CROSS CURRENTS
The intrigues which made Groote Schuur such a disagreeable place were
always a source of intense wonder to me. I could never understand their
necessity. Neither could I appreciate the kind of hypocrisy which induced
Rhodes continually to affirm that he did not care to return to power,
whilst in reality he longed to hold the reins again. It would have been
fatally easy for Rhodes, even after the hideous mistake of the Raid, to
regain his political popularity; a little sincerity and a little truth
were all that was needed. Unfortunately, both these qualities were wanting
in what was otherwise a really gifted nature. Rhodes, it seemed by his
ways, could not be sincere, and though he seldom lied in the material
sense of the word, yet he allowed others to think and act for him, even
when he knew them to be doing so in absolute contradiction to what he
ought to have done himself. He appeared to have insufficient energy to
enforce his will on those whom he despised, yet allowed to dictate to him
even in matters which he ought to have kept absolutely under his own
control.
I shall always maintain that Rhodes, without his so-called friends, would
most certainly have been one of the greatest figures of his time and
generation. He had a big soul, vast conceptions, and when he was not
influenced by outward material details--upon which, unfortunately for
himself as well as for his reputation in history, he allowed his mind to
dwell too often--his thoughts were always directed toward some higher
subject which absorbed his attention, inspired him, and moved him
sometimes to actions that drew very near to the heroic. He might have gone
to his grave not only with an unsullied, but also with a great reputation
based on grounds that were noble and splendid had he shaken off the
companions of former times. Unhappily, an atmosphere of flattery and
adulation had become absolutely necessary to him, and he became so used to
it that he did not perceive that his sycophants never left him alone for a
moment. They watched over him like a policeman who took good care no
foreign influence should venture to approach.
The end of all this was that Rhodes resented the truth when it was told
him, and detested any who showed independence of judgment or appreciation
in matters concerning his affairs and projects. A man supposed to have an
iron will, yet he was weak almost to childishness in regard to these
flattering satellites. It amused him to have always at his beck and call
people willing and ready to submit to his insults, to bear with his fits
of bad temper, and to accept every humiliation which he chose to offer.
Cecil Rhodes never saw, or affected never to see, the disastrous influence
all this had on his life.
I remember asking him how it came that he seldom showed the desire to go
away somewhere quite alone, if even for a day or two, so as to remain
really tête-à-tête with his own reflections. His reply was most
characteristic: "What should I do with myself? One must have people about
to play cards in the evening." I might have added "and to flatter one,"
but refrained. This craving continually to have someone at hand to bully,
scold, or to make use of, was certainly one of the failings of Rhodes'
powerful mind. It also indicated in a way that thirst for power which
never left him until the last moment of his life. He had within him the
weakness of those dethroned kings who, in exile, still like to have a
Court about them and to travel in state. Rhodes had a court, and also
travelled with a suite who, under the pretence of being useful to him,
effectually barred access to any stranger. But for his entourage it is
likely that Rhodes might have outlived the odium of the Raid. But, as Mrs.
van Koopman said to me, "What is the use of trying to help Rhodes when one
is sure that he will never be allowed to perform all that he might
promise?"
The winter which followed upon the relief of Kimberley Rhodes spent almost
entirely at Groote Schuur, going to Rhodesia only in spring. During these
months negotiations between him and certain leaders of the Bond party went
on almost uninterruptedly. These were either conducted openly by people
like Mr. David de Waal, or else through other channels when not entrusted
to persons whom it would be relatively easy later on to disavow. Once or
twice these negotiations seemed to take a favourable turn at several
points, but always at the last minute Rhodes withdrew under some pretext
or other. What he would have liked would have been to have, as it were,
the Dutch party, the Bond, the English Colonists, the South African
League, President Kruger, and the High Commissioner, all rolled into one,
fall at his feet and implore him to save South Africa. When he perceived
that all these believed that there existed a possibility for matters to be
settled without his intervention, he hated every man of them with a hatred
such as only very absolute natures can feel. To hear him express his
disgust with the military authorities, abuse in turns Lord Roberts, whom
he used to call an old man in his dotage, Lord Kitchener, who was a
particular antipathy, the High Commissioner, the Government at home, and
the Bond, was an education in itself. He never hesitated before making use
of an expression of a coarseness such as does not bear repeating, and in
his private conversations he hurled insults at the heads of all. It is
therefore no wonder that the freedom of speech which Rhodes exercised at
Groote Schuur added to the difficulties of a situation the brunt of which
not he, but Sir Alfred Milner, had to bear.
More than once the High Commissioner caused a hint to be conveyed to Cecil
Rhodes that he had better betake himself to Rhodesia, and remain there
until there was a clearer sky in Cape Colony. These hints were always
given in the most delicate manner, but Rhodes chose to consider them in
the light of a personal affront, and poured down torrents of invective
upon the British Government for what he termed their ingratitude. The
truth of the matter was that he could not bring himself to understand that
he was not the person alone capable of bringing about a permanent
settlement of South Africa. The energy of his young days had left him, and
perhaps the chronic disease from which he was suffering added to his
constant state of irritation and obscured the clearness of his judgment in
these post-raid days.
I hope that my readers will not imagine from my reference that I have a
grudge of any kind against Doctor Jameson.[D] On the contrary, truth
compels me to say that I have seldom met a more delightful creature than
this old friend and companion of Cecil Rhodes, and I do believe he held a
sincere affection for his chief. But Jameson, as well as Rhodes, was under
the influence of certain facts and of certain circumstances, and I do not
think that he was, at that particular moment about which I am writing, the
best adviser that Rhodes might have had. In one thing Doctor Jim was above
suspicion: he had never dirtied his hands with any of the financial
speculations which those about Rhodes indulged in, to the latter's
detriment much more than his own, considering the fact that it was he who
was considered as the father of their various "smart" schemes. Jameson
always kept aloof from every kind of shady transaction in so far as money
matters were concerned, and perhaps this was the reason why so many people
detested him and kept advising Rhodes to brush him aside, or, at all
events, not to keep him near him whilst the war was going on. His name was
to the Dutch as a red rag to a very fierce and more than furious bull,
while the Bond, as well as the burghers of the Transvaal, would rather
have had dealings with the Evil One himself than with Doctor Jim. Their
prejudices against him were not to be shaken. In reality others about
Rhodes were far more dangerous than Jameson could ever have proved on the
question of a South African settlement in which the rights of the Dutch
elements in the Cape and Orange Free State would be respected and
considered.
[D] Dr. Jameson died November 26th, 1917.
[Illustration: THE RT. HON. SIR LEANDER STARR JAMESON]
Whatever might have been his faults, Doctor Jameson was neither a rogue
nor a fool. For Rhodes he had a sincere affection that made him keenly
alive to the dangers that might threaten the latter, and anxious to avert
them. But during those eventful months of the war the influence of the
Doctor also had been weakened by the peculiar circumstances which had
arisen in consequence of the length of the Boer resistance. Before the war
broke out it had been generally supposed that three months would see the
end of the Transvaal Republic, and Rhodes himself, more often than I care
to remember, had prophesied that a few weeks would be the utmost that the
struggle could last. That this did not turn out to be the case had been a
surprise to the world at large and an intense disappointment to Cecil
Rhodes. He had all along nourished a bitter animosity against Kruger, and
in regard to him, as well as Messrs. Schreiner, Merriman, Hofmeyr, Sauer
and other one-time colleagues, he carried his vindictiveness to an extent
so terrible that more than once it led him into some of the most
regrettable actions in his life.
Cecil Rhodes possessed a curious shyness which gave to his character an
appearance the more misleading in that it hid in reality a will of iron
and a ruthlessness comparable to a _Condottiere_ of the Middle Ages. The
fact was that his soul was thirsting for power, and he was inordinately
jealous of successes which anyone but himself had or could achieve in
South Africa. I am persuaded that one of the reasons why he always tried
by inference to disparage Sir Alfred Milner was his annoyance at the
latter's calm way of going on with the task which he had mapped out for
himself without allowing his mind to be troubled by the outcries of a mob
whom he despised from the height of his great integrity, unsullied honour,
and consciousness of having his duty to perform. Neither could Rhodes ever
see in political matters the necessities of the moment often made it the
duty of a statesman to hurl certain facts into oblivion and to reconcile
himself to new circumstances.
That he did disparage Sir Alfred Milner is unfortunately certain. I
sincerely believe that the war would never have dragged on so long had not
Rhodes contrived to convey to the principal Boer leaders the impression
that while Sir Alfred Milner remained in South Africa no settlement would
be arrived at with the British Government, because the High Commissioner
would always oppose any concessions that might bring it to a successful
and prompt issue. Of course Cecil Rhodes never said this in so many words,
but he allowed people to guess that such was his conviction, and it was
only after Sir Alfred had I left the Cape for Pretoria that, by a closer
contact with the Boers themselves, some of the latter's prejudices against
him vanished.
At last did the sturdy Dutch farmers realise that if there was one man
devoid of animosity against them, and desirous of seeing the end of a
struggle which was ruining a continent, it was Sir Alfred Milner. They
also discovered another thing concerning his political views and
opinions--that he desired just as much as they did to destroy the power
and influence of those multi-millionaires who had so foolishly believed
that after the war's end they would have at their disposal the riches
which the Transvaal contained, so that, rather than becoming a part of the
British Empire, it would in reality be an annexe of the London and Paris
Stock Exchanges.
As events turned out, by a just retribution of Providence, the magnates
who had let greedy ambition master them lost most of the advantages which
they had been able to snatch from President Kruger. Whether this would
have happened had Rhodes not died before the conclusion of peace remains
an open question. It is certain he would have objected to a limitation of
the political power of the concerns in which he had got such tremendous
interests; it is equally sure that it would have been for him a cruel
disappointment had his name not figured as the outstanding signature on
the treaty of peace. There were in this strange man moments when his
patriotism assumed an entirely personal shape, but, improbable as it may
appear to the reader, there was sincerity in the conviction which he had
that the only man who understood what South Africa required was himself,
and that in all that he had done he had been working for the benefit of
the Empire. There was in him something akin to the feeling which had
inspired the old Roman saying, "_Civis Romanum sum._" He understood far
better than any of the individuals by whom he was surrounded the true
meaning of the word Imperialism. Unfortunately, he was apt to apply it in
the personal sense, until, indeed, it got quite confused in his mind with
a selfish feeling which prompted him to put his huge personality before
everything else. If one may do so, a reading of his mind would show that
in his secret heart he felt he had not annexed Rhodesia to the Empire nor
amalgamated the Kimberley mines and organised De Beers for the benefit of
his native Britain, but in order to make himself the most powerful man in
South Africa, and yet at the same time shrewdly realised that he could not
be the king he wished to become unless England stood behind him to cover
with her flag his heroic actions as well as his misdeeds.
That Rhodes' death occurred at an opportune moment cannot be denied. It is
a sad thing to say, but for South Africa true enough. It removed from the
path of Sir Alfred Milner the principal obstacle that had stood in his way
ever since his arrival at Cape Town. The Rhodesian party, deprived of its
chief, was entirely harmless. Rhodesian politics, too, lost their strength
when he was no longer there to impose them upon South Africa.
One of the great secrets of the enormous influence which the Colossus had
acquired lay in the fact that he had never spared his money when it was a
question of thrusting his will in directions favourable to his interest.
None of those who aspired to take his place could follow him on that road,
because none were so superbly indifferent to wealth. Cecil Rhodes did not
care for riches for the personal enjoyments they can purchase. He was
frugal in his tastes, simple in his manners and belongings, and absolutely
careless as to the comforts of life. The waste in his household was
something fabulous, but it is a question whether he ever participated in
luxuries showered upon others. His one hobby had been the embellishment of
Groote Schuur, which he had really transformed into something absolutely
fairylike as regards its exterior beauties and the loveliness of its
grounds and gardens. Inside, too, the house, furnished after the old Dutch
style, struck one by its handsomeness, though it was neither homelike nor
comfortable. In its decoration he had followed the plans of a clever
architect, to whose artistic education he had generously contributed by
giving to him facilities to travel in Europe, but he had not lent anything
of his own personality to the interior arrangements of his home, which had
always kept the look of a show place, neither cared for nor properly
looked after.
Rhodes himself felt happier and more at his ease when rambling in his
splendid park and gazing on Table Mountain from his stoep than amidst the
luxury of his richly furnished rooms. Sometimes he would sit for hours
looking at the landscape before him, lost in a meditation which but few
cared to disturb, and after which he invariably showed himself at his best
and in a softer mood than he had been before. Unfortunately, these moments
never lasted long, and he used to revenge himself on those who had
surprised him in such reveries by indulging in the most caustic and cruel
remarks which he could devise in order to goad them out of all patience. A
strange man with strange instincts; and it is no wonder that, once, a
person who knew him well, and who had known him in the days of his youth
when he had not yet developed his strength of character, had said of him
that "One could not help liking him and one could not avoid hating him;
and sometimes one hated him when one liked him most."
Sir Alfred Milner had neither liked nor hated him, perhaps because his
mind was too well balanced to allow him to view him otherwise than with
impartiality and with a keen appreciation of his great qualities. He would
have liked to work with Rhodes, and would gladly have availed himself of
his experience of South Africa and of South African politicians. But Sir
Alfred refused to be drawn into any compromises with his own conscience or
to offend his own sense of right and wrong. He was always sincere, though
he was never given credit for being so in South Africa. Sir Alfred Milner
could not understand why Rhodes, instead of resolutely asserting that he
wanted to enter into negotiations with the Bond in order to win its
co-operation in the great work of organising the new existence of South
Africa on a sound and solid basis, preferred to cause promises to be made
to the Bond which he would never consent to acknowledge.
These tortuous roads, which were so beloved by Rhodes, were absolutely
abhorrent to the High Commissioner. When Rhodes started the agitation for
the suspension of the Constitution, which occupied his thoughts during the
last months of his life--an agitation which he had inaugurated out of
spite against Mr. Sauer and Mr. Hofmeyr, who had refused to dance to
Rhodes' tune--Sir Alfred Milner had at once seen through the underlying
motives of the moment, and what he discerned had not increased his
admiration for Rhodes. Sir Alfred had not opposed the plans, but he had
never been sanguine as to their chance of success, and they were not in
accordance with his own convictions. Had he thought they had the least
chance of being adopted, most certainly he would have opposed them with
just as much energy as Sir Gordon Sprigg had done. He saw quite well that
it would not have been opportune or politic to put himself into open
opposition to Rhodes. Sir Alfred therefore did not contradict the rumours
which attributed to him the desire to reduce the Cape to the condition of
a Crown Colony, but bent his energy to the far more serious task of
negotiating a permanent peace with the leading men in the Transvaal, a
peace for which he did not want the protection of Rhodes, and to which an
association with Rhodes might have proved inimical to the end in view--the
ideal of a South African Federation which Rhodes had been the first to
visualise, but which Providence did not permit him to see accomplished.