that all powers exercising sovereign rights or having influence in
the said territories (shall) undertake to watch over the preservation
of the native races and the amelioration of the moral and material
conditions of their existence, and to co-operate in the suppression of
slavery, and, above all, of the slave trade; (that) they will protect
and encourage all institutions and enterprises, religions, etc.,
re-established or organized, which tend to educate the natives; and
in Article XXXV. it is stipulated that the power which in future takes
possession of a territory, or assumes a protectorate, recognizes the
obligation to insure in the territories occupied by it on the coasts of
the African continent the existence of an adequate authority to enforce
respect for acquired rights.
Therefore the back-land of British East Africa could not remain the
theatre of slave raids, or unclaimed.
It devolved upon the occupants of the sea-frontage to exercise their
sovereign rights, and in the due exercise of these to watch over the
native races of the back-lands, and to co-operate for the suppression
of slavery and the slave trade. It was incumbent upon them also to
protect and encourage the Christian missions, without distinction
of nationality or creed, which were established in Uganda--the most
important because most populous and most promising of these back-lands.
And to insure its acquired right to those countries it was necessary
that the British company should be represented by adequate authority
there, otherwise it would be in the power of any person, society, or
power to bar its claim to them by actual occupation.
Following the declarations of the powers at the Berlin Conference
in 1885 is the act of assembled civilization at Brussels in 1890,
emphasizing and reiterating the conditions upon which sovereignty shall
be recognized. They point out in detail what ought, what indeed must
be done. They say that the responsible power _ought_--which is almost
equivalent to _must_ in this case--to organize administration, justice,
and the religious and the military services, to establish strongly
occupied stations, to make roads, particularly railroads, for the sake
of easy access to the inland waters, to inaugurate steamer service on
the lakes, erect telegraphic lines, and restrict the importation of
fire-arms.
The British East African Company as a commercial company is unable
with its own means to meet these conditions. What it can it will, and
its ability is limited to a sacrifice of all the dividends available
from its commercial operations on the coast for the benefit of the
whole territory, and subscribing a few more thousands of pounds to
postpone retreat. Yet as the delegate of the British government
the company is bound not to neglect the interior. It is pledged to
insure the protection of British subjects in Uganda, to protect the
Waganda from internecine and factional wars, to place steamers on
Lake Victoria for the protection of the lake coasts, and to prevent
the wholesale importation of fire-arms. But in the attempt to do what
Europe expects to be done the company has been involved in an expense
which has been disastrous to its interests. It has established adequate
authority in Uganda, but the maintenance of the communication between
Uganda and the coast is absolutely ruinous. It has to pay £300, or
thereabouts, the ton for freight. Thus, to send 150,000 rounds of
ammunition, which is equal to twelve tons, costs £3600. To send the
cloth currency required for purchase of native provisions for the force
costs £12,000. Add the cost of conveyance of miscellaneous baggage,
European provisions and medicines, tools, utensils, tents, besides the
first cost of these articles and the pay of the men, and we at once
see that £40,000 per annum is but a small estimate of the expense thus
entailed upon the company. Meantime the transportation of steamers to
Lake Victoria, the erection of stations connecting the lake with the
sea, and many other equally pressing duties, are utterly out of the
question. The directors understand too well what is needed, but they
are helpless. We must accept the will for the deed.
This much, however, is clear: Europe will not hold the British East
African Company, but England, responsible for not suppressing the
slave trade and slave hunt. The agreement with Europe was not made
by the company, but by Great Britain through her official and duly
appointed representatives. When her official representatives signed the
act of the Brussels Antislavery Conference, they undertook in the name
of Great Britain the important responsibilities and duties specified
within the act. The representatives of all Europe and the United States
were witnesses to the signing of the act. To repudiate the obligations
so publicly entered into would be too shameful, and if the majority in
Parliament represents the will of the people there is every reason to
think that the railway to the Victoria Nyanza, which is necessary for
carrying into effect the suggestions of the Antislavery Conference,
will be constructed.
I have been often asked what trade will be benefited by this railway
to the Nyanza, or what can be obtained from the interior of Africa to
compensate for the expense--say £2,000,000--of building the railway.
There is no necessity for me to refer to the commercial aspect of the
question in such an article as this, but there are some compensating
advantages specially relating to my subject-matter which may be
mentioned.
First. England will prove to Europe and the world that she is second to
no other power in the fulfilment of her obligations, moral or material.
Second. She will prove that she does not mean to be excelled by
Germany, France, or Belgium in the suppression of the slave trade and
the man hunt, nor is averse to do justice to the Africans whom she has
taken under her wing.
Third. She will prove that the people on British territory shall not be
the last to enjoy the mercies and privileges conceded to the negroes
by civilization, that the preservation of the native races and their
moral and material welfare are as dear to England as to any other
power, that the lives of her missionaries shall not be sacrificed in
vain, that the labors of her explorers are duly appreciated, that she
is not deaf to the voices of her greatest and best, and, in brief--to
use the words uttered lately by one of her ministers--she will prove
that “her vaunted philanthropy is not a sham, and her professed love of
humanity not mere hypocrisy.”
The objective point for the British East African Company, for the
people and government of Great Britain, is the Victoria Nyanza, with
1400 miles of coast-line. So far as the British as a slavery-hating
nation are concerned, their duties are simply shifted from the ocean
coast to the Nyanza coast, 500 miles inland. The slave-trader has
disappeared from the east coast almost entirely, and is to be found now
on the lake coasts of the Victoria, or within British territory. The
ocean cruiser can follow him no farther; but the lake cruiser must
not only debar the guilty slave-dhow from the privilege of floating on
the principal fountain of the Nile, but she must assist to restrict
the importation of fire-arms from German territory, from the byways of
Arab traffic, from the unguarded west; she must prevent the flight of
fugitives and rebels and offenders from British territory; she must
protect the missionaries and British subjects in their peaceful passage
to and fro across the lake; she must teach the millions on the lake
shores that the white ensign waving from her masthead is a guarantee of
freedom, life, and peace.
To make these great benefits possible, the Victorian lake must be
connected with the Indian Ocean by a railway. That narrow iron track
will command effectively 150,000 square miles of British territory.
It is the one remedy for the present disgraceful condition of British
East Africa. It will enable the company to devote the thousands now
spent wastefully upon porterage to stimulating legitimate traffic, and
to employ its immense caravans in more remunerative work than starving
and perishing on British soil; to grace the surroundings of its many
stations with cornfields and gardens; to promote life, interest, and
intellect, instead of being stupefied by increasing loss of brave men
and honest money. It will create trade in the natural productions of
the land, instead of letting Arabs traffic in the producers. Clarkson
long ago said that legitimate trade would kill the slave traffic;
Buxton repeated it. Wherever honest trade has been instituted and
fairly tried, as in the southern part of the United States, in Jamaica
and Brazil, as in Sierra Leone and Lagos, in Old Calabar, in Egypt and
the lower Congo, always and everywhere it has been proved that lawful
commerce is a great blessing to a land by the peace it brings, by its
power of creating scores of little channels for thrifty industry, by
the force of attraction it possesses to draw the marketable products
into the general mart. And this is what will surely happen upon the
completion of the Victoria Nyanza Railway, for the slave trade and
slavery will then be rendered impossible in British African territory.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
Page 37: “peformed this feat of strength” changed to “performed this
feat of strength”
Page 38: “undertaken to peform” changed to “undertaken to perform”
Page 76: “over and above the expediture” changed to “over and above the
expenditure”