THE COLOURED VOTE IN THE TRANSVAAL.
WE publish in our correspondence columns a letter signed "A British South African" which raises a point of very great importance. That to begin with under the new Constitution the natives are not to be given the franchise is a' matter upon which we are all agreed. The question, indeed, is placed outside discussion by the terms made with the Boers at Vereeniging before they laid down their arms. But though we are bound' to the Boers not to admit the natives to the franchise unless that privilege is voted to them under a repre- sentative Constitution, our correspondent shows, we think conclusively, that we are not obliged by the Vereeniging. Agreement to exclude coloured persons. By coloured persons we mean persons who are something more than half white, but who yet have a certain amount of black blood in their veins,—i.e., quarter-castes, octoroons, and so forth. Quite apart from our correspondent's arguments, we may point out that it would be exceedingly difficult in practice, if not indeed impossible, to exclude all coloured persons,—that is, all persons with any admixture of black blood. The indefiniteness and un- certainty of the expression " coloured " forbid the expanding of the word " native " under a process of legal construction into meaning " coloured person." For example, if coloured persons are to be excluded, we must strictly define coloured persons, and decide exactly what proportion of black blood makes a person coloured. Clearly a moderate admixture of black blood could not be fairly declared to constitute colour, if colour is to forbid the possetsion of the vote, for in that case a very considerable number of Boers would be disfranchised. The Boers, in fact, would by the terms agreed on at Vereeniging have disqualified a large part of their own people, which is certainly not what they meant to accomplish. There is yet another difficulty. Even if the exact tincture that constituted colour were fixed, the disqualification thus created would have to be applied in practice. But this would mean that the Revision Courts would be choked with pedigree cases as complicated as peerage claims. To obtain a vote a man would have to go through a process not unlike that which is • necessary for those who would make good their claim to nobility in Austria. Unless a man could show, so tp say, sixteen quarterings of white blood he would be disfranchised. That being so, it seems to us that the only practical plan is to adopt the definition of the Native Affairs Commission, and confine the term " native " to mean " an aboriginal inhabitant of Africa south of the Equator, and to include half-castes and their descendants by natives." We must admit, of course, that even here pedigree cases might crop up ; but they would be less difficult and less odious than those which- must arise if in order to make good the claim for a vote the claimant must show absolute purity of white blood.
Granted, as we think it must be granted, that the Government in creating the new Constitution have a right to give coloured people the vote, we must next consider the question of expediency. Would it make for the strength and security of the Transvaal to include the coloured portion of the population ? We have already dealt with the difficulty of excluding them, and the injustice which would fall on the Boers were such exclusion honestly carried out. [Obviously it must 'he honestly carried out, for it would be an intolerable injustice to say that a man with a tincture of black blood should be treated as a white man if he were a Boer and treated as a black man if he were a Briton. If a mixture of black and British blood constitutes colour, a mixture of black and Boer blood must also constitute it. From such a. conclusion there is no equitable escape.] On the general question of policy, it seems to us that it would be distinctly wise to give the coloured person the franchise and treat him as a white man. No doubt a certain number of persons of colour have fallen very low in the social scale, and are, to use plain language, socially depraved. On the other hand, there are a very considerable number of coloured persons who, though they do not rank as whites and though their associations are not white, nevertheless are distinctly fit subjects for the franchise on general grounds. That is, they are men of character and education, and often well endowed as regards property. In view of the great difficulty of the native question in South Africa, it would obviously be impolitic to drive these persons, as it were, into the native camp, and to make them feel that their interests were entirely with the natives. One of the chief securities for white control in South Africa is the fact that the natives do not develop leaders, or, at.any rate, leaders of sufficient ability to make them really formidable. There is always the possibility, however, of a coloured man possessing the intelligenceand moral power of the white., race being able to give to black valour and black physical power that tempered spearhead which they need. We admit that the risk of coloured men throwing in their lot with the 'blacks is not a very great one, since, on the one hand, the black is apt to distrust the coloured man, and, on the other, the coloured man does all in his power to differentiate himself from the black, and to proclaim himself a white even when the whites will not admit his claim.. Nevertheless, history shows that coloured men have occasionally obtained a considerable ascendency over the blacks, and we hold that the risk of that happening again is quite enough to justify us in saying that it would be impolitic to give, the coloured men a grievance that might some day drive them, or capable individuals among them, to side with the natives. Looking, then, at the question for the moment, not from the point of view of justice, but merely of policy, it would be bad policy not to make the coloured men feel that their natural place is on the side of the white. Another matter which concerns policy is that which we have touched On above. If we profess to exclude the coloured man, we shall in effect only exclude the coloured man when his sympathies are pro-British ; for we may be certain that the Boer with a tincture of black blood will assert his right to be called a white man and to obtain the vote. To resist that claim, and to challenge the pedigrees of half the leading Boer families, would.,,be impossible. But, as we have said, if the Boer coloured man is to have the vote, the British coloured man must clearly have it also. Before we leave the subject of the ,South African Con- stitution we should like to, say a word in regard to the rumour—whether well. founded or not we cannot say— that the Commission sent to inquire. into the Constitution question on the spot is inclined to report that it would be inthe interests of the Orange River Colony not to proceed for the present with the grant of responsible ,government. If ,this is so, or if, indeed, the Commission is doubtful on the point, we hold that it would be wise for the GOvernment to be content, for the present at any rate, with merely granting a Constitution to the Transvaal. All reports seem to agree that the Crown Colony Government in the Orange River Colony has been a great success, and has, been very fairly conducted iu respect to British, Boers, and those persons in regard to whom we have a special, and in our opinion a most sacred, obligation,—the Boers who towards the end of the war became reconciled to British rule, and used their influence or their arms on our side. No one would, of course, suggest that the Orange Colony is to be kept for an indefinite time without the fullest and freest representative institutions, but it may well be that it would be prudent to let Transvaal. Constitution have a year or two's start of 'that in the Orange River Colony. Indeed, there is a good deal to be said for the suggestion that the grant in the case of the Orange River Colony might be delayed till South African federation is brought about.' That is the end we should all work for. As' soon as possible South Africa should follow the example of Canada and Australia, and become a free nation within a free' Empire. The control of South African 'affairs in matters of detail, though it may be necessary for the moment, is in truth bad for us and bad for South Africa. The sooner we can get a South African Union comparable to the Dominion and the Commonwealth, the better it will. be both for the Mother-country and the Empire as a whole. •
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