HOW THE CHARTERED COMPANY HAS USED ITS TRUST.
WE recommend Mr. John Mackenzie's paper in the Contemporary Review—" The Chartered Company in South Africa "—to the most earnest attention of our readers, and of the British public as a whole. Eight years ago the people of this country handed over a great piece of national work, a great public trust, to the Chartered Company. If they will read Mr. John Mackenzie's article they will learn how that trust has been discharged. Let those who read remember that Mr. John Mackenzie is no political tourist who, after a hasty glance at South Africa, returns to write a book on the situation. He possesses a profound knowledge of the matters in regard to which he speaks, and he is neither a prejudiced nor a hysterical critic. He attacks the Chartered Company and its doings not because he has any personal enmity towards Mr. Rhodes, but because he knows the facts, and holds himself bound in conscience to let the British people know them also. The first point which Mr. Mackenzie makes clear is one which has on several occasions been insisted upon in these columns. It is that the claim that Mr. Rhodes and his Company ," saved" Rhodesia for the British Empire is -without foundation. What are now the territories of the Chartered Company were placed under British protec- tion and secured for the Empire by the action of the Imperial Government. As Mr. Mackenzie says, they were " unanimously regarded as a British sphere of influence " Having made the point clear, Mr. Mackenzie goes on to describe how Mr. Rhodes obtained the Charter. Next he proceeds to describe the way in which the Chartered Company dealt with Mashonaland, the first portion of the territory occupied by them. And here we must quote Mr. Mackenzie's own words :- "Once peacefully in Mashonaland, it might have been supposed that a company holding a gold-mining con- cession would at once have proceeded with its work of gold-mining. But this did not happen. It became evident that the Chartered Company did not, after all, regard its special function to be that of gold-mining. Nothing so humble now occupied its attention ; but it encouraged the flotation of numerous gold-mining com- panies, and in fact became a huge stock-broking con- cern." But the white settlers who were actually on the spot in Mashonaland naturally enough found this stock-broking policy somewhat dull work for them. It was necessary, according to Mr. Mackenzie, to find them something to do. An excellent opportunity was offered by the periodical raids of the Matabele into Mashona- land, and the war with Lobengula was accordingly entered upon. And here we may note a proof of Mr. Mackenzie's sound sense and breadth of view. In their dislike of the Chartered Company's methods many of its critics are apt to make heroes of Lobengula and the Matabele. Mr. Mackenzie does not fall into this error. He admits the atrocities committed by them upon the Mashonas, and wisely refuses to talk as if the rule of Lobengula were not a tyranny which per se deserved to be overthrown. Mr. Mackenzie makes another point of importance while describing the Matabele war. He reminds us how important a part was played in that war by the Imperial force which the High Commissioner sent to help the Company. It was not, however, till after the conquest of Matabeleland that the Company's first great breach of trust occurred. They had developed their first piece of territory by stock-jobbing rather than by honest hard work; but here, at any rate, they could plead that they were only doing what they had a legal right to do. It is in their treatment of the conquered Matabele that they violated every sound principle of government as it ought to be applied, and has hitherto been applied, to the inferior races by Englishmen. " They struck out," says Mr. Mackenzie, " a native policy of their own, and one entirely at variance with what is generally known as British native policy." Mr. Mackenzie tells us some of the details of this new policy. First, as regards the cattle of the natives which the Company confiscated :- "Every Assistant Native Commissioner had to send fifty head of cattle monthly from his district to Buluwayo for the use of the Company, and this number was often increased. A messenger from Buluwayo would ride up to the local representative of the Company at a certain kraal, and hand him a despatch from Bulu- wayo requiring so many head of cattle. The local Commissioner would make the demand from the Induna of the kraal, and the cattle had to be forthcoming at once. Thus a rankling wound was carefully prevented from healing by this arrangement about the cattle. It was the action of heedless, cocksure conquerors, who would use their power just as they liked, no matter what the cheeky niggers' thought of it. At length 200,000 head of cattle had been thus used by the Company from time to time—not chiefs' cattle, but in many cases private property, and even cattle which had been possessed by inheritance. It soon became plain to all the natives that their cattle were destined to disappear. It appears that when some 80,000 cattle were left in Matabeleland, the Company at one sweep took about the half of this number, which they branded with their mark. Even here there was a grave mistake made : the Company branded not only their own cattle, but also those of the natives. It is true the brand for the native cattle had different letters, but to the native Matabele all the cattle seemed now to belong to the white man ; and it is affirmed that there were white men in the country who en- couraged the natives in this idea, so as to trade the cattle at an easy rate I" Mr. Mackenzie goes on to point out how " two portions of Matabeleland were set aside as native locations." "Both were known to be extremely unhealthy, and the natives, dreading fever from past experience, refused to live there. We have here the Company's policy as to the natives, and also the Company's inefficiency—quite in keeping with their disarming policy, which is always being announced as going on successfully, but which leaves the Matabele until the present time in possession of their rifles." Mr. Mackenzie next takes up the dealings of the Chartered Company in regard to native labour. If his account is accurate the Chartered Company de- liberately set up the worst system of serfage ever devised. The core& in Egypt was at least forced labour in the public interest ; but if Mr. Mackenzie's charge is true, the Chartered Company actually set up a system under which private individuals could employ forced labour. Here is the positively astounding account of the matter given by Mr. Mackenzie :— " The settler had only to address the nearest Native Commis- sioner, and state what labour he needed. Of course it is in the
nature of some men to be kinder than others. IC bring no charge of inhumanity against the settlers in Matabeleland, in the false position in which they found themselves under the Company. So far as I have made out, Englishmen have never been in such a position with reference to labour since the passing of the Emancipation Act. For some reasons out and out slavery might, in practice, have been kinder ; for the slave, like the horse, had always to be looked after ; whereas, under the Company, a sound man could always be had who would replace a man who had become incapable of work. This system was worked out through the Native Commissioners, of whom we have already heard in connection with the cattle. If it was not cattle that were wanted at Buluwayo or elsewhere, but men, then the number was given to the Induna by the Commis- sioner. and they were to be at once forthcoming. If the Induna tried to explain that his people had been working for another white master, and that that white man had asked for more, and the Induna would prefer that his people should work for that master, as they had got accustomed to him, the Induna was told by the Ccmmissioner that he had no business to hire his teen to white men ; all hiring had to be done through the Com- missioner, on behalf of the Government ; and that the Induna must now produce as many men as Government demanded. The Chartered Company has thus the disgrace of reintroducing forced labour into South Africa, apparently meaning it to be a permanent institution. It is true there was a rate of pay, settled by the Company, and concerning which the native worker had nothing to say. Ho had to leave his home when be was commanded, and to take the pay which was tendered to him. Elsewhere have we heard of the apprenticeship' of ,children ; elsewhere we know that, after a war, the destitute people have been ' given out' among their white conquerors tor a certain number of years. But it was left for the London Board of Directors, their manager and officers, to re-establish forced labour in South Africa."
Mr. Mackenzie further states that it cannot be said in defence of this arrangement that it was adopted on account of the scarcity of labour. The Company, in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, had at command an abundance of cheap labour ; they were near to tribes that had been supplying Johannesburg, and even Kimberley, with workers. " The Matabele men themselves had always been eager to serve white men, and to earn something for themselves. Thus this system of forced labour intro- duced by the Company was as unnecessary as it was entirely opposed to the deepest beliefs and dearest wishes of the British people, and, I might add, of all civilised peoples." Granted that these facts are as stated (and on this point, at any rate, public opinion will force the Com- mittee to give a clear answer), how can we wonder if foreigners regard us as a race of hypocrites ? We have been priding, and rightly priding, ourselves on our abolition of forced labour in Egypt, yet all the time a peculiarly horrible system of forced labour was being established under the English flag at the other end of Africa. No doubt as long as Englishmen were ignorant of t his they may feel that they were not to blame. Once ostablish the fact, however, and unless instant action is taken the responsibility will be theirs. We must not finish our account of Mr. Mackenzie's article—we have only found space to deal with one-twentieth of the im- portant things contained therein—without noticing his very lair and unheated account of Mr. Rhodes as a politician. After alluding to the absurdities that are written and spoken about Mr. Rhodes's service in allaying race-feeling at the Cape, he deals with Mr. Rhodes's claim to be a great and patriotic Imperialist, and shows how it was Mr. Rhodes who invented the phrase "Eliminate the Imperial Factor " I am fully aware how difficult it will be for many people in Loudon to believe that Mr. Rhodes is not an Imperialist. They had thought there could bo no doubt on this point. But the Afrikandor Bund in Cape Town knew better when Mr. Rhodes openly took credit to himself at a meeting of the Bund for pre- venting the development of the Imperial Power in the country to the north of the colony. But for him, he told them, a Crown Colony would have been established reaching to the Zambesi. No doubt the views of the directors of the Company are sound enough ; but in their manager they have a man who is known in South Africa as the opponent of British ideas, and of the work of the Imperial Government in South Africa as the supreme power. 'Eliminate the Imperial factor' was the public and repeated utterance of the founder of the Chartered Company when speaking as a Colonial politician; and the Chartered Company apparently was the instrument by which this elimination was to be secured."
Before we leave Mr. Mackenzie's account of the evils wrought by the Chartered Company and deal with his remedies we must note his strong remarks in praise of Mr. Chamberlain's action. He " acted like a true man under the most trying circumstances," and saved South Africa from a great disaster. " His firmness evoked the confidence and respect of South Africa for himself and for the Imperial Government." These high commendations on Mr. Chamberlain's conduct during the crisis we heartily endorse, and we trust and believe that when the time comes for requiring an account of the Chartered Company's stewardship that he will be not less firm and able.
Mr. Mackenzie's plan for abating the scandal and nuisance of the Chartered Company is as drastic as it is clear. He would revoke the Charter and establish two Crown Colonies in its place,—Crown Colonies which would in due time pass into a self-governing South African Federa- tion. Mr. Mackenzie deals very wisely and sensibly with Mr. Rhodes's assertion that if the Company is abolished the British Government will have to pay it some X8,000,000.
As Mr. Mackenzie says Mr. Rhodes knows right well that after all that has happened it is not for him to dictate to the British Government and people the terms on which he will give up the charter as if it were a personal possession. If the Company has failed in the work of representing the Imperial Government and policy to such an extent that Government withdraws from it powers which the Company has misused, it is quite evident that any future arrangement is entirely in the hands of the Imperial Government. It is not for Mr. Rhodes to tell us on what terms he will give up the charter. It is for the Imperial Government, after rescinding the charter because of the Company's unsatisfactory action as its representative in South Africa, to decide what arrangements it will make with the Company." Mr. Mackenzie then suggests a very fair plan for protecting the legitimate material interests of the Company's share- holders. Into this matter, however, we cannot go at present ; it is enough to say that Mr. Mackenzie has no idea of penalising the shareholders for what is after all not the fault of the greater number. They must, of course, feel the burden of the Company's improvidence, but nothing vindictive must be done against them.
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