THE NEW GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE.
IT is with no small measure of regret that we note the announcement that the new Governor of the Cape and High Commissioner for South Africa is to be Sir Hercules Robinson. That regret is not due to any per- sonal disqualifications on the part of Sir Hercules Robin- son, or to any dissatisfaction with his former tenure of office at Cape Town. We object, and object most strongly, to the appointment on the sound and safe rule that such appoint- ments should never be held by persons whose material and pecuniary interests are in any way mixed up with and involved in the public interests with which they will be obliged to deal. It is this rule that in England forbids a Judge to try any action connected with a company in which he holds shares and which in India prevents the civil ser- vants from holding land or engaging in any commercial transactions and investments which might seem to the natives to influence their judgment. According to this prin- ciple, Judges and Governors are trustees, and must not be interested in the subject of their trust. No doubt the majority of governing Englishmen would not consciously be in the very least deflected from the path of duty by being, or having been at one time, interested pecuniarily in the subject-matter of their public trusts. But this does not affect the salutary nature of the rule. Depend upon it, if we once break that rule on any large scale, the English Empire will break with it. This or that individual may be proof against the bias of material interest, but mankind in general is not. The cynical attitude in regard to men's dealings with matters that in any way touch their private interests, is the only safe one to adopt. But in effect, the appointment of Sir Hercules Robinson as Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa, is an infringement of the spirit of this rule. At present South Africa is a welter of joint-stock companies, and there, more than anywhere else in the world, finance and politics join hands, and public affairs are affected by commercial interests. Under these circum- stances can it be wise, can it be right, to send to South Africa a man who is so closely connected with the com- mercial and financial affairs of South Africa as Sir Hercules Robinson ? We have it on the authority of the Westminster Gazette that "Sir Hercules Robinson, since severing his official connection with Cape Colony, has been chairman of the London Board of the De Beers Company, a director of the Standard Bank of South Africa, and a considerable shareholder in the Chartered Company." Now can any thinking person believe that it will conduce to an independent and satisfactory settlement of South African problems to have as High Commissioner a man so steeped in South African finance ? We do not wish to suggest for a moment that the undertakings which Sir Hercules Robinson has helped to control are anything but sound and honourably conducted con- cerns, and we are perfectly certain that Sir Hercules Robinson himself has never acted except in the most honourable and proper manner in regard to them. But the perfect oommermal rectitude of Sir Hercules Robinson, both in action and intention, is not the point. The question is,—Can Sir Hercules Robinson, even if he (as the Westminster Gazette declares he will) resigns his connection with the De Beers Company, the Standard Bank, and the Chartered Company, hold the balance as fairly, and also seem to hold it as fairly—for this is also necessary—as a man free from all the prepossessions, interests, prejudices, and unconscious deflections of mind, which must attach to a person who has occupied such a financial position as that occupied by Sig Hercules Robinson since he returned home ? The mere resigning of directorships and selling of shares is not enough. The bent obtained by having held them must continue, even if Sir Hercules Robinson were to pledge himself never to return to the fold of South African finance. Clearly Sir Hercules Robinson could not take up so firm and independent a position, in regard to South Africa, as a man who had never been held by the financial ligaments we have indicated. It must surely be admitted on all sides that an ex-Governor of an Indian Presidency, or some other person devoid of South African connections, would have been a far more satis- factory choice. Dozens of such men must be procurable. yet the Colonial Office must needs appoint a man who had rendered himself totally ineligible for a South African post. In a word, Lord Ripon or Lord Rosebery, which- ever it was, has chosen the one man among the possible candidates who had become, by his pursuits and interests, disqualified for the office. One has only to think of the situation that exists in South Africa and of the duties of the Governor and High Commissioner to realise that we have not exaggerated the importance of the matter with which we are dealing. It is the business of the High Commissioner, in the first place, to represent the Home Government, and to give proper weight in arriving at important decisions to the interests of the Empire as a whole. Concurrently he has, while acting as Governor of the Cape, to consider the interests and rights of_ British South Africa generally, and to give fair-play- to Natal, the Protectorates, and the Native reserves. which lie embedded in the great stretch of territory under his rule. Again, he has to see that the Chartered Company and the other great commercial undertakings that have their headquarters in South Africa, do not over- ride either the interests of the plain non-capitalist settlers or of the natives. Lastly, he has to keep his eye on the Dutch Republics within our boundaries, and on the foreign Powers who are our neighbours, and to see that in any arrangements made with them the wider interests of the Empire and the future of South Africa are not sacrificed to the immediate needs of an imperious commercial policy. This rough sketch of the High Commissioner's duties indi- cates the cardinal fact of the South African situation. Several elements are at work which, though not alwa3 antagonistic, may at any moment become so. In the first place, there is what may be called the legitimate Colonial element,—a force akin to that which predominates in Australia, and which works for Colonial expansion on the old lines of individual settlement and advance. Next, there is the native element, which is concerned with far more than half the population. Finally, there is the element sup- plied by the great commercial enterprises of South Africa, and chief among these, the Chartered Company, and its parental satellite, the Be Beers Mines. The Chartered Company, by the law of its being, is always advancing new claims and producing new developments, and these must be treated with the utmost impartiality when they infringe, as they often do, on the other rights and interests that are represented in the person of the High Commissioner. Under these circumstances, can it be satisfactory to pit into the office of High Commissioner an ex-Director of the Be Beers and an ex-shareholder of the Chartered Company ? Naturally enough, while Director and share- holder, he looked at the world of South Africa from the capitalist point of view. It is not in human nature to suppose that he could suddenly and entirely avoid being influenced by that point of view. Yet if he could not, he is not a fit person to be High Commissioner of South Africa. The High Commissioner should be able to feel about the De Beers and the Chartered Company as the Commissioner of Assam would feel about a gigantic amalgamation of tea companies in his province,—i.e., absolutely independent of them and their concerns. But who can assert that Sir Hercules Robinson will ever be able to feel thus about the great commercial companies of South Africa ?
It is, we note, given as an excuse and explanation for Sir Hercules Robinson's appointment, that he is a persona grata to Mr. Rhodes. Indeed, he is spoken of as Mr. Rhodes's nominee who has been merely formally endorsed by the Colonial Office. If that is so, our case is made out beyond a doubt. We have no desire to oppose Mr. Rhodes's policy of expansion. That side of him — the Empire-ibaking side — has our fullest sympathy. We have not, however, reached the point of regarding Mr. Rhodes as so immaculate a person that he can be trusted with a blank cheque in the matter of South Africa. But if Mr. Rhodes is to be head of the Char- tered Company, Premier of the Cape, and nominator and patron of the High Commissioner, we are doing nothing more nor less than giving him a blank cheque. We are, to put it in another way, abandoning our only hold on Mr. Rhodes's policy. Surely a man of such good sense and high character as Sir Hercules Robinson must on reflection see that the inevitable result of his appointment will be to place him at the Cape as Mr. Rhodes's pocket Governor and High Commissioner. Surely, too, his sense of the fitness of things will revolt from such a result ! It cannot, then, be too late to appeal to him to reconsider his acceptance of the offer. If he persists in retaining an appointment against which so many and such weighty arguments can be urged, he will run a great danger of closing a useful and honourable public career with something very like humiliation. That would be a thousand pities, for Sir Hercules Robinson is a man whose record has hitherto been eminently satisfactory and successful.
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