the matter, been lavish without visible necessity. We do not agree at all with the theory of giving contracts by public competition, for that scheme always has one of two effects. Either the big carriers combine in secret to get an exorbitant price, or they take out the profit in inferior service, which is worse ; but still there must be competition of some sort, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had no business to be ignorant that though he was carrying out his own excellent idea well, a very good Company was offering to do it for £10,000 a year less.
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