LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Owing to the shortage of paper, we must practise an economy of -space in our Correspondence columns. We therefore ask writers of letters to the " Spectator " to make them as concise as possible. A third of a column should be the standard length, even for important subjects, and we shall specially welcome communica- tions which are even shorter, holding, as we do, that letters the size of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and so more effective, than those which fill treble the space.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPERIAL RESOURCES. Pro vas Eniroa or rim " SescrAroa."] Ssa,—Discussion of great Imperial interests should as far as passible be conducted without the intrusion of personal bias. The Rev. John H. Harris's allusion to alleged dangers in the development of tropical and sub-tropical vegetable products la
legitimate enough; but in his reference to Mr. Wilson Fox and the development of Rhodesia, the prejudice of the prosperous Organizing Secretary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Pro- tection Society obtrudes itself. It is a curious phenomenon which psychologists have never yet satisfactorily explained, that this incredible compassion for barbarous races in remote parts of the earth makes men prone to render less than justice to their white neighbours at home. Mr. Fox can take care of himself, but as one who knows something of the British South Africa Company, may I point out two facts in reply to Mr. Harris's innuendoes?
(1) The progress of the British South Africa Company, as already explained before the Royal Society of Arts, and also before Lord Balfour's Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy, is not a fair analogy with what may be expected under the pro- leosed Empire Resources Development Board. The development of Rhodesia was held up for fifteen or twenty years by a succes- sion of difficulties—among others by the inaccessibility of the country; by the Boer War, and by the resultant money stringency. The Company had no Government credit behind it, as the pro- posed Empire Resources Development Board would have; and before its finances became embarrassed it had built an enormous system of railways in advance of development.. But the fact that the country has developed in less than fifteen years, and in spite of these • difficulties; an external trade of about £8,000,000 per annum is of excellent augury for a prosperous future.
(2) The British South Africa Company has a largo territory to administer, and at the some time to deal on commercial lines with a certain portion of it for profit, and it has contrived to safeguard the "interests of the governed" on lines that suggest the true course for an Imperial Development Board; I mean the separation of the administrative side from the commercial, each being worked by a separate set of officials. The care of the native inhabitant falls within the purview of the former, under the care of a Native Commissioner, and if, for instance, the Manager of the Ranches interfered with the natives in any way unwarranted by the law of the land, he would be dealt with as any other Government would deal with an offender.
In conclusion, the Rev. John H. Harris's contention that the development of other Dominions should be held up until all the British South Africa Company's enterprises shall have justified their promoters' optimism is in any case illogical. It involves the- principle that we should never proceed with a new work until every old one has succeeded, and it stultifies the excellent maxim that human nature learns only by experience.—I am, Sir, &c.,
31 Halcsworth Road, Lewisham, S.E. 13. DENIS CRANE.
[We do not desire to continue controversy upon this point, but as Mr. Crane has, to our regret, made a wholly undeserved attack upon Mr. Harris and the Anti-Slavery Society, we must allow Mr. Harris, if he desires, space to reply, provided he does not open up any new ground and is brief. We are very glad to hear from Mr. Crane that Mr. Harris is prosperous. He certainly deserves'to be, considering the excellent work he has done.—ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
