without any bias or prejudice whatever. The Rand is not a town or
city, but a mining district covering 1,600 square miles, whose
population of adult males practically balances the whole of the rest
of the country. The Rand population is not, as some people imagine, a
foreign population. The great majority of it is British, and a very
large portion of it consists of as good, honest, hard-working men as
are to be found in any constituency in this country. But there are
also on the Rand a considerable proportion of Dutch. Krugersdorp Rural
is Dutch, and has always been excluded from the Rand in the
discussions that have taken place in South Africa, and included in the
"Rest of the Transvaal." But in addition to that there are the towns
of Fordsburgh, which is half Dutch, and two other suburbs which also
have a Dutch population; and it is believed that these will afford
seats for members of the Responsible British Party with the support of
Het Volk. I must say further that the British community upon the Rand
is divided into four main political parties. There is the Transvaal
Progressive Association, a great and powerful association which arises
out of the mining interest. There is the Responsible Government
Association; there is the Transvaal Political Association--a moderate
body standing between the Responsibles and the Progressives--and there
are the labour associations, which are numerous. There are three main
labour associations, or really four--the Independent Labour Party, the
Transvaal Labour League, the Trade and Labour Council of the
Witwatersrand, and the Trade and Labour Council of Pretoria. Why do I
bring these facts before the Committee? I do so because I feel it
necessary to show how impossible it is to try to dismiss the problems
of this complicated community with a gesture or to solve their
difficulties with a phrase, and how unfair it would be to deprive such
a community, in which there are at work all the counter-checks and
rival forces that we see here in our own political life, of its proper
share of representation.
Applying the adult male list in the census of 1904 to the three areas
I have spoken of, I should allot thirty-two Members to the Rand, six
to Pretoria, and thirty to the rest of the country; or, if you include
Krugersdorp Rural in the Rand, it would read thirty-three to the Rand,
six to Pretoria, and twenty-nine to the rest of the country. Arrived
at that point, the Committee in South Africa had good hopes, not
merely of arriving at a just settlement, but of arriving at an
agreement between all the parties. I am not going to afflict the House
with a chronicle of the negotiations which took place. They were
fruitless. It is enough to say that there were good hopes that if the
Progressive complaint, that the adoption of the census of 1904 did not
allow for the increase in the population which has taken place since
the census was taken, could be met, a general agreement could be
reached. The Boers, whose belief that we were going to treat them
fairly and justly has been a pleasant feature in the whole of these
negotiations, and will, believe me, be an inestimable factor of value
in the future history of South Africa--the Boers with reluctance and
under pressure, but guided by the Committee, with whom they were on
friendly terms, were willing to agree to a distribution which allotted
one more seat to meet this increase of the population in the
Witwatersrand area, and the proposal then became 33, 6, and 30, or,
including Krugersdorp Rural, 34, 6, 29. The Responsible Party agreed
to that. The Progressives hesitated. The great majority of them
certainly wished to come in and come to a general agreement on those
terms. Certain leaders, however, stood out for one or two or three
seats more, and, although Lord Selborne expressed the opinion that the
arrangement proposed, namely, 33, 6, 30, excluding Krugersdorp Rural,
was a perfectly fair one to the British vote in the Transvaal, those
leaders still remained unconvinced and obdurate, and all hopes of a
definite agreement fell through.
The Committee returned to this country, bringing with them the
recommendation that the Government on their own responsibility should
fix the allocation of seats at that very point where the agreement of
one Party was still preserved and where the agreement of the other was
so very nearly won. And that is what we have decided to do. We have
decided to allocate thirty-four seats, including Krugersdorp Rural, to
the Rand, six to Pretoria, and twenty-nine to the rest of the country.
Lord Selborne wishes it to be known that he concurs in this
arrangement. Now I am quite ready to admit that every Constitution
ought to rest either upon symmetry or upon acceptance. Our Transvaal
Constitution does not rest upon either symmetry or acceptance, but it
is very near symmetry and very near acceptance, and in so far as it
has departed from symmetry it has moved towards acceptance, and is
furthermore sustained throughout by fair dealing, for I am honestly
convinced that the addition of an extra member to the Witwatersrand
areas which has been made is justified by the increase of the
population which has taken place since the census.
On such a basis as this the Transvaal Assembly will be created. It
will consist of sixty-nine members, who will receive for their
services adequate payment. They will be elected for five years. The
Speaker will vacate his seat after being elected. The reason for that
provision is that the majority in this Parliament, as in the Cape
Parliament, with which the government is carried on, is likely to be
very small, and it would be a great hardship if the Party in power
were to deprive itself of one of the two or three votes which, when
Parties are evenly balanced, are necessary for carrying on the
government. It would be a great disaster if we had in the Transvaal a
succession of weak Ministries going out upon a single vote, one way or
the other. And it is found that when Parties have a very small
majority and are forced to part with one of their Members for the
purpose of filling the chair, they do not always select the Member who
is best suited to that high office, but the Member who can best be
spared.
Now let me come to the question of language. Under the Constitution of
the right hon. gentleman the Member for St. George's, Hanover Square,
the Members of the Assembly would have been permitted to speak Dutch
if they asked permission and obtained permission from the Speaker. We
are not able to lend ourselves to that condition. We are of opinion
that such a discrimination would be invidious. The recognition of
their language is precious to a small people. I have never been able
to work myself into a passion because there are in parts of South
Africa Dutch people who wish to have Dutch teachers to teach Dutch
children Dutch. I have not so poor an opinion of the English language,
with its priceless literary treasures and its world-wide business
connections, as not to believe that it can safely be exposed to the
open competition of a dialect like the _taal_. We believe that the
only sure way to preserve in the years that are to come such a
language as the _taal_ would be to make it a proscribed language,
which would be spoken by the people with deliberation and with malice,
as a protest against what they regarded, and would rightly regard, as
an act of intolerance. Therefore we have decided to follow the Cape
practice and allow the members of the Transvaal Parliament to address
that Assembly indifferently in Dutch or English.
I shall be asked what will be the result of the arrangement that we
have made. I decline to speculate or prophesy on that point. It would
be indecent and improper. I cannot even tell in this country at the
next election how large the Liberal majority will be. Still less would
I recommend hon. gentlemen here to forecast the results of contests in
which they will not be candidates. I cannot tell how the British in
the Transvaal will vote. There are a great many new questions, social
and economic, which are beginning to apply a salutary counter-irritant
to old racial sores. The division between the two races, thank God, is
not quite so clear-cut as it used to be. But this I know--that as
there are undoubtedly more British voters in the Transvaal than there
are Dutch, and as these British voters have not at any point in the
Constitutional Settlement been treated unfairly, it will be easily
within their power to obtain a British majority, if they all combine
to obtain it. I nourish the hope that the Government that will be
called into life by these elections will be a coalition Government
with some moderate leader acceptable to both parties, and a Government
which embraces in its Party members of both races. Such a solution
would be a godsend to South Africa. But whatever may be the outcome,
his Majesty's Government are confident that the Ministers who may be
summoned, from whatever Party they may be drawn, to whatever race they
may belong, will in no circumstances fail in their duty to the Crown.
I should like to say also that this Parliament will be of a high
representative authority, and it will be the duty of whoever may be
called upon to represent Colonial business in this House to stand
between that Parliament and all unjustifiable interference from
whatever quarters of the House it may come.
I now approach the question of the Second Chamber. That is not a very
attractive subject. We on this side of the House are not particularly
enamoured of Second Chambers, and I do not know that our love for
these institutions will grow sweeter as the years pass by. But we have
to be governed by colonial practice; and there is no colony in the
Empire that has not a Second Chamber. The greater number of these
Second Chambers are nominated; and I think that the quality of
nominated Second Chambers, and their use in practice, have not been
found to be inferior to those of the elective bodies. His Majesty's
Government desire to secure, if they can, some special protection for
native interests which is not likely to be afforded by any electoral
arrangement, I am sorry to say. We are unable however to countenance
the creation in a permanent form of a nominated Second Chamber. But in
view of the position of native affairs, in view of the disadvantage of
complicating the elections, to which all classes in the Transvaal have
been so long looking forward, and most particularly because of the
extra delays that would be involved in the creation of a new elective
body, the Cabinet have resolved for this Parliament only, and as a
purely provisional arrangement, to institute a nominated Legislative
Council of fifteen members. They will be nominated by the Crown, that
is to say at home, and vacancies, if any, by death or resignation,
will be filled by the High Commissioner, on the advice of the
responsible Ministers. During the course of the first Parliament in
the Transvaal arrangements will be completed for the establishment of
an elective Second Chamber, and if necessary further Letters Patent
will be issued to constitute it.
Under the Treaty of Vereeniging we undertook that no franchise should
be extended to natives before the grant of self-government. I am not
going to plunge into the argument as to what word the "native" means,
in its legal or technical character, because in regard to such a
treaty, upon which we are relying for such grave issues, we must be
bound very largely by the interpretation which the other party places
upon it; and it is undoubted that the Boers would regard it as a
breach of that treaty, if the franchise were in the first instance
extended to any persons who are not white men. We may regret that
decision. We may regret that there is no willingness in the Transvaal
and Orange River Colony to make arrangements which have been found not
altogether harmful in Cape Colony. But we are bound by this treaty.
Meanwhile we make certain reservations. Any legislation which imposes
disabilities on natives which are not imposed on Europeans will be
reserved to the Secretary of State, and the Governor will not give his
assent before receiving the Secretary of State's decision. Legislation
that will effect the alienation of native lands will also be reserved.
It is customary to make some provision in money for native interests,
such as education, by reserving a certain sum for administration by
the High Commissioner or some other political or Imperial official. We
propose to reserve Swaziland to the direct administration of the High
Commissioner, with the limiting provision that no settlement he may
make is to be less advantageous to the natives than the existing
arrangement.
On November 30, 1906, the arrangement for recruiting Chinese in China
will cease and determine. Our consuls will withdraw the powers they
have delegated to the mining agents, and I earnestly trust that no
British Government will ever renew them. A clause in the Constitution
will provide for the abrogation of the existing Chinese Labour
Ordinance after a reasonable interval. I am not yet in a position to
say what will be a reasonable interval, but time must be given to the
new Assembly to take stock of the position and to consider the labour
question as a whole. I said just now there would be a clause with
regard to differential legislation as between white persons and
others, and to this clause will be added the words: "No law will be
assented to which sanctions any condition of service or residence of a
servile character." We have been invited to use the word "slavery" or
the words "semblance of slavery," but such expressions would be
needlessly wounding, and the words we have chosen are much more
effective, because much more precise and much more restrained, and
they point an accurate forefinger at the very evil we desire to
prevent.
I have now finished laying before the House the constitutional
settlement, and I should like to say that our proposals are
interdependent. They must be considered as a whole; they must be
accepted or rejected as a whole. I say this in no spirit of disrespect
to the Committee, because evidently it is a matter which the Executive
Government should decide on its own responsibility; and if the policy
which we declare were changed, new men would have to be found to carry
out another plan. We are prepared to make this settlement in the name
of the Liberal Party. That is sufficient authority for us; but there
is a higher authority which we should earnestly desire to obtain. I
make no appeal, but I address myself particularly to the right hon.
gentlemen who sit opposite, who are long versed in public affairs, and
who will not be able all their lives to escape from a heavy South
African responsibility. They are the accepted guides of a Party
which, though in a minority in this House, nevertheless embodies
nearly half the nation. I will ask them seriously whether they will
not pause before they commit themselves to violent or rash
denunciations of this great arrangement. I will ask them, further,
whether they cannot join with us to invest the grant of a free
Constitution to the Transvaal with something of a national sanction.
With all our majority we can only make it the gift of a Party; they
can make it the gift of England. And if that were so, I am quite sure
that all those inestimable blessings which we confidently hope will
flow from this decision, will be gained more surely and much more
speedily; and the first real step will have been taken to withdraw
South African affairs from the arena of British party politics, in
which they have inflicted injury on both political parties and in
which they have suffered grievous injury themselves. I ask that that
may be considered; but in any case we are prepared to go forward
alone, and Letters Patent will be issued in strict conformity with the
settlement I have explained this afternoon if we should continue to
enjoy the support of a Parliamentary majority.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Lyttelton had meanwhile been elected for that Constituency.
THE ORANGE FREE STATE CONSTITUTION
HOUSE OF COMMONS, _December 17, 1906_
Letters Patent have been issued during the last week conferring a
Constitution upon the Transvaal Colony. These instruments have now
been for some days at the disposal of the House, and this afternoon
affords an occasion for their discussion. Other Letters Patent
conferring a Constitution upon the Orange River Colony are in an
advanced state of preparation, and I think it would be generally
convenient if I were to make a statement as to the character and scope
of that Constitution. With that view I have, by the direction of the
Prime Minister, placed upon the Paper a Resolution which I now move,
permitting a general discussion upon the constitutional arrangements
which we are making both in the Transvaal and in the Orange River
Colony. Now, Sir, by the Treaty of Vereeniging, Great Britain
promised full self-government to the peoples of the two Boer Republics
which had been conquered and annexed as the result of the war. This
intention of giving responsible government did not arise out of the
terms of peace, although it is, of course, solemnly expressed in them.
It has always been the settled and successful colonial policy of this
country during the last fifty years to allow great liberties of
self-government to distant communities under the Crown, and no
responsible statesman, and no British Cabinet, so far as I know, ever
contemplated any other solution of the South African problem but that
of full self-government. The idea which I have seen put forward in
some quarters, that, in order to get full satisfaction for the expense
and the exertions to which we were put in the war, we are bound to
continue governing those peoples according to our pleasure and against
their will, and that that is, as it were, an agreeable exercise which
is to be some compensation for our labours, is an idea which no doubt
finds expression in the columns of certain newspapers, but to which I
do not think any serious person ever gave any countenance. No, Sir,
the ultimate object, namely, the bestowal of full self-government,
was not lost sight of even in the height of the war; and as all
parties were agreed that some interval for reconstruction must
necessarily intervene, the only questions at issue between us have
been questions of manner and questions of time.
How much difference is there between Parties in this House as to time?
It is now more than three years since Lord Milner, speaking in the
Inter-colonial Council, bore emphatic testimony to the faithfulness
with which the Boers--those who had been fighting against us--had
observed their side of the terms of peace. Lord Milner said:
"It is perfectly true that the Boer population, the men who signed the
terms of peace at Vereeniging, have loyally observed those terms and
have carried them out faithfully. They profess to-day, and I
absolutely believe them, that no idea of an armed rising or unlawful
action is in their minds. I may say I am in constant, perhaps I should
say frequent communication with the men who in the war fought us so
manfully and then made manful terms. We differ on many points, no
doubt, and I do not expect them to rejoice with us in what has
happened, or to feel affection for a man who, like myself, has been
instrumental in bringing about the great change which has come over
the Constitution of the country. But I firmly believe their word when
they come forward and meet us, and, without professing to agree in all
respects with the policy of the Government, declare that they desire
to co-operate in all questions affecting the prosperity of the country
and the maintenance of public order. I accept the assurance they give
in that respect, and I think it is practically impossible to put your
hands on anything done by myself or any member of the Government which
can be regarded as a manifestation of distrust of the men who have
shown themselves, and do show themselves, men of honour. Let me say,
then, I am perfectly satisfied that so great is the influence of their
leaders over the minds of the main section of the Boer population that
so long as those leaders maintain that attitude a general rising is
out of the question."
Those are the words which Lord Milner used three years ago, and I think
they are words which do justice to the subject and to the speaker. But
more than two years have passed since the representations were made to
the right hon. gentleman the Member for St. George's, Hanover Square,
which induced him to confer a measure of self-government on the
Transvaal. Those representations laid stress on the fact that the
desire for self-government was not put forward only by the Boers, but
that both sections of the community in the Transvaal desired to take
the control of affairs into their own hands. The right hon. gentleman
published a Constitution. That Constitution conferred very great and
wide powers. It conferred upon an overwhelming elected majority the
absolute power of the purse and control over legislation. But it has
always been my submission to the House that that Constitution had about
it no element of permanence, that it could not possibly have been
maintained as an enduring, or even a workable settlement; and I am
bound to say--I do not wish to be controversial this afternoon if I can
avoid it--that, when I read the statement that this representative
government stage would have been a convenient educative stage in the
transition to full self-government, the whole experience of British
colonial policy does not justify such an assumption. The system of
representative government without responsible Ministers, without
responsible powers, has led to endless friction and inconvenience
wherever and whenever it has been employed. It has failed in Canada, it
has failed in Natal and Cape Colony. It has been condemned by almost
every high colonial authority who has studied this question. I do not
think I need quote any more conclusive authority upon that subject than
that of Lord Durham. Lord Durham, in his celebrated Report, says of
this particular system:
"It is difficult to understand how any English statesmen could have
imagined that representative and irresponsible government could be
successfully combined. There seems, indeed, to be an idea that the
character of representative institutions ought to be thus modified in
Colonies; that it is an incident of colonial dependence that the
officers of government should be nominated by the Crown without any
reference to the wishes of the community whose interests are entrusted
to their keeping. It has never been very clearly explained what are
the Imperial interests which require this complete nullification of
representative government. But if there is such a necessity it is
quite clear that a representative Government in a Colony must be a
mockery and a source of confusion, for those who support this system
have never yet been able to devise or exhibit in the practical working
of colonial government any means for making so complete an abrogation
of political influence palatable to the representative body."
I contend that the right hon. gentleman's Constitution would have
broken down in its first session, and that we should have then been
forced to concede grudgingly and in a hurry the full measure of
responsible government which, with all due formality, and without any
precipitancy, the Letters Patent issued last week have now conferred.
But even the right hon. gentleman himself did not intend his
Constitution to be a permanent settlement. He intended it to be a
transition, and a brief transition; and in the correspondence which
passed on this subject two or three years is sometimes named as the
period for which such a Constitution might conveniently have
endured--two or three years, of which, let me point out to the House,
nearly two years have already gone. Seeing how little difference there
is between us upon that question, I dispense with further argument as
to the grant of a Transvaal Constitution, as I see the course we have
adopted does commend itself to the good sense of all Parties in this
country and is sustained at almost every point by almost every person
conversant with South African affairs.