THE RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTH AFRICA.* WE cannot do better than
use two or three sentences which appear in Mr. Buchan's introduction in order to define the peculiar " note" of this book. " Yet 'even in the stress of work," says Mr. Buchan, " it is often sound policy for a man
to halt for a moment and collect his thoughts." In other words, he knows very well that it will be impossible for, say,
another fifty years for any one to judge the work of recon- struction in South Africa. All that is possible now is for one
who has been engaged, as Mr. Buchan has been, in working under Lord Milner to straighten his back and ask himself— What is the meaning of all this P Whither are we tending P And those questions have to be answered, not by innumerable ascertained details such as alone could satisfy a closely reasoning mind like Mr. Buchan's, but by such general constituents of a national life as have already declared themselves in South Africa. "A critic on a neighbouring hill- top," he says again, "will be a poor guide to the flora and fauna of the parish below; but he may be a good authority on its contours, on the height of its hills and the number of its rivers, and he may, perhaps, be a better judge of the magnitude of a thunderstorm coming out of the west than the parishioner in his garden." That is to say, the writer takes a bird's-eye view, and we, for our part, can say that it is a very keen one. This is a book of brilliant summaries, and of generalisations which are never found to be hollow—here lies the test of generalisations—upon a second reading. We cannot always quite accept the conclusions, though in most eases we can; but Mr. Buchan is far too wise to ask for sub- scription to terms with which the reader cannot agree. He gives his view for what it is worth, and we can reciprocate his wise treatment of his readers by saying that in most cases it is worth a great deal. "It is better,' he writes, "to give frankly a judgment, however worthless, than to allow a bias to influence insensibly the presentation of facts." That is very. well and most honestly said.
The taking of so wide a view as this gives a very distinct appropriateness to the ethnological history of South Africa, and the notes on scenery and national character, which form the first two of the three parts of the volume. The third part, which deals with the political problem, is of couree the crucial one. We turned to it at once, and we may record now the sense that was inspired in us of the completeness with which Mr. Buchan has faced the tremendous difficulties of reconstruction. Probably every one who has any intimate knowledge of South Africa knows this,—that the affairs of South Africa are on a needle-point, that there is yet no guarantee of prosperity, that everything depends upon the sagacity and tact and watchfulness of the leaders in politics and commerce. It is unnecessary to point out how easy it would have been for one in Mr. Buchan's position to be an Official Optimist. But that Mr. Buchan is not. An optimist he is, but only because he has exactly measured the problem, and has had the courage to think that it can be solved after much effort. He is, in fine, an Intelligent Optimist.
And now we may take in turn the three parts of the book. The chief interest of the first part is the analysis, sympa- thetic but searching, of the Boer character. We do not hesitate to say that this is a triumph of chivalrous, although truthful, estimation. The homely fact—which is a great fact when one is dealing with the relations of two very different races in one country—is that Mr. Buchan likes the Boers. Beneath all the scientific examination of their character, behind the necessary coolness of the critical method, there is an undisguisable warmth of sentiment towards them. Here is an opinion of the Boer's value to the Empire :— " If the Boer is once won to our side we shall have secured one of the greatest colonising forces in the world. We can ask for no better dwellers upon a frontier. If the plateaux of our Central and Bast African possessions are to be permanently held by the white man, I believe it will be by this people who have never turned their back upon a country which seemed to promise good pasture-land. Other races send forth casual pioneers, who return and report and then go elsewhere ; but the Boer takes his wife and family and all his belongings, and in a decade is part of the soil. In the midst of any savagery he will plant his rude domesticity, and the land is won."
Before leaving the Boer character we should like to add an explanation to those which Mr. Buchan gives of the commonly
• The African Colony : Studies in the Reconstruction,. By John Dachau. London: W. Blackwood and Boni. [Ma. net] observed Boer mendacity. Of course it is a truism among thoughtful persons on the spot that this mendacity exists side by side with genuine religious convictions. The com- bination is not an hypocrisy. Really to express it one would have to invent a word that has never been tarnished by asso- ciations. The explanation the present writer found in many eases was undoubtedly a desire to keep strangers at arm's length. On a farm where he was treated with extreme hospi- tality he found that now and again—not by any means always —he was being given an untrue answer to a very simple and innocent question. The choice of the occasions to lie was so un- systematic, so unprofitable, so naV, and exposed the Boer to such easy detection, that the present writer had no doubt whatever that a certain percentage of untruthfulness in conversation was regarded vaguely by his sluggish intellect as a useful weapon against a more nimble, a more advanced, and possibly a more rapacious national character. After all, the phe- nomenon was not unknown in England once.
The second part of the book contains descriptions of Nature for which there is notoriously a place in South African litera- ture. There would be a place, indeed, for sketches not half so good as these. The treatment suits the whole scheme of the book, —it is broad, panoramic, and when the power of vision and the power of words leap together in enthusiasm it is often finely rhapsodical. Packed phrases there are, too, which are perfect for their purpose. "Obscene ferocity and furtive greed" could not be bettered as a description of the characteristics of the vulturous aasvogel, which was only too well known to the army in the war.
The third part of the book, as we have said, is the most im- portant, and yet so technical a discussion could not have a correspondingly close examination here. We can only indi- cate Mr. Buchan's conclusions, and refer the reader who wants the reasons to the book itself. Perhaps we speak too readily in England of the " magnates " of Johannesburg, as though they were comparable with the heads of Trusts in America. Mr. Buchan finds no such likeness. "The great groups are not static but mobile, constantly dividing and subdividing, throwing off subsidiary companies and adding new ones, no more monopolists than the cotton-spinners of Manchester or the shipbuilders of Glasgow." The present high prices, Mr. Buchan thinks, are all due to causes which are terminable. Some day life in South Africa should be not a bit more expensive than in other Colonies. Perhaps the greatest need now is a well-planned exten- sion of railways. The ordinary Englishman, if asked what is the panacea for farming troubles in South Africa, would probably say, "Irrigation." It is interesting, therefore, to read that Mr. Buchan thinks well of the prospects of " dry " farming. The dry lands "have never been really exploited." At the same time, we cannot quite assent to the suggestion that as 'a farming country the average value of South Africa is not below that of other Colonies. The present writer, who knows the other Colonies, thinks its "face value," so to speak, is not equal to that of Australia, which gives the nearest parallel, and is not the richest, of the other Colonies. The financial situation, rendered difficult by the unprecedented Colonial tribute, is squarely faced, and no allowance is made for the uncertain quantity of " windfalls " which probably will accrue to the Government, but which ought not to be allowed for in any sound estimates. As regards the labour question, Mr. Buchan states his view, in favour of Chinese labour with great ability, and gives fair, and even generous, consideration to the other views. We can only say, after all, that we do not agree. The very most we could reconcile our- selves to would be a temporary use of Asiatic labour just to set things going, and consent even to that we should give with great reluctance. But we trust—and the minority Report of the Rand Labour Commission encourages us—that a combined use of native and white labour, for which Mr. Buchan has given us some arguments that seem more cogent to us than to him, will yet be possible. He admits that it is not yet certain that Chinese labour can be obtained, and since he wrote the un- certainty has become more acute owing to the tension between the Chinese Government and Canada. The latter has made a new discrimination between Chinese and Japanese immigrants, and it is so severe against the Chinese as to be almost exclusive. Naturally, the Chinese resent this, and it is even said that unless the discrimination is quashed they may prevent the exportation of labour to any British Colony. As to the political future of the native races, Mr. Buchan's view is wise and temperate, and worthy of an Englishman. We hope be will be an instructor of opinion both in England, where knowledge is too slight, and in South Africa, where prejudice is too strong. Mr. Buchan supports the scheme for using South Africa as a military training-ground. We are not sure that be is right in the small point, however, that a man who learns to ride in the Colonies will necessarily become a good horse- master. To the astonishment of many people, the evidence before the War Commission was almost all to the effect that the Colonial, though a better horseman, was not so careful of his horse as the more artificially trained British cavalry- man.
Altogether, we hope that this scholarly and industrious work will have the influence it deserves. The thoughts on the Dutch character particularly delight and convince us. "There is always a way," is a Dutch proverb which perhaps Mr. Buchan heard. If all dealings with the Dutch were on the human plane on which Mr. Buchan moves, who doubts that they would find "a way" to be among the best fellow-subjects we have
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