Cecil Rhodes Man and Empire-Maker
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C E C I L R H O D E S MA N A N D EM PI RE-MA KER B" PRI NCESS CA TH ERI N E RA DZIW ILL (CA T H ERINE KOLB-DA NVI N) W i th E ight Photogravure Plates CASSELL COMPAN" , LT D L d e w " r T r d M lb on on , N o k, o onto an e ourne 0 1 8 CON TE NTS C H APT E R PAGE R S 1 . CECIL HODE AND SIR ALFRED MILNER 2 OUN D A T I ON . THE F S OF FORTUNE 3 P X S " . A COM LE PER ONALIT MR A N K P S . V OO MAN 5 R S R . HODE AND THE AID T E R 6 . THE AFTERMATH OF H AID 7 K B . RHODE S AND THE AFRI ANDER OND 8 I E M . THE NFLUENCE OF SIR ALFR D ILNER 9 P E " . THE O ENING OF THE N W CENTUR 1 0 AN E S S M . TIMATE OF IR ALFRED ILNER 1 1 . CROSS CU RRENT S THE CONCENTRATION CAMP S ’ 1 3 S S S . THE PRI ONER CAMP 4 I 1 . N FLIGHT FROM THE RAND 1 E 5 . DEALING W ITH T HE RE FUG E S 1 6 MA A . UNDER RTIAL L W CONCLU SION I NDEX LI ST OF I LLUSTRA TI ON S E E on ti s i ece T H RT . HON . CECIL RHOD S F r p FACI NG PAGE R 3 2 THE T . HON . W . P . S CHREINER PRE SIDENT K RUGER 6 8 86 THE HON . ". H . HOFME" R TH E - 98 R . S R " U C S T HON . I W . F . HEL H T HIN ON VIS COUNT MILNE R 1 3 2 T H E " . 1 48 RT . HON . SIR LEANDE R STARR AME S ON P 2 24 THE RT . HON . SIR "OH N GORDON S RIGG I NTRODUCTION HE re cent death of Sir Starr "ameson reminded the u li p b c of the South African War , which was such an engrossing subject to the British public at the close of ’ the nineties and the first years of the present century . " e t though it may seem quite out of date to reopen the question when so many more important matters r a occupy attention , the relationship between South Af ic and England is no small matter . It has also had its if influence on actual events , only by proving to the world the talent which Great Britain has displayed in the administration of her vast Colonies and the tact with which British statesmen have contrived to convert their of d foes the day before into friends , sincere , devote and true . No other country in the world could have achieved such a success as did England in the complicated and singularly difficult task of making itself popular among nations whose independence it had destroyed . T he secret of this wonderful performance lies prin cip ally in the care which England has exercised to secure the welfare of the annexed population , and to do nothing ix Introduction likely to keep them in remembrance of the subordinate position into which they had been reduced . England never crushe s those whom it subdues . Its inbred talent for colonisation has invariably led it along the right path d in regard to its colonial evelopment . Even in cases where Britain made the weight of its rule rather heavy ha for the people whom it d conquered , there still de velop e d among them a de sire to remain federated to the British Empire , and also a conviction that union , though it might be unpleasant to their personal feelings ll and sympathies , was , after a , the be st thing which could have happened to them in regard to their material interests . Prosperity has invariably attended British rule wher i ever t has found s cope to develop itself , and at the present hour British patriotism is far more demonstra tive in India , Australia or South Africa than it is in England itself . The sentiments thus strongly expressed z . impart a cert ain ealotism to their feelings , which con stit ut e s a strong link with the Mother Country . I n any hour of national danger or calamity this trait pro vides her with the enthusiastic help of her children from across the seas . The Englishman , generally quiet at home and even subdued in the presence of strangers , is exuberant in the Colonies ; he likes to shout his patriotism upon every Int roduction t o re possible occasion , even when it would be better frain . It is an aggressive patriotism which sometimes r is quite uncouth in its manifestations , but it is eal patriotism , disinterested and devoid of any mercenary or personal motives . It is impossible to know what England is if one has not had the opportunity of visiting her Dominions over sea . I t is just as impossible to judge of Englishmen when one has only see n them at home amid the comforts of the easy and pleasant existence which on e M enjoys in errie England , and only there . It is not ar the country Squires , whose home s e such a definite feature of English life ; nor the aristocrati c members of the Peerage , with their influence an d their wealth ; ’ nor even the political men who sit in St . Stephen s , who have spread abroad the fame and might and p ower of England . But it is these modest pioneers of nation s f yet to be who , in the wilds and deserts o South Africa , u A stralia and Asia , have demonstrated the realities of English civilisation and the English spirit of freedom . I n the hour of danger we have seen all these mem r be s of the great Mother Country rush to its help . The an d spectacle has been an inspiring one , in the case of u r So th Af ica especially it has been unique , inasmuch as it has be en predicted far and wide that the memory of the Boer War would never die out , and that loyalty xi In troduction to Great Britain would never be found in the vast f A rican veldt . Facts have belied this rash assertion , and the world has seldom witnessed a more impressive vindication of the triumph of true Imperialism than that presented by Generals Botha an d Smuts . As the leader of a whole nation , General Botha defended its inde n d a p e en ce against ggression , yet became the faithful , devoted servant an d the true adherent of the people whom he had fought a few years before , putting at their disposal the weight of his powerful personality and the strengt h of his influence over his partisans and country men . C ATHERINE RADZIW ILL. D ec emb er, 1 91 7 . xii CECI L RH OD ES CHAPTER I CECIL RHODE S AND SIR ALFRED MILNER HE conquest of South Africa is one of the most curious episodes in English history . Begun through purely mercenary motives , it yet acquired a character s of grandeur which , as time went on , dive ted it of all sordid and unworthy suspicions . South Africa has cer t ain l y been the land of adventurers , and many of them -Of found there either fame or disgrace , unheard riches or the most abject poverty , power or humiliation . At the same time the Colony has had amongst its rulers states of men unblemished reputation and high honour , wh o administrators of rare integrity , and men saw beyond the fleeting interests of the hour into the far more important vista of the future . When President Kruger was at its head the Trans vaal Republic would have crumbled under the intrigues of some of its own citizens . The lust for riches which o dfi ld o followed upon the discovery of the g l e s had , t o , a drastic effect . The Transvaal was bound to fall into the hands of someone , and to be that Someone fell to the lot of England . This was a kindly throw of Fate , because England alone could administer all the wealth B 1 Cecil Rhodes e of the region without its b coming a danger , not only to the community at large , but also to the Transvaalers . That this is so can be proved by the eloquence of fi facts rather than by words . It is suf cient to look upon - five what South Africa was twenty years ago , and upon what it has become since under the protection of British rule , to be convinced of the truth of my assertion . From a land of perennial unrest and perpetual strife it has been transformed into a prosperous and quiet colony , absorbed only in the thought of its economic and com m ial . e rc progress Its population , which twenty years ago was wasting its time and energy in useless wrangle s , stands to - day united to the Mother Country and absorbed by the sole thought of how best to prove its devotion . The Boer War has still some curious issues of which no notice has been taken by the public at large . One of the principal , perhaps indeed the most important of these , is that , though brought about by material ambi tions of certain people , it ended by being fought against these very same people , and that its conclusion eliminated them from public life instead of adding to their influence and their power .