Mr. Rhodes has not yet obtained the guarantee for his
rail- way, but it now appears that he is only asking for a guarantee for a line running north from Bulawayo to the confines of the Chartered Company's territories. This seems to ne to make the grant of Imperial aid an absurdity. The whole raison d'etre of the Chartered Company system is that it secures Empire on the cheap. since where Chartered Com- panies exist the Imperial Government is not supposed to be called upon to risk money. If we are to guarantee railways for Chartered Companies, where is the much-boasted relief of the taxpayer P It also now appears that the object of the railway is not to connect the Cape with Cairo, but to bring down a supply of blacks who have not yet made acquaintance with white men to work the mines in Rhodesia at low rates. 'Blacks at 2d. a day from Tanganyika' was in effect the dazzling prospect Mr. Rhodes put before his audience in a recent speech in South Africa. Personally, we hold that there are a dozen railways now more worth guaranteeing than the line proposed ; but, at any rate, let us, if the railway is guaranteed, make sure that the blacks at 2d. a day shall be treated properly, and not subjected to the worst possible forms of slavery, as were the Matabele.
Previous page
