TOPICS OF THE DAY.
• RECONSTRUCTION. -FIORD SALISBURY has most wisely refused to pledge the Government in any sort of way in regard to the final settlement in South Africa. Owing to this, and owing also to the fact that the Transvaal and the Free State began the war by attacking us, we are entirely unhampered by any declarations or pledges, and when the time comes shall be able to consider solely what course of action in regard to what the Americans, after the Civil War, called "reconstruction," will be best for South Africa and the Empire. But though the Govern- ment is rightly silent as to the future, lest speak- ing now should be a cause of future embarrassment, there is no reason why the Press and the public at large should not soberly and quietly consider the general conditions of the problem. A little cautious thinking now may help to prevent confusion later on. We propose, therefore, to state some of the conditions which must govern the final settlement if that settlement is to be for the peace and prosperity of South Africa and for the general welfare of the British Empire as a whole.
(1) The first condition is, that whatever form of govern- ment is established in the Transvaal and the Free State, those communities must in future be inside, and not out- side, the British Empire.
This means, of course, that the status of every in- habitant of South Africa must be the same—i.e., that of a British citizen—and that when he passes from one community to another he shall never be an Out- lander, but a person capable of obtaining the vote by a simple process of registration, just as he obtains it now if be moves from one quarter of the Colony to another,— from Cape Town, say, to Kimberley. There may be many varieties of local government in South Africa, but there must be only one personal status for white men. This, of course, means that the Republics must cease to exist as independent and possibly hostile States. As long as they refrained from levying war upon us we always held that their position as separate Republics must be respected, and that though we might rightly force the Boers to treat the Outlanders properly and to share the government with them, we had no right to do more provided the peace were maintained. If, however, the two South African communities now outside the Empire to overthrown by war, we are in no sense bound to re-establish them as independent or semi- independent communities. In fact, the only line of safe action, the only policy which promises permanent peace to South Africa, is to insist that all the South African com- munities shall henceforth be within the Empire, as are Canada and Cape Colony.
(2) The next condition is that the new communities or community to be established must be self-governing com- munities of the freest kind known to the Empire,—com- munities in which the will of the majority shall prevail, and which shall be bound to the British Empire by the same ties that bind the great self-governing Common- wealths of Canada and Australia.
It is on the principle of freedom that the Empire has been built up and rests, and this principle must be applied in the present case. We say this not because we suppose for a moment that the Government has any other intentions, but because among the public there may be a certain fearfulness as to the results, and doubts as to whether such a course as we advocate would be wise.
(3) The third condition should be that the form of constitution adopted, and the political arrangements generally, shall not be of a kind which would impair the prospects of South African federation or union at some future time, but, instead, would facilitate their carrying out under reasonable conditions.
As we said last week, we do not think that the federa- tion question should be unduly hurried or pressed to the front. It is a matter to be discussed not amid the din of arms and the " heady " clamours of the Press, but quietly, and after the period of reconstruction has been passed. At the same time, the statesmen must bear federation always in mind, and must not through carelessness or ignorance place obstacles in the way which may some day take great toil and trouble to remove.
(4) The fourth condition is that guarantees must be inserted in the Act creating any new community, under which the Dutch minority—as it will then be in the Transvaal—shall not be placed under disabilities.
The Dutch ought, of course, to be guaranteed the con- current use of their own language when demanded in all official intercourse, in the Law Courts, and in Parliament, They should also, in our opinion, be allowed to carry arms. We know that objection will be taken to this view. We shall be told that to do so would be to encourage civil war, and it will be suggested that instead both sides should be disarmed. We confess to having too much Whig feeling to agree to that. The Bill of Rights very properly recognises that men are not really free men unless they can, if they wish, carry arms for their defence. Communities that are armed when they desire to be, like the English and the Swiss, are not more, but less, turbulent than the nominally disarmed Latin races. Again, to disarm men who live surrounded by a huge native popu- lation is unjust, and, finally, the disarmament of a scattered country population is never successful. If dis- armament for all were to be made the law of the new Transvaal, the English-speaking people in the towns would be without arms, while the country-living Boers would all possess them in secret. No, let all white men bear arms if they like. The Government chosen by the majority can take care that unauthorised persons do not drill, or organise artillery, or in other ways prepare for war. The disarming of men by law is as a rule, as we have contended, unsuccessful, but the attempt is certain to make them feel dishonoured and humiliated,—witness the Outlanders.
(5) The fifth condition we hold should be that adequate guarantees should be taken for the proper treat- ment of the natives.
That this is the most difficult point of the whole pro- blem no one who knows anything of the subject will deny. Something, however, must be done by the Imperial Government to ensure a wise handling of the natives. We need not, and indeed should not, insist upon this for the reason that people at home are more humane than people oversea, but on the simple ground that if there is a great native rising the Imperial forces will have to be used, and therefore that it is not reasonable to expect us to sanction their employment unless we have some say in the matter. But though we hold that the Imperial Government has a duty to perform, we should be most loth to see the South African whites encouraged to shuffle off their responsibilities to the blacks and to lay them upon the shoulders of the people of the Mother-country. The ultimate safeguard of the blacks is a healthy local opinion, and if the Imperial Government takes too much responsibility on itself it is to be feared that that healthy local opinion will not grow up. In our view, one of the best ways in which the Imperial Government can help in solving the native problem is to insist that the Franchise Law in the new State shall be as at the Cape,—i.e., that colour shall not exclude, but that a reasonably high standard of education plus the possession of a certain amount of property shall be the qualification for a vote. In this way not only is the pure savage kept out, and also the loafing convert who has learned to read and write and but little else, but the well- educated man of colour who has thriven and has got a stake in the country is treated fairly and given a position in the State. He is not unfairly depressed into a lower category, but allowed instead to rise into a higher. A vote arranged on such terms is a safety-valve. To adopt the Cape qualification would therefore, in our opinion, be wise. Complaints are raised against it no doubt, but on the whole it has worked well, and when any new departure of this kind is made the important point is to build on an old foundation, not to try to be original.
We shall say no more in regard to the conditions we have set forth except to point out that we do not mean to suggest that they should be applied the very instant the war is over. There must, of course, be a period during which the best government will be direct administration by the Crown. During that period the policy df"reconstruction "—to use again the term employed under analogous circumstances in the Southern States— will have to be thought out and applied in detail. There will, no doubt, be plenty of mistakes made, and a great many complaints heard, but if only the men whose duty it is to carry things through stick firmly to one or two simple, straightforward, and above all liberal, principles of action, there is no sort of reason why the future of the new State should not be peaceful and prosperous. In new communities the memory of war dies easily, provided there is not a special and ruling caste, as there was in the Boer oligarchy, set apart to cherish the embers of racial hatred.
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