LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
11.11E, FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA. [To THE EDITOR OP THE " seam:roe."]
Sin,—Can the Spectator spare room for the following memoranda on the future government of South Africa?
(1) The idea that the problem before us in South Africa is the same as that which we have successfully solved in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand is a dangerous illusion. In these three Colonies the " natives " were a negligible quantity, whereas in South Africa they are enormously preponderant, the proportion between them and the white races being, I believe, three or four to one. (2) As we prevent the natives nowadays from fighting among themselves, they are, according to Mr. Cecil Rhodes, "giving most of their energies to the multiplication of children." Hence it seems very probable that their prepon- derance over the white races will increase rather than diminish in the future. (3) An obvious solution of our South African problem would be the abolition of representative government and the adoption of the Indian system,—viz., a Viceroy, with Governors for the various States. But Cape Colony and Natal would hardly consent to surrender their Constitutions, and no statesman at home would desire to put any pressure upon them to do so. (4) Assuming that the representative system of government mast be retained, we have, then, before us in South Africa an entirely new problem,—viz., how to provide a suitable government of that description for a mixed population of the white and black races where the blacks largely preponderate, and must continue to do so if fairly treated.
(5) To the Boer of the Transvaal and Orange States the idea of giving votes to Kaffirs was unthinkable. But in
(6) Cape Colony and Natal natives are admitted to the suffrage, and frequently exercise it under certain conditions as to education and property. (7) It is obviously unreasonable to expect the white races to apply themselves diligently to the education and civilisation of the blacks if the result in a generation or two must surely be that the blacks, by superior weight of votes, will supersede the whites and take possession of the Government (8) It may be taken as certain that no white race will submit to be ruled by blacks. How, th,en, are we to provide against the black vote ultimately, and perhaps after bitter struggle, swamping the white vote, or how are we to direct the fair aspirations of the civilised blacks into channels which will not threaten white predominance ? (9) A warning of the grave danger before us in South Africa may be read in the bitterly hostile feelings raging between whites and blacks in those ex-slave States of the American Union where the coloured men are most numerous. It seems that some of those States, after a fierce struggle, have actually succeeded in disfranchising the coloured people altogether, and hopes are freely expressed that the negro will gradually "die out." He certainly will not die out in South Africa, or dwindle as the Red-men are doing in Canada, the Maori in New Zealand, and the aborigines in Australia. Our public writers dwell often and impressively on the difficulty of recon- ciling the Dutch and British after the war, but these two races will be forced into union by the Kaffir pressure. The real difficulty is to provide a mod= vivencli for white and black together under the representative system of government.—
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