The news from the territories of the British South Africa
Company is anything but reassuring. A telegram despatched from the Cape on Wednesday states that the Company's scouts report that a strong Matabele impi has taken-up a commanding position close to Fort Victoria, and that another force is encamped on the banks of the Sebaki river, half-way between Lobengule's kraal and Port Salisbury. Dr. Jameson, the Administrator of Mashonaland, reports that this impi is raiding for slaves in the Company's territory, and that " action is imperative." We presume that this means war. If, as is only too likely, the Company fails to hold its own without help, the British taxpayer—born to ben every burden, from -financing Ireland to doing the work professed to be done by Imperial companies—will have to spend another million or two on a Native war. "Heads, I win; tails, you lose" is nothing to the game of developing Africa by chartered com- panies.
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